Unexpectedly, David Brooks ("And Now, a Word From a Fanatic—Inside the Mind of an Internet Extremist") offers a kind of Browning-like dramatic monologue in which he tries to get inside the mindset of, I think, the kind of unpleasant person who says rude things on the Internet, but right from the outset
I am a sick man. I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased.
I am one of those fanatics on the alt-right and the alt-left, the ones who make online forums so vicious, the ones who cancel and call out, the minority of online posters who fill the air with hate. I’m one of those radicals whose rage is intertwined with psychological fragility, whose anger at real wrongs is corrupted by my existential panic about myself.I found the words organizing themselves into a more specific rhythmic form, to the tune of a particularly great song:
