Exploited Biases and Dealing with Trolls

 

As my little platform got more traction, the trolls started to appear.  I expected it, and even interacted with some.  I learned a lot about them and me.

 

Engaging with trolls.

Counterintuitive to many (even myself perhaps) the (very few) trolls who landed shortsighted comments on my platforms – they were quite entertaining.  Maybe not for the reasons most people think.  But for starters I am not a person who needs external validation, therefore no matter how offensively superior these keyboard warriors pretend to be, I just find them tragically amusing.

I also notified them that I might write about them, and the fact that when I interact with them – THEY are not my actual target audience, but rather anybody who might benefit from this interaction.  Also, however shortsighted their commentaries, it somehow counts as “engaging” for my platforms.  So, as I am steadily growing in social media it becomes a win-win.  I get entertainment and material to write, plus it engages with other viewers who get to see our interaction.

With that said, let me be clear that I do not intend to interact with every troll out there.  Fortunately, my audience for the most part is amazing people.  Whenever I was interacting with these trolls, I just so happened to be working on something else that was important but more akin to “busy work” on my computer – and these little breaks interacting made me laugh – but I did not spend more than a few seconds on each interaction.  Whenever I have important stuff to do, they would get no reply.

Yet once in a while, we’ve all been there – we have tasks that need to get done on a computer that are mundane enough but need to get done – well that was me during these interactions.  If you guys find this topic as interesting as I did, I might make it into a series. If these guys came unsolicited to start some ridiculous stuff – the least I can do is to share how ridiculous their assertions tend to be.

For today I am going to choose only one from a couple of examples that I encountered while hanging out on “X” (Twitter).  There is no shortage of trolls and others who are not necessarily trolls but definitely feel vindicated on spewing all kinds of ignorant opinions, disguised as facts.  Yet, some of them have a very substantial following, and that is one of the reasons why I decided to write this article.  Because in some instances their rhetoric does resonate with other people who are just as confused.

And yes, all of these trolls are supposed to be residents from “civilized” Western Nations.  But despite this, their tunnel vision perception of the world creates a concerning situation for me.  They are the microcosmos of a much larger problem.  I’ve written about it for years.  It does not matter what the topic is, some people are just divisive.  Conversely, I prefer to be a unifier and an educator.  That is what I did during these interactions.

 

A troll or just a very confused individual?

Well, in reality they can be both and one on the same.  Some people just engage because they are sophomoric enough to think that being a jerk is somehow the zeal of ingenuity.  Others truly feel compelled to voice their opinions because they either want attention, or because they feel they have “something to say.”

But let’s understand that having “something to say” does not equal “adding to the conversation.”  The examples I will talk about for this article are in one of many very different subjects.  For today I’ll cite a religious extremist – in this case he happens to be Catholic.  You can see the full exchange at the link below.  In a future article I’ll talk about an example with a climate change denier.

The religious extremist person did change the thread flow as the conversation continued, but hope this gives you an idea of the tenor of our conversation.  To be honest I don’t feel like looking frantically for every thread he started.  Because he often engaged in circular reasoning – so this is pretty much the gist of it.  But you’re more than welcome to read through this and any of my replies.  I stand-by my words.

 

ZakTheTemplar ✝️ on X: “@crisis_half @nytimes Yeah I did in regards to the LGBT community. You agree with their protests? May I ask what happened for you to take such a stance against Faith? Something genuinely must have happened for you to challenge It? Do you reject the Bible?” / X (twitter.com)

 

In either case, this one like all these trolls came with the usual tell tales of a person who start with guns blazing on attack mode as their own perception for being a “mighty keyboard warrior” feels like vindication.  In reality, as you will see in any examples I am citing, they were very confused about many basic facts, and they have no shortage of double standards when it comes to their thought process.

Eventually this and the others stopped bothering me, but I did take them for a ride around their own biases until they had to hit the proverbial brick wall.  My life is still as good as it was before we ever interacted.

If I was a betting man, both of them – none of whom I’ve ever heard of again, likely still have the ordeal of our conversation chewing inside their minds – even if unconsciously.  I am very familiar with putting the proverbial mirror in front of people if push comes to shove, and they will see their demons displayed in full sight.

We can try to run from the truth, but ultimately, we can never run from ourselves.  I don’t do this to be punitive, on the contrary, I might be the only person who is actually affording them the opportunity to see themselves for who they really are.  Even if they don’t realize it now and won’t realize it for a while why this was for their own good.

Are they going to change?  I don’t know – but I did my part.  Behind each troll I saw a scared lonely person.  Understand that people can be alone in a crowd and even when in a committed relationship.  In every case their avatar has “something” that was not them as their own person (not even a depiction of themselves), and of course their profile had no link to show who they really are.

That to me is cowardly because if you are “brave enough” to say something offensive, then you should be brave enough to show who you really are, and stand-by your words and actions.  It is worth noting my avatar though cartoonish is a depiction of me, and my profiles have links to my online presence, so you can see who I am as a person.  I’m not hiding.

