I remember four years ago when this blog was a pup, its already busy comments section began to heat up just around this time with mysterious names I never saw before. Most of them expressed various degrees of disdain for me, an apostate who was about to vote for a Republican presidential candidate for the first time. After the election, most of these names disappeared, equally mysteriously, into the cyber woodwork.
Now they’re back, with fresh handles I have never seen before, descending on the comments section like troops summoned by some underworld general. (One of them even has the name Dark Helmet.)
Who are these people? Are they oppo artists sent by the enemy campaign in an expanding blogosphere war or simply irregulars in a volunteer army with a lot of free time on their hands, bent on putting their candidate in office and/or making me look ridiculous? Beats me, although the latter isn’t hard. In any case, I guess I should consider the attention flattering though I know this blog is far from the only place they visit. Cyber cockroaches of the right and left are infesting many comments sections now.
Still, it interests me whether these are operations planned in some campaign boiler room or if they are indeed volunteers. As an example, one man (I assume it’s a man) calling himself Jay has popped up here in recent weeks, attacking me in a rather non-stop, scurrilous manner but without very much attention to what I have written. After one of my posts yesterday, Jay begins a rather lengthy screed “Well, Roger, now that you’ve finally, openly identified yourself as a Republican…” even though I wrote in the last paragraph of that very post: “When I voted for Schwarzenegger and Bush (only in ‘04), I did so with hesitation, because I do not identify as a Republican – or with any political party, for that matter. That’s over for me.” (note present tense)
Cognitive dissonance or poor reading comprehension? Or – did someone send him to attack, attack, attack like a Rottweiler on steroids, no matter what I said? Probably not, but you get my point. (In ‘04 I was told that many of these characters were oppo artists, but I never got evidence.) We are in a very silly season when people’s rage overcomes good sense and cyber cockroaches emerge from underneath every refrigerator. I’m probably only encouraging them by writing this.
(It should be obvious, but I will add – I am delighted by serious discussion and debate. In fact, that’s what makes a comments section interesting. Personal attacks on me are even…mostly… fine, but please be witty and read what I said.)
Roger, This site and other conservative sites are like Iraq. It’s a place where the scumbags can find the good guys.
I seldom visit the left-wing, http://www.swamps, so the trolls do provide a service, a heads up that the bags are out there, little, skinny fingers typing their miserable thoughts, much to our entertainment.
When the lights get turned on in roach infested kitchens, the little buggers run for the dark corners. On the internet, it’s all shadows and the little critters are always able to hide…cowards love darkness.
Dear Roger,
I often enjoy reading the comments as much as the articles. These oppo artist are everywhere. You are probably correct that they are working out of the basement of some campaign office.
Actually, I think it’s good they turn up. It’s an opportunity for everyone to see how they process information. It’s not difficult to understand how they convince themselves to support certain positions or candidates.
After this past week and a half, I think a lot of people are noticing the same thing.
I’ve noticed these coackroaches over at Contentions, Commentary’s blog. Lately, the ones that stand out have pretended to be Republicans who are appaled at the Palin pick (as opposed to some legitimately critical, who are also easy to spot) and who spend their time predicting doom and seeking to undermine all hope. It’s encouraging, actually, because the ease with which you can detect these idiots indicates that political discourse in the country, however overheated and absurd at times, does express real convictions and ideas. When it’s fake, it’s usually clear it’s fake.
As a former RethugliKKKan, I can tell you with certainty:
“Bush lied, billions died!”
9/11 was an inside job!!!!!
McKKKain was treated like a king in his luxury room in North Korea!!!
Sara Palin had her grandmother’s baby to conceal the fact that she was pregnant at 89!!!
Both McCain and Palin are part of both the Trilateral Commission, and the Skull and Bones Society!
Sara Palin is secretly Dick Cheney’s other unknown lesbian daughter.
Sara Palin has worn a bikini. Do we want such a person in the White House?
Sara Palin removed funding for a much-needed Bridge in Alaska, now people are STRANDED!
Vice Presidents, GUNS! (What’s wrong with that picture?)
I’ve seen Palin’s Ebay listing for a Down Syndrome doll that was only used once…..Does her “son” really, truly exist?
What if she gets into the White House, and her son needs breastfeeding? What then??????????????
By having 5 children, she is weighing down Mother Earth with a huge carbon load!!! Doesn’t she know, as us liberals do, that the best number of children for planet earth is 0 to 1?
