The Trouble with Trolls - Refracted World

OK, this piece could go on for a VERY long time, but (for now at least) I’m going to contain it to one, specific incident.

I’m English and live in London, but like so many other people in the world right now, I’m watching the Presidential elections in the US with interest. I follow Hilary Clinton on social media and a post yesterday caught my attention.

I think a lot of us fear a Drumpf administration, even us non-Americans. There is nothing in this video that Drumpf hasn’t said and simply highlights a few of his “policies” and how absurd and reckless they are. Feeling the way I do, I shared my thoughts with other Hillary supporters:

This received around 50 likes before the comments began, not from other Democrat supporters, but from Republicans trolling the section.

It started with one comment that was unintelligible and I couldn’t actually understand what he was trying to say. It started with “Poor Terry” and then waffled on about Drumpf – I would share it but the comment is no longer there for me so I may have been blocked after my response.

OK, so it was rather catty – but justified. I wasn’t looking for confrontation, in fact I avoid it as much as possible, but when someone invades my space to vent their views, I react. (See my previous post for a more dramatic example.)

This was the catalyst for a whole barrage of Republicans chiming in:

Reading these I told myself to step away. I really don’t like confrontations and as a writer I find them even more uncomfortable in written form (I know, the opposite of the rest of the world) and so I very rarely get into online debates. I’d rather do these things in person where you can gauge inflection and body language. But then this comment dropped:

I tried to resist but I just couldn’t. Aside from the dreadful sentence structure and grammatical and punctuation mistakes; (Writer! I see these things all the time – it’s a curse more than a talent.) I’d been called out and had to respond:

Why are so many Republicans trolling a Democrat’s post? I wasn’t posting for a debate, I was sharing my thoughts with Hilary supporters. There is no debate here. If you honestly believe Drumpf would make a good President you are not only deluded but also seriously lacking in intelligence, moral standing and human decency. Take time to look at exactly what he stands for, what that would mean for the US and how the rest of the world would see America. This isn’t a great businessman ready to take the reins and steer America into a bright, new future; this is a washed up rich guy who knows nothing about politics let alone how to run a country. Someone standing on stage saying what they want, offending minorities and evoking violence simply to entertain the crowds and making preposterous claims to quiet some deep and irrational fears are hardly stellar reasons to elect them into office.

This led on to three more comments (at time of writing) ending with the guy who called me out admitting he won’t actually be voting!

I won’t be responding further as I feel I’ve said everything that needs to be said. I’m not American and we – the rest of the world – can only sit back and watch in horror as the US public vilify the people who actually want to help the country and ascend the power-hungry haters to positions of influence. Only time will tell how this all plays out, but it’s really not looking good for our cousins across the pond.

@terryjgee

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