Monday, September 3, 2012

Political Troll Bait



I have very strong political opinions, a mix of various ideologies, I'm not a partisan freak. But I refrain from posting political images or statements on Facebook, and only rarely enter into any political discussions on someone else's post.

Why? Because you only accomplish one of two things:

(1) Preach to the choir.
(2) Troll bait (looking for a fight).

You never convert anyone to your side of the political spectrum. Nobody is going to say, "Wow. Candidate X did that? What a moron. What a lousy leader. I'm now going to vote for his opponent."

You may hammer away with your cartoons, and photos, and inflammatory remarks, but all you're really doing is expressing your rage, anger, or allegedly superior views.




Preaching to the choir is pointless.

Those who agree with your political view will just chuckle, or say "Amen", and move on. You accomplish nothing for that crowd. Are you hoping they'll like you more? Is your life that empty?

Troll baiting is sadistic.

"Troll baiting" means luring (like with fish bait) people with opposing ideologies to your inflammatory post, individuals whom you will then call "trolls" when they express their dissent in your topic thread.

You post something with combative rhetoric, F bombs, abrasive statements, controversial assertions, hateful allegations. You are trying to annoy people who have political views contrary to your own. You want to rile them up, mock them, stir up strife, cause a conflict.

You are not seeking an intelligent discussion. You are not receptive to other points of view (and there are more than two).

Political troll baiters even go so far as tagging individuals in their inflammatory posts, individuals who they already know are going to disagree with the post.

But troll baiters are surly, sour, crabby partisans who think their political party is 100% pure and correct about everything. They tend to parrot the party line on every issue, proving they don't have mature critical thinking skills. They cannot tolerate dissent or questioning of their candidate or party.

You must be completely in alignment with their party and candidate or you suck and you're a total idiot. Can it get more immature and irrational than that?



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