A note on the tone and subject matter of A Son of the Metropolia

The internet often makes us cold and terse.  This is something endemic to it.  My writings have been no exception.  My words in my articles tend to be subdued and formal, but my words on Twitter have not followed this template.

Twitter is a place where abrupt messages are fired off, and where virtually everyone is confrontational.  It comes with the territory.  When you post on Twitter, you invariably end up getting into some kind of argument, and firing off quips and jabs at something you detest is a daily occurrence.  Teasing and being flippant are the norm.  Such is internet culture.  It is a culture where "bantzing" and "dissing" is how you engage both friends and enemies.  Crude humor is a lubricant for touchy subjects. 

I started this primarily as a place to talk about Orthodoxy, particularly Russian Orthodoxy in the US.  It was also my objective to talk about Russian culture, particularly the variety found in the OCA, in all of its vibrant and vestigial forms.  Today Russian culture is under attack much more than usual.  I have responded to detractors and pieces of media that I have found to be troublesome.  I have responded to things that I detest.  But I have been rude in my moments of righteous indignation, particularly with regard to attacks on the Orthodox Faith.  As of late, Orthodoxy has been under direct attack in the land of our ancestors: Ukraine.  The Church there is in a state of crisis both because of the war and because of the Ukrainian government's persecution.  Georgia is experiencing political upheaval and could be on the eve of a western-backed color revolution.  Belarus is in a precarious position in which it could soon undergo the same kind of nationalist modification/invention process that Ukraine (Little Russia) has been subjected to.  I have participated in poking fun at those whom I believe to be threatening Orthodoxy and spreading social liberalism in the Orthodox World. 

I ask your forgiveness if I have caused harm.  I am passionate about Orthodoxy, and believe strongly in the justness and rightness of Russian identity over alternative identities and nationalisms that are at odds with it.  I also feel that it is constructive to poke fun at some, even directly insulting them, using the same tools of desacrilization and humor that they use against us.