More on Trolls

I received this email during my hiatus.  I thought it would be useful to discuss it.

After reading your article “What the Government Does to You!”, it seems to confirm the possibility that people like you and Ronald Reagan, plus at least 99.999% of the right-wingers who have burrowed themselves into this world, have got to be among the stupidest creatures to ever walk upright and breathe. You belong to that single-cell-minded group that chooses to blame government for trying to make things better for its citizens, while at the same time you would have us believe that the business world is overrun with saints and do-gooders.  I beg to differ.

Members of your group, for example, are so narrow-minded that you’re only able to see what you WANT to see.  For example, you can’t see that the 1907 financial panic … the ’29 crash and the Great Depression of the 1930s … the 1987 stock market crash … and the 2007 financial meltdown, was a direct result of idiotic mismanagement on the part of Corporate America; instead, the folks on your side tend to blame government for not correcting the problem before it happened.

You and your right-wing members spend so much time fretting about the growth of government that you are unable to grasp the simple logic that one reason behind that growth – though it’s not the only reason, surely — has been to check the abuses, negligence, and criminal mismanagement of the business environment.  Indeed, if business always acted responsibly, there would be no need for the FDA, EPA, USDA, DOE, FAA, FDIC, HUD, and so on. Those who speak for your group, such as yourself,  seem incapable of applying the simplest logic regarding the relationship between government and business.  You have somehow got the “free enterprise” concept locked in your heads, and you have persuaded yourselves that business, if left alone, will always do the right thing by the public.  This indicates that your sense of history is woefully inadequate for the argument you’re trying to make.  In fact, it’s laughable. At least try to educate yourself about the auto industry, if not Corporate America as a whole, before you start whining about the few demands that government makes upon it.  If nothing else, do some research about lobbying, for Godsakes!

All you think-alikes have the gall to wage a relentless attack upon government for not being perfect at all times and in every way, which of course means that you lack a third-grader’s understanding of what government does for you every day.  You have a childlike vision of free enterprise, as if it were some sort of Santa Claus.  It’s as if you live in a small wooden shack somewhere where you are intravenously fed news bulletins from Fox News, which is owned by the multi-billionaire Rupert Murdoch.

When Reagan said that “…government is NOT the solution to our problem; government IS the problem,” that has to a prime candidate for being the all-time dumbest remark ever made by a public official.  It’s something one might expect to hear from an individual who has no understanding of how things actually work. Someone in grade school, let’s say — not to insult the grade-schooler. Like some mischievous kid in the back row, I’m sure that Mr. Reagan received his quota of giggles from your group when he suggested that the most terrifying words were “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”  But he only laid his idiocy bare.

Now, I know it’s futile for me to even bring this up, but here are some of the things that government does for you which I doubt that you have even bothered to consider.  For example, it….

…guarantees your constitutional rights-  Government works night and day to deprive us of these.  That’s why the framers of the Constitution sought to keep government small.
…provides your court system
…picks up your trash
…fights fires in your town
…ensures the safety of your food
…ensures the safety of your drugs
…delivers your mail
…polices your neighborhood-again,
…locks up criminals
…builds/manages your sewer system
…constructs/repairs your streets
…builds your bridges and dams
…manages your forests-and allows them to burn.
…provides emergency relief after natural disasters
…protects your water supply
…protects your forests
…fights the spread of disease
…prints the money you have in your pocket
…preserves historic landmarks
…offers rehabilitation for the blind and disabled.
…provides programs for the retarded
…initiates nutrition programs
…builds/manages your public libraries
…builds/manages your museums
…builds/manages your concert halls
…builds/manages your public schools and colleges
…establishes/manages your city parks
…builds/manages your sports stadiums for your favorite team
…provides you with copyrights or patents
…ensures the safety of miners and other workers
…protects our wildlife
…initiates child-protection programs
…originates community-development projects-
…creates trade policies, which generates jobs
…investigates endless cases of fraud-
…controls hazardous waste
…provides vocational training
…provides student loans
…provides literacy programs
…protects the employee benefits
…provides low-income housing

…and the government also makes sure there’s an army, navy, and air force to protect your miserable, hypercritical ass.  To name a few.

