What is it with hordes of psychotic right-wingers at newspaper web-site comment pages?

[backscatter712]

Poll question: What is it with hordes of psychotic right-wingers at newspaper web-site comment pages?

Let me give you the latest example...

http://www.denverpost.com/legislature/ci_17419028

Essentially, the Senate Education Committee voted to pass a bill to give in-state tuition to DREAM Act kids (undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country as children, sometimes as babies, and currently have obstacles to getting a decent education, and risk deportation to Mexico or other countries where they have no support network, and maybe don't even speak the language.)

Just look at the comments, the usual right-wing howler monkeys are there - with the usual "DEY TERK ER JERBS!!!" crap, the old "What part of ILLEGAL don't your understand?!" bullshit. (What part of BAD LAW don't these apes understand? And who can possibly have a conscience and not find the concept of "illegal people" repulsive?)

What is it with newspapers that attracts these parasites?

[liberal N proud]

1. Paid blogger/trolls

[RegieRocker]

43. There everywhere trust me. Corporate shills

[Jackpine Radical]

2. All of the above.

[arbusto_baboso]

6. Yes, exactly.

It is totally not representative of prevailing public opinion, that's for sure.

[MineralMan]

19. Agreed.

[HuckleB]

21. +1

[shanti]

3. all the papers have them too

check out the sacramento bee and sf chron sometime.

[XemaSab]

30. The Chronicle is the WORST

We've got about 10 resident morons on the Redding Searchlight, but they're nothing compared with some of the bile I see spewed in the Chronic.

[HughBeaumont]

4. You must have ventured to Cleveland.com.

Super blue Cuyahoga County apparently isn't immune from the Plague-anomic beliefs of the hopelessly right-wing. Makes me sick how people can be so willfully dumb after witnessing and being part of a 30 years-running failure.

[Andy823]

10. Not to mention

DU has them also!

[HughBeaumont]

34. Don't I know? My RedX Toilet is FILLED with Reaganomic proponents and bootshiners!

Utterly appalling crap that they're still allowed on here. It's a case of the "big tent" being TOO accommodating.

[Kolesar]

20. Arnold Ziffel, reggie dunlop, some guy named taxbreaks, etc, ad nauseam

[HughBeaumont]

33. reggie dunlop's a particularly nasty piece of shite.

I remember a few of his posts browsing through Democratic topics.

[jp11]

5. Maybe all of the above.

On the internet too many people jump at any opportunity to be jerks and show how they can be selfish, snobby, cruel, etc. I'm sure some people actually believe the things posted but the internet pulls it out of many who might not necessarily have the same fervor others have.

[Newest Reality]

7. 4chan is not for the thin-skinned or easily offended,

but if you go there, it becomes clear that this is not how they would get laughs, IMO.

[Dawson Leery]

8. Two types: Astroturf Trolls and insane reactionaries.

[creon]

9. The internet

Part of it is the internet.

People can post anonymous poison pen letters. That can be fun when there are no consequences. And, politics is a high emotion subject.

I think that some are paid.

[Blue_Tires]

11. all of the above, and it's been going on for years

Take a look at some southern news sites for a real eye-opener

mostly just mean people who like to spew all the KKK hate they can't say in public...A lot of news sites have done away with free, unregistered comments or have started doing a lot more moderating -- the overly racist stuff just got too embarassing, i guess...

[Shagbark Hickory]

12. I don't see what is so RW about those comments. You all should click the link.

In state tuition for illegal aliens?
Really?
Why are illegal aliens even admitted to college? This makes no sense.
I agree with the comments that I read for that article. This is yet another politicized issue where people picked their sides and don't have any interest in being pragmatic or solutions.

[backscatter712]

25. These are kids brought over when they were little.

They didn't choose to break the law. They went to K-12 school here in the U.S., and for most of them, the U.S. is all they know. Some of them don't even speak Spanish (or whatever language is spoken in their "home" countries.)

They lived in America for most of their lives, but weren't here for one day with legal significance, the day of their births. As far as I'm concerned, they should be American citizens, and are, in every respect but the paperwork.

So you'd cut these kids off, just because some douchebags with political power declared them to be Illegal(TM). What are they gonna do? Send them back to their home countries? They have absolutely nothing there - deporting them is a death sentence. Refuse to educate them? Congratulations, they're stuck flipping burgers, hoeing beets and living underground, because you refuse to give them the chance to legitimize and contribute to our society and maybe become scientists, entrepreneurs and lawyers. Economically speaking, if you educate them, they make a million dollars more in their lives, each, than they would if stuck with just a high-school diploma, and the tax revenue for them will pay for their education.

Don't give me that "THEY'RE ILLLLLLLEGALLLLLL!" bullshit. The law's fucked up and you know it.

[Pithlet]

37. Agreed.

Cutting them off doesn't get any more right wing.

[Shagbark Hickory]

45. If you can apply to get into college, you can apply for a student visa.

OR here's an idea... if you've been in the country for like 19 years, you might as well apply for citizenship.

[Pithlet]

46. Yeah, if only it were that easy.

They'd be doing that already.

