Anyone who has used social media for more than … about 2 days is intimately familiar with the concept of trolls. We’re not talking about political, ideological, or in other-wise mere dissenters. We are talking about ‘influencers’ who propagate mis- and disinformation; instigate and stimulate hatred and arguing for political / cultural divides; tear people apart socially to disintegrate unified ideologies in politics, religion, and other social aspects; and their primary goal is centered around controlling political and ideological campaigns. This particular group of people are generally not independents, but in fact, I would estimate that over 95% of them are part of a paid system (whether intentionally or not) designed to control a narrative about politics. Their work is not just intrusive to everyday social communications, but is destructive psychologically and borderlines on outright criminal abuse. Their poisoning of social communications is not a trivial matter and thus far, they have been the primary contributors to political campaign successes through despotic means, whether by switching peoples’ ideologies via lies, beating people down so they stop participating (including by vote), and creating dissension within parties via misdirection and lies. Trolls work, sometimes unknowingly, in conjunction with media campaigns driven by an AP rhetoric, fed the information that they are to manipulate, given the most minimum guidance, and left to their own vices (often paid). Trolls replicate accounts, swarm systems, and become an overwhelming force that cannot be dealt with peacefully and to some extent, cannot be simply picked off or removed. Shy a complete expunging, like Star Trek’s 1967 “The Trouble with Tribbles”, trolls become a pervasive, relentless invasion that has undermined American politics and threatened the nation’s security and should be dealt with using extreme measures.
Social Media – History
First, let’s discuss the historical aspects of campaign “influencers” (the OG trolls). In 1896, the three richest tycoons on Earth, Andrew Carnagie, JP Morgan, and JD Rockefeller bought themselves a President, William McKinley. In follow-up to the increasing divide of political parties (with the Republican party forming in 1854 in response to the Democrat, pro-slavery party of 1828), the financial crash of 1893, and the social unrest created by the wealthy tycoons, William McKinley launched the first public / business high-value fund-raiser (essentially the start of PACs), and used a “social” manipulation campaign to win the election (article). McKinley, and subsequently (in response to McKinley) his counter-part, William Jennings Bran, ran a rather stringent “fear” campaign [‘fearporn’]. Each promised their target audiences that the other was going to take away freedoms, destroy their lives, and other wild mud-slinging (spreading lies that in many cases, the public did not know wasn’t true). Each covered thousands upon thousands of miles, going from town to town, blanketing communities with their reports of conspiracies and threats that the people must vote for them or there would be ‘consequences’. Each politician drove a wedge in the hearts and minds of Americans, helping to further separate the “United” people from one another. The format created by McKinley and the tycoons has continued to dominate the world of politics ever since, turning it into a cash cow for political parties. In fact, this system of monetizing political offices led to lobbying and ostracizing the middle class and poor, making it impossible for them to run for office. As the 2-party system continued to split further and further along partisan lines (throughout the years), it soon became clear to political powers how much profit was to be made by sustaining a ‘left vs. right’ drama. It is a well understand economic principle that competition actually drives profit (article). However, there is a downside to a competitive market with limited players: the businesses profit while the people lose (article).
“When there is insufficient competition, dominant firms can use their market power to charge higher prices, offer decreased quality, and block potential competitors from entering the market—meaning entrepreneurs and small businesses cannot participate on a level playing field and new ideas cannot become new goods and services. Research has also connected market power to inequality. In an economy without adequate competition, prices and corporate profits rise, while workers’ wages decrease. This means large corporations and their shareholders gain wealth, while consumers and workers pay the cost.“
-Whitehouse.gov, although it should be considered somewhat ironic that it is the very same political system that seems to understand the inherent abuses and dangers in a limited competition for the American citizens that also takes advantage of this and keeps out non-wealthy people for elitist politicians and allows corporations to violate fair antitrust laws and consolidate smaller businesses while also “lobbying” to affect laws that govern the lives of its citizens (an oligarchy).
Seeing the similarities between the 2-party system and business is not such a stretch since the 2-party system is clearly ‘branded’. Andrew Heyward of the MIT media lab said, “… politicians’ social media strategies now resemble those of brands...” (link). While I have written previously (here) about the American experiment never being given a fair chance to succeed because of wealth and money, with the start of the 20th century, political corruption over money ensured there was no hope that America was going to ever be a truly ‘free’ and ‘honest’ Constitutional Republic political system, again. The people were reluctant to fight back, the government had begun establishing armies and convincing the citizens to turn over their total and complete control to law enforcement, and government sponsored lies like “The American Dream” and other propaganda ruled the media and thusly, the public. This is truly the “birth” of social media campaign interference. So, this idea is not new, but the advent of television, movies, and the internet has been a substantial game changer.
Understanding Social Media’s Players
First, let’s look at what constitutes trolling:
In 2017, the United States Congress Intelligence Committee presented claims that Russian agents had stolen electronic emails and data, and were releasing these to the public to interfere in campaigns:
Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, ordered a deliberate campaign carefully constructed to undermine our election. First Russia struck at our political institutions by electronically breaking into the headquarters of one of our political parties and stealing vast amounts of information. Russian operatives also hacked emails to steal personal messages and other information from individuals ranging from Clinton Campaign Manager John Podesta to former Secretary of State Colin Powell. … This stolen information was then weaponized. We know that Russian intelligence used the quote-unquote Guccifer 2 persona and others like WikiLeaks at seemingly choreographed times that would cause maximum damage to one candidate.
