The Onion's editor on Trump and the press

[mudwhistle]

The editor of The Onion (the greatest site in the history of historical histories) sat for an interview and had some interesting things to say. Great stuff.

On Trump:
He talks about how it can be difficult to satirize someone who is so absurd to begin with: "The other challenge about this administration is that so many of their policies and things, like for the EPA, they almost feel like satire. You’re just cutting everything that would protect the environment or making it easier for people to pollute. That’s the kind of thing that you would in the past make jokes about. I think we had an article years ago that said something like: “EPA: Rivers Aren’t Supposed to Smell like Shit.” And you can’t really do that kind of joke now because that’s not really where their focus is. It goes throughout the Department of Interior. We used to do lots of jokes about various things — laying off animals and stuff like that. It’s not quite as relevant now because they’re not functioning at a normal level.

"But I think Trump’s surrogates are a little bit easier. We had an article that they were just going to have ongoing going-away parties. There was another one about how the nation didn’t think it could re-assimilate all the former Trump employees.

On the Media:
"I think sometimes it’s just so self-serious. It has been in different stages. The first few months of the Trump administration, it just felt like people took every single thing he said so seriously. And it’s like, really? Even if they’re not funny, they’re tongue-in-cheek arguments where he’s deliberately trying to troll people. I think the press goes running off in the wrong direction: “Look what he’s doing! Look what he’s doing!” And you make a huge deal out of what he says and it’s missing the point of everything. In a way, they’re doing exactly what he wants: freaking out about nothing. And that’s what’s been happening a lot in this country.

"And it kind of lends credence to saying it’s a witch hunt. I’ve seen people literally do a witch hunt on powerless people and attack them. It’s kind of crazy that people are doing that or that they want to immediately take away someone’s First Amendment rights and say you can’t speak, like conservatives who want to speak on college campuses. It makes no sense to me. Let people speak. Don’t make them into martyrs who aren’t allowed to speak and then their message is amplified. They’re going to draw more people if they become proponents of the First Amendment, versus whatever message you disagreed with. It’s a very dangerous situation.

How Trump changed everything for The Onion
.

Yeah, Trump is such a buffoon that he's been able to do things in a year Obama couldn't do in 8 years.

 

[jknowgood]

The editor of The Onion (the greatest site in the history of historical histories) sat for an interview and had some interesting things to say. Great stuff.


"And it kind of lends credence to saying it’s a witch hunt. I’ve seen people literally do a witch hunt on powerless people and attack them. It’s kind of crazy that people are doing that or that they want to immediately take away someone’s First Amendment rights and say you can’t speak, like conservatives who want to speak on college campuses. It makes no sense to me. Let people speak. Don’t make them into martyrs who aren’t allowed to speak and then their message is amplified. They’re going to draw more people if they become proponents of the First Amendment, versus whatever message you disagreed with. It’s a very dangerous situation.

How Trump changed everything for The Onion
.

Stormy Mac thinks that we should have Nazis on campus...

Um... No.

The Germans throw these people in Jail. But they know what it's like when these people get power.

Yes we are paying attention to people like yourself. We see how you treated Kanye West when he had an opion you didn't like. Your kind gave him death threats, how Nazi of you.

 

[gipper]

As with all things there is a line that isn't drawn by censorship, bigotry or hatred but drawn by prudence. I mean, would you want to give a self-confessed white supremacists 90 minutes to convince your 11th grade son or daughter that they have the correct view on the world? Probably not. Not sure why you'd be okay with it in their freshman year of college or their senior year for that matter.

Point well made.

The thing Stormy Mac doesn't seem to get is that when you let a Richard Spencer on campus to preach his hate and bile, you've elevated his hate and bile to a level of intellectualism it doesn't deserve.

...in other words, it is okay for leftists to preach hate and bile, but not rightists.

Did I get that right?

