Friday, June 3, 2011

Send in the Trolls

The past couple of posts on this blog have attracted an invasion of trolls. Actually I think it's only one troll, but it worked itself into such a frenzy of rage that it fired off six comments in rapid succession last Tuesday.

I don't publish comments that are personally insulting, especially if they're anonymous and especially if they're insulting to me. (This is my fucking blog, after all.) But I'll quote some choice excerpts just to give you the flavor:

"DIE YUPPIE SCUM!"

"Get outta here loser! Go invest in california!"

"I'll give you a ride to california tomorrow cheese dick!"

(I'll admit I had to go to the Urban Dictionary to look up "cheese dick." The first definition:
"A guy who is not only cheesy with the ladies, but is also an arrogant dick head. He almost definitely wears gel in his hair at all times and/or dresses in nice expensive clothes." Now, an arrogant dickhead I may sometimes be, but I have NEVER worn gel in my hair and I rarely dress in nice expensive clothes, for the simple reason that I don't have many nice expensive clothes. Of course, in Bend if you wear anything other than a T-shirt, a hoodie and jeans people will ask why you're "all dressed up.")

And finally this one:

"Bruce, you're a piece of shit. If you don't like it here please move! You are the kind of loser who is ruining this town!"

That last sentence was particularly intriguing. How, exactly, am I "ruining this town"? I'm a law-abiding, property-owning, tax-paying citizen. I don't deal drugs or expose myself to children at playgrounds or build vast crappy housing tracts.

Evidently the troll thinks I'm "ruining this town" by mentioning some of the negative aspects of it. I'm "ruining" it by refusing to be a cheerleader -- by not doing my part in pushing the "Bend is PARADISE!!!" fantasy.

Behind this attitude -- which is pretty common among the Bendoids, especially the lifers -- is a lingering faith in the Doctrine of Bend Exceptionalism and the deluded belief that if we just sell the fantasy hard enough, we can convince millions of people that Bend really is Paradise, the real estate bubble will re-inflate and the good times will roll again.

For those who still cling to that delusion, here are two points to think about:

1. If Bend really had been even 27% as wonderful as it was made out to be, the real estate bubble never would have popped.

2. If people in Bend hadn't bought their own bullshit propaganda about Bend being Paradise, to the point of believing everybody in the world wanted to live here and would pay any price to live here, the real estate bubble and the economic disaster resulting from its collapse would never have happened.

Which raises the question: Who really "ruined" Bend -- those who peddled the bullshit, or those few who told the truth?



5 comments:

H. Bruce Miller said...

Update: This morning I found four more comments from the troll, one of them of a threatening nature: "Bruce, your photos have been saved and are making the rounds with your anti Bend blog. Since you're too dumb to leave a place you hate so much, I figured you'd enjoy being harassed by the locals."

Be advised, troll, that even though you are too gutless to attach your name to your insults and threats, I CAN find out who you are.

H. Bruce Miller said...

PS: Thanks for the publicity! My hits have gone way up!

Jack said...

"This is my fucking blog, after all."

Exactly. To quote that Jack Elliott who paraphrased something that film director Spike Lee is said to have said (anecdotally): "If you don't like what I have to say, get your own damn blog."

(Lee was said to have said in response to criticism of one of his films, "If you don't like my film, make your own."

H. Bruce Miller said...

Fuckin'-A, man. If somebody wants to start a blog singing the praises of Bend, I have no objection. And while I might argue with him and gently tease him I would never even consider calling him a "cheese dick" or other terms of opprobrium just because I disagreed with him.

Jack said...

Hey troll -- my picture is not hard to find.