Push the button, collect profit.
15 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
1. Find people that believe in something
2. Figure out what will best offend them and say it.
3. …?
4. Profit!!
Steps one and two seem to be the typical methodology of the internet troll. A creature which intends to evoke response, usually to the negatory.
I guess it’s kind of fun… like irritating a sibling until they cry, or punching a friend in the arm harder and harder until one person wusses out.
Most of the time, the internet troll’s only gratification is the fact that someone responds, or takes them seriously.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell if a troll is being serious or not, such is the nature of satire where the satirist may not be aware what satire is. But, most of the time you can pretty much guarantee that they are not making profit.
A lot of people speak of the internet troll as if it is a relatively new concept. But the cultural troll has always existed, pushing people’s buttons and evoking response where ever they go.
Whether they believe what they’re saying or not is irrelevent. In fact, a good writer who can write trollishly is to be admired for the ability to evoke response. Response is a great thing, especially where you divide the population and irritate people’s senisibilities. It’s a great thing because more people will flock to it, like an accident. And where there are flocks of people, there is advertising. (Do you reckon insurance companies would advertise at car craches if they could get away with it?)
The article, from Andrew Bolt’s blog, November 15th 2011:
DOPEY TEAM
“Never heard of the sport until this disgrace:
AUSTRALIA’S national team has been thrown out of the World Cup of kabaddi - a brutal team game of chanting, tackling and held-breath raids on opposition territory – disgraced as the worst doping offenders in a tournament beset by drugs scandals.
After five players failed drug tests and two more fled from testers, Australia was left without enough players to field a team, and Afghanistan was awarded their group match in a walk-over.
Australia has been officially kicked out of the tournament, the first team ever suspended…
The Kabaddi World Cup is being played in the sport’s spiritual homeland, the Punjab in north-western India.
The Australian team may not be as representative of Australia as we might fear from this news, however:
The Australian team: Rajiv Kumar (Captain), Sukhvir Singh, Kuldeep Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Boota Singh, Harjinder Singh Sethi, Kuldeep Singh, Jagjit Singh Dhaliwal, Amritpal Singh, Sukhjinder Singh, Raj Kumar, Harpreet Singh Sidhu, Karnal Singh, Parampal Singh. Manager: Jagjit Singh Gurm. Coach: Baljinder Singh Bassi.
It is not reported yet which of the above players failed the tests, so it’s best for now to presume each individual is innocent.”
Kabaddi is a South-Asian team sport, only in its second year of holding a World Tournament.
It is likely many Australians of anglo-saxon background haven’t yet heard of the sport, due to the mainly anglo-saxon media not mentioning it and due to it being relatively new. So, it seems pretty obvious that the players would probably be Australians of Indian or Pakistani decent. As far as my understanding goes, that doesn’t make them any less Australian, considering we all have backgrounds from all sorts of continents on Earth.
Therefore, it seems a pretty low-brow racist swipe to say that a sports team isn’t representative of Australia because there are no Smiths or Williams on the team…
In Lak’ech Ala K’in
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