Best descriptor of a certain troll demographic, ever...

[Soph0571]

In the UK there is a rather splendid gobby feminist Member of Parliament called Jess Phillips. Of course being a female lawmaker who does not take shit means she is viciously trolled by a certain demographic of male haters. One of her trolls was so over the top he has been jailed for 28 months after more than 300 abusive and threatening emails - including saying it would be "appropriate" for her to be killed in a terrorist attack on the House of Commons, and an awful lot of very very very bad words for women calling. Good.

The judges descriptor in their sentencing summing up was a thing of beauty.

We all recognise this interwebs wanker...


"You are an inadequate man who cannot cope with the reality of having reached your fifties without ever really achieving much, save for acquiring some criminal convictions for violent and abusive behaviour, and a habit of drinking too much alcohol and sitting at your keyboard, venting your frustration at others who in your view have the temerity to put themselves in positions of public service and to hold views with which you do not agree."




Right wing interwebs wanker warriors everywhere be like hold my beer...

[PatrickforB]

1. Funny, and true.

A story:

In the way-back-when, back in '82, I married my first wife. That marriage lasted 19 years, and then we drifted apart as so many couples do. Two great kids, though. And we're friends now.

Well, my ex-father-in-law was a great man, like a second father to me. I loved him very, very much. My own dad was a bit of a jerk, so Floyd actually helped me see what a father should be like, which helped me with my own kids.

Anyway, I know you are a Brit, not sure if you live here in the States or not, but back in '87, Saint Ronnie allowed the old Fairness Doctrine to die, and so during the nineties we saw the rise of Rush Limbaugh and hate-talk radio in a huge, obnoxious, pervasive way. I watched my father-in-law who was such a good, good man, become a 'democrat hater.' Oh, he really, really HATED the Clintons. Told me all sorts of weird conspiracy stuff about Hillary even then.

You know that documentary, 'The Brainwashing of My Dad?' Seriously, that is what happened here.

I don't know how I escaped. I was a Reagan Republican for a time, in my twenties when the Reagan Revolution was new, but then I was exposed to some different thinking in undergrad and graduate school, and definitely in my career in helping services. Plus a couple of really good friends shared some book titles with me (my idea of a good time is a good book! I know...boring...)

Zinn, Hartmann, Klien, even Marx. And that fellow who wrote the book, 'Freakonomics.' I loved that.

And you know what? Once you know, there is absolutely no going back. I could no more be conservative now than fly to the moon. At this point in life, I am a practicing economist (I may get good at it eventually), and the facts definitely have a liberal bias.

I am glad the troll is in jail.

[NNadir]

4. I really admire anyone who can, as a mature adult, change is or her mind, particularly...

...when the change is based on facts.

[Victor_c3]

6. I had a similar awakening myself

I’m a touch younger than you and I was born in 1980, but I grew up in a center-right household. As a 4-year-old, I named our family cat “President Reagan” and I firmly held those center-right beliefs until well after I joined the Army in 1997 and started to experience the world on my own.

What really softened my worldview was my time in Iraq. I was deployed to Iraq in 2004 and I served as an Infantry Platoon Leader there for 13 months. I interacted extensively with the Iraqi populous and I got to know many Iraqis quite well. For whatever reason, I also started to read a slew of sociological books when I wasn’t on patrol or lifting weights. “Freakanomics”, that you mentioned, was one of these books. Like you said, once you open your eyes to what the data shows, it’s hard to keep most of those conservative beliefs.

I find it incredible how much vitriol is directed at some people because they have the audacity to ask that they be treated and given the same opportunities as white men like myself.

