The Trolls Take A Break

An interesting phenomenon is taking place right now, and it will soon pass.

Several sites have linked an article by Andrew Breitbart of Breitbart.com where he addresses the tactics of Leftist Trolls, and the supposed refusal of most Right leaning readers to engage in such tactics on the basis of not wanting to “stoop to their level”. However, the real “red meat” of this story is in the comments of these various sites, and not the actual article itself. (Note: I have only linked Gateway Pundit as it had, in my opinion, the most interesting dialogue…)

The oddity is that the Trolls have removed their “Game Faces” and are discussing their motivations for “trolling” with rational, cohesive, and (in most cases) respectful language. Their rationale can certainly be called into question, but for the moment they are being honest about their dishonesty in the daily grind of blogging and commenting.

Here is one sample of a Troll “coming out”…

“I admit to being a 9-year troll on sites like FreeRepublic, but you must understand, politics is like war.

If you're so Pollyanna-ish (or cynical) as to believe that anyone engaged in politics and political activism from the Right is practicing "Judeo-Christian values" (lol), then the politics game is not for you.

Politics and activism requires everyone to get down and dirty once in a while. Every great political activist knows it is better to transform and shape a movement from within rather than from the outside.

And hey, if I'm making thousands of conservatives see why it is good to be tolerant of all people and supportive of higher wages, I've been practicing Judeo-Christian values in the end anyway.
sunny 03.30.09 - 12:20 pm ”

“Sunny”’s interesting take on Judeo-Christian values aside, she is being honest about her dishonesty in this comment:

“Sure I may tell a couple lies to get there, but I am an atheist and don't believe in heaven or hell. But the people I talk to on the site are almost all committed Christians.

So if I approach the issues of wage protection, labor organizing, and tolerance in a Christian perspective and tell them I am a Christian, that is a highly effective way to hold the audience captive and keep their minds wide open.

In the end, that is the goal: to change perspectives in the goal to attaining a more perfect union.”

Support for the reversal of these tactics is given by an alleged Right-wing supporter:

I could care less what weak conservatives unwilling to confront the enemy on their terms think.

The Obamonkey stole the election with an army of ACORN crack whores and criminals - and he isn't even elegible to be President. He is an usurper.

I firmly believe that, and I will express my beliefs every opportunity I get.

The right has become to sensitive to political correctness. Imagine if there was a video of the Bush twins or a Palin child snorting cocaine. It would be news 24/7 for months.

Ashley Biden says 'hi' to the camera while stuffing her nose full of cocaine and the media is too afraid to report on it. Hot Air tells us we shouldn't even discuss the issue.

Screw that. The majority of Americans are too lazy to search for the truth and too stupid to understand it when they do find it.

America gets it's Democrat propaganda from the MSM and Hollywood and they don't even consider alternatives to their spoon fed helpings of liberal tripe.

Face the facts - 8 years of Bush smears worked, no matter what the truth was.

Ignoring that lesson will only further diminish the Republican party.
Capital G 03.30.09 - 11:38 am

The fact that everyone has, in effect, called “time-out” and sat down to discuss this is fascinating to me. I have written before about the Ego Puppets on the Internet, but this is an example of an self-admitted intentionally misleading and dishonest attack on another person’s point of view.

A reaction to a perceived threat is not a new concept, but the open admission of such tactics is new to me, and my (so far) brief time of being involved in the blog-sphere of politics. I’m not naïve, I understand the concept of Trolls and have for a while. I just never thought I’d see everyone take off their masks and have the Internet version of a coffee break together.

If we can relate to each other without the use of subversion, why bother to use it?

Perhaps it is my “Pollyanna-ish” wishful thinking, but I almost see a grudging respect between some of the tense and terse discussions in the comments section. Just the admission alone seems to have sparked something constructive and even positive in the tone of the (for the moment, fairly rational) discussion between these otherwise sworn enemies.

Perhaps under different circumstances, or even a continued “truce”, some debates might actually accomplish something in the way of agreements and reconciliation.

I suspect however, that tomorrow, we will be back to “Game On”, and everyone will revert to their preordained positions of proponent and opponent respectively.

What a shame…