Trolls and morons can make you unhappy.  Don’t let them!

I’ve been playing guitar for almost 40 years.  I’ve played in front of crowds big and small, recorded in commercial studios and various bedrooms, played with big ensembles and solo, learned how to do my own fretwork, blah blah blah.  In other words, I know a lot about guitars, songwriting, recording, performing, etc.  My talent level is mediocre in terms of playing and singing, but huge talent isn’t required to make music.

I routinely exchange email with several different people who come to this website, and I love it – any chance to talk guitar is welcome.  I’m obsessed with the electric guitar, with recording and performing, basically everything around making music.  I’m also obsessed with computer programming, in my case web development and server side code.  That’s my day job.  It pays way better than the local music scene.

Anyway – I’m almost always disappointed with online interactions outside of email.  I have had some interesting mini-discussions in various YouTube comment sections, especially in my own channel, but boy are there some morons out there.  I’ve discovered two ways of dealing with morons online that work for me, and I thought I’d explain them.

  1. Strategy 1: BAIL.  My YouTube channel is VERY small as I type this – about 159 subscribers, I think.  And in general, you’re lucky on YouTube to get one comment per thousand views.  So there isn’t much discussion happening, but I’m always happy when there is, especially if it’s critical, because it gives me a chance to respond “I agree with you” or “Well, here’s what I was thinking.”  As long as people are respectful, I’ll talk to them.  If I get to the “agree to disagree” point, I let it stop.  Basically I stop responding.  In such a situation, it’s fine.  Intelligent people can do that.  But sometimes I’m making a point in a forum or another channel and I engage in a discussion with a person who doesn’t know what they’re talking about.  That’s OK… I’ll try to explain my position.  If they can’t listen, I bail.  If they challenge me in some immature fashion, I bail.  They might think they’ve “won,” but we’re not playing the same game.  I’m simply ignoring them and virtually walking away.  They can scream at that point, but I’m no longer there.  I don’t need to “win.”  I don’t need to beat them with logic, because that’s not possible.  In a recent example, someone implied that Tim Pierce (who has a kick ass YouTube channel that I love) is one of the very best guitar players on the planet.  That’s laughable.  I bailed on that conversation because it’s stupid and the person was a moron.  I like Tim’s playing a lot – his work on Toy Matinee was fantastic.  Killer guitar parts.  But he’s not the best guitarist on the planet.  He IS a far better player than I am, and he is a great player.  When dealing with a moron, walk away while they’re still talking.  It’s best not to engage.  You can try to explain to them, but when they won’t listen, do you really have time for that?
  2. Strategy 2: BAN.  In forums, you have the ability to hide posts from morons and trolls.  Facebook allows this also, but they can still post on your page, unfortunately.  On my YouTube channel, I did have someone leave a really nasty comment with bad language.  Probably some 17 year old kid.  I banned him immediately.  He can’t comment on my channel ever again.  On other people’s channels and forums, you can walk away.  On your own channel, you can ban people if they act like dickheads.  He could go through the trouble of setting up another account to come back and leave another nasty comment, and I’d ban that one, too.  It’s super quick and easy to ban someone.  Bye!

Is it just me, or are people getting dumber?  A look at politics these days seems to prove my point.  I don’t talk politics on this site, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that each side has a news channel that presents a one-sided view of the US – Fox promotes the Republican party, and MSNBC promotes the Democratic party.  Throw those two networks out and look at the Associated Press, and you’ll get a more realistic picture of what’s actually happening.  All news contains some bias, but some people in my country want to write off ANY news that doesn’t agree with their world view.  The US is in the worst shape I’ve ever seen since I’ve been alive.  Gee, I wonder why?  NO POLITICS ON THIS SITE, RICHARD!!!!

I just slapped my own hand. Please don’t email me about politics.  You can email me about pickups, though, if you want.