Neither of the two RethugliKKKan candidates have any crucial community organizing experience.
I’m going to do the most effective thing this election. I’m writing in Hillary’s name for President.
I think they’re mostly trolls, looking for attention.
Remember how Pajamas Media got its name?
Liberals have them, too, though more of them are probably college students or (my firm belief) arrested adolescents of every age.
I don’t know if you have the ability to trace IP addresses of posters, but if you looked at the log, you’d see that people like Jay (whom you’ve really sent into ecstacy by addressing a post to him) are probably hitting your site every few minutes to see how other readers are reacting to his provocations.
I saw this phenomenon a lot when I had a (fairly) popular conservative weblog on Xanga in 2004.
Some people really need a life…or at least a job.
Scott
Jim Treacher was definitely on to something with this post:
http://jimtreacher.com/archives/001554.html
The lightning speed with which these mystery commenters appear to respond to the latest post which is even slightly unfavorable to Obama is a little too, how shall we say, convenient.
The most amusing part is that you can easily deduce what attack du jour Axelrod is going to put into Obama/Biden’s (and their talking-point surrogates on the news channels) mouths today simply by reading the faux-comment spin from earlier in the morning. How is it that they magically know what the message is supposed to be before the campaign announces it?
Like Jim Treacher said, “I’m just asking questions…”
Cyber cockroaches is a very descriptive term. Personally, I think they suffer from both a lack of reading comprehension skills (as you suggested)and an inability to think for themselves, prefering to regurgitate talking points put forth by others on liberal blogs. Like bad implants, they’re easy to spot.
“Well, Roger, now that you’ve finally, openly identified yourself as a Republican…”
What trolls like Jay can’t grasp is that some of us are not ashamed of being Republicans. Not speaking for others, but by and large we’ve looked at the so-called “progressive” Democrats, examined what they stand for, and reject it. For this act of heresy, we’re labeled as “racists”, “bigots”, “homophobes” and worse.
In the bad old days of the Soviet Union, people who had the courage to defy the communists often found themselves in a slave labor camp, before a firing squad, or in a mental hospital. I get the distinct impression that the ever so open-minded (celebrate diversity so long as you agree with us) “progressives” like Jay would have no problem implementing such reeducation opportunities here if given the chance.
Who are these people? Are they oppo artists sent by the enemy campaign in an expanding blogosphere war or simply irregulars in a volunteer army with a lot of free time on their hands…
I think Obama was speaking to them yesterday when he said this.
“I hope you guys are game,” he said, “because I haven’t been putting up with 19 months of airplanes and hotel food and missing my babies and my wife –- I didn’t put up for that stuff just to come in second. I don’t believe in coming in second.”
http://tinyurl.com/6h6ntg
After the vicious ways they’ve gone after Palin, scouring Alaska like an ice sculpture competition. Obama’s clubhouse like pleading, reveals a dissatisfied coach.
Look for the attacks to intensify.
What, you think people have to be organized to do stupid stuff? Human beings seem to default to that state without leadership. Witness the mass market for crude ‘dumb humor’ movies.
And our society is moving further in that direction: When did you last hear the word “vulgar” used in everyday speech? Or “barbaric” outside some NYT piece on the US Army?
Roger, the word you are looking for is simple:
Obamabot
Let’s give David Axelrod, Move On, and KosKidz credit. They have access to thousands of young, Internet-savvy young people with lots of time on their hands, and a talent for trolling.
I have literally seen a single Comcast IP post under 8 different names in a single thread – with eight believably unique personalities, and 8 different slogans, spins, or playbook items straight from known left-wing sources or even the Obama Campaign’s site itself.
They do not discuss; they do not listen, they cannot be swayed. Their purpose is to make those who disagree seem outnumbered and foolish.
As Barak Obama has begun, in the last few days, insinuating that those who follow his opponent are “stupid”, it appears that he is reading the noise from the Obamabots, as well.
>>Sara Palin removed funding for a much-needed Bridge in Alaska, now >>people are STRANDED!
Okay, that one was pretty funny. Well done.
The assumption that trolls and oppo artists are severable categories strikes me as naive… One simply farms raw material from the other.
“One simply farms raw material from the other.”
I wouldn’t doubt you’re right about that, Sarge.
