Monday, March 29, 2010

How to Troll

Trolling 101:  An Object Lesson
A dude named Beamish is my newest hero! (and I'm suddently and curiously thirsty for beer...)  He totally owned the Obamabots over at a lefty blog called It's My Right to be Left of Lenin.

Everybody needs to go over there and treat themselves to a conservative tour de force from deep in the lions den of loony leftism.

Beamish stood up to the fleck spittle invective splattered at him by the rabid leftwads.  He bravely brought facts, quotes, and logic.  He even pasted in video, but nothing could crack their fantasy bubble. Reality just does not compute with some people.

I admire the man's perseverance. I troll a lot, and I do it like he does, bringing facts and avoiding being needlessly provocative. That had to be the best stand I've ever seen of a conservative at a liberal blog.

I got kicked out of kooks and cryers for less than that. Props to the blog owner Dusty, at least she didn't ban him.  Many "liberal" bloggers are quite intolerant and illiberal when confronted with inconvenient truths.

Beamish reduced them to muttering childish insults at him. Liberalism has nothing but emotion and foam at the mouth rants.

My Own Adventures
I've been trolling around some and holding my own.  Haven't "converted" anyone, but I hope that I've at least made some people stop and think outside the MSNBC bubble.

Response is varied.  Some are foul mouthed simpletons who refuse to think, others are good natured but take what MSNBC says as gospel and refuse to think beyond that, and some are very intelligent people who I have had some productive exchanges with.
I did find a gem of a liberal site in my travels across Blogostan:  The Swash Zone.  They are really good folks over there and they know how to argue their points intelligently and civilly.  If you're looking to debate some smart liberals, that's the place to go.

As always, I advocate civility at all times.  Profanity and gross insults while in someone elses house is not the way to win hearts and minds.  I've also been informed that what I do is not really trolling since I'm not being provocative, but I like the name...

21 comments:

Leticia said...

If you think about it most conservatives and Republicans are lucid and intelligent. We never stoop to name calling or using profanity to make a point. Yes, at times, we use profanity when we are livid and need to express that anger, otherwise, we are civil and respectful.

I have to applaud you and Beamish for braving the liberal waters. Just make sure you wash off when you are done!

Silverfiddle said...

There are some liberal slime pits out there where profanity substitutes for rational thought. And I do think they are more prevalent than those on the right. There are also some good lefty sites out there like the Swash Zone. I rarely agree with them, but they are sane, smart and quite agreeable.

Endo_2011 said...

I checked out Beamish's "work" over at "my right to be left of liberal" and I have to agree he did hold his own. Although, I am not sure I could have continued to discussion with all of the name calling going on. I am not afraid of a little cussing; I even think it has a certain value every now and then, but these loons are taking it to a whole new level!

good luck in your trolling!

Silverfiddle said...

As soon as you start slinging vulgar insults and calling names you have lost the argument, and Beamish beat them good.

I could not have kept it up for that long either, especially with that crowd. They are impervious to facts and reason.

Sue said...

Hey SF you have Linda, MY Linda in your followers! Congrats! You need to take lisa now okay?? lol

I saw Beamish at Dustys she did a good job with him/her? We are all about facts and reason silver, don't kid yourself :-)))

I get nervous when I visit a rightie, I'm not very good at reading nasty things about liberals and Obama, but this week I have had 2 conservatives add themselves to my favorites and I admire that greatly!

Endo_2011 said...

SF....looks like you found a few new followers on the dark side!

Silverfiddle said...

WMUR: "The Dark Side" is all a matter of perspective, just ask Sue!

I'm just doing my part to try to bridge the gap. Believe it or not, I have detected some overlap between the two poles. I'll be blogging about it in the future.

Thanks for stopping by Sue. No need to feel uncomfortable here! Even when we speak ill of liberals, we try to do it in a non-vulgar way.

Oso said...

I checked out this Beamish guy. His grasp of history was a little shaky.Hitler left wing?

And throwing Guevara and Castro in with Pol Pot,Mao and Stalin sounds more like ideological rigidity than actual understanding of historical roles.

Not sure how he got Idi Amin in the mix.

Oso said...

And Silver you are MOST definitely never a troll no matter where you go. You see both sides and leave a considered opinion.

I think what I wrote in the above post may require expansion. Some on the left choose to glorify leftist leaders without understanding historical context, I'm sure the Right does it too. Hence glorifying Mao shows either a lack of historical knowledge or an almost sociopathic lack of regard for human life.
Possibly if one lumps all people the US demonizes as Bad Guys one would lump Guevara in with Mao or Stalin.
My understanding of history may be different than some,my background is mixed Indian and Mexican.So the fact that Guevara gave his life helping Indians fight for their freedom causes me to see him in a different light than some who view history in a different manner.

Silverfiddle said...

Hitler took socialism, cleansed it of the Soviet and international elements, added in German nationalism and voila! National Socialism. His vanguard was the labor unions, so a case can be made. Mussolini was a solid man of the left. He was a writer for socialist publications before he became the famous dictator.

