Additionally, the dirtbags in the cyclist mob are doing the low thing of going after my livelihood vis a vis abuse of Amazon's review system to attack me.

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Manners-Nice-People-Sometimes/product-reviews/1250030714/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_txt?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent#R1251BKEUB0M52

The latest is by some rotten person named "Jon Brewer"--basically defaming me and trying to hurt my book sales:

1.0 out of 5 starsOne Star By Jon Breweron December 31, 2017

Written by an insensitive racist who has no care for the well-being and safety of others.

If you read and liked my book, kindly consider even the briefest review to make up for the dishonest slimey people trying to hurt me by abusing the Amazon review system.

My remark in the "comment" area below this scumbag's "review":

There's a mob of cyclists going after me on Twitter (because I dared say it is dangerous to take a baby on a bike out next to speeding traffic), and this personal attack on me is the second defamatory "review" of me rather than my book.

The other person removed theirs when I tweeted about how awful and unfair it was to go after my livelihood (not having read the book), as a way to punish me for my opinion about kids being endangered. Amazon should not support reviews being used as attacks like this.

> By the way, a Democratic strategist I know observed to me about the "road diet" beneficiaries, something along the lines of: "Who is able to ride a bike to get around in LA? Rich white guys in tech who have just an iPad in their slim leather backpack."

I've made that argument, well really, all the same arguments in the subreddit for the city I live in, and gotten beaten to hell for it, but it's true.

I have thousands and thousands of recreational cycling under my wheels, but daily commuting on a bicycle in a traffic jammed city is for young, healthy, mostly male, mostly rich people, who most likely already live in the expensive condos near their downtown destinations.

For the young, elderly, disabled, and probably for many women, riding a bike long distances in all sorts of weather is just not possible.

For them, you need to have roads and lanes and room for cars, buses, trolleys, etc.

Cutting out lanes is idiotic and serves a very very few people.

Being called a racist by a pedalphile is rich.

I am in favor of forward looking bike policies, that is as new roads get built, include separate bike lanes that won’t interfere with cars or pedestrians. This should be taken into account as new neighborhoods and developments get built.

I can see swapping out car lanes for bike lanes if you have just built a new subway or something but failing that it seems impractical

I ride a bike like I drive a car: in the road, following the Vehicle Code. Government administration if both leaves a lot to be desired. Justice is hard to come by...

PS Regarding the "racist" "review" put on my book, it's been removed.

I had written a guy on Twitter last night to ask whether he (the particular Jon Brewer I tweeted to) had tried to hurt my livelihood. This worked in getting another guy on Twitter, a frankly evil guy named Philip Neumann, who tried to get me to be seen as racist, to remove his review.

I'm with Nicole -- absolutely -- because I'm actually (of course!) for keeping cyclists safe, but as anyone who lives in LA will tell you, we have nightmarish traffic, and you'd better basically have Steve Martin, the ghost of Robin Williams, and Marie Curie coming to your party, or we're really not sure we're going to make the trip there through an hour or more of hellish traffic.

Also, with my motion sickness -- less of a thing thanks to a new drug I'm taking on top of the betahistine -- I still get motion sick to a degree. So, if you live in Topanga Canyon, like dear friends of mine, when you have a party, you can count on me needing to sleep for an hour like Goldilocks in your guestroom when I get there so I won't hurl on your other guests.

Taleb tweet

@NNTaleb One warning: Secularization in Turkey came with extreme, murderous nationalism. When you abruptly remove religion, you get a lot of stuff: the mind doesn't like a vacuum.

Amazon should not support reviews being used as attacks like this. ~ Amy Alkon at December 31, 2017 11:31 PM

Amazon has a "verified purchase" notation in reviews that makes it easy to see who's read the book and who's attacking the author.

Being called a racist by a pedalphile is rich. ~ Len at January 1, 2018 1:40 AM

Nice play on words there, but an accurate one. Cycling activists have fetishized cycling.

San Francisco cycling activists started Critical Mass the self-righteous tradition of having a monthly "celebration" that happens to snarl traffic and cause chaos for motorists. If they can't have their bike lanes, you can't have your roads. Numerous violent encounters between bicyclists and motorists resulted as Critical Mass cyclists blatantly ignored traffic lights and traffic laws.

Bicycling activists tried to delay the new Bay Bridge, insisting that bike lanes be built into it. Of course, the older half of the Bay Bridge has no bike lanes, so the only thing bike lanes on the new bridge would do is make Treasure Island bike-accessible from Oakland. Or give the cycling activists a foothold for insisting that bike lanes be retroactively installed on the old bridge as well, something CalTrans already said is not possible due to age, traffic, and technical-sounding things the engineers made up to deny bicyclists a bike lane.

