As regular readers will know, I've had a great deal of fun on my Twitter page on #GOPDebate nights. During the eight debates, I've posted between 20 and 50 sarcastic tweets at the expense of the seemingly endless candidates. This has resulted in a significant number of "likes," "retweets," compliments, multiple mentions on other websites, and yes, trolls. I guess it kind of comes with the territory, yet 99.9% of the time I read these trolls' comments, I can't help but shake my head and do my best Linda Blair impersonation, as my eyes roll back so far even she would be impressed.
Just last night, I received a few such comments, three of which stood out from the rest. The tweet which generated most of the trolls' comments was this one:
"Trump: 'Conservatives are all about conserving, except oil, the environment, money, & human life, you know, b/c of guns & stuff.'
#GOPDebate"
Responses:
1) "Your just projecting your anger, racism, and bigotry! Doesn't help your cause any lib!"
Say what?!? Does oil = anger, the environment = race, and money = bigotry? That's interesting... Oh, and not making any sense doesn't help your cause any either, Mr. Troll...
2) "Human life? Which party is responsible for all the abortions and selling fetus brains and body parts? Democrats!"
Actually, that Carly Fiorina claim has been debunked more times than Donald Trump has uttered the word "big." Even Fox News has confronted Ms. Fiorina on the matter (http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/09/20/fox-news-tells-carly-fiorina-to-her-face-no-actual-footage-exists-of-fetus-videos-video/). When a claim is debunked by multiple (reputable) sources, that doesn't make said claim a fact... As the kids nowadays would say, "Just sayin'..."
3) "Detroit, Michigan is what happens when Democrats get control!"
Seriously?!? First off, there's a great deal of blame to go around for Detroit's downfall. Conservatives can attempt to lay the entire blame on Democratic leaders, but they'd be inaccurate in saying only Democrats were in power during the city's downturn. Not only that, but they'd be failing to look at the bigger picture. As Richard Wolff explains in this article (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/23/detroit-decline-distinctively-capitalist-failure), "Detroit's decline is a distinctively capitalist failure: The auto industry Big Three were loyal only to shareholders, not the people of Detroit. The city was gutted by that social choice." Not only that, but from a logic perspective, the argument is a weak one, for it's a prime example of cherry-picking. The author of this post focused his attention on one example and attempted to cast that example as a trend rather than an aberration, yet provided no evidence to prove this. It'd be like if I pointed to the 9/11 attacks under then President Bush and said, "This is what happens when Republicans get control!" Pretty ridiculous, right? Perhaps this poster may want to look at and compare the economy under Republican vs. Democratic presidents in recent decades before making another such egregious mistake.
Then today, I posted a fact-check to Donald Trump's claim that the U.S. is the most taxed country in the world. The fact-checkers graded the statement as "false," provided evidence to support this grade, and to this, I received a response claiming Trump's claim was actually correct (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/06/donald-trump/trump-calls-us-highest-taxed-country-world/). No matter what the poster wants to believe, here's what the report, conducted by Joshua Gillin and Louis Jacobson, said:
- "In OECD data from 2014, the most recent year available, the United States was far from the most highly taxed among this group.
Taxation accounted for 26 percent of GDP, which ranks America 27th out of 30 countries (the OECD average was more than 34 percent).The top five highest-taxed countries as a percentage of GDP were Denmark, France, Belgium, Finland and Italy, all topping 43 percent. Korea, Chile and Mexico were the only nations ranked lower than the United States."
- "As for tax revenue per capita, we move up a bit.
America is 17th out of 29 countries by this measure on the OECD list, with taxes totaling $14,994 per person. The top five were Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, which ranged from a high of almost $50,000 to to more than $23,000. Twelve nations were lower than the United States. The bottom two, Turkey and Chile, had tax revenues per capita of less than $3,000."
- "Industrialized economies are the best yardstick, but U.S. taxation as a percentage of GDP ranks 12th from the bottom if you compare it with a larger roster of 115 countries."
