Posted on 01/10/2010 3:01:15 PM PST by STARWISE
Some of you have asked us to further explain the difference between Concern Trolls and Eeyores. Well, here goes.
Concern Troll = someone who posts on a board, forum, or article and says things like:
* You know, I really like Scott Brown, but its Massachusetts, and even though hes had a surge, its Massachusetts, so we should stop phone-banking or working hard and just give up. Its Massachusetts.
* Oh, Ive been so proud of how hard Hillary Clinton has been fighting, but theres no way shes going to win Ohio. This is the best board ever, and we all love Hillary, but I heard on MSNBC that Obama has it all sewed up, so for the good of the party she should just quit and drop out of the race. I like her, but I think we need to just give up now.
* You know, I didnt like Sarah Palin at first, but then, wow, she gave a great speech at the convention and I think she has a good heart. Such cute kids, too! But, really, I hate to say shes not ready yet to be Vice President, but shes not. I think we just need to accept that and move on.
Concern Trolls use a lot of I Statements, the kind bad therapists tell sociopaths to use more of so that they trick parole boards into releasing them. I think, I feel, I believe, etc. They have a three-pronged, four or five sentence max, little system:
(A) Establish some positive connection to whatever the thread is about, but using I Statements to say things like: I like Scott Brown, I didnt like Sarah Palin at first but, Ive been so proud of Hillary Clinton, etc.
The example about Palin is good because one of the other things they try to do is establish some sort of false-honesty by seemingly admitting something to the board, so that they generate a fake credibility, among other oxymorons.
I didnt like her at first, but, now I do, and Ive thus established you can trust me because I shared that secret, now listen to me when I tell you to sit your butts home and let Democrats win. Otay? Buh-bye!
(B) Tell everyone they all worked hard and note how impressed the troll is with all of you (This is the best board ever!), and then express concern that people are getting their hopes up too much and that people need to not waste their energy on the task at hand. Weve all worked hard, but now it is time to give up and do nothing so that Democrats can catchup and beat us.
(C) Flat-out, using I Statements, tell everyone to just give up, but without making imperative statements that would come off as commands and piss people off. So, they dont say, You have to just stop and give up now so Democrats can win.
Instead, they say, I think were all just really tired. We put up a good fight. But the Boston Globe poll says Coakleys ahead by 15 points, and it is Massachusetts, so we should just all put our diapers on, sit in the corner, and fill them, all day, doing nothing productive, until someone can come and change us. Thats what I am going to do, and I have been the biggest supporter of our candidate ever. I love this board!
Concern trolls are often, but not always, paid operatives who quite possibly work in little boutique PR and Public Strategies consulting firms in major cities. Chicago has DOZENS of these. We know weve worked in these offices. Where do you think we learned everything we tell you?
********
Eeyores are different from Concern Trolls even if the end result is the same, to demoralize supporters of one candidate so the other candidate can win.
We came up with the term Eeyores to describe people in our ranks during the Clinton campaign who would depress other volunteers with their pessimism, negativity, and theres no way we can win! nonsense.
These are people who get all their news from CNN and MSNBC without realizing that CNN and MSNBC have agendas and deliberately lie to push them.
Eeyores LOVE emailing people negative articles. Its sick, actually.
During the Clinton campaign, honest to goodness, we were stretched so thin it wasnt funny. We worked full time, then raced home every day to run phone banks for Clinton out of Buzzquarters where we had volunteers come to make calls into all the primary and caucus states. EVERY NIGHT. Strangers would come over to use our apartment to make phone banking calls.
EVERY NIGHT. We had to clean, to bake, to get pizza, to have all the phone scripts printed. EVERY NIGHT. We slept, at most, two hours, maybe three, a night in those days. It was insane. We put every cent, every bit of energy, into campaigning for Clinton.
And then, there, in our email boxes, every day wed find email after email from Eeyores, one particularly O-bother!-some one in particular, with CNN and MSNBC articles attached telling us we should just give up and quit.
