The Curmudgeon Crip - How Trolls Use Misogyny

We're swinging a lot of power around in our words on social media. Sometimes I visualize myself running through the flying sparks of Mordor with a sword on my back. I can actually feel the sticky ooze spilled by Orcs as they troll their way through comment after comment, hungry for the power of Sauron. It's an eternal quest for attention and fame. There is one thing most humans have in common; we usually want simple respect. Of course, trolling people on the internet is kind of a misguided way of achieving that. Let me tell you about a man I know. 

This man lives in every reclusive egotist I've ever met. I'll call him Bub. Bub believes he's engaged in a legitimate conversation as soon as he acquires a response from someone on social media. It's like fly fishing; you throw out your maimed worm and catch a passerby who might be curious about the wiggling, desperate little creature. There's a formula to the whole scenario, and every single internet orc I've encountered fits the profile beautifully. They start out with only slightly tainted & abrasive bait, try to maintain a logical discussion for as long as their patience can stand, then they use a tactic identical to the way an abusive partner keeps their mentally battered spouses in line. The words get twisted into something that no longer has anything to do with the subject matter, but rather "tricks" the target into believing he or she is confused. This is the most common device for oppression, and is employed by those who are desperate to regain their high ground. It's a defensive move, and not a very good one. Unfortunately, most people don't recognize it as a tactic and they tend to become prey to it. 

We're living in an age when we no longer go out with tangible weapons and armor to battle with one another. We've moved on to using words & visuals in an attempt to sink reputations and gain notoriety. But it's the same old game. War will forever reign over large groups of people who are constantly fighting to get to the front of the line. I want those who tend to get psychically punctured by orcs to understand how to better shield themselves. Especially women; see, there's this dead horse these guys constantly beat with you. It's called misogyny. If you pay attention and not allow your emotion to get in the way of logically picking apart his tactics, you'll notice he won't use this on you until he's flustered and there's nowhere else to go. The most over used and corny statement of all, "Go make me (or us) a sandwich." This is meant to spark a response in you right away, and he's expecting you to go nazi feminist on him. That's the hope, because that's easier to wage a comment war against. He wants you to get misandrous with your argument so that it turns into a gender thing. Why? Because it's easier to publicly taint a woman that way, given the current climate of gender based arguments in our society. So we've gotten to this point now; what started out as one subject just derailed and turned into yet another man-woman war on the internet. 

Just pay attention the next time you see an orc trolling start to occur. It's interesting. They always seem to follow this particular formula when disagreeing with a woman. And that can be dissected further into the possibility that this man doesn't have much experience with conversations involving women. This is all immediately obvious, but for some reason, we still tend to get our panties stuck in the wrong place. All we need to do is learn to go commando and enjoy the breeze. Just relax and observe before engagement. He might turn out to be just another boring read, and your energy could be going to conversations with men of much higher value. Oh, that reminds me to remind every one of you of something important: There are plenty of intelligent, respectful, protective and real men out there. (I'm serious- Plenty.) The reason it seems as though they're extinct is because you're giving your attention to the squeaky, malfunctioning wheels. Who wants one of those? Sometimes you've gotta spend a little more effort on better people, and stop trying to clean up a cave dweller. 

So if you find yourself in a cyber car with one of these curmudgeon old crips, get off at the next stop and get out of that part of town! He'll suck you dry. It's the only way for him to get a quick taste of a female.