 

[candycorn]

As with all things there is a line that isn't drawn by censorship, bigotry or hatred but drawn by prudence. I mean, would you want to give a self-confessed white supremacists 90 minutes to convince your 11th grade son or daughter that they have the correct view on the world? Probably not. Not sure why you'd be okay with it in their freshman year of college or their senior year for that matter.

Point well made.

The thing Stormy Mac doesn't seem to get is that when you let a Richard Spencer on campus to preach his hate and bile, you've elevated his hate and bile to a level of intellectualism it doesn't deserve.

True that. And there is also the unspoken endorsement that goes along with a college hosting a speaker. I can't blame a college for not wanting their name associated with white supremacy .

 

[gipper]

As with all things there is a line that isn't drawn by censorship, bigotry or hatred but drawn by prudence. I mean, would you want to give a self-confessed white supremacists 90 minutes to convince your 11th grade son or daughter that they have the correct view on the world? Probably not. Not sure why you'd be okay with it in their freshman year of college or their senior year for that matter.

Point well made.

The thing Stormy Mac doesn't seem to get is that when you let a Richard Spencer on campus to preach his hate and bile, you've elevated his hate and bile to a level of intellectualism it doesn't deserve.

True that. And there is also the unspoken endorsement that goes along with a college hosting a speaker. I can't blame a college for not wanting their name associated with white supremacy .

...but in other words...it is okay for a college to associate itself with a black supremacist, but not a white one.

Did I get that right?

 

[jknowgood]

Thanks for the link. This is hilarious! "Vice President Mike Pence is often depicted as a repressed religious fanatic who, in one memorable article, refused to be alone with a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth maple syrup until his wife arrived." LMAO!

A lot of what they do on the Onion is cute, but the problem is, Trump and Pence are beyond parody. People like Stormy Mac seem to think that Nazis on campus are the new normal... and they shouldn't be.

Yeah be damned if someone has a different opinion than yours. Like I said how Nazi like of you.

 

[Mac1958]

The editor of The Onion (the greatest site in the history of historical histories) sat for an interview and had some interesting things to say. Great stuff.

On Trump:
He talks about how it can be difficult to satirize someone who is so absurd to begin with: "The other challenge about this administration is that so many of their policies and things, like for the EPA, they almost feel like satire. You’re just cutting everything that would protect the environment or making it easier for people to pollute. That’s the kind of thing that you would in the past make jokes about. I think we had an article years ago that said something like: “EPA: Rivers Aren’t Supposed to Smell like Shit.” And you can’t really do that kind of joke now because that’s not really where their focus is. It goes throughout the Department of Interior. We used to do lots of jokes about various things — laying off animals and stuff like that. It’s not quite as relevant now because they’re not functioning at a normal level.

"But I think Trump’s surrogates are a little bit easier. We had an article that they were just going to have ongoing going-away parties. There was another one about how the nation didn’t think it could re-assimilate all the former Trump employees.

On the Media:
"I think sometimes it’s just so self-serious. It has been in different stages. The first few months of the Trump administration, it just felt like people took every single thing he said so seriously. And it’s like, really? Even if they’re not funny, they’re tongue-in-cheek arguments where he’s deliberately trying to troll people. I think the press goes running off in the wrong direction: “Look what he’s doing! Look what he’s doing!” And you make a huge deal out of what he says and it’s missing the point of everything. In a way, they’re doing exactly what he wants: freaking out about nothing. And that’s what’s been happening a lot in this country.

"And it kind of lends credence to saying it’s a witch hunt. I’ve seen people literally do a witch hunt on powerless people and attack them. It’s kind of crazy that people are doing that or that they want to immediately take away someone’s First Amendment rights and say you can’t speak, like conservatives who want to speak on college campuses. It makes no sense to me. Let people speak. Don’t make them into martyrs who aren’t allowed to speak and then their message is amplified. They’re going to draw more people if they become proponents of the First Amendment, versus whatever message you disagreed with. It’s a very dangerous situation.

How Trump changed everything for The Onion
.

