Fol de Rol – early 2013

I now have a somewhat dedicated Twitter troll, most of whose tweets in recent weeks reference me, and I am even featured in a somewhat pretentious weekly (on Fridays) quiz he runs as virtually his only blog-style on-line contribution. There really has to be something wrong with a quiz in which each clue requires a full paragraph. It really is self-indulgent, pseudo-intellectual stuff, so best avoided, I think. The rest of us have real lives to live, with actual value to them...

The question is: what to do about the troll? If it were just me being impacted, I'd do my usual thing of simply ignoring him (it is a 'him'). I do this after I have paid out sufficient 'rope' that they give away their true colours and motivations, to the extent that I can be a hundred percent confident I am not misjudging them. I have already done this with the current troll, quite comprehensively. I know...

It is only when others are being troubled by the Lefty nonsense being spouted by the troll (who really needs to get a life, as the saying puts it) which is a latch-onto effect by following me on Twitter and then seeing others' tweets that I re-tweet. I'm not going to be cowed into ceasing that practice, so what if anything ought I to do to avoid being the bringer of a disease (or at least an obviously diseased mind)?

Well, it has to be said that those unwittingly ending up on the receiving end of my troll's interventions are all what would be termed sound; and as far as their reactions are concerned they fall into two categories: whose who challenge and those who ignore. The former have the upper hand, as by being factual and definitive they can easily defeat the intentions of the pseudo-intellectual who thinks he knows it all (and never fails to try to demonstrate this).

So, well done to the likes of Mark Wallace who have thus managed to defeat and indeed terminate the efforts of my troll in individual attempts on specific matters. Of course, we have seen exactly the same practice here in Medway, as I have described previously with Medway Labour and how they try it on until they realise they have been completely defeated, then run away and hide for a while, until they think no-one is still watching for their re-appearance.

It is all so predictable; and it all points up the character deficiencies in all such individuals. They are always cold of heart and calculating, nasty and live for the chance to manufacture criticism and negativity, especially toward decent people of a different political persuasion (no Lefty can be decent in terms we'd understand and accept). By contrast, the slogan in the banner above, played out in what I have always posted here over these (nearly) five years, shows just what can be done with a better attitude to life.

All these trolls' postings, in whichever format and at whatever forum, are cached for (in effect) eternity and are available for public scrutiny if one knows where to look. As the likes of Eoin Clarke have discovered, deleting tweets and 'blog posts has no effect on those archived records. A professional profiler could easily build up a quite accurate and very telling picture of any of these individuals, including my latest (and, currently, only) troll.

Again, this is simply a matter of paying out the rope at this stage. It'll be much too late by the time they realise what they've done to their own reputation and, by extension, to their malign cause. I know how to play this game, letting them do the running, so I shan't block this Twitter follower, as I have been contemplating, in the full knowledge that others who get caught up in his activities are well able to handle it in the most appropriate manner from where they stand.

I shall, at least for the time being, merely lean back and enjoy the show. My move will come later...