Ridiculous Opinions #250
My mind is scattered this morning as I figure out what to type on this here 250th newsletter. So, today I write about how I became the pariah of Reddit for this comic:
Oh, yes, people went after me on Reddit. I received massive amounts of hate comments because of this one. Massive amounts!
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Well, of course, the Trump supporters would come out of the woodwork. You made him look bad!”
Nope! It was the Biden supporters!
The demands for an apology were endless. Of course, it didn’t help that I was clapping back…
Now, before you start thinking I’m in the corner, crying about this, you have to realize a few things. One is that this comic got over 2 million views! Success! The second is that the comic got over 7,000 likes. Another success! And lastly, I ended up with more followers than I had before. I win!
This is the internet. This is what happens when you put stuff out there. I have many theories about why this comic took off the way it did. One is that it got posted in some pro-Joe Biden forum and the people got all riled up. I also have a theory (and this is stretching, but I think it’s a real possibility) that this comic got hit by a Russian comment farm.
Now, before I go all “Nancy” on you…
The tell-tale signs are there. When you go through the thousand-plus comments, you start to see weird patterns. The language was the same. The demands were the same. It became quite clear that the original criticism was lost. The comments became about me lying in the comic (there were no lies). There was a complete lack of comments regarding my depiction of Trump (which was, in my humble opinion, SPECTACULAR). Anyone who defended me was downvoted to oblivion (even my regular commenter friends).
Additionally, it was only confined to Reddit. They didn’t post anywhere else, even though the links are in my bio. And the commenters flooded in for one particular comic and really didn’t appear again. There were a few comments on the next couple of strips (like a viral infection, they stick around for a couple of days before they’re really gone), but aside from that, it’s back to business as usual on Reddit.
Whether that’s true or not, it does follow a basic pattern of propaganda and misinformation on the internet. The job of the shit-stirrers is not to convince you of a particular point. It is to stir shit. The chaos and anger and vitriol is a feature, not a bug. These black ops operations aim to just keep you perpetually angry. They don’t mean to change your opinion. If they create distrust in the system, then they are winning.
For instance, my friend that you all know as Chris sent me this:
Look at the production values of this! The costume! The angle this guy takes towards the camera! The ammo in his vest! The music choice! The friggin’ police lights! This is high art!
I have one of two opinions on this (which I told Chris in the following exchange):
Yes, I know that these people are actually out there. I’ve seen them in real life. The performance art exists with open carry laws, bumper stickers all over your car, and general idiocy. But this video? It reeks of propaganda. It’s meant to make people afraid. It’s meant to make people angry. It’s meant to make people not believe in a system so that they screw this system up. If this guy isn’t an actor, then this guy is a victim of propaganda.
And really, that’s the point. Whether it’s real or not, it’s out there, just to add that little bit of mistrust in the world. You have to ignore it and move on.
So, when it comes to the Reddit comments…Well, we’ll leave that open to interpretation. It could be Russian trolls or bots or whatever.
But then it might just be Reddit, as Chris pointed out in this lovely video that he sent…
