To Trolls- With Love
How hard is it to remain positive in a negative world? At what point did people lose their minds?
I sat down with a cup of coffee and looked for something on you-tube to watch. I saw the White House channel was just starting the commencement speech with Trump speaking at Liberty University. I decided to see how it was. I fully expected to be bored in the first few minutes, and change. What I didn’t expect was to be drawn in, and be very impressed with the positive message, and the optimism the speech expressed. It was uplifting. It was a stirring speech. It felt like a momentous speech. I could imagine that of those 50,000 people in attendance, it could very well have helped shape the future of many of those graduates. I made a post on my personal Facebook page saying it was an awesome speech.
I was then hit by post after post of anti-trump people. People I call “haters” because there is the same drumbeat. Not one of them actually step back to see things in an objective way, but rather they just parrot the negative media. Endless accusations with no substance to support the false claims.
I have never been a big Trump fan. In my life, I have ranged from a socialistic/progressive side to Libertarian, to Republican, to Conservative to a Capitalist. The first was a result of me listening to my teachers and not doing any actual research. Who DOESN’T want the world to take care of the underprivileged? Coming home from Viet Nam was a huge eye-opener for me. Seeing the news coverage being so completely wrong about the place I just left caused me to realize the press lies. It was a total shock to my system. That forced me to begin looking at actual sources for information. Being pre-internet, I would go to the public library once or twice a month and dig through sources like the congressional record.
I was an Obama supporter. That is until I read his first book. I realized he was something very different than his public persona. My concerns were proven accurate as time went on.
This is NOT a political post. I really don’t care what people choose to believe. I am always willing to discuss, but I am not a fan of attacking. I certainly expect facts to be the center of a conversation. But today we are somewhere else. The only facts posted are simply repeating fake news reports based on an “unidentified source close to the White House”. What the hell is that? The gardener? You cannot have an honest discussion based on that.
I post up a simple short appreciation of a speech, and how well done it was and positive it was. I wasn’t saying anything political. But that was enough to open the flood gates. I began to get lectures about how corrupt he was. How he is a Russian stooge. About what a fascist he is. It all came uninvited. Why are these negative things being thrown at me? Based on the comments, I sincerely doubt that any of the trolls actually took the time to listen to the speech. In fact, I can imagine that had the speech been given by someone they LIKE, with the very same words, they would have seen what I saw in the speech. But minds are closed and the favorite past time of haters is to blindly attack anyone that doesn’t follow their path. I’m really sorry, but I gave up being a lemming years ago. They aren’t bad people. They just don’t do their homework. their sources are the people that promote the sameness of ideas.
So what on earth does this have to do with Ecuador? First, this blog is for me. The VIDEOS are for Ecuador. Second, it is about Ecuador. I have the impression that while there are certainly conservative voices here, it seems the majority are essentially socialist minded people. They cheer anything related to such ideas and are very vocal with their disdain for anyone that doesn’t agree. They try to “shame” opposing views by throwing up straw arguments like “that’s so insulting to the country!”. There is a type of person that seems to be drawn here that fits that “Starbucks, Vegan, Tree Hugging, Climate Denier Haters… etc. Hillary supporters no matter how many crimes were exposed or how much corruption was uncovered. Fingers in the ears while they go “la la la la la la”
I sometimes fantasize that I had the power to drop such individual (but group thinkers) in the heart of Venezuela. Let them see first hand the result of such thinking. Let them experience why nowhere in history has that sort of government resulted in anything but repression of those they claimed to want to help. Even here in Ecuador, it has morphed into the muzzling dissenting press. The Loja press was closed down for printing negative articles (even though it was fact-based). The Mayor of Quito was put in prison for insulting the President. This is in a country that is merely dabbling in socialism. Imagine if they go further?
That is why I think this is important. I wouldn’t mind the views if they would simply take the time to understand what they proclaim. If the read some history. If they knew the teaching of Saul Alinsky and Karl Marx. If they took the time to understand that Hitler was a socialist and promoted all those same “free” programs such as medical care and College tuition. If they would take the time to learn the lessons from recent and current leaders Hugo Chavez, Nicolás Maduro, Evo Morales, Fidel Castro, Dilma Rousseff, and Salvador Allende. How anyone that actually learned that reality could possibly want to support that sort of thinking is beyond me.
So be prepared. If you come to Ecuador, that kind of heated conversations are not reduced but rather are even more intense. It will often become more of a personal attack. The sure sign of an empty belief. It comes from Trolls.
They are not to be hated. It is just sad people can no longer talk. Everyone is so sure of themselves because they read some article on the internet. They are more than happy to copy and paste it! But they are not willing to actually read in depth from real sources. The art of debate I fear has been lost.