It's like the poster didn't even read the report. Shocking, I know, right? Trolls, please do me, and everyone else you attempt to anger, a few favors: Read the tweets before commenting on them, make certain you're responding to the right post, make sure your replies make some sense, don't resort to fallacies or debunked claims, and before clicking "tweet," as yourself this question: "Will posting this make me sound dumber than Rick Perry counting to 3?" Thanks a bunch! Have a nice day!
Just last night, I received a few such comments, three of which stood out from the rest. The tweet which generated most of the trolls' comments was this one:
"Trump: 'Conservatives are all about conserving, except oil, the environment, money, & human life, you know, b/c of guns & stuff.'
#GOPDebate"
Responses:
1) "Your just projecting your anger, racism, and bigotry! Doesn't help your cause any lib!"
Say what?!? Does oil = anger, the environment = race, and money = bigotry? That's interesting... Oh, and not making any sense doesn't help your cause any either, Mr. Troll...
2) "Human life? Which party is responsible for all the abortions and selling fetus brains and body parts? Democrats!"
Actually, that Carly Fiorina claim has been debunked more times than Donald Trump has uttered the word "big." Even Fox News has confronted Ms. Fiorina on the matter (http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/09/20/fox-news-tells-carly-fiorina-to-her-face-no-actual-footage-exists-of-fetus-videos-video/). When a claim is debunked by multiple (reputable) sources, that doesn't make said claim a fact... As the kids nowadays would say, "Just sayin'..."
3) "Detroit, Michigan is what happens when Democrats get control!"
Seriously?!? First off, there's a great deal of blame to go around for Detroit's downfall. Conservatives can attempt to lay the entire blame on Democratic leaders, but they'd be inaccurate in saying only Democrats were in power during the city's downturn. Not only that, but they'd be failing to look at the bigger picture. As Richard Wolff explains in this article (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/23/detroit-decline-distinctively-capitalist-failure), "Detroit's decline is a distinctively capitalist failure: The auto industry Big Three were loyal only to shareholders, not the people of Detroit. The city was gutted by that social choice." Not only that, but from a logic perspective, the argument is a weak one, for it's a prime example of cherry-picking. The author of this post focused his attention on one example and attempted to cast that example as a trend rather than an aberration, yet provided no evidence to prove this. It'd be like if I pointed to the 9/11 attacks under then President Bush and said, "This is what happens when Republicans get control!" Pretty ridiculous, right? Perhaps this poster may want to look at and compare the economy under Republican vs. Democratic presidents in recent decades before making another such egregious mistake.
Then today, I posted a fact-check to Donald Trump's claim that the U.S. is the most taxed country in the world. The fact-checkers graded the statement as "false," provided evidence to support this grade, and to this, I received a response claiming Trump's claim was actually correct (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/06/donald-trump/trump-calls-us-highest-taxed-country-world/). No matter what the poster wants to believe, here's what the report, conducted by Joshua Gillin and Louis Jacobson, said:
- "In OECD data from 2014, the most recent year available, the United States was far from the most highly taxed among this group.
Taxation accounted for 26 percent of GDP, which ranks America 27th out of 30 countries (the OECD average was more than 34 percent).The top five highest-taxed countries as a percentage of GDP were Denmark, France, Belgium, Finland and Italy, all topping 43 percent. Korea, Chile and Mexico were the only nations ranked lower than the United States."
- "As for tax revenue per capita, we move up a bit.
America is 17th out of 29 countries by this measure on the OECD list, with taxes totaling $14,994 per person. The top five were Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland, which ranged from a high of almost $50,000 to to more than $23,000. Twelve nations were lower than the United States. The bottom two, Turkey and Chile, had tax revenues per capita of less than $3,000."
- "Industrialized economies are the best yardstick, but U.S. taxation as a percentage of GDP ranks 12th from the bottom if you compare it with a larger roster of 115 countries."
It's like the poster didn't even read the report. Shocking, I know, right? Trolls, please do me, and everyone else you attempt to anger, a few favors: Read the tweets before commenting on them, make certain you're responding to the right post, make sure your replies make some sense, don't resort to fallacies or debunked claims, and before clicking "tweet," as yourself this question: "Will posting this make me sound dumber than Rick Perry counting to 3?" Thanks a bunch! Have a nice day!
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