Mystery Man

So who is the man sitting in the People's House? As the election draws nearer and the campaigning begins to take full swing, we still know relatively little about our Commander in Chief. He's a skilled shapeshifter. He can be Barry or Barack, African or American, moderate or liberal depending on his audience. It troubles me that we may never really know who we've placed in the Oval Office. Obama may be a bad president, but he's certainly a heck of a chameleon.

Political snack time for grown-ups...

True leaders have natural confidence.  Poor leaders are insecure. When insecurity leads, people do cruel and ridiculous things to prove they belong... This never ends well.  We have an insecure president. God help us if his legacy is an insecure nation. It is our responsibility as United States citizens to reconnect to the liberty our founding fathers established for us.  This is the fulcrum of our current national journey. Liberty or invisible tyranny. 

The Problem with Trolls

Ladies and gentlemen...   and all the rest of you...

In recent months, I’ve noticed a growing number of “TROLLS” on friends’ social media pages and many online message boards. For those of you who don’t know, Trolls are anonymous/semi-anonymous provocateurs who scour the internet and attempt to flood it with inflammatory insults, threats, and in some cases, profanity.

The term “trolls” comes not from children’s stories, but from the technique of dragging a baited hook behind a moving boat.  These “trolling” internet pests sling insults, post false statements and often visciously attack others in order to confuse or completely distract from an issue, thus dragging those involved away from a productive .  Trolls are not a new phenomena. They’ve been around since the early days of the internet chat room, but lately they seem to be popping up in greater numbers.  And these venomous, tit-for-tat, name calling brats seem hell-bent on replacing reasonable political discussion with their own brand of childish hate.

Venting or having a difference of opinion is nothing to be condemned for, but the appeal for these individuals goes far beyond impassioned debate.  Trolls have an ax to grind with the world in general.  They are the grown up versions of the kid on the playground who always tried to pick a fight for the fun of it.  The internet is a perfect breeding ground because they can attack without any real consequence. On the net, you can say things with more vigor and impunity than you could to someone who cut you off in traffic.  And because there’s no moral consequence, they aspire to a new kind of verbal violence, to a higher level of trouble they can cause in an environment.  For Trolls, destruction is more important than any one issue and Politics, Religion, Gender, and Race serve as lightning rods for their vitriol. 

So what can be done to control or suppress this particular brand of bile?

In the UK, a law has been passed banning the posting of “grossly offensive” and “indecent, obscene or menacing” messages online.

And in March of this year, Arizona passed H.B. 2549 that stated:

1. It is unlawful for any person, with intent to terrify, intimidate,threaten, harass, annoy or offend, to use ANY ELECTRONIC OR DIGITAL DEVICE and use any obscene, lewd or profane language or suggest any lewd or lascivious act, or threaten to inflict physical harm to the person or  property of any person. It is also unlawful to otherwise disturb by repeated anonymous ELECTRONIC OR DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS the peace, quiet or right of privacy of any person at the place where  COMMUNICATIONS were received. (http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/conlaw/weblogs/)

Legislators withdrew this bill after freedom-of-speech activists protested that it violated the First Amendment... and rightly so.  In this country, citizens have a Constitutional right to express their views on a given subject and the internet has created a place for people to debate the issues that are important to them. Shutting down free speech is hardly a price worth paying. Especially now, when more and more groups who speak out against the current administration are finding themselves under attack by the very government originally designed to protect them.

It’s also incredibly expensive to police the internet. (Big companies like Starbucks, Chevron and NPR pay ICUC Modernization Services handsomely to keep their message boards clean.) And equally difficult would be a total ban on anonymity for social media. New Facebook and Google+ users are required to use their real names and email addresses when creating accounts, but this will hardly deter the most vicious of Trolls.

Ignoring them won’t make them go away and giving credence to their comments isn’t productive either.  

Far better, I think, to simply remove them when possible, or let the comments stand... if only to hold up a mirror to their own human depravity.  In the end, Trolls are simply internet bullies, nursing some sad inner inadequacy by throwing punches at whoever they think they can bruise.  So the next time you read some nasty, substance-lacking, counter-productive comment that makes your blood boil, pause before you respond.  Ask yourself Who, Where and Why.  Try to recognize it for what it most likely is: fluff with little or no validity... and move on accordingly.  Save your energy and passion for those who can give you an intelligent debate and leave the tantrums, name-calling, and playground politics where they belong... at the kiddie table.