CNN says she cant win New Hampshire!. MSNBC says she wont win Pennsylvania!. Anderson Cooper says shes going to lose New York! NEW YORK!?!?! Were DOOMED! DOOMED! DOOMED!.
The key difference here is this: concern trolls WANT you to give up; Eeyores dont want you to give up and dont want the opponent to win, but dont realize they are sabotaging all efforts youre making.
Concern Trolls DELIBERATELY lower morale.
Eeyores lower morale unintentionally.
They just cant shut their damn mouths and need to keep venting their pessimism, spreading their little black rainclouds everywhere. Its frustrating.
Eeyores are actually FAR MORE DANGEROUS and harder to deal with, because they are often your friends. In our case, with Hillary Clinton, Eeyores were people we liked very much but the time and energy it took to keep these people propped up, and to talk them down off ledges they got on whenever Tim Russert starting bellowing Just quit already! really distracted us from other things we needed to do.
It cost us AT LEAST three essays a day we could have written about 100 phone calls a day we could have made or just plain old sleep we missed because we were refuting, bit by bit, everything the MSNBC/CNN propaganda machine was putting out there to discourage Hillarys voters and lower our turnout on election day.
Exhausting!
HillBuzz itself, this site, exists because of Eeyores, actually.
Its why we started this site, because the constant emails from 50 or so of these people on our list of 500 volunteers took so much time to address that we just started posting what we would have written to these people individually on this site.
We never intended this to be a national site. It was strictly for Chicago Hillary volunteers, so we could share articles to refute what the MSM propaganda machine was doing, and to give people tips to fight Concern Trolls and combat Eeyorism in their own midst.
Evidently, theres still a need for this, because here we are two years later and were still at it.
Wed love it if you could add to this thread your own experiences with Concern Trolls and Eeyores. Republican sites we visit are chock full of Eeyores.
Its one of the two things we notice about Republican men in their 20s-30s: they are the most Eeyore prone, gullible people weve ever known.
The media says its all over, and these Marys pack it all in, drop their pants, grab their diapers, and fudge themselves in the corner on cue. Ridiculous.
The other thing we notice is that Republicans guys, for all the homophobic crap they sling (at least in Chicago), sure love wearing tight, tight khacki pants and get MIGHTY friendly after their, like 7th, Jack and Coke or whatever.
There sure are stories we could tell you from the Palin VP Watch Party the McCain Debate Watch parties or from Election Night that make our tales of Boystown pale in comparison.
Eeyores and closet cases, so, so many of them. At least in Chicago anyway.
~~HillBuzzers .. Axelturfing 2.0 .. PING!
~~PING!
Rather common here on FR.
Timely, timely posting, my dear!
It's a shame that they use the term "we" to describe their sycophantic idolization of a political shark who doesn't know or care about them. "You" are a nobody who serves as a stepping-stone for "her," peasant.
Am I supposed to accept the words of an admitted Hillary fanatic?
Very familiar.
I love HillBuzz, thanks for posting.
Eeyores and Concern Trolls: 2 new terms added to my lexicon. Thanks.
Isn't it though.
Great description, downthread of a “purist” as well. Purity...what an internet concept.
;)
LOL. I thought of you straight away as soon as I read this because you used the word Eeyore today in your post to me!
Could make a long list of FReeper names who fit the Concern Troll and Eeyore category
Boy, do we sure have both of these here! The concern trolls are out in force over Scott Brown.
Does Concern troll fit the "that candidate isn't conservative enough so we should not vote and let the extreme lib win" poster? I wonder....
Well .. guess what? He’s describing what
goes on in politics today .. both parties
and both lib and conservative forums, blogs,
etc.
Lots of us recognize those very tactics
being used regularly here.
LOL. I think that’s the idea of this posting.
Be on the alert and recognize them for what they are: Concern trolls or Eeoyores. It might take some practice to get it right...lol...so I have saved the article.
Not unfamiliar ... huh ?
LOL ...
It is pretty apt, isn’t it ? LOL ..
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