An American Troll vs. the GOP Cult

By Anonymous Citizen

I am a white male American liberal in my 40's, married to a Salvadorian immigrant who has been the love of my life since I was 18, and yes, we have both been in California legally since we were 3 years old. The best man at our wedding is an African-American I played football with in high-school. I wrote this as my part in the resistance because I vote for Democrats and this book spells out why I think you should as well. It's been over a decade since I let myself get sucked into debating conservatives online, and in that time I've seen a definite pattern of disregarding facts emerge that is quite disturbing. After electing Trump I feel Republicans have taken a leap into La-La Land to become the biggest group of hypocrites I've ever seen, and I wrote the following as a way to offer some #resistance of my own. If given the opportunity, I'd like to tell you why I plan to vote for Democrats, and why I have come to see the Republican Party as one currently suffering from a cult mentality that believes in things I feel are not only antithetical to my idea of America, but which are dangerous to democracy itself.Have you ever seen the movie Network? At least watch the scene where Howard Beale rants for us all to stick our collective heads out of our windows and scream, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" When you've seen it you'll understand what I mean when I say that's where I am. Not only from suffering through a year of the Trump presidency and watching how shamelessly the Grand Old Party grovels at his feet, but because I've now witnessed the depths to which so many dangerously hypocritical Republicans will sink.It might be hubris, but that seems to be the in thing these days, so please indulge me in thinking that I might have some wisdom to impart. During my gradual journey into the online political comment sections, I certainly didn't think of myself as a troll, or that I was on my way to becoming one. Cut to years later following many fruitless encounters and I've found very little policy substance is known amongst many of those who vote for the one with the R by their name. Heavy charge I know, but my part-time journey became a decade long quest to find what I felt had become my unicorn; a conservative who not only understood the policies they claimed to support, but one who could rationally explain why I should support them without attacking me as being a "godless liberal." I'm still looking.Over time I came to see online trolls as the precursors to American politics, their comments often becoming the very talking points used by the GOP. Similar to the way FOX News predicted what Trump would have tweeted about that day. In this layman's opinion, political comment sections are the canary in the coal mine that our society needs to pay attention to. It's the unfiltered look at how people talk to each other when they think they're truly free to speak their mind. It's also a glimpse into how people selectively decide what or who to believe based on their chosen media consumption, and how they easily dismiss any facts that challenge their pre-conceived notions, which by definition become intentionally uninformed beliefs.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1980960550
• ISBN13: 9781980960553
• Release Date: April 2018
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 285 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.7" x 6.0"