Guys, he’s only getting in trouble because people are tattling on him. If y’all would stop pointing out that he’s breaking the rules, he wouldn’t get in trouble, which would mean he’s not actually breaking the rules.
And suddenly your dominoes tumble like a house of cards. Checkmate. QUID. PRO. QUO.
Accidentally posted a reply in the other thread but deleted it. Clicked on the wrong reply. Also, the reply to moderator functionality seems like that should not be visible to others. That’s confusing. I probably would have sent a direct message instead if I had known that.
Heh. What was I saying about conservatives and accepting responsibility?
The same thing I said in the post immediately before yours? 
I want to apologize and let me go on record with a correction:
Nobody on the other thread is suggesting that Trump is trying to invent new votes.
Sorry for implying otherwise.
That was very, very bigly of you. Thank you.
Eta: now, if only Octoputz could come to a similar revelation…
Indeed so!
By now the statue in question has 5 feet of pigeon shit built up on top of it.
“Implying”?
[From the ATMB thread]
That’s because they are.
To be a GOP supporter right now you HAVE to also be a troll. This endless hand-wringing about is he or isn’t he, where we need a mind-reading device to be “sure” that they are, is just such endless & pointless mental masturbation. The end result is the same-discussion and debate are devalued and sidetracked, the message board experience is thus lessened in quality. That the “one” kind is doing so fully knowingly, and the “other” utterly unconsciously, is utterly beside the point.
This exactly. The Republican party is trolling America. Right wing media is trolling the people.
To follow them is to be a troll. If you repeat the rantings of a troll, then you are trolling (except of course if you make the disclaimer and simply point out examples of trolling you find in the wild).
If you believe this shit, then you are stupid and delusional. But being stupid and delusional doesn’t mean that you cannot also be a troll.
I don’t know. I believe in fighting ignorance. People who sincerely believe wrong things are fundamentally different from people who are intentionally winding people up because they enjoy making other people upset.
I do agree that the result is the same. But I guess I’d want the former to be modded about where an when to post their wrong views, vs being warned for trolling.
A failure to heed mod instructions would weigh on the side of it being intentional. But I do think that intent matters.
And no, you don’t have to be a mind reader. Our criminal justice system requires that bad intent be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. There are plenty of ways to infer what someone’s intent is without being a mind reader.
I sincerely believe that there is no such thing as a god, and yet, I would be intentionally winding people up if I were to announce this in a church.
Even though I am 100% sure that I am correct on this, I’d be trolling.
In this world, you can choose to know things, or you can choose to be ignorant, all the information you could ever want is at your fingertips. There is a difference between fighting ignorance, and presenting information to those who otherwise would not have access to it, and fighting the ignorant, who refuse to accept anything that does not fit their preconceived world view.
The first has value, the second is just feeding the trolls.
If you feel you must: (“Somebody is wrong on the internet!”) provide them with one or two links to good sources where they can remedy their ignorance. Do not engage, do not “debate”. This will save you endless time and you will not be feeding the trolls. To pretend it is a debate is to acknowledge there is a point and you are providing them a platform. (more replies, more clicks, more “relevance”)
Precisely! It’s really quite simple.
Of course you’re never engaging with any expectation of ever affecting the troll’s opinions or behaviors. But it can sometimes be a judgment call whether it’s worth responding to counter misinformation for the benefit of lurking readers who just may not be familiar with already-much-debunked nonsense.
I think of the modern GOP as soldiers of 4chan.
If you are giving the benefit of doubt – Still do not engage, just link to good sources.*
The chance that you have found the first JAQ-off that is asking in good faith is vanishing small. If you want to spend your time throwing balls to Sea lions: Be my guest, but do not pretend you are doing it for other reasons than a love of pontificating.
*I would advise to ignore them. Imagine the kind of person that is truly ignorant, spouting right-wing talking points AND posting on the SDMB – I cannot imagine that person and do not see a bridge in the background.
Many years ago we’d get people coming into GD offering impossible to refute reasons why the Earth is 6,000 or so years old. They clearly were posting stuff from their church. They would get met by reasons they were wrong. Most of them went away - those weren’t trolls, just wrong. Any who kept posting bullshit and Gish galloped us would be trolls.
One even looked at the responses and changed his mind. Miracles do happen.
But the reasons the earth is old weren’t on the front page of every newspaper and on every TV news show then. Today you have to avoid contradictory information or refuse to pay attention to it. Which, if one keeps posting, seems like trollish behavior to me.
And in the inverse, in that - all those 4chan minions are clamouring and fighting to support their GOP leaders. Support, that can, however, evapourate in the form of primarying. Actually 4chan are more soldiers of Trump than the GOP.