Ah 2017, what a year. Full of hope, wonder and joy. Unless
you’re on Twitter of course. Then it’s just another melting pot of madness,
trolling and disagreement with a sprinkling of ridiculousness, attention
seeking and narcissistic tendency. And frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other
way, since I (and as do you) choose to use it and choose who we follow and
interact with.
This brings me to what inspired me to a write a little, and
if you’ve read any of my other posts, you’ll know it comes with a huge dollop
of rambling and going ‘off piste’, so you can either bear with it or do one.
But don’t, stay, lay back and enjoy the ride… but recently I’ve had my first
encounter with an ‘internet troll’. (I’ve been catfished twice, obviously, I’m
a tool)
I know some of you must deal with them on a regular basis,
certainly if you post anything that might, dare I say it, inspire discussion
and debate! That seems to be their cue to come out the woodwork and generally
be an unseemly mess of self righteous opinion, arrogance, and ignorance to the
irony often encompassed in their bleating statements. But that’s the point isn’t,
it’s the old ‘stick your fingers in your ears and scream loudly’ approach – I’m
right and you’re wrong and I don’t care how valid your point is. And the
tragedy of it all, is as human nature dictates, we react! Why, I’m never sure, but by gosh we do.
Take for example recently, someone I follow who has a dating
twitter profile (I have inadvertently followed/been followed by many many many
of these, perhaps I should date them all and rank them, but that’s for another
time…) who innocently asked the question, (and I’m para-phrasing as I’ve
forgotten it) “what are your online dating dislikes”. The response initially
was a few people saying they aren’t fond of dating anyone shorter than them, so
if they see on a profile (POF, since Tinder etc don’t list it) they tend to not
be interested – which is fair enough. It’s a response to a question, it’s their
personal opinion. It’s nothing outrageous, outlandish or mental – it’s
something that people have been known to be partial to for years, that’s why
Napoleon never got any action. (I’ve made that up, don’t attack me history
people).
So that set the stage, and in walks our protagonist, oh the
affliction it was to be. He interjects on the twitter discussion (all very
friendly and easy going about whether height is important, or if it’s SOH, or
bad shoes, etc etc) and says how as a shorter gent he dislikes it when people
will pass him over due to his height. I think initially it’s a fair point to
some degree, I believe that women who only date guys covered in tattoo’s is a
bit strange, but I respect their opinion and move on, it’s not up for debate,
that’s their choice and there’s plenty of women who don’t care, so into them I
plough. Well, this chap started reasonably enough, but then I noticed something
odd. The oddity in question was that more and more people were being involved
in this discussion, all with very valid points and suggestions, yet his point
never changed. He focused on these things. 1) Why don’t you give shorter guys a
chance. Oh sorry, that’s it. THAT IS HIS ONLY POINT. Oh you were waiting for
more?! Perhaps a list of valid points that he could bring into the conversation
and start to get people thinking on his level? Oh, no, that would be far too
easy. No no my friends, he had his point, and now he was going to really drive
it home. He achieved this to maximum effect by essentially debating with these
women who’ve already said they prefer guys taller than themselves (PLEASE NOTE
THIS IS NOT “TALL GUYS”), which incites him to repeat about giving someone
shorter a chance if it’s not working out with taller guys. Like it’s being tall
which makes us complete twats. Oh yes all shorter chaps are really lovely, tall
chaps are awful pricks.
This ‘discussion’ rages on for days, weeks, FUCKING
ETERNITY, IT IS STILL GOING ON AS WE SPEAK. And this is where I finally clocked
I/we were dealing with a troll. The points people made were so valid, made so
much sense and done in such a logical way – yet all his response were just the
same as before. There was nothing new, nothing that was an amicable discussion.
There is a constant attempted evocation of pity, then there’s his quip for
stating he is merely standing up for what he believes, which in this case, and
I kid you not, is “heightism”.
“Heightism” – Noun, it means, being a dickhead. OK SORRY
THAT WAS A JOKE. I jest I jest. It doesn’t, it actually means ‘Prejudice or
discrimination against someone on the basis of their height.’ – Which I can
understand.
“Discrimination” – Noun, it means ‘The unjust or prejudicial
treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race,
age, or sex’
“Prejudicial” – Adjective, it means ‘Harmful to someone or
something; detrimental’
Right, just so we’re clear. So in the space of a day there
were accusations of heightism flying about, which then became discrimination
comparing at one stage WITH THE PLIGHT AND DISCRIMINATION THAT MARTIN LUTHER
KING FOUGHT AGAINST. Yes you read that right. What the flying fuck was going
on. Apparently they are exactly the same thing. A young lady would prefer to
date someone taller than her, AND ESSENTIALLY THE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION THAT
COUNTLESS PEOPLE HAVE SUFFERED FOR GENERATIONS. I’d like to point out that this
person is 5’6” and white.
I must have missed the declaration that women having a
preference became harmful to him, apart from harming his feelings. Man the fuck
up. Oh and to add, his passing rejection of a couple of women who did say that
height doesn’t bother him because they weren’t pretty enough. Double standards
are everywhere.
Without losing sight of everything, I’d like to make a
couple of observations. If I was to go to 100 women who had stated they ONLY
date guys with dreadlocks, and said “but I’m super awesome, why don’t you give
me a chance” they will politely tell me to fuck off, it is their preference, it’s
not harming me, and is quite clearly not leading me on, it is simply saying
sorry pal, not my type. If I then repeat my point AD INFINITUM, I do not think
that a) they will think I’m an awesome non dreadlocked chap b) suddenly respect
me c) agree with me and get all up in my dating world.
And the biggest elephant in that particular room is, my
sample size was 100 people I KNEW had stated I was not on their radar. I can’t
then, having known that information, state how none of them fancy me. That’s
already been pre-established. THAT IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS. I can’t then use that
to moan at life and say well I asked 100 women, and 100 women said no. That’s
what is called creating a self-inflicted pity party with you being the only
attendee. It’s otherwise known as being a right little troll.
Add into the mix the mild mannered attack on my choice of
tie in my Twitter profile pic, which was provided to me as an usher at my mate’s
wedding. Beef with him, not me. Additionally at least I don’t try and hide who
I am. Typical behaviour. Additionally after I’d noticed (and said) how he’d get
in these mass group discussions which were picking up steam which many people
saw, he’d then start following them and
segregating them, suddenly taking a softly softly approach in order to solicit
pity – he’d accuse me of the same. It’s just such obvious ‘attack is the best
form of defence’ when things aren’t going his way and he doesn’t have a
response to various valid points. It’s childlike behaviour and is typical once
more, of a keyboard warrior.
Anyway, I think I’ve raved and ranted enough. Some may not
agree with it, some may think perhaps I am prejudice or petty for writing this –
and that’s fine with me. It’s not really about taking sides, it’s about
awareness of what people can be like on this crazy social media platform.
Sometimes it just blows my mind what it allows people to essentially get away
with, and really enforces the exaggerated opinion from some. You cannot force
opinion, so why try? The craziest thing is, if they would have just a bit of self-awareness,
or an ounce of humour about the situation, I guarantee they would have had far more
agreement. Yet all they do is appear belligerent and forthright.
I’m still waiting to tell him how a couple of my mates are
his height, and they have never ever struggled for women, but I think that’s
easily solved: they aren’t cunts.
Cheers.
Dan
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