What is with all the conservative trolls on non-political message boards?

[TrogL]

It seems I can't go anywhere on the net anymore without being somewhere infected by Freepers. I could be in the middle of a technical discussion and suddenly one of them pops up babbling about "librulz" and Obamacare.

Here's an example..

http://www.gocomics.com/shoe/2013/12/15#.UrBrfPvO2M0

"Skyler would be a natural as a fast food worker…he expects everything to be handed to him for nothing. Obviously a liberal with his entitled, grubby little palm out."

[Skidmore]

1. Chalking up post numbers?

Then they hit the main boards when they think there is enough to go unnoticed. That one either is subtle or forgot the sarcasm thingy.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

22. agreed

[ChisolmTrailDem]

2. Koch Brothers' money. Those two need to be dealt with. n/t

[Turbineguy]

3. Times are tough

and being an asshole comes naturally.

I wonder if it pays well......

[Blue_Tires]

4. Where have you been?

At one time years ago I was active on three dozen car/sports/gaming message boards, and they were all around then (and this was when Clinton was still in his second term)...

And don't get me started on the old AOL days...

[AgingAmerican]

5. It's what you do when you cannot win

on an intellectual level.

[seabeckind]

6. Almost like a dark army

just waiting to see where their forces might be needed.

I just posted a comment about Facebook and the way its policy is exploited -- and how I'm dropping out. I am particularly vexed by the big movement to "identify" yourself. Having an Obama sign in your front yard isn't good enough, I guess.

I've looked for any local forums that might be used to push a liberal agenda. Good luck with that. Our great democratic party only wakes up around election time.

But the dark army never sleeps.

And yes, it is a conspiracy.

[freedumb]

7. i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say a massive level of unintelligence is the main cause...

i imagine trolls are generally less than smart folks who have absolutely nothing better to do with their time...

and of course there's a scientifically proven correlation between low intelligence levels and an affinity for being conservative.

so just put together the dots and the picture becomes pretty clear as to why trolls are cons by and large.

conservatives are smart enough to know they have freedumb of speech... unfortunately their stupidity precludes them from ever having anything ever of substance to say ever...

[Enthusiast]

29. It's an organized coordinated effort.

These are mostly paid contributors. This is being done in an effort to direct popular culture, to promote a specific meme. Like, "Government never does anything right." Or, "Unions have outlived their usefulness."

[Feral Child]

8. Nothin' else ta dew...

Bored, frustrated little assholes.

Stormfront and FR get slow, they have to vent somewhere so they spill out all over the webs.

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. if one genuinely believed the nutty crap that right-wing media promotes it would make perfect

sense to try to fight the atheist totalitarian communist sharia law tyranny that we are rapidly sliding into. What if you did actually believe that the Obama Administration especially with Obamacare was rapidly pushing us into a communist, Sharia law dictatorship? If you actually believed that - what would you do?

[sendero]

14. exactly..

.. and these fact-free people DO believe it. After all, they heard it on the Raydio or the TeeVee.

The real problem in America is that there are lots of stupid people.

[HughBeaumont]

10. When you're not loved, all you can do is hate.

. . . and hate gonna skip NO topic!

[msongs]

11. "grubby little palm out"? who knew the MIC was liberal lol nt

[Beearewhyain]

12. I have been trying to figure that out for some time

Why would, as a group, conservatives behave in a manner that they themselves would never accept from anyone else. We have all seen it. From the crazy uncle during family gatherings accusing "liberals" of the most outlandish and unrealistic atrocities to FB "friends" who have absolutely no information clutch and spew incorrect but self reinforcing garbage. All the while, those I know to be on the left side of the issues demur or never engage.

I think that there seems to be some general misunderstanding about who and how many believe what. According to a recent study conservatives overestimate how many people share their views while liberal underestimate support. So, to imagine myself in the mind of your average conservative (a scary exercise indeed) I would be thinking that I am just saying what everyone else is thinking. When liberals don't at least raise an objection, due to thinking their views are more "unique", it reinforces the conservatives misplaced view of the social dominance of their views. It would seem that it also allows them to more readily disseminate offensive viewpoints as they think those view are socially prevalent.

On the good side, I think that vocal conservatives are doing their side great harm by being so open about what they think as those views are not shared by as many others as they think.

