I had another comment on the libraries issue on this blog, which I am not going to publish as it is abusive about a named councillor. Descending to personal abuse in anonymous posts is not an attractive characteristic.
However, the phenomenon of ad hominum attacks is worth commenting on. I have mentioned before that both councillors and officers get targeted personally by these commentators. One way of seeing this is as a campaign target for people with a weak case. If the facts support your opponent, an obvious way to overcome that is to smear the person rather than the policy.
I think, however, that is just too rational.
The people concerned just seem too enraged. Taking the libraries issue. One might imagine that anyone who thinks libraries are a good thing would welcome the increase in numbers at Brent libraries, not to mention the greater satisfaction levels of Brent library users. If you are a Brent resident, you might take some satisfaction in Brent libraries outperforming those elsewhere.
In fact all these facts just seem to make some people angry, and I can only assume that these sort of debates have become personal contests for them devoid of actual effects. The actual effect on peoples' lives is simply a non-issue for them, because they are just interested in proving themselves right in some sort of self absorbed debating game.
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