Naw, man – it’s Ralph Nader. He’s got a herd of internet nebbishes that go around trying to cause a ruckus on blogs, probably because he’s frustrated.
Just ignore them.
—
Was that sarcasm? I’m not sure.
I doubt that these trollroaches take orders from some sinister central office. The comments section in my local online newspaper attracts commenters clearly motivated by the desire to show other people up and call them names. If our local experience provides any analogy to national political blogs like yours, I think it more likely that these are the same kind of people acting out their gotcha fantasies on you.
Roger, I’ve similar thoughts. It seems each blog has a “Jay”, or two. Their responses are quick, their messages consistent from one to another and across blog boundaries, and they shift from time to time – moving from slamming Palin’s family, for instance, to obfuscating the source of the rumors and challenging for links – which are subsequently deleted or changed. Look at “thor” over at proteinwisdom. He looked to be on the same page as Jay, and shifted at about the same time. Odd. Althouse has a similar commenter.
It sure looks like a coordinated info war to me, but it would take a fair amount of research to figure out the players, the structure – if there is one – and the messaging.
I can’t tell if it is viral, meaning just a number of like-minded individuals, naturally distributed across a number of right(ish) blogs, or coordinated, meaning assigned personnel and a centralized messaging center.
I have noticed the phenomenon though.
(I think I’ll go mutter in the corner about black helicopters and other conspiracies and paranoid scenarios now)
You could start a blog on sweetness and light and people would show up who are opposed to both, it’s just the nature of the internets, which is to say human nature in all of its rotten slimy goodness.
Oh, I don’t really think there is some huge operation on either side re: blog comment trolling. I think the upswing is due to the upswing in traffic on political sites in general during this very dramatic election season. People are paying more attention, their passions are getting enflamed, and they become more likely to write silly things.
Some of them are Obama Paid Push Trollers.
If you look through the Obama campaign want ads from the last year, you will see a concerted attempt to hire “internet workers” who are really the cyber equivalent of phone banks.
They log on to many sites, soft-sell Obama, but some do more than that.
One of the nice things about the blogosphere not much remarked upon is that it has revived widespread written communication. Ordinary folks haven’t been writing this much since the invention of the telephone and television.
Vermin infestation is an inevitable downside given the anonymity of most of those commenting. Pest control at large sites like Little Green Footballs appears to be ongoing.
The general ease and convenience of commenting on a blogsite can make for a certain lack of civility and discipline. I not infrequently pale at my own indiscretion and impoliteness (not to mention misspelling and lazy construction) reading some of my comments the day after. I’ve been forced to apologize more than once for insulting comments I have made on sensitive topics. I wouldn’t think of writing an important business letter after a few drinks but I’m not above posting a sarcastic and sometimes vicious comment while under the influence.
All in all, the good far outweighs the bad. The healthy effect of the blogosphere on mainstream media alone more than justifies the trollery. Communication has never been more free or more open. Let’s count our blessings.
Dear Roger:
It’s probably a good time to say thanks for creating Pajamas Media. As for the critics, better to have them in the tent pissing out…
“I’m probably only encouraging them by writing this.”
That’s affirmative. This post could bring the likes of “april” from Powerline over here. She makes Jay sound like an undecided voter.
Speaking of whom, he may be constructing the Mother of all pro-Obama posts as we speak, with multiple urls proving what fools we all are here in the “echo chamber.”
I’ll be back in a few hours to soak up all the thoughtful, carefully reasoned goodness. This should be fun.
Roger, I like your term, Internet Cockroaches. The term of art for what they practice is “Astroturfing”. The absolute master and guru of Astroturfing is David Axelrod. There is NO DOUBT that the hordes of “cockroaches” infesting reasonable discourse is his operation. It is his modus operandi. I’m not saying there aren’t some on the right too, just that I don’t see as many, and I don’t see the repetitive construction I see from the trolls infesting the conservative or neutral sites.
Keep up the good work, love the fact that you can put coherent thoughts together with humor.
Trolls have been stinking up the place for years but I think there really is a “bank” of leftist “Cyber Cockroaches”. From people who are more internet savy than myself I hear they seem to be traced back to about three sources, Obama supporters, Moveon, and some other group that gets money from Heinz. Take that with salt ’cause I can’t personally verify from prime sources.
Recently someone tracked the IP addresses of people who were updating Wikipedia pages. They found employees in one corporation were writing flattering updates to their employer’s Wiki page and slanderous updates to competitors.
