Irony

As a group, fans of Clay Aiken have been accused of being obsessed with him. It's been said we devote all our time, energy and money supporting and defending him to the determent of our jobs, families and real life. We've been called names to vile for me to repeat here. For the past three years we have been disparaged, belittled and denigrated.

So where is the irony you ask.

The irony lies with those doing the attacking. As an example, one blogger has spent the past five months writing two, three, sometimes four blogs a day doing nothing but defaming us and the guy we support. To me, that smacks of obsession - albeit the negative side of obsession. He scours the Internet day after day for information and photographs of fans. He is not alone. He has been joined by other obsessed haters who have been only too happy to help with the attacks.

The best part of this? They don't see the irony. They don't see their own obsession.

In the words of H. W. Fowler: "Irony is a form of utterance that postulates a double audience, consisting of one party that hearing shall hear and shall not understand, and another party that, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware, both of that “more” and of the outsider’s incomprehension. "