For the young, elderly, disabled, and probably for many women, riding a bike long distances in all sorts of weather is just not possible. ~ jerry at January 1, 2018 12:14 AM

Not to mention people who have to wear nice clothes at work. If you can dress down at work, you can shove your work clothes into a backpack and go, but if you have to wear a suit, you may find cycling with a foldover suitcase difficult.

Although, I did once witness a young woman in a dress and high heels riding a bike down a street in San Francisco.

My theory is that all of these people are basically "cause fundamentalists". They may be cyclist fanatics, ideological fanatics, religious fanatics, vegan fanatics, antifa thugs, or any other "cause" fanatics. Their cause gives their petty lives meaning. Therefore anyone who does not embrace their cause is their enemy and obviously the spawn of satan.

Prior to the internet these cellar dwelling low lifes were unknown to most somewhat stable people. Now they can spew their ignorant psychosis to a wide audience. This makes these cowardly morons feel as though they have some significance in the world.

@NNTaleb One warning: Secularization in Turkey came with extreme, murderous nationalism. When you abruptly remove religion, you get a lot of stuff: the mind doesn't like a vacuum. ~ Amy Alkon at January 1, 2018 6:13 AM

Terry Pratchett brought up the same thing, albeit in a far-fetched fantasy genre fashion, in Hogfather with its “Old gods do new jobs” theme.

How do you think one religion replaces another? Or secularism destroys religions? Belief is not wiped out, merely redirected. If not replaced with an intentional belief system, an unintended one will slide into the vacuum.

Lenin tried to replace God with the state, but then called for an end to nationalism, and so undercut his own argument. Nonetheless, he managed to create a monstrous belief system that equated financial control with counting paper clips (a common flaw by those who don't understand real economics).

Naziism did the same thing, but buffered with fervent and militant nationalism and racism, and so created an equally monstrous belief system.

While I agree that riding a bike with a kid in traffic is stupid, and wishing you death is ridiculous, I fail to see how calling those that disagree with you "asshole" and "dipshit" is helping your argument. Then turn around and call them "bullies"? You did a bit of that yourself with the name calling.

Oh! And also muting those that disagree with you while continuing to claim they are trying to silence you??? Isnt that exactly what you are doing too???

"Amazon has a "verified purchase" notation in reviews that makes it easy to see who's read the book and who's attacking the author."

It brings your star rating down, and a good many of the one-star reviews on my books are from people who went there to punish me for my speech elsewhere.

Things are terribly hard now for writers, financially. If somebody truly does not like my book and they review it negatively, well, that's the game.

But frankly, no author who is published by a major publisher usually deserves a one-star review. They don't let those books get out. They ask for the advance back and cancel your contract, because it's not worth it for them to make the substantial investment in publicity, design, and other costs.

Amazon has been terrible about allowing these attack "reviews" through. There are a number of books that have terrible ratings because of it. There are those who are not careful about determining that these ratings are not real reviews of the book - they see a low star rating and don't even click on the book. It's terrible. I hope to start doing speaking engagements this year on the PROCESS of how to go out into the world with confidence, but I need my books to be honestly reviewed.

People may not like my views, but I struggle over every word I write (in my columns and books) multiple times, and I have long discussions about whether things are clearer this way or that with both the editor I hire and my absolute ninja of a copyeditor, the incredible David Yontz. There's really not a way you can accurately accuse me of being a bad writer. I'm just not. (I also edited two books this year, both published by major publishers, before they were turned in by the author. In each case, the editor at the publishing company was AMAZED at how few corrections there were to make.)

My own editor had only nine corrections/questions regarding my manuscript for "Unf*ckology." And then, during the time I was supposed to make them, he was in Italy for a month, so I rewrote a third of the book! Yes, I'm fucking insane - and I'm sure not a bad writer.

"Oh! And also muting those that disagree with you while continuing to claim they are trying to silence you??? Isnt that exactly what you are doing too???"

This is just such stupid comment.

Nobody has the right to my attention.

Removing my attention from them is not the same as a mob coming after me and trying to mock, intimidate, and shame me into shutting up because I don't parrot the views of the Cult of Cycling.

Fuck you, "Stormy." And PS Don't attack me all anony-pussy. Tell me your real name. I post and tweet in mine. A little harder to pile on with the mob if we know who you are, huh?