It might be interesting to collect the IP addresses of your most obnoxious pests. Can you cross reference the IP addresses and find if they belong to a college dorm or a campaign office?
Might be interesting to compare the IP address this season to the ones from four years ago and see if there are any repeats.
Might be interesting to save them in a table and build a database. If several other independent bloggers shared in this you might build enough data to see a pattern and identify some of the worst pests.
Here in Seattle there are posters all over the place offering jobs with the Obama campaign for $1400 to $2200 per month IIRC. I doubt they’re being sent out to ring doorbells.
Yes, when they’re doing the same stupid stuff, all at the same time.
I doubt there’s any “one big operation” leading this effort, but I know for a fact there are many groups of hard-core liberal friends with spare time and internet-and-psych savvy who have agreed, sometimes tacitly, sometimes expressly, to “keep watch” over the commentsphere, which means to always jump in with whatever construct would seem to help Obi-wan-bama most. You could see the discussion groups forming around this concept back around the first of W’s elections, in some of the deeper lounges at DU, amongst the kossacks, and the like.
Oh, I love reading the concern trolls. I find them hilarious. “I’ve been a Republican all my life, but now I’m upchucking huge gobs of standard lefty boilerplate! That’s how upset I am with McCain!”
I have trolled the internet, many years in the distant past. It’s an extremely difficult thing to do well, which is why a really good trolling job was once an object of admiration.
These clumsy boo-boos are giving trolls a bad name.
Or is it Karl Rove’s minions, trying to make the left look bad?
I’m actually a little serious about that conjecture. I mean, if so it’s effective.
The cyber cockroaches are definitely infesting many popular websites now. Based on their comments, they rarely have absorbed or reflected on the specific lines of argument in the original posts. They rarely add anything insightful to the normally lively and unpredictable discussions on-line.
We are poorer for this.
Yes, when they’re doing the same stupid stuff, all at the same time.
And the stupid stuff appeared suddenly on the Friday morning Palin was announced, i.e., pre-GOP convention, a mere 12 hours after the Democrat convention.
No, it’s a coordinated effort with an assist from everyday knuckleheads, who follow around the alpha-influencers like the lemmings they are.
It’s actually a fairly predictable strategy: The Internet is a massive thorn in the side of the Democrat-Media apparatus, and it’s natural that campaigns would evolve to disrupt the operation of anything that threatens their election chances, particularly given the relative anonymity (or so it appears) that is possible through the Web.
Not only is it likely a coordiniated effort, given the nature of the massive and sudden influx of ill-informed commentary, I’d say these sorts of cyber-operations are INEVITABLE, particularly for political parties that have no particular moral compass besides a will to power and a genuine desire to ruin the lives of those with whom they disagree.
Notice, also, that the cockroaches are laying back thus far? Wonder why that is?
I don’t think people need to be organized to do stupid stuff at the same time on the internet, as Jim Treacher writes above. It’s just not that hard, as an individual acting alone, to read a couple blogs of either political orientation, pick up a couple of the salient points of the day, and then rehash them on a comments section in a blog with an opposing viewpoint. Multiply by the millions of people who read blogs and are feeling frenzied in a highly contested election season, voila.
And I think the reason people write partisan comments on blogs is because it feels good. It’s emotionally rewarding to feel like you’re fighting for your side and participating in the ‘dialogue’, even when you are just rehashing cant. This is basically what drives most of the blogosphere, I think, inclduing (no offense) PJM, HUffPo, etc.
I’m with David Levavi on this one, the net effect is positive as the online Palin kerfuffle has brought a wave of blog newbies into the blogosphere to see for themselves what was being written. Many will remain and become part of the online conversation and the MSM echo chamber loses more eyeballs and ears.
I’m receiving emails from friends and relatives who had never read a blog and are in the main email users and info seekers. They still receive their news and opinion from traditional media sources, but that is changing this election cycle. Most are both horrified and intrigued at the nature of the comments dialog and are contributing and emailing links. An elderly auntie enjoys zinging the ‘roaches. Who knew?
“Cyber Cockroaches” are civilian irregular amateur Psychological Operators who view the blogs they infest as propaganda. They employ counterpropaganda techniques to damage the level of discourse and the value of the blog. They operate as a swarm, non-hierarchical, united by their distaste for the targeted blogs. They are pretty much loose cannons. Professional campaign and pressure group PR shops can influence target selection, but the Cyber Cockroaches don’t stop when the professionals ask them to.