Yeah, Trump is such a buffoon that he's been able to do things in a year Obama couldn't do in 8 years.

Well, there's a separation between temperament and results.

On one hand, a person can be an embarrassing buffoon but ultimately effective.

On the other, a person can be an embarrassing buffoon and ultimately ineffective.

As with most Presidents, we won't know about Trump for sure until a few years after his administration. The rest is nothing more than partisan noise.
.

 

[Mac1958]

Thanks for the link. This is hilarious! "Vice President Mike Pence is often depicted as a repressed religious fanatic who, in one memorable article, refused to be alone with a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth maple syrup until his wife arrived." LMAO!

A lot of what they do on the Onion is cute, but the problem is, Trump and Pence are beyond parody. People like Stormy Mac seem to think that Nazis on campus are the new normal... and they shouldn't be.

Yeah be damned if someone has a different opinion than yours. Like I said how Nazi like of you.

They are what they hate.
.

 

[gipper]

Thanks for the link. This is hilarious! "Vice President Mike Pence is often depicted as a repressed religious fanatic who, in one memorable article, refused to be alone with a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth maple syrup until his wife arrived." LMAO!

A lot of what they do on the Onion is cute, but the problem is, Trump and Pence are beyond parody. People like Stormy Mac seem to think that Nazis on campus are the new normal... and they shouldn't be.

Yeah be damned if someone has a different opinion than yours. Like I said how Nazi like of you.

Apparently their minds are incapable of understanding that silencing speech never works, and can lead to real harm.

 

[gipper]

Thanks for the link. This is hilarious! "Vice President Mike Pence is often depicted as a repressed religious fanatic who, in one memorable article, refused to be alone with a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth maple syrup until his wife arrived." LMAO!

A lot of what they do on the Onion is cute, but the problem is, Trump and Pence are beyond parody. People like Stormy Mac seem to think that Nazis on campus are the new normal... and they shouldn't be.

Yeah be damned if someone has a different opinion than yours. Like I said how Nazi like of you.

They are what they hate.
.

Yet they are incapable of understanding that profound truth.

 

[jknowgood]

Thanks for the link. This is hilarious! "Vice President Mike Pence is often depicted as a repressed religious fanatic who, in one memorable article, refused to be alone with a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth maple syrup until his wife arrived." LMAO!

A lot of what they do on the Onion is cute, but the problem is, Trump and Pence are beyond parody. People like Stormy Mac seem to think that Nazis on campus are the new normal... and they shouldn't be.

Yeah be damned if someone has a different opinion than yours. Like I said how Nazi like of you.

Apparently their minds are incapable of understanding that silencing speech never works, and can lead to real harm.

I know, their hate is helping Trumps approval rating.

 

[Mac1958]

Thanks for the link. This is hilarious! "Vice President Mike Pence is often depicted as a repressed religious fanatic who, in one memorable article, refused to be alone with a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth maple syrup until his wife arrived." LMAO!

A lot of what they do on the Onion is cute, but the problem is, Trump and Pence are beyond parody. People like Stormy Mac seem to think that Nazis on campus are the new normal... and they shouldn't be.

Yeah be damned if someone has a different opinion than yours. Like I said how Nazi like of you.

They are what they hate.
.

Yet they are incapable of understanding that profound truth.

I suspect they do at some level. It's why they're so nasty and miserable.
.

 

[mudwhistle]

The editor of The Onion (the greatest site in the history of historical histories) sat for an interview and had some interesting things to say. Great stuff.

On Trump:
He talks about how it can be difficult to satirize someone who is so absurd to begin with: "The other challenge about this administration is that so many of their policies and things, like for the EPA, they almost feel like satire. You’re just cutting everything that would protect the environment or making it easier for people to pollute. That’s the kind of thing that you would in the past make jokes about. I think we had an article years ago that said something like: “EPA: Rivers Aren’t Supposed to Smell like Shit.” And you can’t really do that kind of joke now because that’s not really where their focus is. It goes throughout the Department of Interior. We used to do lots of jokes about various things — laying off animals and stuff like that. It’s not quite as relevant now because they’re not functioning at a normal level.

