Hate Mail From a So-Called "Vet"

This is an "article," that I posted over at "Artless Nonculture" a few months. I am a music performer also, and this guy just decided to write me some hate-mail because he read a craigslist post I made looking for a banjo player:

Anyhow, I received this email when I woke up, after posting an ad on craigslist looking for a banjo player the night before:

hey i just checked out your music on my space its terrible. your vocals are horrible. you'd be lucky find anyone to play with your communistic bull shit band. go fuck yourself you piece of shit. your a prime example of why more women should have abortions.

 So I wrote back:

You're a fucking idiot. Don't you have anything better to do than go on craigslist, or the chicolist forums, and insult people? (With your obviously limited mental capacity?)


Why don't you go sit your ass in front of your your computer for hours at a time and do something productive, like learn something? Perhaps go to adult education classes (if you're even out of high school), and learn the English language a little better?


Or better yet, why don't you just shoot yourself, and rid the world of your low-self-esteem, chronic-masturbating, worthless ass? Make sure to get rid of your family beforehand, so these genes can't spread.


You're a little pussy who uses a phantom email account to insult people, because you're not big enough of a person that someone can find out who you really are, right? Get a fucking life.


Sincerely,
-Jay Decay

I thought that the person was just some internet troll, getting his kicks off and that would be it. To my surprise, he wrote back with an equally retarded message, with some very strange points:

nice, well on that note my name is Gabriel and you can find me under the american flag in my Marine Corps uniform Saluteing my friends and family who have died for you to have the right to be a complete idiot. you have bit of more than you can chew. anytime you feel it neccessary to spit in the face of democracy and the men and women who died for this country you take for granted, come to butte college go to the veterans center and ask for me by name i will be happy to here what you have to say if you can say it while you look me and my fellow soldiers in the eye. lets see how much of a coward you truly are.

So I wrote back:

Since when have I ever said that I don't respect soldiers who have fought and died for our country? Simply because I disagree with the policies of this nation, that doesn't mean that I hate the people who have sadly been in the military and served in war. If you've been in this current war, you should know first hand that this war isn't giving any person in any country any rights. It's not protecting anyone, and it's just wasting precious resources and lives. I have friends and family who have been to Iraq. I have family that's been in wars since World War II. I do not disrespect people in the military, I disrespect you for insulting me.

As for spitting in the face of democracy? How do you go about that? A democracy is a society built from the views and opinions of the PEOPLE. I am a person, and I have the right to say whatever I want, I have the right to disagree with the foundations of this country that was built on genocide, war, and slavery. I have the right to disagree with the corrupt state of this system, the failing monetary system, and this insidious war. To spit in the face of democracy is to be a fascist, to repress the thoughts and opinions of others, and I find your opinions to be startlingly similar to that of a fascist.

To top it off you tell me to physically come to you and tell you my opinions? I don't have the time to do that, nor the need. I have spoken freely to bigger men than you, I'm sure. If you wish to discuss this in an adult-like manner, I play shows from time to time, check my schedule that I keep updated on my Myspace. The whole thing about me meeting you seems like a threat, and that is also very fascist in nature. You can't agree with the things I say and you can't even agree to my right as an American that I can say it, so you feel the need for us to physically meet, and call me a coward?

I wear my opinions on my sleeve, and I don't hide my identity. A coward is someone who hides behind a service they have done, and believes it gives them the right to be a dickhead to anyone they come across.

All in all, I don't understand where the whole marine corps thing came from, though? I never mentioned anything about people in the military, so where did that come from? Care to explain?

Again, I don't disrespect people in the military. I disrespect you for writing me, a person you don't know at all, and writing those insulting things to me, then basically saying that you have the right because you were in the military. If you write someone insulting them as gratuitously as you did, you should expect someone to bite back. If you can't take it, maybe you shouldn't insult people anymore.

Best wishes,
Jay Decay

I find that whole second email very frightening, in a lot of ways. I mean, what is going through this guys head? What made him think that way, or even write that as a retort in the first place? The guys from the band Deaf By Arms left a comment on my myspace that describes him very well as an "obviously illiterate, confused, and lost soul."