In defense of commenters

Princeton is a stressful place, and when you're still up at 4 a.m. writing the paper that's due the next day, what are you supposed to do with all of your pent up rage and anxiety? Write in your journal about your feelings of inadequacy? Nonsense. Pull up the Daily Princetonian webpage and take out your anger on some amateur journalists, of course. It's the perfect place to vent your misplaced fury, since there are plenty of articles to bash while staying completely anonymous.

Once you start releasing your anger, you might discover your latent xenophobia and sexism coming out. The ‘Prince' comments section is the safest environment in which to expose your prejudices, since it's anonymous, but you can also ensure that everyone you know will read it.

Besides, the writers at The Daily Princetonian need to be taken down a few notches, and you can be the person to do it. If you were to comment on the New York Times website, telling theater critic Ben Brantley how utterly wrong he was about "Avenue Q," he'd probably never know it. But on the ‘Prince' website, you really have the opportunity to make your voice heard - and most importantly, make some journalists cry.

If you think about it, you'd really be doing these people a disservice by not telling them how much you hate reading their gripes about grade deflation and their deep thoughts on feminism. If not for your witty and insightful comments about how much their writing "sucks," many of these kids would be headed to journalism school after graduation. Thankfully, the ‘Prince' website gives you the opportunity to make sure that doesn't happen. If these people went off to the Columbia School of Journalism, they wouldn't be able to hack it, they'd have a nervous breakdown and end up on the streets, and it would be all your fault.

You don't want that on your conscience, do you?

This article is the first in a new series in which our writers defend the indefensible.