Don’t Feed the Trolls

This past Saturday, July 27th, was Chris “Helmet Guy” Vanderweide’s so-called “Rally Against Bullying” in Kitchener Ontario. It did not go as well as he’d hoped, and has been described in local media as a “fizzle.” This is because, despite the usual grandiose alt-right claims only about a dozen hate-group members attended the “rally.” Their numbers might possibly have been depressed because Helmet Guy had spent the previous week in an internet bitch-slap fight with the Nouns of Odin. In any case Vanderweide himself skipped his own rally for fear of breaking his bail conditions — which suggests to me that someone finally explained to him how bail conditions work.

Following his flop of a rally, Vanderweide spent the weekend whining online — especially on the KW Record Facebook page — about how he was the victim of “passive aggressive bullying” from “Antifa communists” because someone in a pink t-shirt danced with a Pride flag. (The article in question — and its comments — have since been removed. The article was then re-posted sans comments.)

I don’t know what’s more annoying about Chris Vanderweide: His sudden outburst of false piety or his ongoing claims of victimhood. Although I do have to say that the best thing about Helmet Guy’s Facebook whining is that hot-pink Pride dancer wrote his own reportback and submitted it to North Shore Counter-Info, an Ontario anarchist news blog. (The Safety Dance is now a confirmed anti-fascist anthem. Pass it on.)

This is all, of course, ridiculous. Not the fifty-plus anti-fascist counter-protesters who came out to dance and sing and shout back at the hate-groups (confirmed hate group attendees include members the Yellow Vests, Northern Guard, ID Canada and the Canadian Nationalist Party), but the meagre handful of racist and homophobic assholes who came out in support of the whinging false-victimhood of a violent coward who’s been videotaped attacking people on multiple occasions by while wearing cheap airsoft body armour. And by ridiculous, I mean literally ridiculous; worthy only of ridicule and derision.

Frankly, if Helmet Guy is the best the Canadian neo-fascist scene can do for a hero then they’re more pathetic than even I thought.

That doesn’t mean we can ignore their threat, though: At the same time that rally was occurring in Kitchener, the weekly Yellow Vests demonstration (and accompanying counter-demonstration) was occurring in Hamilton. As described to me by witnesses, some of the Yellow Vesters became confrontational and one attempted to pick a fight with an LGBTQ+ counter-protester… by threatening the counter-protester’s three-year-old child.

Take a moment and let that sink in: The Yellow Vester threatened a three-year-old. Repeatedly.

The word “coward” doesn’t come close to covering it.

To their credit, the parents and other counter-protesters kept their cool and didn’t let the Yellow Vester hurt a child or provoke a fight. One of the parents I spoke to credited the anti-fascists who stepped between the thug and their family for preventing violence in the the situation. I’ve also been told that a hate-crime report has been filed with the police… although I’m cynically certain that nothing will come of it. The Hamilton Police Service has earned an abysmally low reputation in the LGBTQ+ community this summer and has quite simply made it clear that the safety of queers and their families just isn’t on their radar. (You don’t like that statement, Hamilton cops? Prove me wrong.)

Likewise, one of the continual excuses coming out of Hamilton City Hall for tolerating the weekly presence of these threatening hate groups in public spaces — to the point where racialized and LGBTQ+ citizens are reporting that they are avoiding the area on Saturday mornings — is that “they haven’t done anything we can ban them for.” Even though, of course, the Yellow Vesters have repeatedly assaulted counter-protesters. Perhaps learning that one of the fascists — identified on social media as calling himself “Ed” — threatened a three-year-old with violence on the steps of City Hall might light a fire under the mayor’s ass.

But I’ve got to say that his record suggests this won’t be the case: Fred Eisenberger doesn’t give a shit about the safety of queer families. (And once again: If you don’t like that statement Mr. Eisenberger, prove me wrong.)

This is the genuinely weird disconnect that I get when dealing with these fascist chuds: On one hand, they’re contemptibly ignorant, clownish cowards whose entire platform transparently depends on vilifying vulnerable communities in order to make themselves feel validated; On the other hand, they’re a genuine threat to those same vulnerable communities and must be resisted for the safety of us all… which would be a hell of a lot easier if the police and city hall would stop protecting them. (Someone on Twitter pointed out that yes, the cops come out to stand between the Yellow Vests and the counter-protesters… but for some reason they always seem to facing towards the counter-protesters.)

