It's not a joke. It's just other episodes in my life and cyber-life.
And since so many people have decided to follow #TwitterSilence today, I think it's a good day to talk about trolls, who are everywhere - and who are usually gutless.
I was tempted to do a bit of silence, as well, but:
a- I'm too angry for that
b- my Mediterranean side won't allow it
c- Twitter probably doesn't care much
d- the trolls may well be having a ball (and I shall try to spoil their fun)
As indicated in the title, I have three trolls (three and a half) to denounce.
In real life, I've got to work with a yappy little runt (it's a biped, but it's a bully).
I shall call that biped "it", because I can, and it's a bugging biped.
It's utterly sexist and when I asked it to not treat me as its maid, it retaliated by doing a tiny little something that was supposed to prevent me from working in normal conditions.
What happened when I suggested to contact the trade unions? I was told to forget about the incident, as it's not important and would do no good.
NEVER.
AGAIN.
I know I'll have to work with it again in the coming months, and if it keeps treating me like its maid, I'll complain officially - after confronting it for being a sexist troll.
I bet it won't have the guts to deny anything because that biped has enough courage to try to do things to bug me if I'm not present, but to my face... no courage whatsoever (like so many trolls and bullies: you confront them, they cave).
The Internet is trolls' playground because they can hide easily and avoid "facing" their victims.
Once, on a forum, I had to deal with someone who, on purpose, uses a kind of broken/pirate language to make itself look cute (and some people fall for that).
It once told me something that was so cryptic that I confronted it, and it instantly back-pedalled. It tried to pretend that I'd misread its words; I conceded that it was possible, but I pointed out that if it were using simple standard language, such things wouldn't happen. I was then subjected to the standard bully technique: it attacked, saying that it couldn't use normal language (which is a bloody lie, but I'm apparently supposed to have the memory of a goldfish and not remember the times when it used fairly normal words and sentence structures). I was turned into the bad guy, and - boy! - did it insist on the fact that I was uncaring, nasty, and basically an angry bitch.
I had to justify myself whilst it was the one who'd started it.
The chat ended up neutrally, but I bet it's proud to have managed to appear as the victim on that forum, but I'm keeping an eye on that bully because it's bound to try again. The next time it tries to play the "look at me playing the victim so that no one is going to dare to say anything negative for fear of being called a 'bully' instead of me" card, I'll go for the jugular.
Bullying trolls have a field day on forums, because we can type a lot. Things are different on Twitter.
I love Twitter. I makes the world smaller, and we can talk to our heroes and thank them or just say 'Hello!'.
And there are weird bunnies there, as well.
I've had the occasional porn tweet, spam tweet, barmy tweet on Twitter, but last month and yesterday, odd and slightly interesting things happened.
I had to deal with one Troll-Light - or two.
Case #1:
Last month, I retweeted an article about the Zimmerman case - specifically about the fact that he's going to get his gun back.
Now, two things, I'm European and live in Europe for the moment. Where I'm parked, only the coppers have guns (and the occasional thugs, but I've never seen one). That's our life here, and everyday citizens do not need guns to feel safe. And then, I do understand History, and I know that the Supreme Court of the United States of America decided to change the meaning of the Second Amendment in order to have it mean what the Average Joes and Janes thought it meant (because it was too darn difficult to put that into some historical perspective).
When I said, using sarcasm, "Of course!" to his being given his gun back, I got a tweet from a complete stranger who agreed with me, sans sarcasm(!), and who pointed out that the kid hadn't been properly educated by his parents.
Seriously? He was blaming the dead teen - and his parents! I was fuming.
I composed several scathing tweets, but I didn't send those. I took a deep breath (or twelve), and I decided to keep being sarcastic, and so, I told that man that I didn't think that Zimmerman qualified as a "kid", and I hinted - okay, plainly stated - that he'd probably missed my sarcastic tone.
I didn't back down. There's no other way to say it, but I stood my ground on my Twitter.
Now, after deleting his account for a few days, that man is back (I just checked), but his tweets to me have been deleted (because he realized I was sarcastically making fun of him?). Never mind, I archived them.
I think he's a silly Troll-Light because he backed off quickly and didn't even try to call me names for being diametrically opposed to him and his beliefs.
Case #2:
Each time I catch an article about Comfort Women and their fight to get justice from Japan, I tweet it.
I love Japan, and most Japanese people.
Japanese politicos... that's another story: between the ones who slaughter whales and dolphins because that official sub-office of a Ministry is a niche for retired civil servants who don't want to stay home, the ones who praise Nazism, the ones who want to have an army again, and the ones who deny that women (Asians and Europeans) were forced to become sex slaves for the Imperial army... I growl a lot.
A Californian city has recently unveiled a statue to remember these women and girls who were enslaved. Japanese politicos protested.
In one tweet, I praised the city and said 'Shame on you' to the politico who protested and asked the city to not unveil the statue because he thinks that these women were volunteers. Yea... right. I'm the Empress of Mars, and I've got a bridge to sell you...
I got two tweets from another complete stranger - to YouTube videos that say that these women were volunteers.
I called that bloke a denialist.
Next... I honestly didn't know at the time if there was a language barrier (he's Japanese) or if he played dumb to wind me up. I spent a few minutes telling him to Google the topic (that's the teacher in me, I want people to do their research and learn and open up and upgrade their brains). I gave him tips and sent him off to the net to see the truth and avoid the lies.
No news from him... until this morning.
It turns out that he's a true denialist who tried his luck with me and who'll never change his mind because he's decided to ignore the facts. That block button is pretty useful (I told him what I thought of him before clicking, though).
What's important for me is that I always stated my truth and stood my ground (with more or less success, yes, indeed).
I also believe that, if one's not dealing with sociopaths, the Average Troll cannot stand being confronted with the truth, and if one stands up to "it", it doesn't have the guts to go on being a troll/bully.
Perhaps we should re-name the bipeds we call "trolls" on the Internet. They're just cyber-bullies of various shades.
Of course, our cyber-bullies are hiding behind keyboards and false names, but they've got mates who can tell the bullies' mums what their children are doing - and we've got coppers who can trace the nastiest cyber-bullies who think they can threaten people into silence.
As I've said before, my own mama is afraid when I speak my mind on the net, but I shan't be silenced. Ever.
I may cry and feel blue, but I shall keep on fighting.
Because I've got a voice.
Because I'm ready to fight.
Because I've got the right to speak my mind.
Because no one has the right to silence me.
Because I'm no one's property.
Because I'm not a slave.
Because I've got as many rights as the next biped.
Because no one died and made the bullies and cyber-bullies kings of the Earth.
Because that's not the kind of planet I want for the future generations.
Because I believe in equality for all.