"Skin in the game," as Taleb says. "Stormy" has none. I've got plenty.

These people are being absolutely ridiculous, Amy. As you know, I've been following these exchanges on Twitter.

Let's say, for the sake of the argument, that you're 100% wrong. I don't believe you are, but hypothetically speaking. (I have to clarify this, because if I don't, some of the more dense participants will be saying, "She's not wrong! Rar! Rar! Rar! Rar!")

Even if you were totally wrong about this, they should be able to see that you're expressing concern for the safety of small children, which is laudable, even if it there's one particular area you're not clear on. They should be explaining this to you, showing statistics and the like to prove how safe it really is.

But instead, they're telling you that you should die in a car crash with your parents and children.

Gee, really shows how concerned they are for the safety of children, if they're wishing your children die in a car crash with you.

When I lived in Maine, I was a waiter at a restaurant. My boss used to ride with his child on his bike, too. Only instead of using the standard bike seat, he took a tricycle seat, drilled a hole in the crossbar and just mounted the tricycle seat on the crossbar.

One day, he happened to fall off his bicycle with his child. And he didn't even put a helmet on the child. "Where are his brains?" my neighbor asked, when I told her about the incident.

It was so sickening to see his child, one year old, in a leg cast. Thankfully, that was only injury she sustained. Though he started putting a helmet on his child from then on.

Stormy:

Oh! And also muting those that disagree with you while continuing to claim they are trying to silence you??? Isnt that exactly what you are doing too???

No, that isn't what she's doing, too. She isn't silencing anyone. They're free to say all the bad things she wants about her. She simply is choosing not to listen.

Muting someone on Twitter does not mean preventing them from tweeting. It just means you no longer get notifications about them when they respond to you.

In fact, muting someone is more polite than blocking them. Blocking means they can't see anything you tweet. However, by muting them, they can still see and respond to her tweets, for the benefit of anyone else who might want to follow the conversation. It just means that Amy isn't seeing anything they tweet, including their responses.

I also note that Amy, quite politely, advises them that she's muting them before she does it. At least they know she won't see their responses, so they don't continue to tweet at her, wondering why she isn't responding.

This supposedly will make them give up their motor vehicles and take the bus or bike.

This. Get people to give up cars, squeeze 'em on a bus, profit!

It is the Central Planners at work, trying to herd us into high density living downtown, or in other "approved" living zones, allegedly near our work. They hate suburbs, grass, and big lots with single family dwellings on them.

My city's first foray into this would to have been to reduce a 6 lane road to 4 + 2 dedicated mixed use bike/bus lanes. The first push back came from the businesses along that proposed change. The second came from the state: hey, you do know that road has a federal designation, and we have final say over such changes and our answer is NO.

Thankfully, tho I avoid that road at all costs. Also, I question the wisdom of mixing bikes with buses. Seems dangerous, as is any time you mix tiny vehicles with ginormous vehicles.

Might makes right when it involves physics.

Oh! And also muting those that disagree with you while continuing to claim they are trying to silence you??? Isnt that exactly what you are doing too???

No. That's a common misconception.

You may have the right to speak, Stormy. I have no duty to listen.

You would have a better case if Amy complained to @jack to tell them to knock it off, but so far as I know, she didn't.

First off, good to hear you are having children and your parents are still alive and well. Not really sure how all that works given age and whatnot. At least when you die in one of those fairly rare car crashes you will do it as a family. Or something.

"And I wonder whether they are using secular "religion" to fill in for it, and signaling their belonging to it in the most awful ways."

Many people have noticed this. When you get rid of organized religion you are only getting rid of the organized part and not the religion. Wish it were otherwise but humans are inherently irrational. So while some can be trained to be rational for most that isn't an option.

Thank you for explaining the muting. I didn't know that's how it works. Good to know.

I still agree with Amy about the kids on bikes in traffic being a stupid thing to do.

Latest attack "review" on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R20JR1EONJZGWA?ref_=glimp_1rv_cl

One Star By Kristinon January 1, 2018 Pretty pointless, written by a narcissist

Of course, if they read the fucking book, they'd see my note about how you're only anonymous on the Internet because nobody has tried very hard to figure out who you are.

Took me about 10 seconds to figure out her full name from her baby registry and then find and tweet to her husband about this low and disgusting attempt to hurt my livelihood because she disagrees with something I wrote on Twitter.

Do these cycling fundamentalists and the cyclist lobby think they're helping cyclists? I take people as individuals, but many don't. I think this breeds hatred toward cyclists, which makes them less safe on the road.

