thoughtmechanics

I have put together a comprehensive description of what I consider to be the new Hydra, foisting itself into the discourse of intelligent discussion: The political blog troll.

Conversation by the PBT is usually irrelevant, repetitive, will often fall off topic, will split hairs by arguing extensively over trifles or fine distinctions, will not argue the issue and instead perorate with Devil’s Advocate reasoning.

Constant comments by the PBT are usually in the form of a disagreement with the positions taken by the authors of the blog, and are designed to overtake the discussion. They will usually do their best to always have the last word in a debate and will usually have the attitude that any argument that comes from the [insert ideology here] must be wrong. In short, they are usually right-wing or left-wing ideologues. Now, that’s not to say that disagreement, even debate, is a bad thing. On the contrary, it’s one of the best learning tools around–but only when the process is taken up by reasonable people.

The PBT is one big logical fallacy after the next. The most common ways that they argue are with ad Hominem personal attacks, red herrings, Tu Quoque responses, and straw men arguments. Another popular technique by the PBT is to ignore the main points of your post and instead focus/attack the weakest part of your argument. Many times, they will just ignore your argument all together.

Another characteristic of the PBT is that these people usually don’t have their own blogs and instead hang around other blogs to try and derail the commentary. This is typical of a PBT. They seem to have so much to say, but are unable or unwilling to create their own forum for political discourse (or at least link to one) and even when they do, it usually ends up being an anonymous or a first-name-only blog with little or no credibility.

Other methods along these lines are when the PBT links to a site like rushlimbaugh.com or michaelmoore.com, or worse, it will make up a “fake??? URL and unknowingly link to an actual web site, which causes even more problems.

Arguing extensively with the political blog troll will do you about as much good as booing at the Special Olympics. The best way to deal with the PBT is the way you’d deal with any other blog troll, and that is to not provide it with food. In order to rid yourself of the PBT, you have to starve it so that it will try and find food somewhere else.

But this is not an easy thing to do. A smart PBT will often disguise its remarks in the form of an intelligent argument, but once you take the bait by responding with a thoughtful rebuttal, the PBT will then employ its techniques and do everything it possibly can to “win??? the argument, often forcing the discourse into a downward spiral.

Tom Cruise has been in the news lately because of speculation that his whacky behavior was putting his Mission Impossible 3 project in danger. As it turns out, the project is moving forward after all, but there are more questions than ever about Cruise and Scientology. I decided to take a look.

Scientology is a cult that is responsible for many deaths, the countless break-up of families, robbing the poor, and so much more.

One of the biggest problems with scientology is their insistence that drugs of any kind, including doctor prescribed medications, are a “problem.” In fact, when Tom Cruise bankrolled a detoxification program for rescue workers of the 9/11 terror attacks, one of the requirements of the program was that the rescue workers had to abandon any medications they were on.

FDNY officials are concerned that many of the 120 firefighters who sought help at the clinic stopped using inhalers and medications prescribed by department doctors.

Fire officials also say the department has no proof that the clinic’s regimen of moderate exercise, vitamins and saunas removes toxins from the body.

“Our doctors went down there and checked it out,” said Deputy Commissioner Frank Gribbon. “Their opinion was this was not a detoxification program. We don’t endorse it.”

This month, the city’s largest firefighters union yanked its support of Downtown Medical.

In this situation, firefighters’ lives were put in danger by this program because they were taken off medications prescribed to help them breath, as well as any other medications they were on. I take personal offense to this because I am a volunteer firefighter and I consider firefighters everywhere to be my brother—and nobody messes with my family.

Scientology is a destructive and dangerous cult, if you want to learn the truth about it, visit Operation Clambake, Xenu TV, and Scientology Kills for more information. If you’re really brave, you can visit the Church of Scientology’s web site.