Worst Wisconsin Blog Post of the week.
I'm going to do a weekly post in which I outline the worst blog post that I come across in the Wisconsin blogosphere. I will be grading these posts in three categories: hypocrisy, inanity and faux outrage. If you see a blog post that you think is particularly hypocritical, inane or full of faux outrage, I'd love to hear about it. Now for the worst blog posts of this week:

The worst worst blog post of this week comes to us from Brian at GOP3. GOP3 is a blog that is written primarily by three Republican Marquette University students named Brian, Daniel and Brandon. Daniel is a smart guy. Although I disagree with him on all sorts of things and I bet he's boring at parties, his posts usually make some sort of sense, given his religious upbringing, and have real data supporting them. Brandon is pretty harmless. He makes some descent points once in a while, but usually he's pretty "eh." Brian is the real star over there. Brian is very very very angry. About everything. If you comment on one of his posts, he will snap at you unless you are agreeing 100%. He never says anything that I would describe as "interesting," but whatever the topic, Brian is pissed off about it. Even when the topic is sports. The title of Brian's winning post is "UW-M fan base beneath dignity of MU program." Beneath the dignity? Really?

"There is a rumor being perpetuated on UW-M message boards about something Tom Crean is alleged to have said immediately after the game to some UW-M officials. Somehow, a rumor so dramatically nasty managed not to make it to public fora until a full 72 hours following the UW-M game."

"An absolutely implausible rumor in and of itself would not be worth my blogging about, but UW-M fans took it to the next level yesterday when they decided to launch a discussion of it on local sports radio stations. The rumor is so beneath the dignity of anyone associated with Marquette that I will not justify it by linking to the UW-M boards."

Brian is fast out of the gates in the faux outrage department. Brian won't repeat the rumor because it's so "dramatically nasty." But I will. The rumor is that, Marquette's coach said to a group of UWM fans, “now I am fucking done with you guys and you can fucking go home.” He also allegedly went up to one of the assistant coach’s wives and said to her “you can fucking go home too”. Maybe that's a bit inappropriate, but so "dramatically nasty" that he's not willing to tell us what the rumor was? He also thinks it's "implausible." Personally, I'd find it hard to believe that a basketball coach didn't drop a few f-bombs. Tom Crean's no Bobby Knight, but he's no pussycat either.

And Brian is pissed off that people are talking about it on message boards. MESSAGE BOARDS. It's not like UWM put it on a billboard. It's just people talking. Ready for some more faux outrage?

"If nothing else, the earnest perpetuation of this vicious lie about HC Tom Crean — a basketball coach I’ve never felt apprehensive about criticizing — demonstrates that UW-M and its fan base is beneath the dignity of Marquette University and warrants dismissal of the rest of the series. There is absolutely nothing to be gained from it."

Did you get that? Marquette should no longer play UWM in basketball because one fan wrote something on a message board. I love how Brian wants to judge the dignity of an entire university and it's basketball team's fans based on what one person wrote on a message board. On that note, I'll think of Marquette, a Catholic school, next time one priest fucks a little kid. Huge hypocrisy points there Brian. He continues on with the same stuff for a few more paragraphs. It's really worth reading the whole thing. The comments are pretty funny too. I asked him this:

"How do you know he didn’t say it? Has he denied it? I’m not trying to pick a fight, I’m just curious..."

Brian's response:

"When the accusations come from people who claim their uncle’s wife’s kid through a previous marriage’s biology teacher’s next door neighbor heard it, and it takes a full 72 hours to “hear” about it while the UW-M fans didn’t wait a second to go stark raving mad over the score of the game, its plausibility is reduced to basically zero."

Brian believes that "coach says swear word" is such breaking news that to delay discussion of it for a few days makes it IMPOSSIBLE that it happened. Also, a few people on the message board said they heard it first hand. It's still hearsay, but it isn't exactly 9th party as Brian suggests. I asked a few more questions. I never said I though the rumor was true, or even implied it. I certainly never indicated in any way that I had any connection to UWM or Marquette (and I don't). But my favorite comment was from a douchebottle named Fran:

"It’s hard to take you seriously when A) you don’t have your facts or opinions correct; B) are willing to believe any old internet rumor without any serious consideration that it might be a bunch of crap; C) you have a 4th tier UWM Education (4th tier as recognized by US News and World Report rating of Universities and Colleges)."

I responded by noting that I didn't state any facts and opinions can't be incorrect, that I didn't believe the rumor and never implied that I did, and that I didn't go to UWM but, if fran is really concerned about US News ranking, the school I did go to is ranked higher than Marquette. Not that I'd ever use that to discredit someone. If I were a student at a third-tier school (or maybe it's second-tier, I know it's right on the line for law school)I don't think I'd use it as a way to insult people that go to alleged fourth-tier schools. But whatever.

This was a pretty bad blog post overall. It will lose points in the hypocrisy category to some of the big guns in this competition since it's only hypocrisy is that Brian is so outraged that a college student spread a rumor, when college students at his school certainly are capable of the same thing. He also attributes the actions of one (or a few) students to the entire University. Brian has become outraged in the past when others judge all of one group (Christians or Republicans for example) by the actions of one member of that group. He scores well in the inanity department since, really, who gives a shit? And his faux outrage is obviously outstanding.

Hypocrisy: 6/10

Inanity: 8/10

Faux outrage: 10/10

Total: 24/30