I never understood all the hatred on these blogs between people who have never met and who will probably never meet in the future.Why do some get so worked-up over people they don't even know?
Why do people care what complete strangers think of them or their opinions?
Some of these blog battles are almost legendary.
Very few are clever or insightful - most just degenerate into name calling and racial bating.
But of the few bloggers who don't approach blogging as a means to gain approval - David Mills (Well... as are most of those who enter the Octagon over at DeeVee's spot) was smarter than most.
His epic battles with Mike Fisher, SeeNew and DeeVee himself were always more witty and informative than many post-grad classes.
Unlike many of the hundred-widget-having traffic generating bloggers who imagine that having trite conversations with unknown people counts as having the real friends they lack in their real lives - most of the guests at DeeVee's spot (and very few others) are more concerned with quality than quantity.
Most of the battles are to determine "truth" while not being worried about popularity.
Mills' version of 'truth' often varied from my own - but Mills would fight for his points as though he were a character from one of his many hit television shows.
While UnderCoverBlackman has passed - his shit-talking will be remembered and chronicled as long as we have the means to exploit these Internets for knowledge.Did I ever meet the guy in person?
Nope.
But Mills was always cool when we'd disagree online.
How can I miss someone I never knew?
I don't know...
It's odd...
Somehow many people are able to interact more with strangers online than they are readily able to in their day-to-day lives.
Sometimes ones higher position removes them from their minions which surround them.
Sometimes online communities become the meeting places for iconoclasts.
Sometimes blogs are where people "meet" other people who have had similar experiences, backgrounds and outcomes in life.
Sometimes these blogs are where he who wears the crown is able talk to someone else in a different area who shares the same onus.
"Huh...?"
"What...?"
"Are you...?"
Is all I could say upon hearing of Mills passing.
I care about someone I never even knew?
Ain't that some shit?
R.I.P. UBM
15 comments:
Here. Here.
I've read that online forums are no different than any group formed by people throughout history. It can be likened to a neighborhood, a community, and although its neighbors may not meet physically, there does occur a meeting of the minds, and as I see it, what's more powerful than that? Everything begins within the mind......
I am new to blogging so I do not kno/have not read Mr.Mills, but from what I've read in the blogs, he was much loved and will be much missed. Too young to go...Rest in Peace.
It is something! I felt the same way when MacArthur Walton of
daddyBstrong blog passed on. Never met the man physically, but cried big crocodile tears!! I was confused for a minute. I didn't get a chance to read Undercover's blog but maybe once in passing, but I will now. I agree with cactusrose.
Yeah, no shit. The first blog I visited when I learned he died was DV's. One past conversation they had was haunting, which DV reposted in addition to a nice goodbye post. It was kind of tacky, in a way, that DV did this, but after thinking about it, maybe David wouldn't have had it any other way.
I still can't believe this. David was the first person to add me to his blog roll. He used to make me so mad with some of the back and forths we had via email, but he had such a great sense of humor. He will be sorely missed.
@Kit: I discovered DV's blog through his. It was tacky as hell to post that conversation, and it pissed me off to no end. Comes of like an "I told you so, Brah." There's a time and a place...this was not that time. That said you may be right - David probably would not have expected anything less.
Very fine tribute.
Mills was the man. He provided a great counterpoint to Fisher's rabid nationalism and DV's chronic paranoia and conspiracy theories. RIP big fella!
sabes que homes...,
imoho - David was the afrosphere's pre-eminent, fair-minded promoter of content-focused meme battling - long before "DeeVee" set up shop to stylishly recast LaRouchism in the visual and verbal argot of pop-Blackness....,
that said, a brother did have some peculiarly conservative notions of his own - and - was notorious for catching the vapors and clutching his pearls from time to time in staunch defense of western culture...,
UBM will def be missed. Nice tribute UBJ.
That was well said..He will truly be missed. He actually inspired me to put music on my blog. I thought it would be nice to put people on that usually don't get radio play. The music that he had on his blog ranged in all types. Like it should be. RIP....
Am I the only one who knows UBM was actually David Mills the writer for the Wire?
http://www.dreamandhustle.com/3777/rip-david-mills/
@Freeman
Not only The Wire. He wrote for NYPD Blue, ER, The Corner (Producer) and he wrote and produced Kingpin which was a NBC mini-series. He was also an accomplished journalist.
Email/snail mail aside I didn't know him either. But, I sure miss him.
Funny. I didn't follow the verbal sparring. But, I do remember UBM coming to my defense in response to something M. Fisher said to an innocent comment I made. (It was in a post about theoretical physics.)
Of all the things I've read about David since last Wednesday, what made me smile the most was learning that he was "very quiet and introverted."
But I was surprised that many people hadn't made the connection between David Mills the writer, and UBM (maybe there would've been even more traffic to his blog had they known?). Even I hadn't made the connection between him and that notorious Sista Souljah quote.
Anyway, I really hope that however he's remembered there's a little P-Funk thrown in the mix.
Interesting......
I used to belong to another site and I used to interact daily with a particular young woman. As a matter of fact, we interacted so much that we ended up exchanging contact information and we even spoke on the phone a few times.
In any case, she died.....
And then it was leaked later that she was in fact a made up persona of another "character" in that online community.
Initially I felt uncomfortable....and then I was pissed and now I refuse to be uncomfortable or pissed off again. It is what it is.
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