The Waiting Room and Online Trolls.

I've been spending a lot of time in waiting rooms...

I take a friend in to the doctor's office for stuff, now that he is old, and I sit and wait because he of course needs a ride home.  Some days the appointments take hours, so I'm able to pray, including saying a rosary and a chaplet - which aids recollection when it's a bit noisy.  It's a very contemplative experience to practice the presence of God everywhere.  Yesterday I was surrounded by Muslims who speak very fast, so I prayed my rosary and hid the crucifix while doing so - but some of them noted the beads, partially exposed, as they slipped through my hands.  No one yelled Allahu Akbar to interrupt my prayer, so I closed my eyes and kept praying.  After I was finished, it seemed most everyone was gone except for one or two others waiting for their relative or friend.

After a couple of hours I decided to read the Joel Stein article in this week's Time on How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet.  I felt 'convicted' and kind of sad afterwards.  I've been a troll - sort of.  I remember when I first started blogging I criticized other bloggers and authors I did not know because other people did it and I thought I'd add my critique.  I had read some of their stuff and didn't really like it.  It seemed to me their writing was an easy way for them to make money from conversion stories, as well as making a living by exploiting pop-Catholicism catering to the youth ministry market, why I thought that was a 'bad' thing I'm no longer sure.  I also got attention by using their name in my posts.  I liked the attention.  When confronted by these writers, I quickly realized they were real people, real writers with purpose, and I was being totally unfair and unkind and a huge A-hole.  I apologized and tried to avoid that type of blogging.

It's good to be always repenting.

Since then I've done my best to avoid that style of writing and posting.  Not always successfully.  When I trip up, I try to make amends, apologize, and or remove the post.  I think I'm only a little better, because I still make fun of some crackpot bloggers or those who seem especially mercenary - but not so much now days - I hope.  That said, I really do continue to screw up.  Sorry Ann Barnhardt and Toronto Catholic Choristers.  My apologies to the Priestly Fraternity of CafePress as well.  I promise to try even harder to do better.

That said, I couldn't help but think of The Shea-Fisher terminations at the NCRegister.  I never thought of them as trolls - they struck me as pretty much the opposite, actually.  Their posts often took those I considered to be trolls themselves, to the woodshed, as it were.  Their response, though at times a bit 'cruel' seemed to me to fit the crimes of others.  (Someone once said "The 'offended' frequently regard honesty as cruelty.")* Their discourse sometimes seemed an appropriate response to the oftentimes coarse condemnations hurled their way.  Know what I mean?  In other words, it was often a fair fight, but I digress.

Why do trolls be trolls?

Why do they do that stuff?  The Time article kind of explains what's behind it all.  I have long thought that some people are just nuts, misfits in life without a voice until social media came along.  I also think there is a lot of drinking and posting that goes on.  The anonymity stuff is especially hypocritical and dishonest - which pretty much demonstrates a genuine lack of self-knowledge, humility, and someone living in denial.  In a way which reminds me the line from Fine Young Cannibals song Johnny Come Home:

"What is wrong in my life
That I must get drunk every night?"

At least Johnny knew something was wrong - I'm not sure a lot of troll types could admit something is actually wrong with them.  The 'hell is other people' thing, I suppose.


“Finally we have a platform that’s democratizing and we can make ourselves heard, and then you’re harassed for advocating for yourself, and that shuts you down again.” - Lindy West


So anyway - here are a couple of excerpts from the Time article I thought were especially insightful ...

A 2014 study published in the psychology journal Personality and Individual Differences found that the approximately 5% of Internet users who self-identified as trolls scored extremely high in the dark tetrad of personality traits: narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and, especially, sadism.

But maybe that’s just people who call themselves trolls. And maybe they do only a small percentage of the actual trolling. “Trolls are portrayed as aberrational and antithetical to how normal people converse with each other. And that could not be further from the truth,” says Whitney Phillips, a literature professor at Mercer University and the author of This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship Between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. “These are mostly normal people who do things that seem fun at the time that have huge implications. You want to say this is the bad guys, but it’s a problem of us.”

A 40-year-old dad and lawyer who lives outside Tampa, he says he has become addicted to the attention. “I was totally ruined when I started this. My ex-wife and I had just separated. She decided to start a new, more exciting life without me,” he says. Then his best friend, who he used to do pranks with as a kid, killed himself. Now he’s got an illness that’s keeping him home.

