wednesday september 16

today i was blocked on twitter for the first time. tweeting from a blue-jays-only account that i share with a couple friends, i participated in a discussion about why the jays gave season ticket holders and flex pass holders two separate windows to buy playoff tickets. i suggested that season ticket holders and flex pass holders are generally among a team’s biggest supporters (ie. they spend the most money on the team — literally "supporting" it), and mentioned that often people share season tickets, meaning some of them may have been shut out during the first window. the guy i was chatting with conceded a couple of my points, retweeting one of my tweets, even though he didn’t fully agree, and we had a nice, civil little discussion about it.

it wasn’t until much later that i noticed someone i don’t follow had quoted one of my tweets and replied "so i’m not a big blue jays supporter because i’ve only been to one game this year?" he had then proceeded to have a lengthy discussion on the subject with someone else i don’t follow, which included him tweeting that he’d "had to block two people" today who said he can’t be a big jays fan if he’s not at every game. sure enough, by the time i went to reply to him, he had blocked me.

this was hilarious for a number of reasons. first of all, even if we assume that "supporters" and "fans" are synonymous (which i'd dispute), let’s say you were presented the phrase "season tickets holders and flex pass holders are generally among a team’s biggest supporters" and asked which of the following statements were true, based on this assertion:

a) all STHs and FPHs are big fans of the team
b) only STHs and FPHs can be big fans of the team; people who aren’t STHs or FPHs can’t be big fans of the team
c) a and b
d) none of the above

this guy who blocked me would’ve answered (c), apparently, when quite obviously the answer is (d). anyway, his irrational strawman argument was bad enough, but the idea that he “had” to block me for it was my favourite part. as if - despite the fact that i didn’t follow him and had never seen a tweet of his before - he’d be risking me tweeting at him during every game saying things like "why aren’t you at THIS one, ya fake fan!" if he didn’t block me.