Trolling?

I know it seems somewhat obsessive, but I simply cannot stop. I posted about other stuff yesterday, so allow me my compulsions. What happened to Bushwhackjob anyway? Doesn't he want to come kick my ass anymore? Maybe he went and enlisted.. nah.. that can't be it. He must be on the golf course.

My favorite ex-winger dedicated an entire post to my "trolling" his blog. Of course, the entire post is exactly what I had been bagging on him for the entire time. It's a big giant straw man argument, sprinkled with factually false assertions with no sourcing what-so-ever.

This is my favorite part;

"Bring 'em on. Basic deductive reasoning and logic on my part will blow them out of the water, anyway."

Bahahahaha.. without sourcing anything!

Deductive reasoning? Leave aside the straw man for moment, but virtually every post he quite simply lies. Time after time I'd fact check one of his assertions and it turns out it's total bullshit. He just got tired of me calling him on it.

Thing is, you can't really expect any sort of integrity from somebody who thinks the human race dates back 6000 years, and did not evolve. Deductive reasoning? They're clinically insane as a starting point, so it's not surprising to see him trying to advance his agenda by lying in every post. For the propagandist, the truth is meaningless, dissent not allowed, and debate a threat.

So, I went and sent Doug a farewell letter.

Hi Doug, Tom - your ex-troll, here with a short note.

Thought I'd send a private email apology instead of posting on your blog, as you clearly don't want me to do that anymore. That's quite okay. I let myself get sucked into the name calling and such, and I normally don't do that on other's blogs. So, sorry you came to the conclusion that I was trolling, which was not my intent.

I got a bit defensive when people like Phil and yourself, and others, started calling me names. The smart move, and one that I will use in the next situation I find myself in, is to just simply stick to the issues. Heck, Bushwhack came to my blog and started posting threats, but really that's not a big deal. Surprising? No.. scary? nah.. but I'm sure his pastor wife might chide him for it.

All I really wanted to do was correct the record when you straw man liberal positions over and over, and I failed to see that that was the point of your writing. I wanted to fact check your assertions (the tax one was great btw), but I failed to realize that on a blog centered around merely attacking a political movement, facts are not the issue. How else to explain you never sourcing anything? Virtually every political blog on the planet links to source information to corroborate their assertions - but obviously that's not the point on a blog designed not for issues, but rather for political persuasion.

Oh hell.. I'm getting wordy again. I write a lot, and it's just a habit. Anyway, it took me a while to figure out what you were doing, and I realize that had I simply just kept fact checking and correcting the straw mans, I would have been banned eventually under the guise of "trolling". It was inevitable as your pulling out quotes from Nazi war criminals, executed in Nuremberg Germany. I still can't believe that one.. now I know why I keep Dan around. He's only 20, but has an extraordinary memory for details in everything he reads.

Again, sorry for throwing a monkey wrench in the works for a few weeks. One suggestion that might work better for you is to moderate your comments and delete anything contradictory - especially if it contains a link.

And good luck with the radio program. It might be harder to delete people when dealing in real-time, but I'm sure you'll work that out.

Cheers,

Tom

p.s., feel free to quote my email to you as a means to make some straw-man argument again. Oh, crap, I forgot. It's much easier to do it when you don't reference any source material. Sorry, my bad. Just make up anything you want if you desire to continue the assault.

Now to find a new right wing freak. Do I want a religious nut, a violent war mongering freak, a social conservative.. or.. what? I kinda got all of them in one with the last nut, but maybe specialize this time?