A POLITICIAN confided that he’s suffering lately from depression and the reason is because he is always the target of trolls.
Left and right ang atake, maayo ra ba unta og husto, sayop pa dyod unya hilabihan nakapakaulaw nako, nagsalig nga dili siya mailhan mao nang nagpalabi lang og putak-putak, the politician recounted.
Maglisod na gani ko’g katug magabii kay sigi ra ko hunahuna sa atake ug unsaon nako pagbalos sa nagbugal-bugal nako. Bisan kon naa na ko sa opisina, maglisod ko og concentrate kay aburido akong utok, madamay pa gani usahay akong mga sakop sa balay ug sa opisina, he said.
So I asked him – why do you read the trolls knowing that they are hitting you?
And he was silent, he could not understand why he is regularly following the trolls.
So I said, why not try for a day, then for a week, then for a month, that you don’t read the trolls and let’s see what happens. And he said, okay I’ll try that.
* * *
Next time we met, he was smiling from ear to ear. His aura was overwhelming and he was obviously always in high spirits. The eye bags are gone too.
Epektib boss, he said. Wa na nako tagda ang mga trolls, di na ko mobasa so dili nako madisturbo bisan pa og unsay ilang giyawit diha total nasayod man ko nga bakak nang tanan nilang giyawyaw diha ug di na makaayo sa akong trabaho, he added.
Di na sab ko maglisod og katug, di na ko saputon, di na dali mangasaba ug akong namatikdan nga nalipay na akong mga sakop sa balay ug sa opisina, he narrated.
And he said he would spread the word to his peers in politics.
* * *
A troll is one who posts anything online or offline without fear of retribution because he is hiding in anonymity. He knows his target but the target does not know him. There is no limit to his attacks because he knows that he is free from accountability for as long as his identity is kept to himself.
Usually he gets paid every time he hits the target of his benefactor. But there are also instances when the troll is working independently and takes personal satisfaction that he can hit anybody, anywhere and anytime, just for kicks.
Because his satisfaction is met when somebody reads and reacts, much more shares,his narratives online or offline, conversely, he gets disappointed and frustrated when nobody reacts or shares his narratives. It could be that nobody reads and cares about his narratives or it has come to the point when his credibility is so low that readers would just ignore him because reading it is just a waste of time. This is very stressful to the troll because he wants to be recognized, he wants attention, he badly wants a place in the marketplace of ideas. He wants readers, he wants reactors, he wants people’s attention. When he fails to get that, then that is very stressful for the troll.
So when he sees zero reaction to his narratives, and repeated many times, even the troll will begin to doubt himself.
Either he will continue or just fade away slowly.
* * *
The point of this mental exercises is this – when you deny credibility and legitimacy to the troll by ignoring his litany of lies, then the troll will slowly self-destruct.
And this was the simple lesson learned by the politician.
So again, just ignore the troll and your life will improve, for the better of course.
* * *
I heard that before the Independence Day celebration this year, there will be plenty of “breaking news.”
Somebody relayed to us this information last Friday night in Manila. The source provided us the names to be chopped on the appointments board and the names are plenty.
From the list that he provided us, there was one common denominator – they were all appointees of PRRD.
What could be the reason for this?
It could be that there is now a political barrier between the members of the Uniteam.
It could be that the Uniteam is now kaput, finished, and there is no hope of resurrection.
Whatever it is, it is worth noting that the 2025 elections is just around the corner. Who gets to win the most number of mayors, governors and congressmen will have a better future in the 2028 presidential elections.
Gets?