-2017 US Intelligence Committee (link)
It is quite alarming to think that trolling, an act to interfere in, mislead, or misdirect a political campaign would consist of nothing more than revealing to the public the actions of a particular candidate. One might assert that it was the actions of said candidate that would then actually be what undermined their own campaign (otherwise, how would leaking tapes of what Donald Trump said in a locker room being anything short of campaign interference?). This very same presentation goes on to report the concern about how Russian hacking interfered in other elections and the Netherlands was “hand counting” their ballots to circumvent that influence. The odd conclusion that any intelligent human being could have drawn from this is: once a ballot has been cast, the interference is already done and it doesn’t matter if you machine or hand count ballots (making one wonder if those presenting this information were being completely forthcoming). Furthermore, the presentation repeatedly states that Russia was attacking our “Democracy” with internet trolling, when our Country runs on an electoral voting system whereby most states irresponsibly and anti-Constitutionally (my own assertion) now give away the totality of their electoral votes to the majority vote rather than cast the electoral votes on a per-district basis in representation of the people. Also, electoral votes do not, and at times have not, followed the majority of the voters’ will, further making this “interference in Democracy”, extremely misleading (especially since America could have just as easily used their power to clear up misinformation. After all, if we can give $40 billion dollars to a foreign country to defend “Democracy”, one would think that we could use that money for the homeland). Finally, I would add that it is extremely concerning that the U.S. Intelligence Committee spent hours presenting these so-called findings about what they considered trolling, when in fact, they were using the FBI to censor and control information on social media. Perhaps, it even raises the concerning question about whether or not the Intelligence Committee used the mislabeling and false claim of trolling (claiming that the release of the truth is somehow misleading people), to justify unleashing a Federal agency on the American public and silencing political opposition to the Democrat Party in a manner akin to tyrannical dictatorships (which I will further substantiate below).
Trolling is, in short, using social media or main stream media to be abusive to other users to instigate a behavior or response / obtain an emotional reaction. It is used to spread lies (disinformation), confusion (misinformation), hate (divisiveness / destabilization), anger and fear (suppression and oppression), and otherwise intentionally cause harm to the recipient. Trolling, in the primary context we are reviewing it in this article, is the deliberate, underhanded tactic of manipulating voters into making bad decisions (or not deciding at all), about America’s political leaders resulting in a very real and present danger to America’s security (to which I am expanding to include infiltration and censorship). So, it’s disturbing when Democrats present conservatives as trolling because they posted, “Get Brexit Done” (article) (an opinion which held no US political power nor offended anyone except those who chose to be offended). Or, in the same article, Donald Trump posted that he was being “lynched“, and this was somehow misinformation (as again, other candidates made plenty of graphically adjective-filled claims about how they felt they were treated, in the form of an opinion, that did not defame anyone). Cornell University actually published an article claiming that part of the “Russian misinformation campaign”, included posting tweets about music (article). It might seem odd at first, to try and understand how simply using social media to discuss or share favorite music tunes somehow equates to deliberately shutting down conversations about politics through some form of abuse or censorship (I guess as long as Russia does it since Americans do this on an hourly basis), but, this is the type of disconnected, constant mantra of countless hundreds of articles I have researched. Right now, on Amazon, is a book by Amanda Marcott (link) talking about the hate filled conservatives, calling them every possible name and insulting them in every possible way, to disclose how “traditionalist white” people (I guess with the assumption that there are no other skin colors that support Trump and it is important to focus on racial divides), avoid discussing their values, but rather attack the liberals who attack conservative values or simply don’t agree with liberal values and that … is trolling?
In 2014, the so-called “Gamergate” scandal came out where a trans (or female – sorry, I’ve seen both posted, so I don’t want to say the wrong one) person claimed that video games were sexist and accused gaming companies of using sex to promote their games. This sparked outrage in the gaming community and supposedly, this woman/trans/whatever the right term is person and her daughter were threatened, including threats of rape. This is horrific if it happened and should never be allowed. The problem is that the media immediately took to weaponizing or ‘profitizing’ this event to their advantage. Time Magazine (here), makes some valid points about how trolling ruins social media and makes it a terrible place. Of course, they cannot help but include LGBTQ, race, misogyny, and deep-dive into every woke reference they can, grouping it all together and completely undermining the entire event, transforming it into a political agenda rather than deal with the real issues. Polygon magazine (here) further glamorized the victim and included an assault on the video game companies, making it the sudden new cause of every minority group in existence. And, while you can read a non-stop Google feed of rage, hatred, and anger all discussing how bad rage, anger, and hatred is, there is a significant matter missing from these social media abuse articles (at least as it applies here): the fact that these people ‘responded’, not ‘attacked’, to an attack on their identity, their morals, and who they were. Worse, it assumes that the general ‘video gamer’ participated and no investigations were done to even assert whether or not the gaming companies themselves conducted this behavior (when generalizing about a group of individuals is, according to the liberals, marginalizing and discriminating against that group). While it is absolutely unforgivable to threaten someone or their family on the internet, common sense also dictates that if you go out and attack people, then they have a right to attack back. Or if you socialize your life, then you open yourself to scrutiny. I know the ‘equity’ folks who claim to believe in fair play say that this philosophy of equitable transactions is not equitable, but – it is. The point of this is to say that trolling can be used to describe other behaviors, but in this case, I am distinguishing ‘social media abuse’ as a separate category. Whether it was the original trans (or again, whatever term is appropriate) poster attacking video gamers or the responses against (whatever pronoun is appropriate), social media abuse alone is not ‘truly’ trolling.
Whatever conclusions you choose to draw from this, it’s clear that there is an exceptionally wide gap between what constitutes trolling, online / social media abuse, and what many bad players are calling trolling to simply further their agendas.
The Republicans / Conservatives
Are trolls conservative or liberal? Ben Smith and Rebecca Elliott of Buzzfeed news (here) wrote what is a fairly bipartisan analysis on the trolling of both parties as it was in 2008 and 2012. However, there are certainly a large number of media outlets dominating the Google search engines (who have been accused of partisan censorship and the overwhelming left-leaning prevalence of searches only further supports this) all pointing to conservative trolls. The New York Post, a staunchly liberal-biased agency even accuses Turning Point USA, a company they “claim” is linked to Charlie Kirk, of recruiting teenagers to troll for Donald Trump (story). The Guardian (here), posted that their “under cover investigation” discovered that Kirk was in fact, a right-wing troll overlord, of sorts. They claim that Kirk’s conferences have police guards when clearly, there’s no need for that (let’s just forget that on March 15, 2023, at another University presentation where free speech is supposed to be protected, Democrat protestors had to be arrested and beat a police officer, among their other “peaceful” activities, at one of Kirk’s open forums, article link). And, try as I may, try as I might, to find a connection between Turning Point USA and actually paying young conservatives to troll, although there is no shortage of extremist adjectives and labels such as “Nazi”, “fascist”, “racist”, and so on, there is a shocking lack of factual documentation (although you may notice in your own searches an exceeding number of attacks on Fox News, from every other journalistic source, while every other journalistic source perpetuates these unsubstantiated claims, giving the liberals a disadvantage insomuch there is a greater amount of misinformation from their side versus the one and only conservative news outlet).
