This is weird

I finally realized I am one of those who knows enough of the inside stories to think better of posting information on the net. Tonight I ran into a debate about Cascades Service on Amtrak, over at RRF. I realized that I knew the guys at WashDOT Rail enough that I had the real facts, straight from the horses mouth. But my inclination to post them was almost nil. Why? Why should I spout off, and correct everyone? For one it's too much damn work, and for another, I'm not the paid mouthpiece of all these railroads and agencies. Partly, too, I don't want people who I talk to seeing me repost what we talk about online.

But it's something else, too. It's contempt. People who spout off like that, without even checking the facts... I just can't bring myself to think of them in any other frame than that of a dumbass. Part of me feels guilty about that. But... only part of me. The rest of me just thinks... I'm not one of them, so who cares? And it's not the Special Correspondent thing going to my head either -- if I stopped that job tomorrow, few would remember I ever held it down at all after a year or two had passed. I think it's the sense of being treated as an equal by people in the industry, and not as a foamer.