Does it do all these things well?  No, of course it doesn’t.  During the Bush administration, the emergency planning before Hurricane Katrina and its handling of the victims in the aftermath was absurd, and that certainly serves as one example. Yes, government can be cumbersome.  Yes, it makes mistakes.  Yes, it’s sometimes negligent, clumsy, and, at one time or another, is perhaps guilty of all the things that you and your fellow opponents meanly suggest from time to time.  BUT THAT’S BECAUSE IT’S RUN BY HUMAN BEINGS!   The same species, you may recall, also runs private industry.  Indeed, you’ll find the exact same inefficiencies in big and small businesses; it’s just that its miscues rarely appear in the national press and in websites around the world — unless, of course, it’s something really awful like the 2007 financial meltdown.  With all government’s inefficiencies, I still want it on my side every time — not Big Business.

I do not apologize for this outburst of anger, for I am sick up to my eyeballs with people like you who don’t have the slightest notion of what government does for you.  There is a disease upon the land, which Reagan and all his fellow nutcakes have spread through their incessant hand-wringng about the government’s failures.  I wish you could all be put on a desert island, where, in the true spirit of unfettered free enterprise, you could all hunt each other down in the name of profit.

Now, let’s see how fair-minded you are. Mr. Right Winger.  Will you print this response, unedited, in your website?

Howard Lauther

My initial reaction was to think of Dr. Dave’s recent post, “I’m a democrat; you owe me.” This individual was rather insistent that I post his email.  Clearly, he possesses the sense of entitlement that is so common on the left.  Ironically, he demands the audience that the left would deny Conservatives.

So then, why did I do as he asked?  I think that there is something to observe and learn here. On several occasions, I have posted information about trolls and that their intent is to distract, disrupt, and discourage.  Basically, an online variant of the Alinsky method.  So, rather than become upset about Howard’s silly attempt at an attack, I decided to look into the matter a bit.  Here is what I found:

1.  If Howard has a blog of his own, he doesn’t link to it anywhere.
2.  When Conservative bloggers and sites were discussing the Infamous DHS report, Howard posted the following….

At the very least, try to get your facts straight. “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” was created by the Bush Administration on January 23, 2007, long before most people had even heard of Barrack Obama. Since then, it’s been constantly updated with data which is being continually developed by the use of warrantless wiretaps and other tools via in the Patriot Act, which is unconstitutional. And, as mentioned above, in 2001 the Bush Administration also created a leftwing watch list entitled, “Leftwing Extremists Likely to Increase Use of Cyber Attacks over the Coming Decade.”

3.  He apparently thought this was a good message, as he posted the exact same thing here, here, here, and here.  Did I mention here and here?

So, his MO is to spam blogs and other sites.  Then, if the owner, or other person responds, he returns with the typical liberal troll tactics; ignore facts, makes personal attacks, when proven wrong-changing the subject, and so on.  The fact is that anyone here could correct Howard line by line.  His arguments are weak and based on false premises.  However, it would be a waste of time, as he doesn’t care about the truth, nor is he actually seeking debate.  Again, his intent is to distract, disrupt, and discourage.  In the end, if we spend a great deal of time arguing with this troll, we will not be discussing important matters.

One message like this can occupy many people, as trolls have the potential to change the course of debate that is out of proportion to their numbers.     If every regular commenter here decided to respond to him, how many important matters would be ignored?  How much time would be spent correcting him, only to be ignored?   It has been said that the messiah used similar attacks against the Clinton campaign in the primaries.  This guy is a pretty textbook example of what I have been talking about.  In my opinion, it is best to disregard these attempts to goad us into useless arguments.

NOTE: The Totus Blog has a post regarding this topic.  The increase in troll activity leads me to beleive that there is a greater effort on the part of the left to disrupt what we are doing.  We should take this into account.