Of course, anti-Republican articles also lack no limitations in exceedingly ridiculous claims such as the one that Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA were secretly trying to ‘steal America away from Democracy’ because Kirk was claiming that Karl Marx was the top pushed liberal indoctrination book for students in Universities (when, in a ridiculous rebuttal, according to the Guardian’s author, it was only the “third”). That is not to say that somewhere out there, Republicans are not trolling for cash. Certainly, the left have expressed that any time a Republican disagrees with their view, they consider it trolling (albeit, that is not the definition of said activity). And, given the historical profit in campaign manipulation, there is little reason not to believe that some groups, whether outside the per vue of the Republican Party or not, are participating in this type of illicit behavior. Several groups and media outlets, such as the Guardian, have seemingly made it their ‘mission’ to tie together agencies like Turning Point USA, Rally Forge, and conservative politicians and blame them for trolling (article). However, they can only offer a lot of supposition and no definitive evidence (while evidence can be offered against liberal trolling sources). Even the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) did not find any of Rally Forge’s actions worthy of even an investigation. That said, for all the ‘trolling’ campaign interference claimed against Conservatives solely because Donald Trump won the Presidency in 2016, it doesn’t really explain the oft-questioned losses that happened in the 2008, 2012, and 2020 elections and campaigns (unless Republicans just have really weak and ineffective trolls which then makes the 1000:1 Google searches irrelevant).
The Democrats / Liberals
So, this leads us to examine the liberal / Democrat party trolls. And, we have something new to examine: Gab, Parler, Gettr, and Truth Social (what are often referred to as “conservative platforms”). For over 15 years, Facebook and Twitter have remained the dominant social media platforms meaning that their user base was a conglomeration of people from both sides of the political aisle and amidst the frequent rampant and out-of-control bickering that occurred, it might be hard to tell who’s trolling whom. However, when Gab, Parler, Gettr, and Truth Social were constructed, they wanted to provide a free-speech platform where [primarily] conservatives / Republicans, who felt as though they were being unfairly censored and targeted, could have unrestricted social communications adding credibility to the notion that censorship and trolling as tools to control the narrative and impact elections were in fact working for the Democrats.
Historically, the left have demonstrated that they have more than a ‘mere’ desire to control the narrative. First, the U.S. House has documented FBI whistleblowers not only admitting to direct campaign interference and lying for the Democrats, but their direct involvement in censoring conservatives on Facebook and Twitter, justifying the fears of conservatives (article), all the while, and even until now, liberal media continues to lie and claim no such censorship took place. With the advent of the alternative social media platforms, the liberals set out to block the existence/presence of conservative platforms with actions ranging from lawsuits, to banning them from app stores, and even having their domain servers block them. The claim often made was that these platforms would propagate misinformation (unspoken: because they were not being controlled by the left), when in fact, we now know, the liberal party was actually at the core of many campaign interference and misinformation schemes. Among Mark Zuckerberg’s (Facebook CEO) other confessions, he openly admitted that the FBI’s influence caused him to censor information, ban users, and control the narrative for political partisanship (article). With this alone, there is a strong reason to suspect that the Democrat party has been the leader in manipulating *at least* social media campaigns on the internet. Subsequently, the overwhelming presence of trolls promoting anti-Trump and anti-conservative dissidence and disinformation on these platforms has become further evidence of the Democrat Party’s abuse of msm and social media for election manipulation and interference. NBC, an extremely liberal-leaning news station actually reported in 2018 on the main stream media’s (msm) overwhelming bias against conservatives (here). Democrats have certainly incorporated main stream media (taking almost every single news outlet) into their arsenal of silencing, doxxing, assaulting, and shutting up anyone who does not succumb to their ideologies to the point that even their associates in the industry have turned their back on them for the horrible outcomes of their abuse (Hill Article).
All across Google, there are a slurry of stories discussing “Russian” disinformation campaigns that targeted Democrats and “troll farms” operated by right-wing groups [again] all without substantiating information. Conversely, when searching through the internet, stories still exist of public disclosures of paid trolls (with evidence), such as the Brooklyn Dad, working for the Democrat party (article and article). This gives a substantial more amount of credibility as to the Democrat party being the leaders in online trolling behavior.
However, the 2008 Presidential Campaign offers another unique, historical perspective into the liberal’s use of “trolling”. Barack Obama is effectively considered to be the first and most relevant politician to utilize social media for his campaign, and much of his success is attributed to the outreach he was able to achieve (article). Although the majority of all the documentation I could find points to Obama’s successes stemming solely from his use of social media campaigns, there was a significant amount of money spent on marketing companies to design those social media campaigns. In other words, it wasn’t just the use of this new, highly populated platform (Twitter), its free cost, or Obama’s ‘charm’ that attracted followers but rather, there were all the typical, effective manipulation strategies used by every other Presidential campaign before him that were required to even make social media an effective tool. Unfortunately, between Obama’s supposed personal charm and paying for extremely expensive marketing strategies, he still relied on traditional political game-playing. Obama is famous for his “Unity” speech, playing the race card in its ultimate form (Article). While this is not trolling, it is a clear way to distinguish between traditional political schemes and the egregious use of trolling. (As a side note, additionally, given the failed outcomes of Clinton and Bush, the country was well poised for a new leader: a seemingly (at the time) non-establishment guy who did not reflect the ‘norm’ in politicians, but was more about the “people”. And, for a large number of Americans, this was Barack Obama). It was estimated that about 49% of Obama’s supporters used text messaging and other social media outlets to reach their fellow voters and push for his win (here). But, it went further than this, down the spiral, when it was discovered that a company called ‘Acorn’, was intentionally paying trolls to push the Barack Obama agenda, including targeting voters.
Acorn was investigated by the FBI for voter interference and potentially causing millions upon millions of illegal votes (article) (and as a side note, the Obama campaign later paid $375,000 in fines for unlawful campaign contributions and handling). Cambridge University, another strong liberal-leaning organization, published an article (here) claiming that Acorn was innocent because,
“We analyze 2007–2008 coverage of ACORN by 15 major news media organizations and the narrative frames of their 647 stories during that period. Voter fraud was the dominant story frame, with 55 percent of the stories analyzed using it. We demonstrate that the national news media agenda is easily permeated by a persistent media campaign by opinion entrepreneurs alleging controversy.”
