Trolling For Dollars

I had high hopes recently of being a regular contributor to Daily Kos, a leftist type political blog, but of course, there are a number of problems with that, this being for themost part the idea of keeping my mouth shut concerning those issues where i am in stark disagreement with the consensus opinion. Very often, I am aware that I might come across as more of a right leaning person than not. Well, in some situations I am.

Take for example, my unabashedly open support for gun rights. Or my belief in the death penalty. My opposition to anything approaching amnesty for illegal aliens, and my insistence on the need for strong border security and strengthening and enforcement of immigration laws. My advocacy of a strong military and national defense, my yearning for a sound environmental policy that allows for drilling in ANWAR and the deveolpment of nuclear energy, in addition to urgings for more refineries.

There are a few other examples, but I’m sure by now you get the point well enough you might be wondering, why the hell do you want to get on Daily Kos? And to tell you the truth, I’m not sure of the answer to that. Except that I like to think that I’m a proponent and supporter of sound, workable, common sense progressive liberal policies, in areas where they will really work and make a difference. Some people have even accussed me of being socialist in regards to some of my beliefs. And, in those instances,they would be right.

And, some people would accuse me of even being a troll. And, in a way, I guess they would be right here as well. A troll, according to most people, is somebody that likes to be a disruptive influence, a person who likes to stir the shit and watch the stink gather, I guess. Trolls, I have read, have no real life, and so they like to live vicariously by disrupting and abusing those who do, sometimes in cowardly ways. They like to post on sites in annoying ways, and then sit back and chuckle as they count, and read,the responses. They will defend themselves by saying it is all a joke, all for fun, but in reality, they are small, petty people that have nothing better to do than conduct abuse on their betters, those who have true values and beliefs, or those who are just innocent bystanders in life, at times.

To some extent they may be right. But in other cases, I wonder. Really, I have to wonder, specialy when I go onto Daily Kos and read about troll wars, and of one persons intention to leave the site altogether is the complaints don’t stop. This is a person I assume ot be a moderator on the site, and he is tired of the complaints from others. Evidently, he is having the same degree of suspicion and skepticism as am I. I have as yet to follow up on the complaints to enoughof a degree to understand what the problem is, but I have a strong idea I can offer a very valid definitionof what a troll really is.

If you do not agree with me, you are a troll.

If you erspond to my posts in a sarcastci way, you are a troll.

If you point out an aspect of an issue in such a way that I can offer no valid rebuttal to speak of, you are a troll.

If you make me look foolish, you are not a good person, therefore you must be a troll.

I could go on but I think I’m pretty clear. Some people can brook no disagreement, and dislike intensely being confronted with it, particularly when they have set themselves up as being the arbitrators and deciders of all that is wise and good, and right. A troll, then, is a shatterer of illussions. A ridiculer of foolishness. A slanderer of ego. A destroyer of delusion.

Trolls, in fact, can add to the discussion when it has become mundane and boring, and predictable. On another site, I noted a complaint about a troll, who was accussed, for no valid reason I can see, of being homophobic, and racist, and ignorant, etc. Without going into too much detail, I was that troll. The accussations were groundless, of course, but that is beside the point.

This was a person who is comfortable in his own belef systems, and can stand for nothing to challenge him on anything. If soconfronted with such a challenge, the person then, of course, is a troll, because of all these imagined qualities of which he is being acussed. Interesting.

I lurked for some time, and soon it became obvious, in this case, the kind of mentality, I was dealing with. This person desird nothin moe than to be around kindred spirits, with whom he could chew the fat about the things with which they all were in agreement, and engage in small talk on irrelevant matters, and hopefully be able to leave at the end of the day with the feeling that he was well loved and admired. The sad truth is, at the end of the day he was probably not given a second thought, but that illussion is probably one of the strongest held most dear by those ever on the lookout for the evil internet troll.

Truthfully, I care for one thing, and that is money and career, when it comes to the internet. I am under no illussions that I will meet the love of my life, or a large or even small circle of close, intimate friends. Those all would be nice, to be sure, and I am sure theere are many people out there I would be happy to have such relationshops with. But to all practical purposes, I hope for one day to be able to come onto this blog and find that I have some ads that are in some way making me a respectable amount of money. This of course means that I will have buildt my readership up to such a degree that, one day, I might land a writing contract. A novel, perhaps. Somewhere down the line, to be sure, but possible.

In the meantime, no doubt I will have stepped on a few toes, maybe more than a few. If that qualifies me for trolldom, so be it. I would rather be a rich troll than a poor, sweet, blind little lamb.