I’m amused. The artist for one of my favorite comic books has no sense of humor. I am, apparently, an “ignorant over-privileged right-wing fuck” responding to a retweet saying “[Mitt Romney]’s not afraid to face a ravening, grasping horde of subhumans, because that’s how he sees poor people already.” My response, “They’re not?” A quick review of my tweets would show I’m a sarcastic bastard. I’m also a writer and college prof and a full-time dad…so I’m not exactly rolling in dough, myself. I suppose my response should have been “We’re not?” to maximize the effect, but hey — shoulda woulda coulda.

Of course, he gets butthurt and flies into a multi-tweet response (that’s when you know someone’s really mad at you!)

As a poor person (and most comic creators are extremely poor) I would say no. Y’see, we dangle at the end of a very-

long and predatory business model where @bclevinger and I do 90% of the work and reap 10% of the reward. Many poor —

poor people also exist in similarly unfair and unbalanced work situations. We work long hours for little reward. So–

on behalf of my fellow poor grasping subhumans let me answer with a NO. You ignorant over-privileged right-wing fuck

So, because he’s a poor person he’s outrageously outraged! My response to Scott Wegener is pretty simple: 1) You aren’t poor due to the predatory business model…you’re poor because you chose a poor career path. So did I (several times, actually.)

2) You went into comics despite the fact that there is a long, well-published set of data on exactly how truly awful the publishers of comics are to the talent. I can only assume you value your creative work and lifestyle more than money…so what’s the beef? If you want to eat and be happy in your work, get yourself a well-paid spouse or lover; or a day job you despise. Hell, I soldiered just to make ends meet.

3) There’s a remarkably wide swathe for people out there who don’t fit into the “left wing/right wing” pigeon holes. I know that requires a ore nuanced view of politics than the traditional and simplistic, Manichean, us/them political spectrum, but it will make your insult sting if you actual have an idea of who your are attempting ad hominen attacks on.

Lastly, this is a prime example of my axiom, “The offense lies with the Offended.” If you want to get butthurt over something somebody said, if you want to give them power over your emotional state — that wasn’t their doing. That was yours. If you had the power of your convictions, you’d have shrugged me off as a troll and gotten on with the next issue of the excellent Atomic Robo (Yes — I’m even plugging his material!)

He might need one of these…

I’m going to go lord it over my serfs now. Everyone have a great day!