[paleotn]

13. Seeing the real world for what it really is has that affect.

Tough for some to wrap their brains around, sitting in their comfortable, American life. So they create caricatures and stereotypes for it that conform to their preconceived ideas. But it's hard to keep that mental shorthand when you actually see who those people are, where they are. Hard to be honest with one's self anyway. Turns out they're just people, not much different than we. Sure, there's a few wankers and assholes everywhere, but overall, they want the same things we do. A peaceful life for their their families and their kids to have opportunities they didn't have. I can thank my dad for planting and watering those seeds in me. Like you, he saw much of the world in uniform and in his job. Contrary to other family and friends, he taught me that people are just people, no matter where they are and should be treated with the same respect and fairness as anyone else. I think it was that that kept me from just dabbling in Reagan conservatism as a college kid and going full on conservative. I certainly fit the ultra conservative profile...white, middle class, southern evangelical protestant born and raised. But because of one person seeing the world for what it truly is, it didn't take in me and my brother. My sisters on the other hand. Ugh.

[beveeheart]

30. A relative by marriage did his Mormon missionary work in Africa last year

and came back "woke", questioning all his family's religious and political beliefs, to the point that his family is now very upset with him.

[PatrickforB]

34. LOL, yeah, 'woke' is only half the equation.

Wisdom being the other half. If you just have the knowlege and you put it out there over and over, it become zealotry.

[Random Boomer]

35. That sounds fascinating

Do you have any idea what kind of experiences affected him?

[beveeheart]

38. Basically exposure to different ideas, politics, poverty and black people. Trust, but verify

seems to be his new motto. Since his return, he has accused trump of bringing shame upon the US, called him a traitor for inciting the 1/6 insurrection and disagreed with his mother on FB about the reasons why the Texas government wasn't prepared for the big freeze.

[Random Boomer]

39. Bravo!

Unfortunately, he's going to find that opening his eyes is going to make it more difficult to get along with his not-so-woke family members. I walked away from my Evangelical Texas relatives after they expressed disapproval of my marriage (to another woman, my partner of 25 years, no less). There just wasn't any overlap in our values, none.

[beveeheart]

40. His mother has been OK with my family's gay members, but his father

manages to be elsewhere or is not welcoming if they are in the same room. Congratulations on your 25 years. My daughter has been with her partner for 22 years.

[Hortensis]

19. All nice posts to read. "the facts definitely have a liberal bias."

I like that. Even when facts may seem to blast favorite notions, generally speaking they just bend that way, like the arc of justice as humanity advances.

Or perhaps it'd be as accurate to say that liberalism cannot be independent of facts? We're happier and general wellbeing increases when we're respectful of and generous to ourselves and others as individuals, as well as as caretakers of societies.

No accident that equality, individual liberty and justice for all have become guiding principles for advancing societies. Assuming the goals are individual and general wellbeing, they're functional and necessary.

[Tiger8]

21. Most got caught in the St Ronnie Con Game

“Government is the not the solution to our problems. Government IS the problem.”

I remember Ronald Reagan saying this on the Johnny Carson show sometime in the 1970’s. Carson looked around, with an impressed look on his face, like he had never heard such profound wisdom. The audience broke out in a loud applause.

Reagan’s simple statement was a masterful deception of epic proportions - because people WANT to believe the answer is simple, and this nice, grandfatherly man had the answer.

But if Carson had asked Reagan.....

“What do you mean? Can you name the top three problems people have, and how is government causing them?

Reagan would have been exposed as the fraud on the spot. He was an actor, and a shill for the Far Right Super Wealthy who spoke in sound bites. Dig past the sound bites, and his lies and fraud would be exposed.

[spooky3]

31. Good points. If he were living today, he'd be on Colbert or Kimmel and they

would likely ask that. Even Fallon might question him.

[Tiger8]

36. Yes, and a good measure of joking sarcasm too

Of course Ronnie! Americans demand the government stop clogging up their mailboxes with those pesky Health Insurance cards, Food Stamps, Social Security checks....and don't even get me started on FEMA coming in to clean up after a tornado.

[spooky3]

37. :-)

[MLAA]

32. 🙂🙂⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🥳🥳🥳🤩🤩🤩

I was raised by Evangelical parents. They were committed to it. Church twice a week, no alcohol in the house, no mention of sex. I believed it all until around 15 then around 17 or 18 I went to college and fully opened my eyes. I’ve never looked back.