"But I think Trump’s surrogates are a little bit easier. We had an article that they were just going to have ongoing going-away parties. There was another one about how the nation didn’t think it could re-assimilate all the former Trump employees.

On the Media:
"I think sometimes it’s just so self-serious. It has been in different stages. The first few months of the Trump administration, it just felt like people took every single thing he said so seriously. And it’s like, really? Even if they’re not funny, they’re tongue-in-cheek arguments where he’s deliberately trying to troll people. I think the press goes running off in the wrong direction: “Look what he’s doing! Look what he’s doing!” And you make a huge deal out of what he says and it’s missing the point of everything. In a way, they’re doing exactly what he wants: freaking out about nothing. And that’s what’s been happening a lot in this country.

"And it kind of lends credence to saying it’s a witch hunt. I’ve seen people literally do a witch hunt on powerless people and attack them. It’s kind of crazy that people are doing that or that they want to immediately take away someone’s First Amendment rights and say you can’t speak, like conservatives who want to speak on college campuses. It makes no sense to me. Let people speak. Don’t make them into martyrs who aren’t allowed to speak and then their message is amplified. They’re going to draw more people if they become proponents of the First Amendment, versus whatever message you disagreed with. It’s a very dangerous situation.

How Trump changed everything for The Onion
.

Yeah, Trump is such a buffoon that he's been able to do things in a year Obama couldn't do in 8 years.

Well, there's a separation between temperament and results.

On one hand, a person can be an embarrassing buffoon but ultimately effective.

On the other, a person can be an embarrassing buffoon and ultimately ineffective.

As with most Presidents, we won't know about Trump for sure until a few years after his administration. The rest is nothing more than partisan noise.
.

So you want to support the opinion of some jack-ass clown who makes a living off of spinning sarcastic yarns about politics.
The Onion is humorous but not exactly a source that one should try to go to to find the unvarnished truth.
Now if you want to explore the vivid imagination of an apathetic smart-ass, the Onion is your place.

 

[Mac1958]

The editor of The Onion (the greatest site in the history of historical histories) sat for an interview and had some interesting things to say. Great stuff.

On Trump:
He talks about how it can be difficult to satirize someone who is so absurd to begin with: "The other challenge about this administration is that so many of their policies and things, like for the EPA, they almost feel like satire. You’re just cutting everything that would protect the environment or making it easier for people to pollute. That’s the kind of thing that you would in the past make jokes about. I think we had an article years ago that said something like: “EPA: Rivers Aren’t Supposed to Smell like Shit.” And you can’t really do that kind of joke now because that’s not really where their focus is. It goes throughout the Department of Interior. We used to do lots of jokes about various things — laying off animals and stuff like that. It’s not quite as relevant now because they’re not functioning at a normal level.

"But I think Trump’s surrogates are a little bit easier. We had an article that they were just going to have ongoing going-away parties. There was another one about how the nation didn’t think it could re-assimilate all the former Trump employees.

On the Media:
"I think sometimes it’s just so self-serious. It has been in different stages. The first few months of the Trump administration, it just felt like people took every single thing he said so seriously. And it’s like, really? Even if they’re not funny, they’re tongue-in-cheek arguments where he’s deliberately trying to troll people. I think the press goes running off in the wrong direction: “Look what he’s doing! Look what he’s doing!” And you make a huge deal out of what he says and it’s missing the point of everything. In a way, they’re doing exactly what he wants: freaking out about nothing. And that’s what’s been happening a lot in this country.

