Why I Concern Troll

I spend a lot of my time (less than before the election, but still plenty) concern-trolling rightwing websites, pointing out what I consider obvious logical flaws and strategic missteps. And sure part of my motivation is revenge for the Clinton years and the Bush years, but there's more to it. The other part: I really am concerned.

Santa Cruz, the loin of my birth, was home to the most extreme hippy socialists I've ever seen. The kind of extremists who scared off the Miss America Pageant by throwing meat at the contestants. The far left, the REAL far left, is bad news. They're unpleasant, strident and annoying, and they'd bring down the American way of life in a hot minute if they ever got into power.

Similarly though the far right, the REAL far right, would accomplish the same thing from another angle. America, like it or not, is optimized to work best as a compromise. The whole constitution is constructed to keep too much power out of the hands of one man or group of men. Negotiation forces a path toward the center of the road.

The Right as it operates today is hell-bent towards extremism. They're actively trying to force out the moderates. This would be great for schematic if there was a comparable strong crazy left but the truth is there is a broad wishy-washy left, a broad moderate vote and an increasingly tiny group of solid conservatives struggling to become more solid and more tiny. Ideologically pure perhaps but useless as a voting bloc. The useful right is making itself less so. So it will become a country where policy ranges from center to far left, with a handful of impotent screamers whining on the sidelines. Once in a while they'll be correct but I'd rather have them actually preventing the excesses of my side.

Plus, I have to say it'd be nice to have conservatives who act like adults again.