In fact, I have been very vocal about everything you get to read on my site.  Actually, although it might seem paradoxical, I have been writing these cultural-propaganda-combating articles lately because I want to go back to writing more heart-warming things.  For instance, as I sit here overlooking my backyard and my daughter playing on her bike – I feel very sorry that a lot of confused people will be in the driver’s seat as she grows to the point where I can no longer function.  A lot of these confused people out there are gaining traction, and they are very much aligned with the example I’ve cited, and the others I’ll speak of in the future.

I’ll talk a bit more about each case if you guys want, and you can see this or any of our full conversations on our twitter page at the following link under the “replies” tab to enjoy all my comments.

Posts with replies by HALF Life Crisis (@crisis_half) / X (twitter.com)

 

Part 1 – The Homophobic Religious Intimidator.

To contextualize Pope Francis (Catholic) says he has changed his stance as far as blessing same sex couples to marry.  I commented that I am glad the Catholic Church is moving forward on this topic.  The homophobic comments soon after followed.  Apparently, they are very concerned about what consenting people do in private.  To me that’s creepy.

For the one I am citing, I came to find out that he is Catholic, he is definitely homophobic – but he is also [claiming to be] hiding because he is afraid of Muslim people in the United Kingdom.  As the conversation progresses you can see how his bravado lost a lot of traction.  I’ve had conversations like this one thousands of times throughout my life.  Usually, they end in a similar way.  They will realize they are indeed practicing double standards – even if they don’t voice it out loud.

ZakTheTemplar ✝️ on X: “@crisis_half @nytimes Yeah I did in regards to the LGBT community. You agree with their protests? May I ask what happened for you to take such a stance against Faith? Something genuinely must have happened for you to challenge It? Do you reject the Bible?” / X (twitter.com)

But everything I say to them is intended to create a sense of self-awareness and bring them full circle.  Especially if they are hypocrites.  By giving firm compassion (but not letting myself to be run over – that is not the same) – it flies in the face of their misconceptions.  They will get bitterly defensive and kick and scream – that is normal and expected.  They are actually realizing (even unconsciously) that they have been lying to themselves all along.

This is normal, and it is part of indoctrination and propagandistic purposes.  Paradoxically, this man is convinced that he is holding the truth – but his facts do not add up.  I would go on a limb to ascertain that he might actually lose his faith in the future – but not anytime soon.   He calmed down a lot as our conversation progressed – but it is because I know how traumatic this can be to a person like him.  He is lost, he needed help.  I don’t attack a person while they are down.

The man been attacking others ever since our interaction, and likely won’t understand what these double standards were for a while.  It would be extremely naïve for me to think this will resonate immediately based on his deep level of indoctrination.  But the seeds of this interaction will continue to be chewed in the back of his mind until one day he will wake up screaming with the epiphany.  That is normally how it goes down.

So why did I even entertain interacting with this person in the first place?  Well, because the problem is a lot larger than one person – like him many are thinking the same thing – but they are just not going to compel themselves to express their homophobic rhetoric openly.  It is worth repeating that this man just so happens to subscribe to Catholicism, and in no way, this implies that every Catholic out there is anywhere this extreme or confused.

My message was simple, why do you care what other consenting people do in the privacy of their bedroom?  He (like many religious parishioners – no matter their fate) threatened me with hell.  Which is funny because he actually thought I was perhaps a same-sex couple, I’m not – I’m a dude married to a lady and we have a daughter.  I am straight, but I am also not an asshole who judges people for their sexual orientation.  I say, if people love who they love as long as it is consensual – that is fine, and otherwise it is none of my business.  Just like what happens in the privacy of my marriage is none of anybody’s business – that simple.

Our conversation, after he started a keyboard attack, eventually met a head-on challenge to his stance on [misinterpreting the doctrines] on his own faith – while I was also defending other faiths.  None of which I practice by the way – but I am not a religious basher.  In fact, I always say that a person should be free to worship whatever makes them a good person.  It is when this worshiping start to usurp other people’s rights that I have a problem with.  And what he was doing was exactly that – particularly bashing same sex couples.

I realize he is still spewing a lot of divisive talking points – but I am more interested in shedding light on why these are so toxic.  Of course, I wrote an entire book about it, and it will be released sometime in 2024 as of the time I am typing this article.  But the reason is because some (and by some, I mean unfortunately a bunch) of people use their religion (whatever they subscribe to) as a catalyst and justification for doing some really messed up things onto others.

I find it especially atrocious when they frame in a manner that they are doing us a favor by imposing their doctrines by force.  And funny enough this very person says he is very much against owning guns – yet he is perfectly ok rejoicing if people would have an eternal damnation because they happen to love somebody from the same sex.  And again, why should that be any of his business?  An omnipotent deity does not need an errand boy to pass judgement.

But on judgement, they say in different sentences that only their God can judge.  But yet he started this entire conversation by attacking me for appreciating that the Pope was finally ending a centuries old prosecution of LGBTQ people.  For the more homophobic group I would emphasize – sure you don’t have to understand it, but that does not give anybody license for treating others with disrespect.  And plainly, it is nobody’s business if two consenting people love each other – except for those two people in that relationship.