"And it kind of lends credence to saying it’s a witch hunt. I’ve seen people literally do a witch hunt on powerless people and attack them. It’s kind of crazy that people are doing that or that they want to immediately take away someone’s First Amendment rights and say you can’t speak, like conservatives who want to speak on college campuses. It makes no sense to me. Let people speak. Don’t make them into martyrs who aren’t allowed to speak and then their message is amplified. They’re going to draw more people if they become proponents of the First Amendment, versus whatever message you disagreed with. It’s a very dangerous situation.

How Trump changed everything for The Onion
.

Yeah, Trump is such a buffoon that he's been able to do things in a year Obama couldn't do in 8 years.

Well, there's a separation between temperament and results.

On one hand, a person can be an embarrassing buffoon but ultimately effective.

On the other, a person can be an embarrassing buffoon and ultimately ineffective.

As with most Presidents, we won't know about Trump for sure until a few years after his administration. The rest is nothing more than partisan noise.
.

So you want to support the opinion of some jack-ass clown who makes a living off of spinning sarcastic yarns about politics.
The Onion is humorous but not exactly a source that one should try to go to to find the unvarnished truth.
Now if you want to explore the vivid imagination of an apathetic smart-ass, the Onion is your place.

Huh? You think people go to the Onion for "the unvarnished truth"?

Are you serious?
.

 

[LoneLaugher]

Man oh man! The amorphous "they" has really taken over as the topic of this thread.

 

[mudwhistle]

The editor of The Onion (the greatest site in the history of historical histories) sat for an interview and had some interesting things to say. Great stuff.

On Trump:
He talks about how it can be difficult to satirize someone who is so absurd to begin with: "The other challenge about this administration is that so many of their policies and things, like for the EPA, they almost feel like satire. You’re just cutting everything that would protect the environment or making it easier for people to pollute. That’s the kind of thing that you would in the past make jokes about. I think we had an article years ago that said something like: “EPA: Rivers Aren’t Supposed to Smell like Shit.” And you can’t really do that kind of joke now because that’s not really where their focus is. It goes throughout the Department of Interior. We used to do lots of jokes about various things — laying off animals and stuff like that. It’s not quite as relevant now because they’re not functioning at a normal level.

"But I think Trump’s surrogates are a little bit easier. We had an article that they were just going to have ongoing going-away parties. There was another one about how the nation didn’t think it could re-assimilate all the former Trump employees.

On the Media:
"I think sometimes it’s just so self-serious. It has been in different stages. The first few months of the Trump administration, it just felt like people took every single thing he said so seriously. And it’s like, really? Even if they’re not funny, they’re tongue-in-cheek arguments where he’s deliberately trying to troll people. I think the press goes running off in the wrong direction: “Look what he’s doing! Look what he’s doing!” And you make a huge deal out of what he says and it’s missing the point of everything. In a way, they’re doing exactly what he wants: freaking out about nothing. And that’s what’s been happening a lot in this country.

"And it kind of lends credence to saying it’s a witch hunt. I’ve seen people literally do a witch hunt on powerless people and attack them. It’s kind of crazy that people are doing that or that they want to immediately take away someone’s First Amendment rights and say you can’t speak, like conservatives who want to speak on college campuses. It makes no sense to me. Let people speak. Don’t make them into martyrs who aren’t allowed to speak and then their message is amplified. They’re going to draw more people if they become proponents of the First Amendment, versus whatever message you disagreed with. It’s a very dangerous situation.

How Trump changed everything for The Onion
.

Yeah, Trump is such a buffoon that he's been able to do things in a year Obama couldn't do in 8 years.

Well, there's a separation between temperament and results.

On one hand, a person can be an embarrassing buffoon but ultimately effective.

On the other, a person can be an embarrassing buffoon and ultimately ineffective.

As with most Presidents, we won't know about Trump for sure until a few years after his administration. The rest is nothing more than partisan noise.
.

So you want to support the opinion of some jack-ass clown who makes a living off of spinning sarcastic yarns about politics.
The Onion is humorous but not exactly a source that one should try to go to to find the unvarnished truth.
Now if you want to explore the vivid imagination of an apathetic smart-ass, the Onion is your place.