Anyhoo...

You make a good point, Oso. Having the ability to see another's point of view doesn't mean you have to agree with them. Personally, I don't see how someone can argue anything UNTIL they "see" their opponent's point of view.

And you're right. You just may learn something in the process.

Oso said...

I didn't know that about Mussolini, that he was leftist.
You made me think a little (too much thinking is dangerous-I might change!) about Hitler.
When he started up the SA had a lot of socialist elements.Although there was a right contingent too. Makes sense about the labor unions, guy like him would use anyone then toss them under the bus like he did when he threw the SA under the bus for the army.

Hey saw you at RZ's site. If you read my comments you see I dog Obama at other places too, not just conservative sights.

What frustrates me, when the Iraq war broke out I was extremely critical of Bush. Repubs said I should support the president, accused me of hating him.

Now, I am extremely critical of Obama for the same general policy as Bush-Democrats say I should support the president, and accuse me of hating Obama.

I don't hate either man, what I hate is policy which does not directly benefit the American people but rather Wall St/banks/big defense contractors.

Either I'm consistent or maybe I'm just an asshole.

Silverfiddle said...

:) I'd say you're consistent.

I don't believe all the "blood for oil" stuff, but I can now admit that Bush did not make the case for invading Iraq. That does not mean our military is not on a noble mission, and it doesn't prevent me from hoping and praying for a good end there.

Hitler was a fascist from the left. He (like Mussolini) hated communists because communism was a foreign concept (Russian and international). But that has no bearing on American politics. That is why I avoid calling people nazis, fascists, communists, etc.

Fascism is a freighted word, so I prefer to use statism when referring to America, because our fascists are not militaristic and they don't advocate genocide.

I see socialism in some corners of the Democratic party, but that conjures Stalin killing 20 million and Mao killing 40 to 80 million, so when I do throw the charge out there I make sure it's clear I mean their politburo-like behavior and redistributing the wealth, not murder.

Oso said...

Consistent sure sounds better anyway!

Out of curiosity, are you a Ron Paul supporter? I voted for him in the primary (In Calif an independent can vote for either party).I supported him for his foreign policy.I disagree with most of his domestic policy, but to me his honesty was the deciding factor.

I appreciate your understanding of my position on Guevara. I know it probably goes against your feelings on the man and that's perfectly fine, but I respect the fact that if I explain my position you acknowledge it might be a valid one when seen from a different perspective.

You're ok, for a guy from Colorado.

RealityZone said...

LOL: Great back and forth you guys have going here.
I came here once and left an open ended question and got severely attacked. So I stopped coming back. LOL.

SF: You are any thing but a troll. I always enjoy your comments when you come over and say hello.
Yes, it is "funny how we hate the same things, only for different reasons."
It never used to be that way. What the eff happened?
I would love to have an extended conversation about the differences of the European theater in WWII.
Let me know if you start a thread on that.
I may have a different perspective on that also. LOL. Considering that I was born in Germany. LOL

Finntann said...

If you want my perspective, Hitler took populist socialist elements and integrated them into a statist government (he was afterall in bed with business...at least those that cooperated with him, those that didn't got nationalized) all under the auspices of the National Socialist Party.

The error people make in calling Bush a Nazi and a Fascist, is that he was a big government statist, not much different from Obama when you get down to the major problem I have with either.

The term Nazi and Fascist are bandied about by people who understand neither, and the labels demean thir arguments and makes them look foolish. Bush and Obama are neither, they are statists, big government solution statists. They just approach the same goal from different angles.

Seldom in the history of man has more government equated to better government. Take the HCR... how anyone can consider over 1000 pages reform is beyond me.

~Finntann

RealityZone said...

Finn: Interesting points.
HCR from my perspective should have been an up or down vote.
It would have only had 4 words.
Medi-care for all. LOL.
Let them stand up and be counted, once and for all.

The Nazi-Fascist-Statist needs a whole thread.
Kissinger, Soros, and the shadow boyz behind the curtains are bringing us a new and improved version of it.

Silverfiddle said...

Oso: I did not support Ron Paul. Although he had some good points, he seemed a little too kooky for my tastes, and he refused to repudiate the neo-nazis that supported him. Granted, it's not his fault these "people" were attracted to him, but he could have came out and said something.

El Che was a murderer, but at least you understand his whole story. Kids running around with him on their t-shirts and handbags have no idea.

A good friend of mine who lives in Quito has a picture of Guevara hanging in his living room. If I were a poor person in Latin America I would probably be a socialist.

RZ: Your idea sounds interesting. Can you elaborate?

Endo_2011 said...

glad to see you kids can play nice

Oso said...

What Makes Us Right,
LOL!

Silverfiddle said...

Oso is a friendly bear. Things get pretty rough over at Sue's place, but she's good people...

Oso said...

She is a good person, but I can't stand the Obama worship there.

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