That shortsightedness and negative rhetoric against LGBTQ really bothers me –Why?  Because they are people – we are all people, and we all deserve to live in peace.  All this extremist propaganda attempting to portray them as “groomers” in a derogatory manner, or any other nonsense is not only extremely insulting, it is also extremely dangerous.  Not just for the people who are targeted, but for the minds of those who tend to normalize this misunderstanding, and giving credence to a few ignorant people who speak from a self-proclaimed holier-than-thou platform.

And the [saddest] truth is that most people who have a problem with LGBTQ people happen to be also very much invested in whatever religion they profess.  Is that bad for religion?  Not necessarily, there are plenty of congregations who have evolved in their thinking and are not bigoted.  In fact, there are plenty of pastors who are LGBTQ.  I’m not a religious person myself, and even with that fact, I do not condone discrimination against any person whose faith makes them happy and fulfilled individuals.

In fact, I have friends from any faith you can imagine.  And some of them also have no faith at all – but we all have something in common – we are all human beings!  It is actually surprising to some people how many more similarities than differences we have – even when we span diverse cultures around the world. For example, that is what makes the United States of America such a wonderful nation.  We have living representation of essentially every corner of the world.

Our diversity is our strongest weapon – that is why outside entities who want to diminish America’s influence in the world first attack our diversity.  When we are fighting among each other, then we are weaker as a nation.  Somebody wins when that happens – and it is not America.  This divisive rhetoric has been running rampant in other countries around the world, and it has been successful at dividing their people.  Fortunately, most of the younger generations are a lot more open to the fact we are more similar than different.

The (perhaps) young man with whom I had this exchange did not care about those instances.  He was more interested in seeing the world from his own small viewfinder, and judging anybody else who did not see it the same way.  More than once I told him that his argument was not a compelling one.  I know for a fact that it hit him like a ton of bricks.  But regardless my message is unifying while his was divisive.  And I stand-by my words.

But it is worth noting that sometimes this division does not only happen on one side of politics.  Sometimes those who seem to be posing as “social justice warriors” might go on the opposition and ram way past the point of balance.  Hence, this makes people who otherwise would be like-minded and willing to be part of the combined solution instead take a wide “v” in a different direction.  What do I mean by this?  Sometimes people who might seem to be “on your side” from certain vantage points are actually more dead weight than help.

And it is this latter group that gives credence to these trolls.  It feeds their misconceptions and encourages that communication breakdown.  I am not advising people to engage with trolls, but I am saying that some of these trolls are just very sad lonely people who are clamoring for attention.  And because of that, they are actually quite vulnerable to exploitation by somebody actually smarter than they think they are.  And this exploitation can give them a “sense of purpose” – and this purpose can (and has) turn into a nefarious action.  Whatever this might be.

 

Part 2 (Coming soon) – The Climate Change Denier Conspiracy Theorist.

This dude even erased our conversation from his profile – which proves my point.  But You can enjoy it the next time you see this series, it is still immortalized under my own profile.

I originally wanted to put both parts in one article, but Part 1 took longer than I thought.  So, I decided while writing a mid-article that it was best to put it into a series.  You can look forward to the entire recount of that situation – it is tragically amusing, then eventually just becomes pathetic.  But it is worth checking out.

As I am getting closer to wrapping this article, please let me know if you want to see more of this topic.  I am not trying to bash these people; I want to use them as an example of how propaganda is alive and well – and how it is poisoning the universal discourse.  Yes, this is a global problem, not just a problem in the USA.

For future articles, let me know which one you want me to write first:

1. Please let me know if you want me to tell you the story about the “patriot who never served in uniform, but who is perfectly ok with stolen valor photos.”

2. Or the “dude who has an avatar with a depiction of ‘American Psycho’ and claims that his whole reason to join threads is to antagonize ‘liberals’ on the Threads app.”

3. Or the aforementioned “Climate Denier Conspiracy Theorist” who seems to be a lonely person who even his pet cat dislike him, and more than likely (and sadly) he will die alone.

Both of those gentlemen for 1 & 2 are very much enamored with Far-Right political views, and show how convoluted their world view can be.  For 3, I am not sure if he is left or right wing – but he is certainly a very confused individual.

In either case, my intent is not to put these guys out as the outliers – but rather to serve as a case study and as examples for how propaganda can rapidly spread misinformation.  In either case once they decide to comment on my site, that is consent for me to comment on their views.  I make it perfectly clear that I will do so if I find it important enough to create awareness.  Like them, there are many who will either vote for a crazy leader or even contemplate violence – even if in their minds they mean well.

Their profiles are also anonymous.  Like I mentioned before, they do not have the valor to show who they are behind their avatars.  I say this because I do not condone retaliation against any person.  If they had any actual identifiable information, I would not be using them as an example.  With that said, I hope you find as much value (or more) in our interactions as I did.  HLC