[Shagbark Hickory]

44. What are they going to do, you ask?

Apply for citizenship.
I mean, if they've been in the country for like 18 years or 19 years and they can apply to get into a college, then surely they can apply to become legal citizens. If a student doesn't want to become a US citizen then apply for a temporary student visa. But don't expect in-state tuition.

They're only so many resources to go around. We have to collect taxes to pay for services.
I'm all for immigration, but I say get in line or don't expect every single benefit of citizenship to be available to you and your children.

Don't call me a racist either. I don't care if you're a political refugee or Justin Bieber.

[L. Coyote]

13. Cheap labor in China = offshoring their own jobs

[Ganja Ninja]

14. Other: Assholes craving attention.

[provis99]

15. Other.

They have time on their hands because they don't have jobs and live in their mother's basements while collecting welfare.

[XemaSab]

31. That's the impression I get

Uneducated people who are either retired or out on disability who think that 'cause the government sends them a check for $1500 every month, that means they're wealthy, 'cause you know, back in 1960 they paid CASH for their first house and it was $10,000 and kids these days don't know the value of a dollar and the illegal Mexicans are driving up wages by taking welfare and Obama is trying to bring more illegals here so they can vote democrat and they've taken all the logging jobs and you can't get a job in Shasta county because of the damned spotted owl and my buddy Hoss works up in Burney delivering wood and he says owls are all over the place up there and we need construction jobs because I don't want to live in no Obama/UN tenement!

[upi402]

16. I noticd that

Yeah they are rampant on other fora too.

[WolfoftheWild]

17. they are here, too.

[Kolesar]

18. Posting on company time while they claim welfare recipients "don't want to work"...eom

[MineralMan]

22. Other: I think they've always been around writing countless

letters to editors along the same lines. Today, though, there's no filter, so we see everything. In the actual papers, the moronic, libelous, and other crap is tossed in the round file, and only more or less cogent letters actually appear in print.

The filters are gone now, and probably permanently.

[Populist_Prole]

36. I see the same names over and over in my local paper

The comments on the papers website is the worst though. Though I do sense a synchronicity of many comments, usually a flurry around the same time, I tend to think a large part are poll choice #2.

Internet forums seem to be mostly astroturfers and shills/trolls. Based on the time they post they seem timed specifically to appear to have gotten in the last word for as long as possible. I also sense this due to their "demeanor" as well. They are on all the time, especially at odd hours, to be able to post often and unopposed...yet they don't seem to be particularly passionate. This tells me they are paid or otherwise employed shills.

[MineralMan]

38. I don't really think forums are mainly that at all.

Lots of people have almost unlimited time to spend fooling around on them. I don't really read newspaper comments very often. They always seem so lame to me that it's a waste of time.

For most of the regular posters I see on DU, for example, I can see distinct personalities that are pretty complex and consistent. I think it would be pretty difficult to simulate that across multiple personas. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who say very little, but post frequently. Some of those I wonder about, but I don't spend a lot of time on thinking about it.

[Populist_Prole]

39. I wasn't referring to DU forums.

It's my observation on reading other forums, whether political or other non-political forums that go political during certain issues.

It was not my intent to imply that shills utterly dominate, but that they are a greater and greater influence ( or presence )

[Gold Metal Flake]

23. Other: The HB Gary Email That Should Concern Us All

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED:-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All


"According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online."

[backscatter712]

26. Indeed. The corporo-fascists have automated the process! n/t

[eleny]

24. I believe that many are paid

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. Thom Hartman agrees

He said just the other day there are rooms of them in DC.

[eleny]

42. Jeez! I guess they like them close enough for ongoing training

[Waiting For Everyman]

27. Other: HBGary syndrome n/t

[robdogbucky]

28. Well, here in the Bay Area one was exposed

He was a delegate to the 2000 Repub convention, was/is an IT person for Chevron Products at their San Ramon headquarters.

He would post in all the area newspapers under several aliases, spouting the Neocon line from early on.

I had stopped reading that shit long ago, as well as network news, so it had no bearing on me. I just recall that when I read his name when he was exposed that he was the husband of one of my boss's secretary.

He was a ground floor teabagger so to speak. Totally reactionary, racist, etc. None of us were really surprised when it came out, as he was not shy about spouting his shit and was quite comfortable with lots of support from his homies.

He was a delegate the Repub national convention, did I mention that? I thought I would repeat it so that could sink in a bit.

Not a boomer, (he's 30 by now maybe), not a senior teabagger (he predates them), and not an unemployed loser living off his mother.

A Chevron employee and a Repub national convention delegate.



Hands off my Social Security!
Hands off Latin America!


rdb

[Erose999]

29. Unemployable Boomers who are bitter about their lot in life and are taking out their frustrations

for their own failures on everybody else.

[IDemo]

32. Leaving out the "Senile elderly retired" part,

right-wingers who have nothing else to do with their time.

[Dappleganger]

40. It depends on the popularity of the website.

On our local newspaper websites (3 major ones) they are definitely the cheeto-eating racist knuckledraggers.

On reddit, digg, politico, huffpo--these are paid goons.

[felix_numinous]

41. Are they paid to create artificial consent?

Now not only is news being artificially created, but public opinion is being manufactured too.