Marty says his trolling has been empowering. - Time

Think about that.  Makes you wonder about some of those bloggers who are really part-time trolls, some even brandish guns to display their 'power' and toughness.  I'm thinking many are pretty much normal people who let themselves go online, venting and ranting and raging.

“The Internet is the realm of the coward. These are people who are all sound and no fury.” - Megan Koester

Actually, I think they have the fury, and though they feel empowered - they experience their powerlessness as soon as they go offline.


Read the article - if nothing else it may be helpful as an examination of conscience.

George Tooker

*Actually Cary Grant said women think a man's honesty is cruelty - or something like that.

Song for this post here.

Kind of the way God might see us?

Monkey business. 

Sometimes people say they do not get my humor.  I understand that.  Because it's weird.  When you come from a weird background, humor gets a little twisted.  Yet it allows you some distance, a sort of respite or distraction from the pain.  It also helps to view things from a different perspective - avoiding the pitfall of taking oneself too seriously amidst much confusion.

Watching a PBS story on Japanese Snow Monkeys helped me to understand this.  Their human like behavior is what we find so endearing about them.  A scene repeated in the ads for the documentary shows one monkey ambushing another,  jumping on the back of the unsuspecting bather.  I'm not sure if a fight ensued - but it reminded me of how we interact with one another - how we fight.  In an earlier post I said I thought it was funny how one blogger takes down another.  They fight and tear each other to pieces - using their blog and website.  Though all the contenders are Catholic - they upset themselves and the entire 'blogosphere' with their issues.  One sees that with discussions on the Synod.  Though mostly speculation by a lot of people who know little to nothing about what is really going on - save from negative news sources or scandal 'journalists' they subscribe to .  If you are able to step back, disengage for a few moments - or a few days - you get a glimpse of the behavior.  I think it pretty closely resembles that of the Snow Monkeys.

Long story short - I playfully wondered if that is how God sees things.  I can't imagine God is agitating Catholics into a panic over the Synod, nor that he stirs people up to lambaste fellow Catholics who have different points of view on all the clamor surrounding discussions by the Synod Fathers.  The Synod is more or less closed - so who can know what the results will be? Hence my consideration - maybe God laughs at us - just a little.  The way we say things?  After all, those who do not hold back on condemnations seem to believe God will excuse them, saying, "you were a little hard in that battle but I forgive you because you did it for me and my little ones."  I trust God is merciful.

I don't know - but I get a kick out of it.  Catholic blogisticians online crack me up.   One blogger says the Synod is demonic yet admits she doesn't know what is really going on.  Another blogger who has a continuing campaign against Fr. Rosica says he's sacrificing everything else - hopefully not duties in his state of life - to blog breaking news reports on what is going on at the Synod - for the sake of those who have no voice.  I don't know - but I think that is sitcom material.  I'm not being sarcastic, nor am I mocking these folks. I'm not pretending to be above them, or better than them - I simply think it's funny.  After all, how many people use the cliche, "sick back with popcorn to watch" the silliness unfold?

I totally cracked up over this line from Fr. Z (Larry coined it): "Gnostic pool of crackpottery".  That just works, doesn't it?

When we take ourselves so seriously, and imagine that we are indispensable - it's funny.  Especially when you jump on another monkey's back while he's totally unaware, and the two of you wrestle each other in the pool.  It's very childlike.

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices. - St. Teresa of Avila

This pretty much says it all.

Screenshot: Pretty much the entire page at Pewsitters is devoted to Laudato si ...

Filled with stories shooting down the encyclical or just trashing it and making a fool out of the Pope.

Why Must Laudato Si include a non-Christian prayer?... more

Global Warming Manifesto: 'Consumerism' causes abortion? 

... more

The responsibility for this disastrous encyclical lies squarely on the shoulders of the pope. 

... more

Just to point out a few... go here to see the rest of the coverage.

Lakefront property available in N. Carolina.

(Just don't drink the water.)

Now THEY want to silence Catholic bloggers just as THEY silenced Pope Benedict XVI!

Who some feel fled "for fear of the wolves."

What should I do now?

Remember how THEY replaced PPVI with an impostor?*

Which one was beatified?

*THEY did the same thing to Sr. Lucia.

And...

Oh! Oh!  THEY probably murdered JPI too!

Correcting the Pope

Do not stay in the company of scorners.

I never fail to be amazed at how many are willing to correct - even scorn Pope Francis.  The scorn is especially offensive and not from a good spirit.

I am reminded of those Fatimists who have insisted upon resisting the Pope to his face - appropriating to themselves the expression used by St. Paul the apostle.

