Why Engage With Clownish Trolls?

rodoheel said:
I understand that opinion, but personally I disagree. As much as certain posters on this board annoy me with bad faith arguments - and I voice that annoyance frequently - this board will not necessarily be better off if we run off everyone with a contrary opinion. If there are no reasonable Trump defenders left, we'll have to settle for unreasonable ones.

There definitely are times where responding is pointless and only fuels the fire, though.
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The problem with seeking "reasonable Trump defenders" is that they don't exist, because Trump is an unreasonable person doing unreasonable things. The only way to defend Trump is by being unreasonable as one is defending the unreasonable. Look at how many folks on here are former Republicans who cannot stand the man and are among his biggest detractors, anyone reasonable either never supported Trump or departed from him long ago.

That's the problem with political discussion in 2026...you're either on the side of reality or you're not, on the side of basic humanity or you're not, on the side of anti-fascism or you're not. In the extremes of our current time, "reasonable" only exists on one side of the political divide.
 
SnoopRob said:
The problem with seeking "reasonable Trump defenders" is that they don't exist, because Trump is an unreasonable person doing unreasonable things. The only way to defend Trump is by being unreasonable as one is defending the unreasonable. Look at how many folks on here are former Republicans who cannot stand the man and are among his biggest detractors, anyone reasonable either never supported Trump or departed from him long ago.

That's the problem with political discussion in 2026...you're either on the side of reality or you're not, on the side of basic humanity or you're not, on the side of anti-fascism or you're not. In the extremes of our current time, "reasonable" only exists on one side of the political divide.
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I think we are agreeing. As I said, we have to settle for unreasonable Trump defenders. I'm just saying I personally don't mind engaging with Trump defenders even if they're unreasonable, and at some level we as a society have to engage with the Trump defenders. We can't ignore them into oblivion. We don't live in a fantasy world where only reasonable people are going to vote and get elected to office.

I entirely understand the perspective of people who think it's best not to engage at all. For those people I would highly recommend the ignore button.
 
UNCMSinLS said:
Why some of you engage with these "conservatives" is beyond me. I'm left with the conclusion that some folks just like shouting into the void.
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I call it varying degrees of white supremacists sniffing butts and volleying nonsense. It's like a social game for a lot of ppl.


I'd rather just do a duel than play patty cakes with a useless, white supremacist troll.
 
I don't think @Callatoroy is a troll...he just has a total blind spot for this admin's corruption. @Ramrouser certainly is a full on MAGA, but lately a lot of his comments seem like nothing more than stirring the pot. @PandemicBlue is a total fool who posts nonsense then disappears for 3 months. @ZenMode can make good points at times but has a complete inability to admit he was wrong and will split hairs to try and prove he wasn't...that is fucking exhausting.
 
Those labeled as trolls on here appear to me to be variously coping with their own personal demons...which we all do on message boards to be fair.

One says all the things here he can't say to his wife. Thats been made evident many times. Another says all the things he cant say in his social and personal circles because he doesnt want to actually hang out with MAGA folks despite being one. A third fights for his own sanity because he knows Trump is a monster but he can't admit that the perceived policy tradeoffs were always bullshit and he just bought the con.
 
I definitely think that rammy is a full troll, and his posts for a while have been classic troll behavior - say outrageous shit to stir the pot, divert threads to whatever he wants to talk about, talk mindless MAGA bluster to everybody, etc. Can't speak about the motivation of other MAGA posters, but at this point does it really matter what their motivations are? In the end all they do is defend pretty much everything Trump does and get angry when called out for it. It's an endlessly repeating cycle. And I'll admit that sometimes I get drawn in, as with calla recently, but there's really not much to be gained from it, other than being glad that I'm not stuck, like them, defending the indefensible at this point.
 
Screw analyzing their motive. I just respond to what they say. I don't care about their honesty, sincerity or perception. If they are selling it, they can answer for it.

If you want to pin it down, the believers are more tragic than the fakers.
 
I respond to the trolls because they represent 90% of Trump’s base. There is no rational or coherent thought process to be found behind most of their belief system. They simply gargle whatever their Orange idol tells them to, and spit it out when they need to. There is no “winning” with them because their grasp of reality is tenuous. All you can do is make them feel stupid. It won’t change anything, but it certainly makes me feel better.
 
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