I’ve decided to put into words a “cyber journal entry,” for lack of better phrasing. This comes less than 24 hours after holding a Trump sign outside a school in the suburbs. I will first mention my gratitude in having the freedom of speech that one has when not being a candidate or paid spokesperson for a candidate.
In more blunt terms, let’s call it freedom from old-school manners.
Trolling happens in the adult world, mostly online, but unsurprisingly, also in person, especially when it comes to Trump. I volunteered to do my part and put in some time holding his sign and joined some like-minded folks yesterday. A surly man approached me and asked why I support Trump. My rusty, knee-jerk reaction was to go into salesman mode as if I had just rang this stranger’s doorbell. When I randomly named a few of the common answers to his question, he went into full-blown high-on CNN Kool-Aid mode.
After a few volleys, I said, “I can see where this discussion is going, and I’m done talking to you.” When he claimed to be an undecided independent, which was possibly partially true or a total lie, I said, “It’s obvious that you’ve rehearsed all the scripted talking points to refute me, no matter what path we take.” Like a school bully, he said, “but so have you.” I replied, “but YOU were the one who approached me and initiated this talk.”
At this point, one of my peers, who happened to be a good subject matter expert in one of the commonly debated related topics, stepped in and took over. A few minutes later, he went into the building. A while after that, a couple approached our group, and they similarly initiated such talk. This time, I was a passive observer as they split up the discussion, kind of like doing man-to-man instead of zone defense. After a few minutes of that unpleasantness, I thought about my cold extremities and full bladder. I told the last unoccupied team member that I was leaving and didn’t want to interrupt either of the other two. This trend of brick-and-mortar trolling was definitely taking up too much space in my mind in the hours that followed. I thought of my mother and her “sticks and stones” lecture that is commonly given to small school children, so so was in the 70s. Then I thought about the whole modern “walk away” concept, which is difficult to implement in such a venue.
At this point, it should be clarified that this article is not about the merits of voting for Trump or criticism of his critics. It’s about handling one particular variety of them. While there are many varieties of them, I’m not going to mince words. I’m talking about the plain old-ass hole variety. They clearly have no interest in polite discourse in bringing people together as evidenced in their modus operandi. They are just agitators wanting to troll. I thought about ways to shut them down, not silencing them but shutting down their dialogue with those uninterested in engagement with their drivel. The minefield to navigate is their switching of tactics to debating WHY you’re unwilling to have their conversation. They will, of course, insult you for that. Don’t dignify them by playing defense. I will refer you to a 4-minute Prager U parenting podcast.
When a kid asks their parents WHY they just barked a particular order, the parents are advised to say, “Because I said so.” That used to drive me nuts as a kid when my parents, mostly my mother, did that once I “poked the bear” too hard in my persistent pursuit to have my way. Don’t let the troll play armchair cross-examining lawyer with you. Say “I would prefer not to (have this conversation)” when approached with a “why do you support Trump” and smell ill intentions. Of course, this requires a bit of profiling and supposition, but such people are not going to just disappear. Implementing the philosophy of acceptance (that they’re here to stay) is necessary. It’s a good idea to have tools in your toolbox, and this is one of them.
I also recommend the 2001 movie Bartleby the Scrivener if you’re into that kind of humor.
So, all in all, I share these thoughts that might prove helpful to some but not necessarily to all. If you, dear reader, think this tactic might be useful, try it. But then again, maybe you “would prefer not to.”