What Cambridge University was alluding to is known as the “Illusory Truth Effect” (articles here and here), whereby constantly repeating a lie, glamorizing it, and popularizing it transforms it into a truth in the minds of those exposed to it. Not surprisingly, Cambridge has no issue with this very tactic being used to frame a narrative against Donald J Trump.
Campaign trolling in America is so out-of-control that it has gone global. In the 2019 Cyber Troop Report, they discovered social media manipulation campaigns in 70 countries in 2018 (the United States included). While we could get into the global campaign operations, this article is focused on America. Sadly, the United States has also been implicated in the direct interference and manipulation of Brazil’s elections, helping put a well-known criminal element in charge of the country (article). This resulted in millions protesting. Additionally, the DNC administration developed an AI platform around 2016 to monitor and as needed, help censor information online from political adversaries called the Defeat Disinfo Project. Fox News’s Gregg Re claimed the technology was going to silence Donald Trump (article), but I cannot substantiate that at this time. Couple this with problems such as the IRS disproportionately targeting tea parties in 2013 (article) (to which their later apology was meaningless as the damage had already been done), and it is clear that *at least* the Democrat side of the U.S. government has been the leader in and is still the leader in engaging in silencing and shutting down their competition; an action most commonly limited to tyrannical dictatorships.
And, of course, we have the actual trolls themselves. Any short amount of time either spent on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Gab, Gettr, Truth Social, or Parler (among others) will provide users with an overwhelming amount of negativity, toxic interactions, and repulsive behaviors (it’s not always this way as there are still some cat and dog picture accounts…). These trolls have been responsible for atrocious, politically charged behavior such as doxxing and threatening peoples lives (example: the Libs of Tik Tok creator having hers and her family’s lives threatened). Within hours of Truth Social being made completely open, liberal troll operatives immediately started making accounts and duplicate accounts to begin replicating their harassment and attacks against conservatives (article), while the msm perpetuated the idea that no such attacks were taking place. No greater evidence of how quickly and devastatingly the so-called “progressive” and “inclusive” liberals trolls swooped in to assault and attack conservatives on social media exists in their mistaken assault on “Our Black Truth Social” OBT), a completely separate and disassociated app (article). Without thinking, without research, and without hesitation, politically charged and paid liberal trolls launched a disinformation campaign to destroy the OBT app in its mistaken identity:
“With Trump’s launch of his “Truth Social platform, hackers and trolls immediately attempted to undermine Trump’s latest online venture. They struck with a vengeance but alarmingly, because of the similarity in names (“Our Black Truth Social vs. Truth Social”), these hackers and trolls attacked the WRONG target with sustained attacks that have negatively impacted the integrity of OBT Social’s infrastructure and its Google ratings, sending those ratings plummeting from a high of 4.5 stars to a low of 2.1 stars.”
–Newswires
And, make no mistake, this behavior is not limited to mere direct attacks and efforts to harm peoples’ lives, but liberal trolls have made infiltrating and ‘pretending’ to be Republicans on conservative platforms into a profit-making venture (article). While these unwell people claim to be doing it to “trick” conservatives and make them look stupid, their ultimate goal is very clear: to tear the conservative party apart. Once conservatives share fake stories (perpetuated to them by these infiltrators) and get into heated debates with one another, accounts get blocked, conversations stop, and the GOP’s house is divided. Liberal trolls are infiltrating social media under the guise of being affiliated with religion (article). Some maintain the cover for quite a while, using it to tell conservatives to be “peaceful”, to let “Jesus” have control, and other pacification techniques (which subsequently, actual Christians adopt). They use clever memes, extracting scripture, and telling people to be patient. Others, both in religion and pseudo science categories (like flat earth theories), pretend to be die-hard followers of both conservatism and a religious or scientific ideology while making inaccurate, off-the-wall crazy “conspiracy theory” statements meant to destabilize and confuse (and it’s working) (article). However, if you do a search for conspiracy theories on Google, you will no doubt found an endless stream of the ‘crazy’ conspiracies and lies perpetuated by conservatives, further demonstrating just how far the Democrats have gone to infiltrate all levels of tech corporations to interfere in and manipulate campaign outcomes. For example, conservatives who claim infants are sold off by Planned Parenthood are considered ‘conspiracy theorists’ (article), while liberals who believe it’s okay to murder infants after they’re born are considered rational.
Of course, among the various platforms that fund and pay liberals to troll and interfere in Republican / conservative actions, they are also acting outside of social media and alongside the main stream media to further this agenda and interfere in election outcomes: In 2022, Elon Musk bought Twitter just before a mid-term election. The result was heralded as a substantial move for the Conservative Party in restoring freedom of speech for all to the most prevalent social media platform in existence. While this really hasn’t happened, the “patriotic” rallying effect that Conservatives were looking for come election time simply wasn’t there. The media actually teamed up with troll accounts and paid actors to create the false impression that liberals were being punished and victimized, which included actors pretending to be fired (article). Disinformation campaigns that stretch into on-line published scientific peer review articles actually exist claiming that Trump colluded with Russia to spread disinformation about Clinton’s campaign and is how he won (article). This is an actual scientifically peer reviewed article, that regardless of the facts that have emerged about the FBI presenting false evidence obtain their Fisa warrant (article), continues to perpetuate lies that were popularized by and through social media trolling. (Feel free to check out the Supreme Court case documenting undercover evidence of Planned Parenthood’s harvesting actions back in 2015, demonstrating that conservatives are not lying but Google and social media outlets continue to make claims of ‘conspiracy theory’ on this highly politicized topic and is nothing short of actual disinformation and subsequently, campaign interference).
All of these examples, among the thousands and thousands of others available online paint a very clear and concise picture that not only has the left been almost the sole, primary group engaging in campaign interference with trolling , but censorship, misinformation, and fraudulently discrediting any counter narrative, even going so far as to cause or intend to cause physical harm to conservatives has been part of the political campaign tactics (which gives more credit to the conservative concern over election fraud based on a clear and well-documented precedent of underhanded and potentially unlawful behaviors).
