Nestled amongst the
social media comment sections the right wing shills and trolls lurk;
propagating their unsolicited bullshit, either though employment or
voluntary, either paid to comment or commenting through choice, they
are either intellectually dishonest or suffering a personality
disorder.
As much as I enjoy
loitering around the comments sections, often I have
better
things to do. The shills and
trolls of the world have nothing else; their extensive amount of time
spent – wasted! - on social media points to only two logical
conclusions: they do it because they are paid to do it, or they do it
because they are idiots.
I
personally dislike trolls/shills mainly because they are tedious.
Their aim is to distract left wingers from meaningful debate and to
muddy clear discourse, and they often achieve it.
There
is a trick often used by these right wingers. When entering into
debate, they will sometimes either deny the existence of the
political spectrum, claiming it to be an illusion in a charade that
they do no take part in; or they claim to be left wing or a centrist
left winger. They propagate their right wing views but when
challenged they will assert the notion they are not the Tory voter
the other commenters assume them to be, but in fact Left wing (or a
Labour voter).
The
trick being used here is to deflect criticism. It is a trick to
undermine criticism by confusing the obvious with something
unexpected; to make opposing arguments seem ill-thought out or
excessively biased.
In
one way it is a way of crowbarring right wing ideas into left wing
thinking. This is done by asserting agreement with right wing
policies but claiming to be a left wing voter. Thus it encourages the
notion the policies in question are not inherently bad, despite being
right wing policies. (NB. If they are being debated, they probably
are bad policies).
This
hopefully encourages those sitting on the fence to warm to right wing
views. It can also be used to fool those who do not think too deeply
into accepting right wing views unquestioningly, accepting them for
potential left wing views.
The
complete dismissing of the political spectrum is also used to by
shills/trolls to try to gain trust from other commenters. They
deflect criticism by claiming they attack the (so-called) right as
much as they attack the (so-called) left, hopefully tricking others
to accept their views as open-minded and valid. However, it is clear
upon the mildest of inspections that they rarely attack the right
wing, saving all their criticism for the left only.
The
main use of this trick however, is to avoid criticism by association,
giving the critic free rein to criticise the left. Assuming the
troll/shill to be a Tory voter, many commenters will respond to the
troll/shill's argument with criticism of Tory policy. The troll/shill
does not need a come back; she simply responds with the assertion she
is not a Tory voter. This renders the opposing argument irrelevant
and the troll/shill does not have to counter-argue it.
This
does not mean you have to have an allegiance with a single political
party (I don't). But it is something used by trolls enabling them to
spread their bullshit and clutter up comment feeds without having to
do much homework by becoming politically informed. They can cause a
problem, be a problem, and they need very few skills to achieve it.
Comments
Post a Comment