And yes, I care deeply about cyclists' safety - and that of any human being.

This is all unexpected -- just for a difference of opinion...

Sorry for all the ugly attacks directed at you but...venom and vitriol "unexpected" on the internet for a difference of opinion?

The internet has been wonderful in many ways but it also has negatives and, in my opinion, one of those negatives is that it's been a huge contributor to the coarsening of dialogue and debate, and to a hardening of opinions.

Something I just tweeted:

@amyalkon This is the thing. I take people as individuals and care deeply about cyclist safety. I will not change my thinking about individual cyclists bc of mob here. But not everyone thinks this way and I think ugliness of Cult of Cycling mob to me (and others) endangers cyclists.

JD, you assume that I think the Internet is a place where Bambi leaps through the daisies. Perhaps you weren't here during the ugly mob attacks of a certain website - hundreds of people here leaving horrible comments, changing my Wiki page to say "Amy Alkon, male to female post-op transsexual advice columnist," etc.

I also write about this in I See Rude People.

But I'm dealing with a huge onslaught of people slamming me all day, every day lately, and some even trying to hurt my ability to earn a living, etc., and not because I am suggesting horrible racism toward a group of people - but because I'm opposed to local traffic jams being created and people putting their children in danger on bikes next to traffic.

This is hard, despite my being able to stand up, choosing to stand up. And these, "Well, you shoulda expected this" takes I get occasionally I really don't appreciate.

On the other hand, I'm vastly grateful to even those who tweeted to me, letting me know I'm not alone in this. Crid, you were one. Others very kindly put reviews on Amazon -- others who actually read the book and who aren't just targeting me for abuse in a way that affects an author's sales.

San Francisco cycling activists started Critical Mass the self-righteous tradition of having a monthly "celebration" that happens to snarl traffic and cause chaos for motorists. If they can't have their bike lanes, you can't have your roads. Numerous violent encounters between bicyclists and motorists resulted as Critical Mass cyclists blatantly ignored traffic lights and traffic laws.

Look up "Kidical Mass" — same thing, except it's a chance to parade around your children in busy intersections. Nothing like trying to get somewhere and being blocked by self-righteous parents with Cody and Madylynne in a sidecar and Brixton riding his tricycle next to them... in city traffic.

But I'm dealing with a huge onslaught of people slamming me all day, every day lately,...

OK Amy, my apologies. You're absolutely right: even when one expects some vicious behavior is going to occur, one can still find the level or intensity of that vicious behavior to be unexpected.

And, as I stated above, I am sorry for all the ugly attacks directed at you. It's people of course, who engage in this kind of ugly behavior but the internet greatly facilitates it.

Others very kindly put reviews on Amazon -- others who actually read the book and who aren't just targeting me for abuse in a way that affects an author's sales.

Does Amazon have a mechanism for deleting negative reviews that stem solely from a desire to bash the author?

> It's people of course, who
> engage in this kind of ugly
> behavior but the internet
> greatly facilitates it.

Yes, but the internet is now the street of the human mind, and you won't be rolling it back.

It's a new avenue, and people are still learning how to navigate it. It's not just that people (like me) blow snot; it's also that many who're enjoying this free audience of unlimited size have presumptions about the righteousness of their own beliefs, and about the patience of their readers, which are not appropriate.

It's possible that the problem is mostly with those of us who came of age without the internet, while those raised in its liquid crystal glow will have had some humility baked into their habits, creating less friction for everyone: The internet is a wonderful tool to teach you how little you know.

(Shux, the deluded believer in the living megalodon has deleted her tweets, ruining the example. That's a shame.)

The internet is a wonderful tool to teach you how little you know. ~ Crid at January 1, 2018 11:06 AM

Only if you're willing to learn.

I watched an exchange on Facebook on a neighborhood-centric page about a "were those gunshots" post for New Year's Eve. In it, a person posted about the physics of gunshots and supersonic bullets, disclosing that he was a physicist who shot regularly and worked in firearms forensics and speculating that what the heard were fireworks since her description included "steady succession" and "went off in different directions."

The original poster challenged him with "I know gunshots." When the physicist asked her how she was able to tell between gunshots and fireworks, whether she shot regularly or had specialized knowledge or experience, she replied that he was just bragging about his credentials and refused to disclose anything about her innate knowledge of gun shots.

Another poster then came long and mocked the idea of supersonic bullets. When the physicist asked if he was being sarcastic and tried to explain ballistics, the mocker replied he had better things to worry about.