The harm of trolling
The physical harm being perpetuated against conservatives, the emotional stress, and the duress of the on-line assaults cannot be overstated. It might seem odd to those not directly in the midst of these battles that trolls would actually use the internet to bully and hurt others to the point of even suicide, but it’s very real. Unfortunately, it is not solely about the money being made by liberal trolls, but in fact, is also a direct correlation to a substantial, well documented mental illness prevalent in the liberal party. Although Pew Research apparently couldn’t help themselves and had to include “race” in their review, the scientific community has shown overwhelming evidence that liberals have a substantial mental health crisis (article). Studies by psychologists have discovered that liberals overwhelmingly report poorer mental health conditions as a whole (article). When we talk about the harm of trolling, we also have to consider how the Democrat / liberal party, its donors, organizers, and the organizations it employs to engage everyday people in its deviant campaign tactics, encourages continued psychological stress and harm to those they are using to troll. By perpetuating lies and misinformation to its voters and then paying them a pittance to engage in hateful, hurtful, and in many ways, deviant criminal conduct is [what I believe to be] tantamount to psychological abuse. It is literally abusing people through various means like creating lies around critical race theory to create a fearporn environment against black Americans (while at the same time intentionally using them as an excuse to destroy educational standards (example article)) or further pushing the lies surrounding claims against Donald Trump to ensure that these people are literally living in fear. There is a substantial difference between the mud-slinging of 1896 and using and abusing voters while also being the same party that destroys their education, promotes abortions that harm them, and elevates substantial mental illness conditions.
Of course, trolling also spreads misinformation beyond simple politics. When the politicians have been paid $330 million dollars from pharmaceuticals to literally “force” an experimental drug on the populace and lie about the drugs (again, stemming from the “new” politics in 1896), the fallout is more than 700,000 VAERs reports about people suffering toxic experimental vaccine outcomes and a CDC that has to backtrack and later admit that it misrepresented facts “after” people have literally died. There is no shortage of articles claiming that ‘anti-vaxxers’ (a misleading term used to describe people who simply choose not to want a flu vaccine), have spread misinformation on social media and in turn this has, according to CDC numbers, resulted in the deaths of millions (example article). Every single one of these misinformation articles focuses on how social media has been abused by conservatives to tell people that drugs like Ivermectin and HCQ saves lives but the well-tested mRNA vaccine is dangerous (also claiming that this leads people to make bad medical decisions). Every single one of these articles still exists on-line and are still being written, perpetuating the idea that conservatives lied to fight the vaccine mandate and endanger people (while very carefully avoiding the fact that shame and guilt were the tools of unqualified liberal trolls trying to force conservatives to get the vaccine). Furthermore, there is a substantial number of social media accounts fighting and trolling on conservative platforms accusing anti-vaxxers of being killers and continuing to perpetuate the myth that the vaccines were safe or effective. However, since 2020, a plethora of articles have appeared exposing that every one of the pro-mRNA vaccine articles and trolls, has been lying in one form or another. This has ranged from promoting an untested vaccine as safe (because the pharmaceuticals either lied or the pro-vaxxers never actually investigated the lack of scientific data), claiming that Ivermectin or HCQ were dangerous (again, without any substantiated scientific data or relying upon a consensus which did not constitute a majority or provide qualification of its claims), or simply using words like a “hesitancy to vaccinate” as a way to shame people and promote guilt for viral transmission which had nothing to do with vaccination. There has also been a single, unquestionable consistency among this trolling behavior: trolls are perpetuating an environment of hate and fear that “if” the vaccine was safe, keeps people away, but as it’s not, pushes people to ignore actual medical advice and take the vaccine. Either way, the liberal trolls are perpetuating toxic and medically dangerous environments while the msm spins it around to make it appear as if conservatives are the ones engaging in this behavior.
As previously discussed, trolls have doxxed and threatened the lives of individuals and their families. Carpe-Donktum, a popular Twitter account, was doxxed (by a MEDIA outlet no less) threatened for merely posting political memes and cartoons that conservatives enjoyed. Of course, there was also the claim by a CNN reporter that Trump said to drink / inject bleach when no such statement was ever made and has even resulted in people actually drinking bleach (article). People have lost their careers and credibility, such as Jordan Peterson, a well-respected psychologist who faced extreme scrutiny by liberals because he supported the scientifically established and well documented principles of protecting the well being and mental health of children and standing up for his country’s freedom (video). And, of course, within the past week, video has emerged (here) that after 2 solid years of conservatives being mocked and attacked on social media (ranging from trolling to mere social media abuse) for the Capital protest on January 6, 2020 (J6), being called fascists and terrorists, and Joe Biden calling for real physical violence against conservatives (here), has come out showing that the Democrats, and their army of trolls, have been operating off of a lie as the claims of an insurrection never actually occurred (which, worse, has resulted in ANOTHER Democrat effort to silence their opposition as they have had their trolls launching a social media campaign against the journalist who exposed the facts, Tucker Carlson). In fact, even now, the Democrats and RINOs are still keeping innocent people in prison and perpetuating the J6 lie, attacking Donald Trump, and using social media to manipulate the 2024 election in advance, hoping that they will simply get away with lying (of course, this last bit is only what I can surmise based upon their behavior and don’t know it to be a fact).
Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic. And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election, and they’re working right now as I speak in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself. … But while the threat to American democracy is real, I want to say as clearly as we can, we are not powerless in the face of these threats. We are not bystanders in this ongoing attack on democracy. There are far more Americans, far more Americans from every background and belief, who reject the extreme MAGA ideology than those that accept it. And folks, it’s within our power, it’s in our hands, yours and mine, to stop the assault on American democracy.
– Joe Biden, Philidelphia, 9/1/2022, emphasis added
This is not to say, since I do not have 1st hand knowledge, that there are ‘some’ claims to the events on January 6, 2020, which may have some validity. The problem is that when the media repeatedly lies, the Democrat Party lies, and they use armies of social malfeasance, the facts inure more to the side of conservatives and with greater distrust of liberals.
Of course, we cannot forget the abuse of social media to try and force not just an extremist LGBTQ agenda of nation-wide acceptance of an anti-religious, hedonistic lifestyle that all people must succumb to, but to allow this behavior to be perpetuated against children in such a way that causes psychological harm and can lead to actual surgical mutilation (and subsequent life-long trauma). Children are being told they can lie to their parents (article), confide in strangers about sexual issues which do not even come into play at their age, and the extremist LGBTQ who are mentally unwell (via their demand that the world accept their deviant behavior of needing small children to approve of their sexuality) are being used by a near billion dollar per year surgical mutilation industry (article) to troll this politically charged topic. Predictably, the trolls respond with statements like: “It’s not happening.” They can be shown articles and evidence, but they are not online to argue, they are online to cause dissension and hatred. And, dissension, they are causing. The conservatives are becoming more and more split right down the middle (article). “MAGA” vs. anti-trump behavior is becoming a major issue because of liberal infiltrators who make an incredible profit doing so, pretending for very long periods of time to be pro-conservative (but hate Trump), and spreading misinformation (which most times includes zero facts or supporting information). This leaves real conservatives feeling emotionally beaten down by the barrage of social media attacks.
