Heaven knows I've had a few rants in my time. Not everything that attracts my ire is always 100% justifiable, but I like to think there is at least a rational basis for it. As we reach the end of the Trump era, it strikes me that we live in a society with anger levels at a height never seen.With a President who has spent four years tweeting bile at the world and with many of us stuck indoors with nothing to do, I guess that we perhaps shouldn't be too surprised. But there is rational anger, caused by injustice and there is just being angry for the sake of it, seeking out ever more trivial things to get the hump about. This morning I saw new heights of this ridiculous stupidity on Twitter. I've been following an account run by a lady in Portsmouth for a while, who tweets all manner of amusing and entertaining items. Some of it is slightly risque, most of it is very funny. It's the sort of thing that you follow because it appeals to your sense of humour and if it doesn't you simply don't bother. Quite a few people clearly have a similar sense of humour to me, as the account has nearly 50K followers.
Today, for reasons I can't quite comprehend, a rather obnoxious soul decided to troll the account holder and its followers. I can only assume that it is something to do with the need to seek attention. I've had my share of deranged trolls, so I am not totally unfamilar with the process. I've learned that the best thing to do is to block and ignore. Todays Troll account got a lot of ire and, rather strangely seemed to be positively revelling in it. I had a quick look through their post history prior to putting this blog together. It seems that trolling unsuspecting people, usually females, is a favourite passtime of the poor soul. He seems to delight in trying to upset people and ruin peoples day. I can understand that in politics and football, such banter is par for the course. I can't however understand why someone would want to troll an account that is purely there to put a smile on peoples faces. It does appear to me that there is a psycho-sexual aspect to it. I don't know the lady who runs the account, but it is pretty clear that she's not a shrinking violet who is prepared to take such nonsense. I suspect that this in some way challenges the insecurities of the sad individual in question.
Social media, especially public platforms such as Twitter are a fertile breeding ground for keyboard warriors. In the current climate, empowered by the blatherings of people like Trump, who seemingly do not even comprehend the concept of good manners and civility, they have carte blanche to insult and offend.In a soceity where a premium is put on free speech, I guess we are lumbered with these lunkheads. There are three things we can do. 1. Block them. 2. Post statetments of support to those they insult (don't tag in the Troll) 3. Report them if they violate the platform rules.
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