Trolls, Rants and the World Wide University

"Opinions are like assholes - everybody has one"

- Anon

Web 2.0, which introduced the ability of ordinary people to interact with the Web, has created a platform for sharing information that promises to change history. Call it the World Wide University (WWU). As an information junky, it's a dream world for me. But there are lessons to be learned. 

Once you settle in, it can be like going back to University with a demanding schedule of a dozen difficult subjects. As in a real University, it's also possible to skip classes, change major and fritter way your time playing cards or engaged in loud and aimless discussions about subjects that none of the participants knows anything about. However serious people may seem to be, most of them are there to make friends or (how shall we put it) "hook up".

You need to establish some goals and personal discipline.

STAND UP AND MAKE A FOOL OF YOURSELF

The first "book" in your book bag at WWU should be "Being Wrong". It's about how to relax about everybody's tendency to be wrong about just about everything and defend wrong ideas to the death. Go ahead and be wrong, but be easy on everybody else who is wrong. Until you understand how wrong we are all, respectful disagreement is impossible and the chance of learning anything is lost.

LEARNING MUST BE A PRIORITY

Keep an eye out for in-depth treatments that fill gaps in your knowledge. Spend more time reading and learning new ideas than socializing or proving how smart you are on Facebook.

BUT FRIENDS ARE EVEN MORE IMPORTANT

As in University, you have the chance to make contacts and close friends who will out-live whatever it was you thought you were doing on campus. Cherish and respect your friends. Remember every friends starts out as a stranger, often a stranger who is "totally wrong" about everything.

DON'T FEED THE TROLLS, DON'T BE A TROLL

Trolls distract serious discussion by tossing verbal stink bombs, luring participants away from discussion the issues. For example, I was recently "trolled" away from a discussion about Hillary Clinton by a guy who said the solution to terrorism is to "toast" 3 billion Muslims. You need to resist replying to this kind of remark and make a note to ignore everything the troll says from then on in any discussion. avoid being a troll yourself, you need to consider a few basic personal rules:

• Don't rant. No conspiracy theories, no personal attacks. Don't be Chris Hedges. Oops! Was that a personal attack?
• Comment on the subject at hand, respond to the specific point being raised. Don't hijack the discussion to make your own pet point. 
• Prefer polite debate to verbal combat. Look for agreement and consensus rather than attack. First seek to learn rather than teach. 
• Of all the things you are bursting to say, take the time to comment only on things you really know something about.
• Both in what you say and what you read, look for originality and creativity, not confirmation of your own ideology or the "rants" of those who oppose it.

In a "real" University, people become experts and teachers through a long process of dialogue and study. You don't become a Mathematician merely by stepping on campus and attending your first course in Calculus 101. Here's an example of a troll opinion that's soooo hard to ignore:

The NDP in Alta are not socialist in any way. The label is meaningless other than historical. "Meet the new boss same as the old boss". Just as the election of an NDP government in BC under Glenn Clarke quickly became a fiasco. He now Works for Jimmy Patisson.

The troll wants you research and defend Glenn Clarke, discuss whether or not the NDP Government of NDP was a "fiasco", refute the statement that the NDP is  is not socialist "in any way" and so on. In just a few short sentences, he's tempting you to devote hours of your time arguing with a pigeon. That's time you could have been spending learning something new or even throwing shit with the monkeys.

FOCUS

WWW 2.0 is a campus overrun by monkeys, throwing their shit at each other. It's very hard to concentrate. Are you there to join the monkeys or find the quiet corners where serious human discourse is taking place? Do you want to just collect talking points for the next kitchen shouting match? Do you want to hang out with the monkeys just because you have nothing else to do? Or do you want to struggle to become knowledgeable or even expert?

Decide.

LEARN TO TALK LIKE SOMEONE WHO KNOWS SOMETHING

If needed, take the equivalent of Philosophy 101. Learn the difference between what is wrong and what is meaningless. Learn how to put together a claim that has enough meaning that it is at least wrong. The very core of Scientific language is making statements that are (potentially) wrong.

Learn to avoid debating issues like "The oligarchy has crushed the middle class". There is no real need to explain that "oligarchy" isn't really a "thing" or an "agent" or that the "crushing" is (at least) debatable or that the whole idea depends on who or what you think the "middle class" is. It is not worth debating with people who make such statements. Move on and find discussions that are worth your time.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

If you are serious at all, you will find references to "traditional" sources of information, especially books, videos and PDF's. For example, if you are interested in doing more than ranting about climate change, you will find all 5,000 pages of the IPCC report on-line. Think of this as the campus library. It is now amazingly easy to lay your hands on books that knowledgable people are recommending as worth reading. Use the library. Use Kindle. Have a budget for hard copy information.

If your goal is to grasp anything at all, you need to budget some time for putting your feet up, shutting your mouth, putting away the keyboard and opening your mind for an in-depth, expert treatment of something. It's also very enjoyable to see how limited traditional media (such as newspapers and books) are and how quickly you can verify, confirm or refute a lot of "truthy" statements that find their way into print. You can also easily find people who have studied the sources and discuss what you read. Such discussion is the very core of the University experience.

If the author is still alive, he or she is probably "on campus" in the WWW University. Reach out with social media and engage the author directly. It's like a visit to the professor's office, an opportunity that is quickly vanishing from "real" Universities.

RESPECT YOUR OWN IDEAS

Start early to build your own "big picture". Put it out there. Make it precise enough so it's possible for people to disagree with you in more specific ways than calling you an idiot. Be aware of all the possible ways that you may actually turn out to be an idiot. Have enough respect for opposing opinions to understand where they are coming from. Never forget you are always actually wrong, but some people are more wrong than others.

You are perfectly entitled to, say, an opinion about Climate Change, US Foreign Policy or inappropriate role of the IMF in world affairs. Experience have shown that in some areas, the more you know the less you understand. But don't rant. Be specific. Be original. Read a book or two. There is no point in just joining a screaming crowd of monkeys and tossing your ow shit up against the walls.

Explain your ideas to people who are actually interested. Remember 99.999% of your fellow students at WWU will not be interested and the other .001% will think you are an idiot, even if you have an idea that will save the world. Don't take it personally.

GREENSPAN AND THE POPE

We are actively discouraged from commenting on many subjects because some people have awesome mastery of the subject. For example, I don't feel comfortable taking on the Pope in matters of theology. But, to be honest, theology is "knowledge" about things that do not exist. This is pretty easy to understand for most folks, even Catholics.

What is less appreciated is that current economic theory is a mass of knowledge about things that exist only in the mind of economists. We are all perfectly entitled to challenge people like Greenspan who openly admitted he was totally wrong about everything, causing the biggest economic crash since the 30's.