[JI7]

2. Shitty men are the worst of the internet trolls .Worst than the other bigots and you find them in

all groups .

The internet has allowed these useless trashy assholes a bigger voice than they deserve and they prop each other up while bullying others.

[NNadir]

3. This certainly describes the bulk of them. n/t.

[niyad]

5. Ahh, thank you! What an absolutely delicious comment. And an absolutely delightful way to start my

day. My kitteh was wondering why I was making such funny noises.

[FakeNoose]

7. This is a great description and I hope more judges have this awareness

I'm sick to death of how the nasty, vile right-wingers have taken over Twitter, Facebook and other SMS and have ruined it for the rest of us. These trolls need to be stopped, and it's no longer an issue of "free speech." They are using lies and insults to bully the rest of us.

[efhmc]

14. I have no problem with the right wing on Twitter and I actually look for positive responses to

them when they make their nasty comments and find the majority have little or none. I block those folks and go on my merry way.

[BlueMTexpat]

8. Love it!

[Cosmo Blues]

9. What A Grand Victory

Savor it, when we had a misogynist as a leader these people felt entitled, it seems to be diminishing a bit, so good luck to you until you get rid of yours

[paleotn]

10. Two things that strip away the social norms of polite society

.....alcohol and the internet. They're like truth serum, letting the world see what some truly think and believe. And it ain't pretty. I still think much of the over the top misogyny is driven by the fact that they've still not come to terms with their 4th grade fear of girls.

[oldsoftie]

11. Yes, the shield of the keyboard is tempting to many fools.

[Volaris]

17. Hey, man...I'm drunk and on the internet RIGHT NOW...and I haven't done anything offensive!!

It's not booze and connection speed that makes these fuckheads awful, is all I'm sayin

[lpbk2713]

12. Another keyboard commando bites the dust.

[Pepsidog]

15. A fitting use of the English language.

[Volaris]

16. All I can say to this in response is that most days, as an American,

I dont have to waste time with even passing acknowledgement that Royalty is a thing.

But then there are moments like this when I'm seriously envious of my same-language counterparts. The English language is in so very many ways infinitely flexible in its usage in a way that many other languages simply are not.

And we bastardize that flexibility to such an extent that I think the Brits should be honestly happy to be rid of us.

It should not, but that judges statement will read like Shakespeare to many american eyes, and that makes me just sad.

[NJCher]

18. a RWIWW

Right wing interwebs wanker warrior

Kinda' catchy, don't you think?

[BobTheSubgenius]

20. The English language can be an elegant thing, at times.

Sometimes, it's as erudite and near-perfect as in the OP, sometimes, it's off-the-cuff wit, and sometime, even sort of folksy and hilarious. Like Molly Ivins' description of George W: "Not exactly bent double with intellect."

One of my favourites, in only 6 words.

[sarge43]

23. My favorite from the cage match that is the English Parliament

"The honourable member has demonstrating that there is no such thing as unutterable nonsense."

[BobTheSubgenius]

27. That is fantastic! I've not heard that before.

[sarge43]

28. I found it useful on several occasions n/t

[EarnestPutz]

22. Great use of the English language as others have pointed out. But what does "gobby" mean?

[Soph0571]

25. It means opinionated in a good way! n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. 'Gob' is mouth, as in 'gobstopper'; so 'gobby' is roughly the same as 'mouthy' (nt)

[Demovictory9]

24. lol

[marieo1]

26. profession deprived

The time is long past for the 'stay-at-home' wife and mother............Men had it made when they had a built in babysitter, housekeeper, cook and caregiver and someone to wait on their every need and take care of the family. The reality today is that women want the same recognition, purpose and life their husbands have had forever. Is that so bad?

[Grokenstein]

33. Link-a-dinka-doo!

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/inadequate-man-trolled-jess-phillips-20356857

The inadequate man in question: