David Hogg & What's Left of Laura Ingraham

[kpete]

Laura Ingraham
March 31st, 2018by Clay Bennett






http://www.timesfreepress.com/cartoons/2018/mar/31/laura-ingraham/3427/

[DFW]

1. But if you read the comments under it

You will see that the ugliness that is Ingraham, Trump and the rest is still alive and well in our land, like a plague that refuses to be eradicated.

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. NEVER read the comments.

This type of behavior has gone on for years and not exclusive to Trumpkins. Even obituaries can draw vile statements.
I think the only person who was written about and I didn’t see a brazillion nasty comments was Davey Jones, the Monkee. I was surprised about this but who knows anymore.

[DFW]

3. Usually, I don't

If I had paid any attention to what paper it was from, I wouldn't have. I know the area, and that here would have been such comments was a given.

[karynnj]

7. I think it might have value to glance occasionally at these comments

and to consider both the nastiness and the fact that there are people who spent the time writing that voluminous mass of comments.

I had always been stunned by how even many papers that should have had readers who leaned left or should have at least been balanced had some core commenters (judging from the reactions they got from others) who were not just Republican, or conservative or libertarian Republican, or even tea party Republican but far far right Republicans.

It has gotten worse over the last decade and a half. At the beginning of that time, I sometimes responded to some correcting what some of the less obviously vile posters claimed. Even then, my idea was that I was unlikely to change their opinions, but I might get someone who read the claim to consider what I said and at least question the claim. Knowing that I was anonymous, it was easy to ignore the posters' responses, even if it made me sound oblivious -and to give more proof with more links. At some point, it became clear that these comment sections were no longer a community discussion. I even suspect that might have been the goal of some of the worst posters - eliminating a chance for civil discussion between a broader community than you find on either a left or right message board.

After all we learned in recent years, I wonder how many of these vile posts are done by paid posters - some out of Russia - some native born. Given that their goal is to destabilize our democracy, anything that feeds the polarization serves their goals.

[Botany]

6. Well, they do seem well written and educated

"you have know brain these kids are pawns in the game and gun control will not work
it needs to people control this crap dont happen when i was young , it has to do with
people not guns"


I only read a few comments .... some looked like troll bot crap trying to stir up things
on the left.

[Gothmog]

4. Great cartoon

[oasis]

5. Boom!

[PatrickforO]

8. I like these kinds of articles, because I enjoy reading the string of comments

underneath.

It seems like we are approaching a tipping point in our society. We have BLM, we have #Me Too, and now we have these legions of young people standing up and speaking truth to power.

Now, about the comments - months ago, maybe a year ago, it would have been all right wing hate comments - short one-liners filled with misspelled words and poorly constructed sentences and erroneous word choices such as substituting 'know' for 'no.'

We still have those, but thoughtful comments are beginning to outnumber them. I suppose what I'm trying to say here is that more and more people seem to be waking up to the horror that is the Trump administration.