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Amaryllis

(9,523 posts)
Thu Apr 27, 2017, 04:55 PM Apr 2017

After getting vulgar comment online, PA's first openly gay state Congressman called troll's grandma.

Meet Brian Sims, Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.



He's also the state's first openly gay lawmaker.

His pride and bravery have won him plenty of fans, but have also opened him up to a slew of hate speech and criticism.
So much so that Sims has gotten, well, pretty dang good at handling the trolls.
One man recently came to Sims' Facebook page to attack him, but got a little more than he bargained for.

After spewing some horrific insults at Sims via his Facebook page, the commenter (known only as David) got a response that had to have taken him off guard:
Sims called David's grandma and told on him.

"David..." Sims wrote in response. "... you shouldn't have posted your grandmother's telephone number on your Facebook page so many times. She and I just had a very disappointing chat about you."

And he was 100% serious.
Sims told Occupy Democrats he was hoping to get David himself on the phone when Grandma picked up. But she promised Sims that David would call him back.

He did, but not before David's grandmother, presumably, gave him an earful.

“She wasn’t kidding," Sims said. "I heard from him within 2 hours and while I can’t say we resolved anything, I can pretty much guarantee that Christmas at my home is going to be better than his this year.”

It just goes to show: Just because you can say anything you want online doesn't mean you should.

Unfortunately though, this kind of hate speech isn't limited to anonymous internet trolls these days.

The world might be a better place if everyone stopped before they judged, harassed, attacked, or smeared another human being and thought:

'What would my grandma think?'

http://www.upworthy.com/after-getting-a-vulgar-comment-online-this-state-congressman-called-the-trolls-grandma-ep2-1b?c=click

20 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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After getting vulgar comment online, PA's first openly gay state Congressman called troll's grandma. (Original Post) Amaryllis Apr 2017 OP
Grandamas' can be brutal. maveric Apr 2017 #1
I'll never get it hibbing Apr 2017 #2
Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone Bernardo de La Paz Apr 2017 #5
This! LakeArenal Apr 2017 #9
This is so true..... LisaM Apr 2017 #13
He's a favorite of mine. Here's one about Donald J. Trump and another about politics: Bernardo de La Paz Apr 2017 #15
Goodness! The Prophet of Baltimore! LisaM Apr 2017 #18
TBH I think trolls are just angry and bored. Oneironaut Apr 2017 #20
That's amusing and a great way to handle that situation, but... Saviolo Apr 2017 #3
You are right, but for someone who doesn't have that same internal sense of humanity, Amaryllis Apr 2017 #6
BWAHAHAHA. So much for internet anonymity. lpbk2713 Apr 2017 #4
Go Granny, go!!! Hekate Apr 2017 #7
Yes shenmue Apr 2017 #11
I know!! LisaM Apr 2017 #12
Guy is much too handsome for politics. I'm just sayin'..n/t monmouth4 Apr 2017 #8
Can handsome guys not do politics? :) Amaryllis Apr 2017 #14
Sure they can, I'm just thinking with that face he's wasting his time in DC..n/t monmouth4 Apr 2017 #17
Have no fear....he'll ugly up with time. We all do! nt MADem Apr 2017 #16
Too funny! Lucky Luciano Apr 2017 #10
Excellent. But...this could easily have turned out differently. progressoid Apr 2017 #19

hibbing

(10,076 posts)
2. I'll never get it
Thu Apr 27, 2017, 05:44 PM
Apr 2017

I just don't get these peoples' obsessions over what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their homes and I never will understand it.


Peace

Bernardo de La Paz

(48,785 posts)
5. Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone
Thu Apr 27, 2017, 05:49 PM
Apr 2017

"Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere may be happy." -- H. L. Mencken

LisaM

(27,758 posts)
13. This is so true.....
Thu Apr 27, 2017, 06:46 PM
Apr 2017

not always a fan of his, but between that and inventing the term "booboisie", he had his moments.

Bernardo de La Paz

(48,785 posts)
15. He's a favorite of mine. Here's one about Donald J. Trump and another about politics:
Thu Apr 27, 2017, 07:02 PM
Apr 2017

All of us, if we are of reflective habit, like and admire men whose fundamental beliefs differ radically from our own. But when a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or count himself lost. … All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

-- H.L. Mencken, Baltimore Sun (26 July 1920)


Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. -- H.L. Mencken, In Defense of Women (1918)


Mencken had broad flaws (racism, not for women's rights, classism) but was a very insightful thinker and wordsmith.

Oneironaut

(5,461 posts)
20. TBH I think trolls are just angry and bored.
Fri Apr 28, 2017, 01:55 PM
Apr 2017

They get a kick out of posting vile garbage on the internet and getting angry responses. That's not to say that they don't believe what they're saying, but I think that they want to piss people off first and foremost.

Saviolo

(3,268 posts)
3. That's amusing and a great way to handle that situation, but...
Thu Apr 27, 2017, 05:44 PM
Apr 2017

Yeah, there's a "But."

The world might be a better place if everyone stopped before they judged, harassed, attacked, or smeared another human being and thought:

'What would my grandma think?'


This strikes me the wrong way entirely. I think the world would be a better place if everyone stopped before the judged, harassed, attacked, or smeared another human being and thought: "This is another human being."

I don't treat other people in general society with respect because I fear retribution or punishment, I do it because everyone is worthy of respect until they've demonstrated that they are not. Random strangers with whom I have had no interaction aren't worthy of respect because I might get an earful from a parent, but because they're another human being in the world.

Of course, I do not extend this respect to people who openly and gleefully express hateful, violent, or disgusting opinions about others. I'm not talking about treating enemies with kid gloves, etc... I'm talking about basic human decency. I have no place in my mental environment for bigots of any stripe.

Amaryllis

(9,523 posts)
6. You are right, but for someone who doesn't have that same internal sense of humanity,
Thu Apr 27, 2017, 05:57 PM
Apr 2017

using Grandma as a yardstick could be helpful, provided, of course, that Grandma is not a bigot herself.

progressoid

(49,825 posts)
19. Excellent. But...this could easily have turned out differently.
Fri Apr 28, 2017, 01:33 PM
Apr 2017

I know more than a few Grandmas and Grandpas that are yuuuge bigots and would congratulate their grandchildren for their bigotry.

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