Is it dangerous when a Troll goes undercover to pretend to be religious and uses this spirituality to cause dissension, hatred, and worse, manipulate behavior? Most certainly. The destabilization of religion, the misuse of scriptures, and the manipulation of individual’s desires to be good, to create a sense of apathy and “do-nothing-ness”, comes with dangerous consequences, especially when the Democrat Party is actively designing legislation to disarm everyone. Worse, campaigns such as “the silent majority”, “wait for Trump to save us”, “do nothing”, and sadly, even bad players using the “Q” anon name as their own, have functioned to create apathy, in-house frustration between conservatives, and caused Americans to turn a blind eye to many atrocities (such as the forced vaccine against the cries and screams of the mentally handicapped, J6 prisoners sitting in jail and becoming suicidal, child sex trafficking, illegal alien infestation, etc.). Many of the trolls pretend to be conservatives and use their position to spread fake news and pacify those who would otherwise fight back. Social media trolling campaigns have been used to echo the ‘white nationalism’ lie, perpetuate false terminology like ‘transphobia’ to further hate-filled divisiveness, and have stretched into our schools and involve children who don’t even vote.
Sadly, this behavior is not limited to on-line trolling, alone. Trolling and social media campaign manipulation has become a full-time, profitable job (article). This is damaging to individual’s ego, damaging to America’s safety, and of course, it is damaging to our country’s mental health. Because of the divisiveness and the apathy created, there are substantial reductions in united conservative voters. This puts people like Joe Biden into the White House which, for example, has led to a subsequent recession that bankrupts the country and threatens to put us in harms way with war (destabilizing American Homeland security). Furthermore, when liberals, acting as conservatives (and getting other conservatives to join in), tell users to not “argue” or “fight” with a liberal, it is no different than telling the child of an alcoholic that they cannot defend themselves against the elephant in the room. This leaves folks feeling overwhelmed, ashamed, and crushed (spiritually). This is psychological abuse (again, in my opinion).
Another consequence of trolling is psychological exhaustion. Trolls oft create what are known as “puppet” or bot duplicate accounts designed to clog conversations (threads), confirm their own posts (likes), and overwhelm the system entirely (like self replicating tribbles). Trolls also isolate conversations with conservatives (oft times unbeknownst to them), and use their duplicate accounts to suddenly “gang up” on them to further beat them down like a mob or gang. This goes along with the primary and most important reason political parties fund and/or encourage trolling: to interfere with election outcomes. Wearing out voters reduces their interest in communications, creates apathy so they don’t want to participate any longer, and sometimes can make them so frustrated that they will turn on their own party. This has been the case with ex conservative Trump supporters who have turned against him out of exhaustion: simply to avoid any more negativity. It is attacking the victim for being a victim and not the perpetrator. While it does not sound logical, this can happen by those without the strength or the energy to fight the actual perpetrator. Exhaustion also causes people to be more aggressive and oft times conservatives argue among themselves in very heated debates, neither listening to the other, simply because they are too tired to care any longer (and it is typically over silly topics). Sometimes, these arguments occur because of a simple accidental post sent to the wrong person or a an out-of-sequence reply, but the result is a block or a mute after heated and angered words that keeps the two from uniting. This goes far beyond lies, far beyond 1896 mud-slinging, and far beyond campaign “tactics” as no political campaign in America should be able to openly perpetuate psychological abuse and manipulate voters into civil war to win their position of greed.
Why do conservatives fight with liberal trolls at all?
Liberal trolls use a variety of tactics to keep the narrative moving in their direction. This includes ignoring counter-arguments, constant repetition of their lie, denial of claims, any one of several dozen argument fallacies, and oft times the most frustrating tactic of all: they behave with the mentality of a 13-year old, middle school bully (albeit many are mentally unwell and have not grown up emotionally or mentally) and their attacks are condescending and instigate anger. Trolls often use programmed shame techniques to shut down responses, causing people to feel helpless and lash out in response: “If you respond to this, you’re racist / nazi / fascist.” “You calling me a pedophile …” [after their behavior has earned them this title], ” … means that you’re preoccupied with being a pedophile,” (intentionally calling our ego and character into question). Trolls will post memes, be repetitive, bait and switch topics, and so on (and oft times, we end up using their own tactics to try and combat them). However, all of this negativity and hatred is for the sake of merely ‘drawing’ or agitating someone into an argument and is not an actual debate. Then, knowing this, why do conservatives let themselves get drug into these fights at all and not simply block or mute every liberal?
To understand this, we must first understand what “drama” truly is: Real emotional drama (the virtual ‘karen’ of the liberal movement) is the use of extreme behaviors that makes excuses to avoid accountability and responsibility. For example, people use drama for the purposes of justifying their world view (as a victim), whereby they don’t have to be responsible for anything and can blame others for their problems (“Trumptards are racists”, “you’re a fascist”). This behavior is well documented by Stephen Karpman’s Drama Triangle (learn more about that here) whereby liberals sustain the ‘eternal victim’ position by sucking others into their ‘game playing’, whether as part of their mental instability or simply to troll, and keep conservatives trapped in this ‘space’. Drama people have an incredible gift for drawing others into their mental issues and keeping them stuck there as the only way out of ‘the drama game’ is to willingly be labeled ‘the bad guy’ (working through shame, regret, and surrender) and simply not participate (“why won’t you answer me?” “No answer? You lose!” “See? No answer means you lied”). In the drama triangle, there are 3 positions: victim, rescuer, and persecutor. I will refer to those positions in this following section. In short (a very high level overview), the victim is the person who is responsible for nothing and is being mistreated by others; the persecutor is the one attacking the victim; and the rescuer tries to save the victim, but in doing so, only confirms that the victim truly is, a victim (because they needed rescuing). That said, the various reasons we may continue to argue with liberal trolls and get sucked into / stay in their drama (or even with another conservative) include (but is not limited to):
- It is possible to get addicted to the negativity in drama. Thanks to a very strong cultural manipulation of needing drama in news, television, movies, and everyday life, this is a cultural phenomenon whereby negativity and drama become the same as actual drugs (article). (this is the same as “enjoying” the fight / debate / argument!). This is a victim position. By engaging in the addiction, you affirm that you’re a victim of the negativity because it’s out of your control (and you reassign some disconnected event like a liberal troll as a direct attack on your personal identity).