[kestrel91316]

13. I am pretty much convinced that the Kochs hire a small army of people to do this.

[TrogL]

15. Agreed, and I think they ramped it up about six months ago

They're everywhere

[Mariana]

16. They're completely obsessed with it.

These are probably the same people we've all run across who must have Fox News and RW radio on at all times. Chances are that jackass was listening to that crap while he was typing that post.

[Jamaal510]

17. That was something I wondered myself,

particularly when it comes to the YouTube comments and sports forums. I saw a video of a somebody picking their nose, and some bozo in the comments said "must be an Obama supporter." I was thinking 'what the Hell'. I regret doing this, but I was baited into responding to the person and basically telling him/her to self-fornicate. Generally-speaking, I have seen more pro-libertarian comments and anti-Obama comments than anything else, even on videos that are not related to politics whatsoever. There's really not much to do about that except ignore these people, or stay away from the site. From this, I have deducted that many RWers don't have lives, and they stay online, drinking Haterade.

[Populist_Prole]

18. It's getting really irritating now. Glad it's not just me that notices.

I participate in forums for aviation, classic cars, railroads, movies, and while each of them had a board for off topic, general subjects ( like the DU lounge ) with the usual conservatives ( though I wouldn't call them trolls ) at least they didn't shit where they ate. That was then.

Now I notice conservative's preaching is spilling over into clinical topics. For years I've seen posters talk about the subject at hand but in the past several years ( since the Obama admin? ) they've gotten political where before I never knew their politics - AND - They've gotten a LOT more vocal. They're getting threads locked left and right for going off topic and starting flame wars because they just can not STFU about their politics.

[politichew]

19. I have experienced the same.

The Internet has way too many teabaggers and libertarians.

[ck4829]

20. They are grasping at straws and setting up strawmen to knock down

They go onto non-political boards mostly populated by non-political people, blame a liberal for something that has nothing to do with the message in the board, and hope nobody refutes their points. Therefore they win.

They really have sunk that far.

[Populist_Prole]

21. Good observations

Especially the part where they think unrefuted points they make constitute a "win". Some have gotten so petty they'll post very late nigh/early morning just so they'll have a chance at having the last word....for a few hours anyway. Then you get the ones that are like a rubber stamp: They simply try to "gish gallop" or outpost by sheer numbers. They seem to have all the time in the world to post while most have to fit it into daily life.

[alp227]

25. My thoughts too! The textbook definition of trolling.

Being disruptive and making the discussion more personal than intellectual because the post incites anger among the community. Trolls "feel" like winners like that.

[winter is coming]

23. It wouldn't surprise me if someone on the RW pays for this to spread their BS and make it appear

more widely accepted than it is. All it would take is money and a lack of shame, two things the RW has in abundance.

[MisterP]

24. "racist Tourrette's"

it's also the reason for the chestnut "don't discuss politics or religion at the table"--because the discussion isn't ever "Paine vs. Boas" but "accusations of sharia law vs. accusations of supporting what Germany did to us at Pearl Harbor"

[Notafraidtoo]

26. I see it all the time too.

One thing i have noticed is the codewords are different depending on the type of forum, for instance in video game and MMO forums the word entitled is most often used by conservatives, most people ignore it with no comment, i don't think its having any affect in fact I believe its turning people against them with their negativity and paranoia.

One thing liberals have a huge advantage in and that's nice,smart,funny and loving people, no one likes paranoid,racist,tough love assholes, for some reason right wingers think that is what being an adult is..

If i was wealthy and unethical i would hire a army of right wingers underpaid of coarse ( when you advocate for lower pay you should be paid what you advocate) people to be over the top tea party types to invade all forums with the truth about their policy's by advocating for them with complete honesty not the code words they use now( i would give them a script and have quality control to make sure its the truth and not code words), because i honestly think they are their own worse enemy and letting everyone know what they really believe would destroy them forever.

I believe by doing this i could erase most of the effort of the Right wing think tanks that spend fortunes trying to find the right words to make poor and middle class people accept less so the wealthy can have more or so they can privatize something that would be a disaster for retirees like social security all so wall street can have a new fascist like market ( because of coarse they want the government to give them the "investment" from our paychecks) .

[sibelian]

27. Just respond with "That's nice, dear."

Or just "ROFL".

If the board isn't for politics, forget about arguing politics with them, they're just there to stink the place up.

[Ikonoklast]

28. They are recruited en masse and paid to post under multiple aliases on multiple websites.

http://politicalomnivore.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-do-i-get-paid-to-be-on-line-troll.html