It’s the same thing online. As a blogger I spend a great deal (probably too much) time on Facebook and Twitter, which means I spend a great deal of time watching alt-right trolls preen and primp their shitty attitudes in public spaces like digital peacocks. They make “edgy” or “shocking” statements in the hopes of getting a reaction in order to… what? Get attention? Convince people that they’re right? Score some kind of points? Influence the public discourse towards an authoritarian hell-state where all dissidence is outlawed?

Case in point; this weekend there was a lot of discussion online about Donald Trump’s tweet condemning “ANTIFA” as a terrorist group. Trump’s tweet — and Ted Cruz’s campaign — to have a non-existent organization declared “terrorist” would be laughable on the face of it… if it didn’t disguise a much more sinister agenda underneath: the outright criminalization of dissent in the United States.

And of course, the alt-right troll brigade online — despite their frequent claims of defending “free speech” — are all over it. Over the weekend I had one unpleasant interaction with a troll who claimed that “antifa” routinely beat people in the streets and demanded to know why “alt-left” violence was allowed to run rampant. I shared an image sourced from ADL.org which showed that almost all US domestic extremist killings in 2018 were committed by right-wing extremists… and that none were attributed to leftists, let alone “antifa”.

Well! That set the troll off: I got to endure a couple of hours of gaslighting, goalpost-moving, weasel-wording, bad-faith arguing and increasingly strident demands to provide “numbers” and “facts” before the whole thing devolved into abuse and threats… and, a particular irritation, demands to know why I was “so angry.” (I wasn’t.)

Muted, reported, moving on. It’s a story no doubt familiar to absolutely everybody in this brutal year of 2019. Certainly it held no surprises for me.

On the face of it, it’s an absurd interaction… and an utterly commonplace one. But it’s very banality is part of the threat posed by right-wing trolls: If you engage them, you waste your time; If you ignore them, they get a platform that allows them to spread their disinformation (or dare I say… dezinformatsiya?)

I’m increasingly leaning towards ignoring trolls, although I frequently report them. I don’t argue with trolls for the sake of convincing them. They’re not there to be convinced, so I don’t think engaging them is a helpful thing to do… unless, rarely, I judge that their audience might benefit from a counter-opinion.

The truth is that trolls — almost by definition — don’t argue. In logic and philosophy, an argument is a series of premises intended to test and determine the validity of a conclusion. The end result is what we call a “truth.” Trolls aren’t interested in truth, although they often claim they are. What they are interested in is winding you up, turning you around, and then making you — the person trying to actually argue the point — look foolish, usually by frustrating you. Then they’ve “won.” The most irritating thing you can do to a troll is refuse to get worked up… which is why they escalate until they can find your buttons. Insults and threats are the final weapons in their arsenal… and apparently that now includes threatening three-year-olds.

This is how the alt-right works, whether they’re some anonymous troll on an internet forum, a hate group member in front of city hall, an alt-right media grifter, or the President of the United States. It’s a very predictable pattern: Make a statement, ignore your counter-argument, move the goalposts, wind you up into an explosion and then declare victory and/or victimhood. (Hell, I’ve dealt with some trolls who, if you break off the interaction and then go back to check later, have kept the whole thing going solo for hours.)

Which is why I usually choose not to engage… or at least not on their terms.

Understanding that the game is rigged means you can sidestep the whole hustle if you want. What I don’t get is why so many intelligent people — especially on the political Left — understand that’s what’s happening and still play the game even though there’s no way to win it.

What you need to do is refuse to play their game and go for the real goal. Maybe that goal is reporting the troll to get them de-platformed. Maybe that goal is getting them off the street and out of public spaces, or demonetized by boycotting their advertisers. Maybe that goal — and I really wish Nancy Pelosi would remember this — is impeaching the bastard.

That’s how we beat them: Remember what your goal is. Don’t get distracted. Keep your eyes on the prize and don’t feed the trolls.