monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

@Walter Hinteler,

The term 'troll' is the most overused term on the internet, the fact that blatham had to write an essay to define his use of it proves it. It's a cheap, sissy way to dismiss someones post.

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@Brand X,

Quote:

It's a cheap, sissy way to dismiss someones post

What's wrong with identifying a common form of internet misbehavior and labeling it for what it is? Especially since trolling itself is a cheap, sissy way of trying to derail a thread.

1 Reply

@hightor,

Troll is name-calling 99% of the time, which leads to forum wars. Better to just ignore the person if you don't agree with their input.

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@Brand X,

Quote:

The term 'troll' is the most overused term on the internet, the fact that blatham had to write an essay to define his use of it proves it.

"Essay"? Either you are unfamiliar with the form or your high school teachers had rather low standards.

Defining one's terms is a critical and necessary step in any worthwhile debate or discussion. "Troll", like many or even most terms, has gained multiple meanings and usages. So specifying which particular meaning one uses is a means to clarify what one is trying to say or argue. This is pretty basic. The failure to define one's terms - or worse, the refusal to define one's terms carefully - is dishonest or, at best, lazy.

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@Brand X,

Quote:

Troll is name-calling 99% of the time

Perhaps something like that might be so in the forums where you operate. It's decidedly not true in the communities where I do and have engaged. If, for example, you attend to the writings and discussion of those involved in setting up or maintaining effective and valuable online communities, troll behaviors are critically important to spot and understand. And obviously, given what Russian players were up to over the last few years, we really need to clearly grasp this new, emerging threat to civil discourse and to an informed citizenry.

Quote:

which leads to forum wars.

That can happen, for sure. But such a fight will be waged by individuals who are seriously ill-informed about trolling or by individuals who are trolls and who want to initiate fights and (to use your wording) want to wage a forum war.

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Quote:

Bruce Bartlett‏
@BruceBartlett
Absolutely critical CBO report just out--shows the distribution of automatic spending cuts resulting from the Trump tax cut by income class. ALL of the cuts come from those with less than $50k of income.

CBO report

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What do you imagine Trump might say if some celebrity grabbed his daughter's pussy?

1 Reply

It is also worth mentioning that there are individuals who are not trolls in the sense of just wishing to pick a fight, in order to entertain themselves (we certainly have those here), but who are trolling to suppress a discussion. There are a few conservative operators here who show up to discuss anything but Plump and his administration or the Republican Party. For however one may characterize their activity in other threads, they are trolling in this thread. It is justifiable and rational to call them out.

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@blatham,

I hesitate to say this, but, going by past remarks of his, he would probably he couldn't blame them. Awful man.

1 Reply

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441441/hillary-clinton-nasty-corrupt-evil-crooked-ruthless

Lash isn't a Russian troll, she's Michele Malkin! Very Happy

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@Setanta,

It's a very good point. Where the motive is to suppress a discussion through distraction of some sort, that would certainly be a form of trolling. Perhaps the reason many on the right don't get this is because the right wing media system they attend to which has evolved over the last 40 years or so has distraction as a central operating procedure (consider Fox, Breitbart, talk radio). Of course, politicians do this as well, Trump being the most obvious example. People who are fed a constant diet of ad hominem attacks commonly do not perceive that they are being trolled, finding nothing unusual about that argument form.

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http://www.nationalreview.com/article/453869/steven-mnuchin-louise-linton-embarrassing?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Williamson

I'm surprised Kevin Williamson isn't one of blatham's favorite Con pundits. He is, after all the guy who referred to Trump's sons as Uday and Qusay.

I guess the problem is that as vicious as Williamson is in savaging those associated with the Right of who he is less than fond, they usually incur his wrath because he considers them faux conservatives. He really hates Lefties.

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@Finn dAbuzz,

I don't for minute believe she is a Russian troll, nor necessarily a troll at all. I just think that once she converted to Bernie Sander's type of liberalism, she didn't let go of the hatred of the Clintons nor her partisan biasedness of when she was a republican. I used to think it was all an act, but I changed my mind somewhere along the way. In any case, it makes it hard to discuss any Trump issues when everything gets turned back into one of the Clintons or both like some kind of wonder glue.

I thought this thread was devoted to Trump's relevant events, not necessarily all relevant contemporary events. Guess I'll leave that question to blatham.

Related of nothing, Charles Manson died to today. As a totally odd fact about my husband, as far as I know my husband only read three books, one was the Bible, the other a book about Charles Manson and one about Murder mysteries in our county. Weird.

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@Finn dAbuzz,

That is possibly the case. After all, Michele Malkin is a favorite political thinker and commentator of Bernie Sanders and the people in his "movement". They quote her all the time.

1 Reply

@Finn dAbuzz,

Quote:

I'm surprised Kevin Williamson isn't one of blatham's favorite Con pundits

Williamson is a very talented writer. And he displays a degree of independence from some common right wing rhetoric and thought. But he's vicious enough to be invited by Limbaugh to stand in for him. I think he could be a valuable voice after the brain tumor is discovered and treated.

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@revelette1,

revelette1 wrote:

I hesitate to say this, but, going by past remarks of his, he would probably he couldn't blame them. Awful man.

"going by past remarks of his", he did it himself............"Awful man."

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Bill Kristol just declared the Republican Party is morally and politically bankrupt due to the stance regarding Roy Moore; ie, vote for Moore because they need the votes for tax cuts.

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@Finn dAbuzz,

Finn dAbuzz wrote:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/453869/steven-mnuchin-louise-linton-embarrassing?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Williamson

I'm surprised Kevin Williamson isn't one of blatham's favorite Con pundits. He is, after all the guy who referred to Trump's sons as Uday and Qusay.

I guess the problem is that as vicious as Williamson is in savaging those associated with the Right of who he is less than fond, they usually incur his wrath because he considers them faux conservatives. He really hates Lefties.

Williamson is a good enough writer but often a straight-up fool in his pronouncements. He seems to have made a series of judgements about our society and bends everything to match his earlier conclusions.

He's pretty much spot-on here though, this lady is a ******* embarrassment and both her and Mnuchin are old enough to know better. But guess what? They don't, because 'rich super-asshole' is simply who they are. It's the type of people Trump surrounds himself with because that's who he is and who his family is.

Mnuchin himself in particular is either a liar or a fool. His arguments in favor of the current tax bill are transparently false and have been all along.

Cycloptichorn

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https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-20/gop-surrenders-cherished-irs-scandal-at-last

interesting little read

1 Reply

@BillW,

Got my sentenced warped, huh?

1 Reply

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