Civility and Trolls
by Munks
A friend shared this recently: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/hack-higher-education/naming-names-and-calling-out-trolls#ixzz29sQbdLGw
It has to do with some loser on Reddit reportedly engaging in all kinds of unsavory behavior and the issues that came up as a result of the fallout from the downfall of this alleged “troll”. Many of the issues have to do with censorship/free speech concerns. Frankly I could not care less about the troll that is described in the article and his issues. It pokes into a world I am not interested in investigating – I have a finite number of minutes on the planet and I do not want to waste them learning more about this guy or the behavior he allegedly exhibited.
But, as a person who writes – writes with passion and has a remarkable, if not mythical low tolerance for “taurus excreta”, this article has raised my monobrow a bit.
I have been described as “uncivil” in closed forums supposedly set up for “artists”. I have been labeled a “troll” by others burdened with the intellectual capacity of a discarded hair tonic canister and a wingnut or two.
I have been the reluctant recipient of a few “wagging finger” notes from a matriarch (or her designee) of a website for artists that has descended into a crafters’ circle of so much peace, love, and handholding that you have to clutch a copy of 1984 next to your heart and take a few units of insulin just to get in and read the sugary posts without lapsing into a coma.
I write with passion and I believe what I write. I use a pen name. Nom de plume. Big deal. Samuel Clemens did. Stephen King (the author) did. Lots more. To the people that can’t get over the use of a pen name, my sage advice is to get over it – it’s not that hard to figure out.
Another author, not me – but I wish it was me, wrote this brilliant response to the article linked above. It is in the “comments” section of the article, but I am going to paste it below for your convenience:
Troll 4 days agoin reply to Lee Skallerup
Here’s how the world really works: A “troll” is anyone who disagrees with ideas that I take as a matter of faith. Rather than counter the troll’s wrongness with reason and evidence, I will label the troll a troll, and advocate for the troll’s punishment. I will ban the troll, and delete his postings. Oh I support free speech for all, just not for trolls.
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Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Trolls are bad. Trolls are uncivil. Unless one agrees with them.
I write. I paint. I do both with passion. During my funeral, my enemies will never be able to say I wrote and painted without passion. My biggest fear is they will be able to truthfully say I painted and wrote without passion.
No one would dream of censoring a painting. Why is it some go ballistic if I, and those like me express feelings, concerns, ideas, and views on a keyboard? Why is it ok to insist or even advise an author to change a writing style on an internet forum or on a blog, but it is a mortal sin to tell a painter how to paint?
Why is it I get hundreds more hits when I am banned from “artist” sites for expressing my views and question the motives, mentality, and views of the more “civil” yet pompous element of the art community?
“Oh I support free speech for all, just not for trolls. -Troll” . . .
Beautiful. Beautifully civil words from a troll.
I’m not done writing or painting yet. I’m going to continue what I do under the boardwalk – it’s more civil there the more I think about it – even with all the goat parts lying around.
It amazes me… We are artists – it is in our Nature to translate the truth thru our art and thru our words… We observe and document what surrounds us so to make sense of ourselves and the world in which we inhabit. And, at the same time, we play within a system that tries to control the very essence of how we create our art…These two opposing forces can not inhabit the same space
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