Does anyone think that Rush/Sean/Billo, etc. troll here at

[Cleita]

DU for fun? I'm getting inklings that they are. I wouldn't doubt that Karl Rove and others do too. I don't think Bush does because I think he spends his spare time on sports and Dick Cheney is in the dungeon with Lynne and her whip and fishnet stockings. I mean considering how cold hearted and mean those people are, it strikes me that they get their jollies disrupting websites like this.

[japple]

1. Don't put that thought out there.....

[Cleita]

2. I know you don't like the thought,

but ignoring the possibility allows them to operate.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I doubt seriously that they do

They are "above" such things. I'm sure they have been made aware of the site and have posted underlings to disrupt, etc. But their minds are on a broader picture than just the internet.

The reason I feel this way has to do with a personal experience of mine. I built a website dedicated to an actor--it includes a biography, pages about his work, his causes, etc, etc. It also includes an interactive message board for fans. Through my research on him, I found he supported an activist non-profit whose ideals matched mine, and I set up an independent fundraiser for them that netted some needed cash. Well, I met the actor. He thanked me for my work for the organization, but had NO clue that I had a website online about him, nor that all the fans who were with me watching the play he was in had gotten together online. I laughed because I had thought he would have known about it through the organization, who had been informed I was fund raising online (a relatively new concept back in 2000). Ever since then, I've taken the idea that a famous person is on any website with a grain of salt. Yes, a few do, but most do not.

[Silver Gaia]

4. Yeah, I've seen Art Bell post on a forum, but that's a whole different

sort of thing, since he always has had an interaction with his audience anyhow. I have always figured that a lot of the trolls that post here and at other forums around the net are sent by 'higher ups,' and that some, if not most, of them are likely paid disruptors. But I've never thought that people like Rove or Hannity might actually do any of it themselves. I sorta figure that focus on the 'broeader picture' probably leaves them with little time for stuff like posting at boards. I have NO DOUBT, though, that many of the disruptive posters we see are working for people like those mentioned here.

[Celebration]

5. Carly Simon

Back when the internet was fairly new, I guess at the end of the eighties, my kids were trying to get me to get AOL. I was resisting, thinking it was unnecessary. Then I got the CD of Carly Simon's greatest hits. I read the insert, which was written by a fan of hers that she met on AOL. She met him on a Carly Simon fan board somewhere and pretended to be someone else. Eventually she fessed up, they became friends and she invited him to write the CD insert.

That story did it for me. I've been on the internet ever since then. I think I will look up the date of her Greatest Hits CD. I'm not sure of the exact date.

[japple]

6. I think most of these folks are so busy they don't have time

to surf the web. Okay, maybe Dick Cheney does. But there are probably people who work for them who "look out for the boss" and surf around on sites like DU, and maybe they do disrupt things a bit, but if they have any authority at all, they can't afford to do anything that could be traced back to their boss.

[Grateful for Hope]

7. I really doubt they do

DU is really not that important in the scheme of things...including the internet. I do think that lower-level staff likely do troll here as they probably do on other democratic websites.