- Politics is an ‘identity’. Having that identity challenged, be identified as bad, or otherwise attacked is a direct attack on your morals, values, ideologies, and who you are as a person (and these attacks relate to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, taking away feelings of safety which in turn is ‘danger’ which chemically triggers fight or flight responses, aka you become a rescuer of your own ‘victim’ self who is now being ‘persecuted’ by an anonymous liberal troll – and while yes, you eventually realize how foolish that is, that feeling of foolishness can also keep you trapped in that drama as a victim, or requires you to become the ‘bad guy’ who recognizes that you ‘let’ this happen and you have no one to blame but yourself – aka cognitive dissonance). Identities are very important to us. They define our behavior and establish our sense of self and cultural worth. (article). Any attack on a person’s identity is bound to generate animosity.
- Shame: Liberal trolls are incredibly gifted at shaming people (persecutors make victims). We all know what guilt and shame are because we grew up with it. Whether at home, school, or in social context, we’ve experienced guilt. You may think, “But I’ve done nothing wrong, why would I feel guilty?” Well, unfortunately, the ‘shame game’ is a very powerful tool that preys upon your identity and doesn’t even need to accuse you directly, of anything, but insults your ego, creates feelings of no longer being safe (victim), and forces you into a fight or flight response (rescuer) (article). For example, liberal trolls need a ‘safe space’. The mere implication of needing a ‘safe’ space is that outside of that location, they are under threat. That implies that ‘you‘ are dangerous simply for who you are and puts you on the defensive, trying to defend your ideology (ego / identity). Frustratingly, Conservatives know they are the more culturally accepting party, the more tolerant party, and do not share in the same hatred as liberals, but all the more reason that being shamed for something you’re not doing insults your ego and drags you into this need to fight back (the ‘rescuer’).
- The need to be right. It is very human to want to be right as this plays into Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and being accepted, loved, and recognized (article). Along the lines of this reasoning, this goes back to that social identity and how you are seen, outwardly. Many people hate being called stupid because it is socially and personally embarrassing. On-line trolls calling you “stupid”, in whatever form that is, is condescending. Condescension is aggravating because it makes a person feel inferior (victim). Even if the person you’re talking to is a child that you ‘know’ is not more intelligent than you, it can be frustrating because, like wanting to be ‘right’, wanting to belong to a group, wanting to be appreciated, and wanting to protect your identity, you do not appreciate people who act “holier than thou” or “high and mighty”, because it puts you down, insults your ego, and creates feelings of inferiority / inadequacy (again, which is a lack of safety / victim position that turns into a fight or flight response / rescuer or persecutor) (article).
- The need to be seen. This goes along with social media and the modern social construct of everyone wanting an account, everyone wanting to be heard, and everyone wanting to be special. It is an unfortunate part of the Hierarchy of human needs to fit in, be respected, and be admired (that we greatly undervalue, but I digress on that), that social media preys on. So, people lie (rescuer). People fight (persecutor). And, people want to know everyone sees their posts and likes them (external rescuer). Worse, many folks don’t believe (or don’t want to believe) that this is what they are actually trying to achieve because it can feel embarrassing to need that level of external confirmation (implying that you lack confidence) when in fact, it is nothing more than a core, fundamental human need to be a part of other people and we far too often do not appreciate the value in it.
- The reward mechanism. This goes along with the ‘addiction’ ideology, but in a positive addition. Winning a fight (rescuing), being right (persecuting), is like a reward mechanism of endorphin-based joy. Everybody likes to be a winner, even if that means we pull a slot machine handle a dozen times or more in the hopes of winning. Liberal trolls make it worse when they do things like ignore the data presented and invalidate your victory (condescension), and keep people in the cycle of trying over and over again to validate their point, even when they know the troll does not care and will not change (like pulling the slot machine handle so you can spend $5000 and cheer about having won $1.50, because, your ego – won!).
- And, although this is not a comprehensive list, sometimes people argue and fight for the sake of edifying. Although, not one person arguing with a liberal troll has ever edified or helped that individual. Sometimes people take on trolls because they’re simply tired of the attacks and are determined to fight back and do to them what they are doing to conservatives.
Whatever the reason is for engaging a social media troll, the answer is always the same (to end the conversation): mute or block them. However, that said, for some folks, this just isn’t an option. Does that mean you’re trapped in drama or that the liberal trolls are winning? This can only be answered on an individual, case-by-case basis.
- Are they causing you stress and anger that you are ignoring?
- Are you fighting a foolish fight and are angry with yourself fighting it?
- Do you believe your point is valid and should be made for reasons other than your own ego?
Basically, are you remaining in control of the only thing which you have control of … yourself? Are you making excuses for this ongoing, endless fight with an obvious mentally deranged individual whose only purpose is to spread hatred so that you can stay fighting with them, or do you have an end goal / purpose? These are all important questions to ask. I know certain folks who engage in absolute profanity, hatred, and anger with these trolls, tearing them apart, and are happy doing so because they believe these are toxic individuals who need to be treated the way they treat others (basically, the one person in the schoolyard standing up to the bully). On the other hand, I have caught myself in an endless debate of nonsensical rhetoric and meme blasting to the final point where we were literally saying, “nuh uh”, and it was nothing more than a middle school screaming match between adults.
One thing I will caution folks not to do: If you legitimately think you are helping by telling someone, “you should just block or ignore them,” you are involving yourself in the drama and possibly creating worse tension for a fellow conservative. Although well intended, do not be offended if you find yourself attacked. Imagine seeing two dogs fighting viciously: while your interference may be well-intended, most likely, you’re going to get bit. Other times, one of them may back down. But, worse, for human beings, you could be asking a victim to just accept being a victim, like telling a child to just keep their mouth shut and not mention the abuse elephant in the room. You can cause just as much harm doing this as you intended to stop and should take your time, analyze the situation, and either simply excuse yourself (avoid the drama), or make sure you are not in the middle of a heated debate that could leave someone feeling hurt, shamed, or worse.