They are the domestic equivalent of the Russophile Putin-apologists that infested some blogs during the Russo-Georgian War.
I’m sitting here in my BVD’s, thanking God and everyone else for not using that image to name this delightful tribute to Dr. Goebbels artlessness.
Thanks to sock puppets like “FORMER RethugliKKKan,” the truth is not out and will last until purged later this afternoon, flushed down the black hole.
Time to find my PJs and get down to serious slandering, to get on Daily Kos and cause them to look foolish by using my many cyber puppets to post foolish posts.
Time to get back to my semi-daily sanity therapy sessions.
Dear Roger,
I am retired and spend about eight hours or more a day on the internet. I have more than 100 blogs bookmarked and I usually get to every one each day.
I’ve seen this happen before. The Ron Paul nuts flooded the comments section for about two months. The Paul online community is a tightly knit group of real wackos – looks like Daily Kos. I have no doubt that the arranged a concerted campaign.
During the Georgian conflict Russians popped up everywhere. They were easy to spot. English was obviously a second language. The immediate tell was they kept saying that the Georgians “bombed” Ossetia when in fact westerners say “shelled”. Bombed came directly off the pages of Tass.
Over at the Belmont Club, where the commenters are particularly well spoken and interesting, the regulars spotted them immediately. They addressed them as “Dear Comrade Iamapatriot -”.
Remember that Soros is a major force behind Kos and MoveOn. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had some sockpuppets put gentle suggestions on those sites – such as “Wow – I went over to that Nazi Pajamas Media and made mincemeat out of their cultist rantings”. Remember, they have an army of people who are off their meds.
One of your writers – I am embarrassed that I don’t remember which one – examined the list of small contributors to Obama. An awful lot of them stated that their occupation was “QWQWQW” and the were employed by “GHJGHJ”.
Much has been made of the on-line genius of these groups for having used the internet so skillfully. Yup, for rumor mongering, fraud and guerilla warfare.
I find this aspect of the new media deeply disturbing. It used to be that the nuts and the just plain evil would write a letter to the editor which promptly ended up in the round file. Is MacArthur park still the place where the soap box guys congregate? I haven’t been there in years.
The media, whether you agree with their outlook or not, did keep the national conversation somewhat civil. Now, it seems, they have caught the disease = it’s viral.
Regards,
Roy
Just like Manhattan, roaches thrive when the temperature rises. I don’t comment much, but now that the excitement levels are rising, I find myself doing so, and I don’t like to think of myself as a roach.
I, too, have changed from reading the MSM (I cancelled my subscription) to getting my info from the web. I also enjoy reading the commentary as much, if not more, that the original article. Ann Althouse is a master at developing a commentary with a one line zinger.
The best way to handle the cyber roaches is simply to recognize them for what they are and ignore them. When a commentator gets into a respond mode with them it seems to make them worse. IMO
Papasnake
Is it four years already? Wow! How tempus fugit.
I first visited your site because I’m a fan of great mystery novels. I don’t always agree with you, but the journey has been fun.
Congratulations! Keep up the good work.
But very, very tasty
http://www.pbase.com/jamieashley/image/18030572
I have long thought this an organized (and probably paid) effort. On nearly every right wing blog post the first (or first several) comment is a critical one.
I’ve pretty much stopped reading comments because of this. It’s a shame too. No telling how many posts like the one from FORMER RethugliKKKan I’ve missed. (My fave was the the breastfeeding part.)
Jim Treacher and Roger L. Simon are definitely on to something here.
I’ve worked on viral and “guerilla” marketing campaigns that sound like what Treacher discovered David Axelrod specializes in. (Axelrod is Obama’s top campaign adviser.)
The way it works: an small, organized core group is given the desired message and they proceed to deliver it on their “own” (astroturf) sites and to the most effective third-party sites, where it is hopefully picked up by the unorganized sympathetic independent operators.
The speed and similarity with which these Palin smears in particular have been spread is a very strong indicator that a campaign like this is underway. Interesting that Axelrod is a go-to guy for this kind of thing. Just sayin.’
i just read your blog for the first time … well, i may have passed through briefly before on a link from away, but just now spent a lot of time.
nice job. enjoy it.