This was not a group of people interested in learning anything about bullets and the sounds they make. Reminds me of this jewel from Bad Day at Black Rock, "You're not only wrong, you're wrong at the top of your voice."

Amy, the willingness of so many to inflict pain on another in order to validate a sense of self-importance is disillusioning, indeed. But tough times don't last, and tough people do. You're tough -- but it still does more than sting to go through.

If it will make you feel any better, I'm willing to refer to you as "Sugar Tits", if you still want. ;-)

By the way, Conan, as a martial artist, I consider the bar fight scene in Bad Day at Black Rock to be a true classic -- a tutorial in anticipation and economy of motion.

what the heard were fireworks since her description included "steady succession" and "went off in different directions."

Hmm.. With Firecrackers there's always an element of chaos in the rhythm, slow start, rushed middle, and a last one to pop.

With guns, you can always tell someone's being executed by the fixed loading intervals between each bullet.

It's crazy, once you get used to recognize that pattern, you can ignore the noise from the firecrackers. But, if it's a steady *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* everything feels like it's frozen for an instant before you resume working.

It could have been worse, those could have been angry vegan cyclists.

It's crazy, once you get used to recognize that pattern, you can ignore the noise from the firecrackers. But, if it's a steady *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang* everything feels like it's frozen for an instant before you resume working. ~ Sixclaws at January 1, 2018 12:37 PM

Well, the physicist's point in all this was that it's less about the rhythm and more about the sound; there is a supersonic "crack" with most bullets that you don't get with fireworks.

By the way, Conan, as a martial artist, I consider the bar fight scene in Bad Day at Black Rock to be a true classic -- a tutorial in anticipation and economy of motion. ~ Jay R at January 1, 2018 12:29 PM

It's a good scene.

I can't wait for Hollywood to remake the movie with machine guns, car chases, and explosions. And Melissa McCarthy in the lead role.

I've got more negative "reviews" up at Amazon from these horrible members of the cycling mob. They attack me for my supposed indecency -- by posting one-star "reviews" of me as a human being on my book, in order to hurt my livelihood.

It says everything about the terrible nature of the people I've been dealing with. Yes, I believe that you endanger your child by taking him or her on a bicycle next to speeding traffic. This is not an outrageous or hateful point of view. It's simple physics and understanding of how little control we have over a speeding object that weighs thousands of pounds in that moment a driver becomes distracted or passes out.

Here's one of the "reviews" -- anonymous, of course, because this person is a scumbag who does not stand behind their opinions like I do, with my full name:

http://amzn.to/2CAea3K

1.0 out of 5 stars Load of rubbish By Amazon Customer on January 1, 2018

I was going to buy this book, but considering it is written by an illeducated hack with a limited worldview and zero tolerance for reasoned debate I decided to eat the money instead.

Here's another "review" by one of these cycling fundamentalist bullies, seeking to hurt my ability to earn a living as a way to punish me for my Cult of Cycling-unapproved opinion:

http://amzn.to/2CBPyb5

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't support this author, she's a bully ByMr Joseph M. Goldberg on January 1, 2018

I was interested in this book, and noticed that the author has a twitter account. After a quick scan of her scorched-earth, bullying rants against everyone who doesn't bow down to her (e.g. who targets cyclists?), I realized this isn't the type of person I want to open my wallet for. There are plenty of amazing books on Amazon, don't buy this one and perpetuate the hate.

It is heartbreaking and horrible to be attacked in this way. They couldn't silence me on Twitter, so now they're going after my livelihood, using the broken system at Amazon that allows unscrupulous people to turn the reviewing forum into a means to attack authors.

It's terrible that on this brand-new year you're fending-off against this horde of idiots.

They're doing Saul Alinsky's Rule #13:

13. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

Please be careful.

I found your idea about these cycling nutcases adhering to a secular religion interesting. Say what you will about Christianity, but genuine Christians, adherent to their religion, would not go after you in this horrible manner. Their religion FORBIDS it, rather than enables it (e.g., Islam).

And as somebody who is not really a Christian, I still sincerely hope that God takes your side and vanquishes, in his own mysterious way, the forces that are arrayed against you.

And hopefully, the person at http://amzn.to/2CAea3K gets food poisoning from eating his own money.

The first (Twitter) link? "That page doesn't exist."

This is a fabulous tweetstorm for VCs and other SV career-aspirants, but the highlighted tweet applies specifically to Amy's bikeshare zombies.

Their arrogance and intrusion is repellent enough.