The other day, a reader left the following comment on my blog, which I reprint here - because I agree wholeheartedly with it:  "The idea that Abbey Roads gets right what everyone else has gotten wrong is itself quite a fantastic notion."  The writer is absolutely correct - I often tell people not to 'follow me' or take my word for this or that which I write about.  I also enjoy offering a humorous slant on current events in my 'crackpot news' posts.  I adopted the term 'crackpot bloggers' from Fr. Euteneuer - who was busy spinning his own stories online.  It seems to work - for me.

When we take ourselves too seriously online, we tend to establish ourselves as a sort of magisterium, perhaps even an extraordinary form of the Holy Office - judging and condemning - or looking down on everyone else - online or in the pews.  Some prefer to call it faithful dissent, faithful opposition, or faithful resistance.  Those terms are definitely Catholic - progressives-liberals have used them for decades.  Although, more recently, the rhetoric sounds more 'protestant'.

To help illustrate my point, here are a couple of mildly crackpot criticisms of Pope Francis, from faithful Catholics online:

Newspapers are splashing headlines about Pope Francis' admission that he is ignorant about what is going on in his Church. He is reportedly claiming his "unawareness" was "bestowed" upon him by God, and this is where he gets his license to continue on with the destruction of Catechesis in spite of the chaos of The Ferris Bueller's Day Off Papacy.

Willful ignorance may make him feel blissful but it is not a gift of God's.

From another authority:

It's time to pray for this pope's conversion to authentic Catholicism.

And another:

Pope Francis is not only publicly saying that unrepentant divorced and remarried Catholics need to be integrated into the Church, he is politicking for this big time behind the scenes.

Many Catholics online know what I'm talking about - these pundits believe themselves to be the faithful remnant who continue to keep the faith.  They have criticized, mocked, and scorned their parish priests, their bishops for years - now the pope is maligned and called a heretic. claiming he is bent on the destruction of the Holy Faith.

Neither Our Lord nor Our Lady would approve of the language used by these writers, and they would especially decry the doubt and division fomented by this sort of 'catechesis'.  I say that because at Fatima Our Lady pleaded that prayers be offered for the Holy Father, who will have much to suffer.  Long before that, the Blessed Virgin expressed deep sorrow to St. Catherine Laboure regarding the sufferings coming upon the Church and the hierarchy:

"I then asked the Blessed Virgin what was the meaning of certain things which had been shown me. She answered: 'My child, the times are evil and misfortunes are about to overwhelm France. The throne will be destroyed and the whole world convulsed by all sorts of calamities.' The Blessed Virgin looked very sad as she said this. 'But,' she added, 'come to the foot of this altar. Here graces will be poured out on all who ask for them, great or small. There will come a time when the danger will be great and it will seem that all is lost. But have confidence. You will feel that I am with you and that God and St. Vincent are protecting the communities. Have confidence, do not be discouraged, I shall be with you.' Then with tears in her eyes, Our Lady continued: 'There will be victims in other communities. There will be victims among the clergy of Paris. The Archbishop will die. My child, the cross will be despised and trodden underfoot. Our Lord's side will be pierced anew; the streets will run with blood, and the whole world will be in sorrow.'" - Source

How can we honor the Blessed Virgin one day, and the next day condemn the Holy Father?  How can so called Catholic news sites place a question mark after every headline quoting a statement attributed to Pope Francis?  These tactics are Catholic malware which infect our thinking - they embed in our memory - it's a virus.  Some people online imagine their mission in life is to spread their own message, their own version of the Gospel, failing to understand that all is subject to the authority of the Church.

I've also sinned in this, and ask God's forgiveness and the grace to repair the damage I have done. 

"Where do those fights and quarrels among you come from?"

Self opinion and pride and vain rejoicing in spiritual and intellectual gifts.

The blogosphere and any online publication with comments has been a nasty place from the beginning.  Go back 8 years and move forward through the archives and all the best voices have had their share of spittle flecked nutties.  Some blogs specialized in the practice - even though the Cafeteria reopened and closed.  Report them to the bishop?  Go ahead.  I think bishops have bigger problems to deal with these days.  Pious - but bickering, meddlesome church ladies have always been a thorn in the side of parish and diocesan life - this is nothing new.

So.  What is the source of all the conflict?

I'll share some ideas from a Russian saint...