Huh? You think people go to the Onion for "the unvarnished truth"?

Are you serious?
.

Only people living in denial.
Same reason the Daily Show was often quoted by liberals when Jon Stewart was hosting the show.

 

[Mac1958]

The editor of The Onion (the greatest site in the history of historical histories) sat for an interview and had some interesting things to say. Great stuff.

On Trump:
He talks about how it can be difficult to satirize someone who is so absurd to begin with: "The other challenge about this administration is that so many of their policies and things, like for the EPA, they almost feel like satire. You’re just cutting everything that would protect the environment or making it easier for people to pollute. That’s the kind of thing that you would in the past make jokes about. I think we had an article years ago that said something like: “EPA: Rivers Aren’t Supposed to Smell like Shit.” And you can’t really do that kind of joke now because that’s not really where their focus is. It goes throughout the Department of Interior. We used to do lots of jokes about various things — laying off animals and stuff like that. It’s not quite as relevant now because they’re not functioning at a normal level.

"But I think Trump’s surrogates are a little bit easier. We had an article that they were just going to have ongoing going-away parties. There was another one about how the nation didn’t think it could re-assimilate all the former Trump employees.

On the Media:
"I think sometimes it’s just so self-serious. It has been in different stages. The first few months of the Trump administration, it just felt like people took every single thing he said so seriously. And it’s like, really? Even if they’re not funny, they’re tongue-in-cheek arguments where he’s deliberately trying to troll people. I think the press goes running off in the wrong direction: “Look what he’s doing! Look what he’s doing!” And you make a huge deal out of what he says and it’s missing the point of everything. In a way, they’re doing exactly what he wants: freaking out about nothing. And that’s what’s been happening a lot in this country.

"And it kind of lends credence to saying it’s a witch hunt. I’ve seen people literally do a witch hunt on powerless people and attack them. It’s kind of crazy that people are doing that or that they want to immediately take away someone’s First Amendment rights and say you can’t speak, like conservatives who want to speak on college campuses. It makes no sense to me. Let people speak. Don’t make them into martyrs who aren’t allowed to speak and then their message is amplified. They’re going to draw more people if they become proponents of the First Amendment, versus whatever message you disagreed with. It’s a very dangerous situation.

How Trump changed everything for The Onion
.

Yeah, Trump is such a buffoon that he's been able to do things in a year Obama couldn't do in 8 years.

Well, there's a separation between temperament and results.

On one hand, a person can be an embarrassing buffoon but ultimately effective.

On the other, a person can be an embarrassing buffoon and ultimately ineffective.

As with most Presidents, we won't know about Trump for sure until a few years after his administration. The rest is nothing more than partisan noise.
.

So you want to support the opinion of some jack-ass clown who makes a living off of spinning sarcastic yarns about politics.
The Onion is humorous but not exactly a source that one should try to go to to find the unvarnished truth.
Now if you want to explore the vivid imagination of an apathetic smart-ass, the Onion is your place.

Huh? You think people go to the Onion for "the unvarnished truth"?

Are you serious?
.

Only people living in denial.
Same reason the Daily Show was often quoted by liberals when Jon Stewart was hosting the show.

I think people go to The Onion for the same reason I do, the humor.

The behaviors of politicians, partisans, pundits and politicos are so absurd and silly and over-the-top that they provide a wealth of material, and just BEG for satire, even if they don't realize it.

Which, of course, makes it even MORE funny.
.

 

[candycorn]

Man oh man! The amorphous "they" has really taken over as the topic of this thread.

In the absence of facts, the right wing reverts to the intellectual safe space of simply saying "they".

 

[gipper]

Man oh man! The amorphous "they" has really taken over as the topic of this thread.

In the absence of facts, the right wing reverts to the intellectual safe space of simply saying "they".

A closed mind is a terrible thing to witness.