Side note:
Also of concern (of late) is Truth Social’s behavior in constantly censoring its own user’s posts (referring to conservatives). This behavior has sewn the seeds of distrust between the users and the system administrators (especially given the historical context of Twitter’s censorship and why users migrated to these new platforms) and as of right now, to my knowledge, Truth Social has not explained themselves to their viewers or apologized. With this overwhelming level of hostility between big tech and end users, it is no wonder people feel helpless (and the hatred, frustration, anger, and especially helplessness on-line can even lead to suicide – article). So, this is a very precarious situation we find ourselves in.
Conclusion
Trolling is a dangerous and unhealthy outcome of social media’s relationship with corrupt politics (more so than just human behavior) and has now transitioned into an assault on the lives, religions, spirituality, and emotional well being of Americans. While trolls may exist on both sides of the political spectrum, they are clearly more prevalent in the liberal party (by a large majority) and constitute a substantial number of America’s mentally ill (who are not getting the help they need). Unfortunately, our culture has been manipulated into believing that being ‘civilized’ also meant being tolerant of mental illness rather than treating it (an odd development as this is clearly, untrue). Rather than develop programs to aid the mentally unwell, politicians have found ways to abuse these people into further propagating trolling (as a form of cheap or free labor) in order to satisfy their never-ending thirst for power and money.
- We cannot let trolling go unnoticed. It is an act of the mentally unwell and they need to be treated.
- Trolling is actually dangerous to many people psychologically and we need to end this trend of blaming victims, and instead, focus our attention on those committing the offense.
- Trolls use every form of manipulation and lies, including spending months pretending to be the other political party only to cause deeper wounds. This is no different than claiming Russian agents or spies infiltrated American systems. Whether it is domestic or foreign, a campaign, especially for profit, to manipulate and control political parties or shut them down is tyranny and/or terrorism.
- Trolls serve the purpose of a partisan group and their actions are campaign interference – period. This has to come to an end.
I don’t think there is a good answer to trolling. As for social media abuse, as long as there are humans, there will be bad actors. We need to learn to balance not letting people get away with being abusive and then playing victim if they pay the price for it. We also need to balance not allowing people to make horrific threats on the internet like rape. As for trolls, an equal amount of force should be engaged, but by whom?
The tech corporations can take the lead on this but the problem is that if you promote a ‘free-speech platform’, then everybody has a right to speak, even the liars and dissenters. Trolls deserve a special category not because a party claims that they don’t like people who disagree with them, but because a specific set of behaviors and actions can be tracked to intentional mis and disinformation tied to specific political ideologies and campaigns. In the end, the most important thing you can do for yourself though, is to avoid toxicity. I am not a good example of this as I not only engage the trolls for the purpose of beating them down, but I do oft let myself get drug into the drama (and my family is kind enough to remind me that I’m an idiot for doing so). Whatever you decide:
- Avoid the people promoting “hero” themes like someone is going to swoop in and save you. This is actually not healthy even beyond mere politics.
- Avoid the people pushing scripture that tells you to be quiet, do nothing, walk away, or not take action when it comes to fighting for what you believe in. A healthy spirit acts in healthy ways and as we all appreciate our brave men and women in / retired from the military and 911 services, we also must be aware that sometimes, doing what’s right and defending what you believe in won’t look or feel like a ‘beautiful sunset’ cast over a scripture, but we are human and have a duty to defend ourselves.
- Avoid trolls that engage angrily with conservatives and won’t listen or stop because there is a chance, that this person is making a lot of profit in disguise.
- Only engage in the crazy conversations, like ‘flat earth’ or some other wild idea, with a bit of humor. These are not serious topics that will be solved on social media, nobody is going to convince anyone else, and we have to be diligent over who might be using these topics to create dissension among the ranks.
- Avoid the conservatives that make erroneous claims about Trump. No one has to like him. No one has to agree with him. No one needs to be ‘MAGA’. But, unless they have an alternative, unless they have a reasonable basis, the truth is, some of these folks are more liberals working undercover.
The truth is that trolls have become very dangerous. They are a toxic poison that infiltrates our culture. McCarthy had a fear of ‘communists’ all around him and there is a point in which, he was not wrong. We’re not numb to the knowledge about what’s been happening in Chinese communist recruitment centers in disguise on U.S. campuses. We’re not numb to the knowledge that our government has sold out to big corporations and will push laws the sell us under the bus. We’re not that naive…
If you don’t like it – use the mute and block button. Sadly, the victim shouldn’t have to be the one forced into the corner -but we’re there and it’s about time we shut down these dangerous people because they are increasingly perverting freedom, justice, and the American way.
Thanks for Reading.
“7 things negative people will do to you. They will...
1. Demean your value;
2. Destroy your image
3. Drive you crazily!
4. Dispose your dreams!
5. Discredit your imagination!
6. Deframe your abilities and
7. Disbelieve your opinions!
Stay away from negative people!”
― Israelmore Ayivor
“Toxic relationships are dangerous to your health; they will literally kill you. Stress shortens your lifespan. Even a broken heart can kill you. There is an undeniable mind-body connection. Your arguments and hateful talk can land you in the emergency room or in the morgue. You were not meant to live in a fever of anxiety; screaming yourself hoarse in a frenzy of dreadful, panicked fight-or-flight that leaves you exhausted and numb with grief. You were not meant to live like animals tearing one another to shreds. Don’t turn your hair gray. Don’t carve a roadmap of pain into the sweet wrinkles on your face. Don’t lay in the quiet with your heart pounding like a trapped, frightened creature. For your own precious and beautiful life, and for those around you — seek help or get out before it is too late. This is your wake-up call!”
― Bryant McGill
“When you notice someone does something toxic the first time, don’t wait for the second time before you address it or cut them off. Many survivors are used to the “wait and see” tactic which only leaves them vulnerable to a second attack. As your boundaries get stronger, the wait time gets shorter. You never have justify your intuition.”
― Shahida Arabi
“Toxic people attach themselves like cinder blocks tied to your ankles, and then invite you for a swim in their poisoned waters.”
― John Mark Green
Thinking Error Free 