The phrase “made their hearts diamond-hard” has to resonate. It is akin to the modern situation, where what we say must be censored. At this point, one does not have to look hard for examples.

This is a polite and deflect-y way of saying “Our comments are a raging cesspool filled with the worst that humanity has to offer and you all make us look bad by smearing your feculent mindpoops on our property, so do it somewhere else and we’ll pick the ones we like to highlight.”

And you know what? Good for the Star. At this late stage in the evolution of the Internet, it’s become widely apparent that, barring committed moderation, comment threads trend quickly toward awful and vile, and that their ostensible reasons for existing (“free exchange of ideas,” “building community,” “keeping eyeballs on the site” etc) are not just negated but very often undermined by their content. Very few online sites, news, social or otherwise, benefit commercially or reputationally from their comment threads. There’s a very real and obvious reason why “NEVER READ THE COMMENTS” is a phrase that has gained such currency in the online world.

So why not just ax them? This is apparently the question that the Toronto Star folks asked themselves, and equally apparently could not find a sufficient reason to keep them. Again: Good for them. The site will become marginally more readable, and the newspaper won’t have to task some poor sad staffer to moderate the flood of bigots and/or numbskulls and/or spammers who traditionally populate the comment threads of major news sites (and minor ones, and indeed, any site where they are given a chance to thrive). There’s no downside.

The trouble with people who consider that the comments of others are, to quote the Scalzi, “a raging cesspool” and “Trending quickly towards the awful and vile” is that often these people consider that others are not worthy of attention.

It is not just God that their hearts are hardened to. It is their brothers and sisters. You can test this by considering how they treat those of their own people and nation.

And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. “As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the LORD of hosts, “and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.”

And the word of the LORD of hosts came, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the LORD of hosts: If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the LORD of hosts? Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.”

(Zechariah 7:8-8:8 ESV)

I disagree about comment threads. The best sites have good, or at least entertaining comments. The commentators add to the site, and frequently protect it themselves. But those sites allow for variations in opinions from the accepted tropes.

This world wants you not to know that your heart is hard, and wants you to hear nothing but soothing music, an echo chamber of your own thoughts, where you are becoming every day, in every way, better and better.

Lest you pay attention to the poverty of your soul.

Lest you not listen to them, and start correcting the evil they have tried to engineer.

As Instapundit notes, when ten percent of the population is rioting, it is no longer a fringe phenomenon. Since the EU ruling class has made it very clear they will not respect the democratically expressed will of the people, it falls upon the people to express their will by other means.

This, again, is why I am amused by Americans ignorantly pronouncing the imminent death of the European nations due to multiculturalism. Everywhere from Italy to Finland, including the famously tolerant Netherlands, nationalists are not merely talking about the government-assisted invasion of their nations, they are taking action.

We need to pray that our hearts are softened, but our heads remain screwed on. That we do our duty. That we care for the downtrodden we have, not import more, and neglect our prime duty in a perverse display of virtue signaling.

And that we do good in reality, not just goodspeak.