I (gladly) was unable to see this video, though even reading about this ridiculous, unnecessary documentation of a harmless phan's behavior made me quite melancholy.

I am sixteen years old, still a junior in high school, and I cannot help but draw a bold, blatant parallel between this shameless, cowardly mockery and the behavior of the social "ruling class" at my high school. Unfortunately, it seems to be an intrinsic feature of humans to want to knock others down for a short-lived ego boost, for one's sick, malicious pleasure, or in the case of many Phish fans, to get a "d00d that v1d30 i$ BR0t4LLY $3ck, brahh," from their equally pretentious friends.

I used to be picked on incessantly in school. It became a constant occurrence, and escalated to the point where I began to believe what the mockers would say about me. Just as the writer of this article points out, it is absolutely impossible to understand or even infer about the circumstances of another person, especially if you merely mock them without attempting to get to know them.

When I was introduced to Phish several years ago, I seriously admired the juxtaposition between the accepting, judgeless community that Phish had built and the unbearably cruel hierarchy that my peers had built in school. My first show was an enlightening escape, as I saw plenty of, well... "unorthodox" people that were gladly accepted by the community.

Is this kind of acceptance dwindling? I feel like every time I am inundated with another barrage of "goddamn w00k" tweets, we lose a little more of the glorious community aspect of Phish that makes the band so much more magnetic than any other band.

I am sorry I wrote so much. This just peeved me.