Worldly people and many living the religious life, through ignorance and inexperience, often praise as spiritual zeal something that stems from conceit and pride.  They extol this zeal as zeal for the faith, for piety, for the Church, for God.  It consists in a more or less harsh criticism and condemnation of one's neighbors in their moral faults, and in faults against decorum in church and the liturgical rites.  Deceived by a wrong conception of zeal, the imprudent think that by yielding themselves to it they are imitating the holy fathers and martyrs, forgetting that they, the zealots, are not saints but sinners themselves.

Whoever decides of his own self-will to convict his brother or make some reprimand, clearly reveals and proves that he considers himself more prudent and virtuous than the person he blames, and that he is acting at the instigation of passion and deception and diabolic thoughts.

Saint Poemen the Great relates that a certain monk, carried away by zeal, was subjected to the following temptation.  He saw another monk lying on a woman.  For a long time he wrestled with the thought that urged him to stop them from sinning.  At last he gave into the temptation and he gave them a kick with his foot.  Suddenly he realized that it was two sheaves of wheat lying one upon the other. - Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov

Discernment.

Where does this wicked zeal come from?  Self opinion, pride, presumption, vain-glory which is the same as conceit.  But how to discern it?

Bad zeal is always accompanied by anger - 'heating of the passions' and 'by the invasion of swarms of thoughts and fancies' - a rush to judgment.  Imaginings of all sorts of evil done or consequences to follow - of things that haven't even happened yet.  If our neighbor criticizes or is displeased with our zeal in correcting the errant, we harbor resentment or exert some sort of vengeful defense of ourselves in retribution to those who disagree or oppose us.  (Yes poodle - I've done it too.)  On the other hand, if our 'victim' accepts our rebuke, "if he submits, our heart is puffed up with vainglorious satisfaction, excitement, and an increase of pride and presumption."  We even can believe we have a mission from God - as a sort of gatekeeper, watchman, even a holy crusader in the spiritual combat.

We're all crackpots, Hon!

The Polar-izing Vortex

The Gay Priest Party*

Michael Voris has a new video...  His delivery gets a little heated, almost as if he is lashing out at the 'church of nice' instead of doing a report.  I think he may be referring to some Catholic bloggers he's been at war with.  Evidently something is wrong - in his estimation - with popular apologetic bloggers and an online priest or two.  I haven't followed that discussion.

The current video focuses on what is billed as a true story, first by Voris in his news report, and then concerned bloggers who picked up the story.  The report goes like this:  Supposedly an anonymous priest went to the diocesan Christmas party for priests, was soon disgusted by the priests who introduced him to their boyfriends - evidently the invited priests could bring a guest.  Not long afterwards, the priest approached a chancery official announcing that he never wanted to be invited again because of the gay priests and their boyfriends - who had evidently flaunted the boyfriends right in front of the bishop.  The chancery official told him to keep his mouth shut.  All of this took place in an unnamed - albeit notorious diocese somewhere in the United States.

Could it be true?  Yes.

So what's wrong with the story then?

It's unsubstantiated hearsay and rumor.  It fuels people's imaginations, it causes suspicion and incites unhealthy curiosity and speculation, leading to rash judgement and gossip.  If we do not know who, what, and where, how can a story like this be substantiated?  What good is accomplished?  What if the priest is a disgruntled, marginalized, unpopular cleric in his diocese and just wants to get revenge?  How does he know the other priests are gay?  And if they happen to be gay, how does he know they are sexually active or promoting homosexuality?  How does he know the men with these priests were their boyfriends?  Did they introduce them as such?  Were they carrying their rent-a-boy receipt book?

Without documentation, without proof, it's just gossip.  It is divisive.  It is contentious.  And it is why much of this online hysteria is never taken seriously.

Voris is a good man, no doubt about it.  The problem of 'gay' in the Church has much less to do with clergy than it does with Catholic education.  Anyone who has been educated in major Catholic universities and high schools in the last few decades must be aware that educators have been profoundly influenced by gay studies and politics, as well as organizations such as New Ways Ministry.  Though the catechism and the CDF says one thing, educators teach another.  Though New Ways and Dignity is banned, teachers who are in agreement with their 'doctrine' teach in our schools, work in chanceries, as well as parishes.  I keep saying this, but everyone acts as if there is some clandestine underground of gay priests plotting the over throw of Catholicism.  It's right in front of your faces - and you've been paying for it.  Don't believe me?  Look at this curriculum posted on Fr. Z's post "Catholic" it means whatever you want.  Now that's documentation. [Likewise, Motley Monk speaks to that issue here.]


*A well written response to the video can be found here.

Photo: The priests in the photo are not gay nor were they at the party Voris reports on.  It's an old photo of priests fooling around at a wedding reception.