I’ve returned to social media (Facebook) as of late; The National Review, The Weekly Standard, The Spectator, and The Federalist are conservative sites among many on my news feed. I find myself participating in comments on these conservative sites, which I don’t consider trolling per se, because I just happen to comment there. And, generally, there are not as many comments as on some of the larger news organization sites.
What I’ve discovered is that many of my comments are very verbally abusive, derogatory, personal, and nasty. What else I’ve discovered is that they seem to have an impact. Here’s an example of one of my posts:
“You're not going to save anyone from anything because you are desperate, ignorant, and too puny to think about anyone or anything except yourself. You know nothing about foreign policy, US history, nor economics, except what Hannity tells you. Instead of rising up and making America better, you and your people bring everyone else down. You have made the country a global laughing stock.”
My point is that many of the folks on these conservative sites grew up watching Jerry Lawler and Hulk Hogan on WWF and believed it was real. I’m thinking there is a lot of real opportunity here to discourage, dishearten, and demoralize some of the most fervent “white working class” voters in the country. There is no hope of winning them over. It seems, to me, that depressing their turnout is a real service to America.
From an ethical perspective, I’m basically bullying these people because I was blessed with perhaps a better intellect when it comes to political communication. Isn’t this MAGA.? And I just don’t want to keep them from voting, I want them to never come out of their homes again. They can just stay there and watch Fox and Friends. When they go low, I go lower….
The final point here is that by electing Donald Trump, his supporters are the ones that threw common decency, American kinship, courtesy, and decorum out the window. Why not take advantage of that? Send some people to therapy. The personal catharsis for me after I comment has been outstanding, to the point that I feel a tad naughty. Is it wrong to psychologically destroy these Trump supporters on social media?