"Donald Trump: Spokesman for birthers, truthers, and Internet trolls"...because they need love too.

[Fred Sanders]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-and-the-hate-tweeters/2015/08/21/3c863846-4817-11e5-8e7d-9c033e6745d8_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop_b&hpid=z3

The third most viewed front-page OP at Washington Post.

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By Anne Applebaum Columnist August 21 at 8:42 PM

“It’s probably the same person, writing 16?different comments under 15 different names.” That’s how a friend’s son recently shrugged off a social media spat he’d been involved in at his university. There had been some nasty name-calling and a few violent threats, but he wasn’t bothered: He reckoned the anger, racism and vitriol he had encountered on Twitter and Facebook weren’t “real.” They didn’t affect real politics, or real life.

He isn’t alone in this assumption. Most people — the vast majority — would never imagine that Twitter is reality. Even those who do stay abreast of current events via some form of social media generally assume that whatever nastiness they encounter online doesn’t affect anything important. If there is a political impact, it’s on niche movements or Islamic extremists. Jon Ronson’s recent book, “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed,” explored the madness of the Twitter mobs that destroy the lives of people who tell unfortunate jokes, but until now, we’ve still believed that mainstream politics were safe."

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"Trump dismisses Jeb Bush because Bush learns about foreign policy by sitting at a table and talking to some boring general all day? So do they. Trump says he “wouldn’t care” if Ukraine joined NATO? Neither would they. Trump thinks the “real” unemployement rate is 42 percent? They aren’t bothered by the nuances of statistics, either. And there we have it: Long left out of a national conversation that focuses on dull things like budgets, legislation and foreign policy, now, at last, the birthers, truthers and trolls have a voice, too."

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