Outrage is wasted on trolls, as is the expectation of intelligent and informed debate

Nothing goes up my nose more than people who hurtle to a conclusion by reading a headline and then spray their hostility in comments that have no connection to the article. They have already decided not to agree, not to like the author and to go for it all guns blazing. Either they did not finish it or understand it. But like Custer they have taken a stand. And we know what happened to Custer. It’s pointless being outraged or ‘in’-raged because it is so frustrating. Sometimes they don’t even have the plain rung one common sense to read the report or article and will ignore 99.9 percent of it and cling like clams to three or four words which they then feel justifies their harangue. Then there is that monster, humour. It is such a treacherously dangerous place. With people increasingly becoming thin-skinned and super-sensitive, hunting for slight humour is a greasy pole. Their sense of indignation is only beaten for sheer comic relief by those who take humour literally. I wrote a funny piece two weeks about a newly-wed couple sitting next to me on a plane. It kind of went viral but one person wrote to me and said this: ‘You are obviously a dirty old man who was ogling the young couple and spoiling their innocent joy with your contempt and your rudeness. Just because you don’t understand young love does not give you the right to mock them. I pity you.’ Say what? She pities me. After reading it I told my restless outrage to cool it, just wasn’t worth bothering about. Trolls take the cake. If you’ve noticed, their remarks are largely sexual all of which underscore three aspects: they are poorly endowed by Nature, they have very low self esteem and are sexually frustrated. It must require an outrageously ugly mind to hide behind anonymity and some stupid infantile title and then let go of one’s sick desires by aiming them at others who, rightly or wrongly, at least have the courage to identify themselves. And the thoughts expressed are grotesque. Here is neither sanity of debate nor courtesy nor anything but profanity dressed in drag. Yes, you do feel outraged but you are only exhausting yourself. Several people have tried to explain to me the role of a troll. I don’t see it. It’s like telling me termites have a positive side to them or cockroaches can be buddies once you get to know them. Trolls also destroy the ‘comments’ section of any website by starting a fight among themselves that is not even remotely connected to the subject at hand. So, I, for one, have failed to find any redeeming feature in this tribe. Piff piff, comes in a can and destroys all pests. Then there are the ones still anonymous who evidently know of the author and his or her history and they go all out to make it up close, personal and vicious and get even for the past. An asp would die of shame witnessing the sheer toxicity of their venom. Do they feel a certain catharsis, like does it make them feel brave and beautiful when they verbally assault other people’s mothers and sisters and wives and suggest sexual acts that boggle the mind or twist and corrupt other religions with language so rancid it stinks the screen up? Of course, it is outrageous. That so many humans given the gift of intelligence would stoop to live in the mental gutter is depressing. On one of my posts there is a guy this morning who has taken a paragraph of filth and pasted it about 50 times. Think of it. He woke up this morning, brushed his teeth (presumably) had a bath (on the outside at least) ate breakfast and then decided that he would now engage in this literary pursuit of using a phrase about pussy or something and jump start his day by pasting it scores of times. What do you think he felt at the end of this exercise? Triumphant? Warm with a sense of achievement? Relieved by his verbal masturbation? Or all these? You have to conclude that such people are failures. In everything. That is why they have the time to be craven cowards. Even outrage is a wasted expression for them. Whatever happened to Intelligent and Informed Debate. She died, yes? Missed our ‘Outrage’ edition for Independence Day 2016? Read it here .