Over the past few days, we've witnessed the beginning of an organized effort to drown out the voices of health insurance reform advocates through terror and intimidation. As others have thoroughly documented, there is no doubt that this insurance industry supported "astroturf" movement is far from a broad, genuinely spontaneous movement of "average citizens." Rather, from the moment that GOP leaders warned of Democrats facing angry constituents (wink wink), it was obvious that the Republican Party and its insurance industry allies were intent on poisoning the discussion and drowning out any honest discourse by promoting the blind rage of partisan extremists over the informed reason of genuine debate.
As a leaked memo from one of these astroturf groups has revealed, the goal of this fear campaign is not to facilitate honest communication between representatives and their constituents. Rather, their goal is to disrupt discussions among genuinely interested citizens, distract reform advocates from conveying their message, and discourage people from participating in town halls through harassment and intimidation. The goal is to cut off average citizens from any source of information beyond fear-mongering e-mails and the inane discussions of "politics" that dominate the traditional media. As the memo advises its thugs:
– Be Disruptive Early And Often: "You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early."
– Try To "Rattle Him," Not Have An Intelligent Debate: "The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions."
Those of us who participate in internet communities have a word for this behavior: trolling.
Trolls are malicious outsiders whose sole intent is to disrupt the normal communication among members of a community by stoking controversy, promoting negative emotions, and disrupting on-topic discussions. Their goal is to hijack healthy communities, poison the atmosphere, and ultimately, destroy the possibility of free and open discourse. When people have stopped attending forums out of frustration, the trolls have won. When the few people who remain can no longer converse openly without fear of being personally attacked, the trolls have won. When people have been denied a means of expressing and educating themselves, the trolls have won.
This is precisely what the astroturf "activists" are trying to do. They are, in the purest sense, trolls. Their intent is not to communicate on behalf of their community. Their intent is to destroy communication altogether. Their intent is not to educate and inform. Their intent is to frustrate and confuse.
Not surprisingly, this is one aspect of the internet that the GOP has learned well.
As mentioned above, trolls operate through continual and persistent disruption, and as we've seen on several videos posted in the last few days, the anti-reform trolls have resorted to the crudest tactics imaginable. Basically, they are the town hall equivalent of a newly registered troglodyte who does nothing but type nonsensical invective in ALL-CAPS. Lacking the intelligence necessary to debate reform advocates, these thugs simply yell at anyone who speaks up, denying the right of others to be heard.
The GOP calls this "democracy."
Most people would call it trolling.
And if there's one thing that is bad for both democracy and communities, it's trolling. Democracy is built on free expression and communication. Communities are built on civility and mutual respect. The GOP's astroturf trolls have been explicitly ordered to undermine both. They have specifically advised against engaging in "intelligent debate." Rather, they have been told to engage in tactics that employ unprovoked hostility and intimidation to deny others their right to free expression and open discourse. In other words, the GOP and its astroturf trolls have essentially declared war on the communities that they're invading.
Unfortunately, forums beyond the internet lack many of the resources that can be used to combat trolling. There is no "hide rate" button in real life. Likewise, simply "not feeding the troll" is also out of the question, as it is simply not possible to continue conversing at all when a mob of astroturf trolls are yelling to prevent anyone else from being heard.
The only remaining counter-tactic is to expose them for what they are, inform the population about their tactics, and treat them accordingly. The ad released by the DNC this morning was a good first step, but it's not enough. We need our activists to get their own footage of these trolls at their worst and we need to make it viral, circumventing a traditional media filter that is lazily and disingenuously portraying these thugs as "emotional constituents."
This is precisely what the GOP is trying to achieve. They want these small groups of amoral extremists to be perceived as "average citizens" involved in some kind of popular uprising. The only way to counteract this campaign is to combat this perception. Trolls thrive amidst the illusion that they are an honest participant in the discussion. As Judith Donath famously wrote in her paper on trolling:
Trolling is a game about identity deception, albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the players. The troll attempts to pass as a legitimate participant, sharing the group's common interests and concerns; the newsgroups members, if they are cognizant of trolls and other identity deceptions, attempt to both distinguish real from trolling postings, and upon judging a poster a troll, make the offending poster leave the group.
Once a community recognizes a troll as a troll, it becomes infinitely more difficult for the troll to be taken seriously. Certainly, they can be loud and offensive, but if their tactics are recognized for what they are, the patience and interest of honest participants wears thin, even among those who might otherwise agree with the troll. Our goal, as such, is to make it clear to the country and the media that these dishonest campaigns of intimidation have no place in democratic communities.
This isn't democracy. It's trolling, and our communities deserve better.