But it's obvious these people got no idea how big the world is, or how very many blessings are brought to their lives by modern transportation miracles.

They are ungrateful, and this cannot be forgiven.

I hope some day common sense will eventually prevail. I am an avid bike rider but am not wild about road diet lanes where angry commuters don't care if they crowd you while you are on your bike. Reducing auto lanes causes more problems than it solves. 5 star review coming right up. Loved the Good Manners book. Keep writing.

justme, thank you so much -- it's been a terrible day.

> The first (Twitter) link?
> "That page doesn't exist."

Presumably, the linked twitter material was deleted by its author sometime later in the day... Much like the tweets from the "megalodon" quibbler in my example.

Presumed subtext: 'Oh, shit… This redhead FIGHTS BACK…!'

It's why I had some misgivings about Sixclaw's comment:

> Please be careful.

There's a lot to be said for slapping silly assholes in the face.

The people described in the 5:30 comment just above are like children. All they seem to know of the planet is: Um, I like riding bicycles.

We can't move through life in fear of such people.

I was going to take a cycling safety class, but I was told I had to get over my habit of stopping at Stop signs and red lights.
Their supposed rights also are proof against the laws of physics.

Bicyclists behave rudely because they're powerless and angry about it.

Pro Tip: running a stop sign on a bicycle is a good way to show a 3,000 pound motor vehicle who's the boss. Go get 'em, tiger!

Sixclaws, thanks for the Alinsky tip. I'll probably write about this and that seems helpful.

And thanks everybody here. Your comments help.

Just last week I posted a comment on a news site about how I found the majority of cyclists in my area being the most arrogant/rules don’t follow me people I ever met. The evangical cyclists promptly reported my opinion and it was removed. Gotta love socialist European countries... Off to post a positive review to your book since I bought and read it awhile ago.

Okay, by "slapping silly assholes in the face," I meant "challenging their presumptions on internet fora."

It's a new me for 2018.

Apparently, Amazon is being proactive, because I tried to follow your link to the negative review and Amazon advised me that the page doesn't exist.

I was going to ask, "Why are you writing a review of a book that you just admitted that you haven't read?"

Patrick, there is a review there from someone admitting he didn’t buy/read the book. How do you comment on reviews?

More proof (at least to me) that Twitter is inherently harmful. It's the id of the Internet.

While some people (Ms. Alkon, included) made insulting remarks, Ms. Alkon is misrepresenting the tone of the most of the comments she received.

In response to a claim that she wished that public transit in Los Angeles were better, I asked her in the most direct and neutral way, “So what are you doing to advocate for better public transit in Los Angeles?”

She responded by telling me about her anti-SUV campaign where she left literature on people’s SUVs to shame them them for using them, then asked me what I did to further that goal.

Before I could respond, she again responded to me claiming to be the victim of social media bullying, to which she would not back down from, before muting me as well.

Just this morning, someone challenged her position with the following tweet:

“You are implying that the odds of cars colliding and a car and bike are identical. Hint: they're not.”

Ms. Alkon’s response?:

“The thing is, you can't control whether someone is careful behind the wheel. Hence it is unfair to take a child you are bound to protect out on a bike next to traffic. Shame on you for joining Twitter mob to fight against me & safety for kids. Muting you, tiny shithead.”

This person tried to engage with Ms. Alkon, who responded by reasserting her original position, berating the person for engaging her, permanently refusing to engage in any meaningful discussion, before finally insulting that person.

Ms. Alkon believes she should get the first insult-filled words and the last, and uses a few insult-filled response from others to mask the insults she has been hurling from the beginning.

So, what is your point, Brian? That you and your buddies are entitled to get in both the first and last insults on top of having a "meaningful discussion"?

You help to demonstrate that rectal-cranial impaction can neither be fixed, nor hidden.

Many of us, myself included, wanted to engage Ms. Alkon on this topic. Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death for American children and many of us spend much time trying to reduce traffic fatalities. Ms. Alkon doesn't need to agree with me as to the best way to do that, but she should not have respond to a sincere and mannered request to engage by namecalling or ignoring.

Ms. Alkon claimed things without proof and called people names in the process, then when some people objected to her claims, she tried to portray herself as the victim of mean-spirited people. True, some of the tweets she received were mean, but most people responded sincerely. Ms. Alkon also sidestepped her instigation to the use of language and elided over that in this blog post, instead misrepresenting the nature of the argument in order to win sympathy here.

Agree with her as to whether or not she's right, but she is only playing the role of victim here.

The Onion weighs in with insight and obvious truth.