Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. A concept so simple, we teach it to schoolkids, and one I’m all too aware of when I approach this column each week. But what some people forget is that the right to voice an opinion comes with a responsibility to be accountable for their words.
We saw this play out in Courier-land this week when a Kate Carter-Larg and Sam Larg. The kicked off when the (now-deleted) Tripadvisor review called the prices of the Cheesy Toast Shack owners’ products “an abomination”. As much as I have an appetite for melodrama, I can think of many more abominable things than £7 for a toastie the size of my face – still, each to their own, right? The problem for me arose when the reviewer moved, rather swiftly, from slating the price of the products to completely flaming the couple themselves.
From attacking their lifestyle (going on holiday is apparently a sin now?) to insinuating that their business model was exploitative (money in exchange for goods?), the reviewer felt really free to share all sorts of opinions that had nothing at all to do with the quality of toasties. So I understand completely why the pair felt it was “impossible” not to hit back at the review with a quippy response. In fact, I found it quite refreshing, this unapologetic pettiness.
That surprised me. And it got me thinking about why, in a world full of cave-dwelling keyboard warriors, this one troll needed silenced. After all, the common wisdom when it comes to anony.