 

[iceberg]

True, the 'Media' shot all of it's somewhat sell -able credibility to death. I was even surprised at many of the PBS and NPR people being so blatantly corrupt and openly lying, like Brooks, Gwen Ifill, etc., being so silly over Trump. Some I used to have a little respect for, but no longer, not even a shred. I refuse to support them any more, whereas I used to buy a lot of their fund-raiser stuff several times a year, the music specials actually, not the blathering BoBo new age huckster psycho-babble and medicine show crap. No more.

An interesting point he makes throughout the interview is that the press has fallen into the "click bait" trap, being so aggressive with the juiciest and most explosive stuff without having the substance to back it up.

Obviously an example of the dark side of the hyper-competitive nature of the media now. How do you stand out from a zillion competitors? Go flashy. It has essentially become a business model. It's not good, but it makes sense.
.

it used to be easy to charge for a paper. wanna read the news, gotta pay a 50 cents. these days people read the net and no one really pays for anything except on amazon and uber-stuff. anyone pay their local newspaper $20 a month or so like they used to?

anyone ever go to say the dallas morning news and look at their ads? you did in the paper. that's how you saw the cars for sale. found jobs. got the insert for the weekly grocery coupons. who does that anymore? 2 MAJOR revenue streams are pretty much poof'd for a newspaper and all they have left is advertising and that relies on 1 thing right now.

clicks.

more often than not the headlines (regardless of left or right) are not to do what they used to do - summarize the contents of the story as best you can in a few words, but how do i get people to click this link and give me $$$?

trump is a troll. to the core. the russians trolled the shit out of us and we collectively danced away in anger at a handful of guys behind computers saying inflammatory things to rile us up. most of the work of this PRO TRUMP group (ha) was simply pitting one group against another.

why did they say good things about trump? cause people who hate trump can't let it go. they have to click back and scream what an idiot he is.
why did they say bad things about trump? same reasons.
why did they also pit christians against atheists? black against white? left against right?

those are natural "enemies" anyway if you must extreme it up so it doesn't take much to get them going and then you step back and watch 'em kill each other for you. they lit a fuse and we blew up. to think they cared about the topics that lit that fuse is still allowing yourself to be trolled and blame them for trump.

back when cell phones were not common and newsgroups were still around 56k while DSL came into being - my brother was pissed off at someone and wanted to get back at them. so i said go into some alt.gay newsgroup and post "FREE PHONE SEX CALL 555-122-3333" and then in the body of the message say something like "and all you (insert anti-gay sentiment here) say the hell off my phone!"

i said 2 things will happen.
1) people will reply to cuss you out, tell you where you are and there will be 1000 replies by the end of the day if the group is big enough
2) his phone will blow up within the hour.

turns out it only took 10 minutes to have the number shut off.

people, especially these days, are far too willing and eager to "fight" and mostly because it costs them nothing. get online, find a group, oh look someone said something good about an asshole - i will tear THEM a new ass that will show them!

new tech, same need to feel superior.

the only way to beat a troll is to not feed them. getting angry at trump is just letting trump win the twitter wars that will be the subject of movies generations from now. using the media, almost any media these days, to support your views is easy and foolish, given that we know they say whatever they need to say to get you to click. if they can make you made enough then 1 click becomes 5, then 10, then suddenly you're in the comment section schooling a bunch of idiots.

click click click click click click click....

a vast majority of "reporters" are nothing more than people there to get you to click so they can have their job of oddly enough, how to make you click.

in the end, trump isn't that good of a troll - he's just an ass easy to hate and he plays that to his strengths however better than most ever have before.

the media is no longer news. it's reality tv dressed up to get you emotionally involved so you'll click your little fingers off and spread the link to get others to come help you fight such stupid people and tell them what's right and wrong.

of which we really don't know anymore.

new tech. same feelings of being lost i suppose.

people know this, but let it go cause they need their "emotional insurance" to get by in a time they dont like without ever seeing their own actions that contribute to creating this time.