Fuck Trolls

But also, let's take a look at a specimen and examine, shall we?

I’m going to go in rare form here and make an actual post copying a response to a troll comment on one of my Notes, and there’s a reason I’m doing this.

This is precisely the problem. Guys like Tom have been and are being fed propaganda by the far right, probably some Fox News in there, that he should be really angry at outspoken women and Joe Biden for his current financial struggles. And when I say “current”, it seems that Tom has struggled his entire working life to make ends meet.

Tom does not comprehend that this is class warfare, not “left vs. right”. We are ALL in the same shit together.

The thing is, Tom came to my post with lots of bluster and name-calling, slinging “femcel” before this:

Listen, if you are dirt broke in a shitty apartment doing gig work like Uber, maybe don’t call people names on the internet and sling barbs when you are literally the target demographic I’m talking about with my post about the state of the average American’s finances.

And I had a little bit of time, although all this “research” took approximately fifteen minutes because so much of his life is freely available on the internet. In fact, he himself wrote pieces on how he got fucked over by gig jobs like Uber. Let that sink in. The guy has a college degree, struggles to make student loan payments, works crappy gig economy jobs, lives in a shitty apartment, and yet instead of focusing his ire on the corporations and politicians (multiple, over decades) who have led his life down this path, he lashes out at women on the internet.

So here goes:

“Your photo on Twitter is vastly different than the studious “professor” shtick you have going on here.

My “attitude” is that of a thinking woman who is smart enough to see the entire situation for what it is. If you can’t, go back to college and learn more. But then you’d have female professors and classmates that would clearly trigger you so much with their “attitude” [read: intelligence].

You use the term “femcel” because you’re trying to reclaim it after maybe you’ve been called an incel?

You have contributed nothing but troll energy, and your photo here confirms it. Nice try with the tweed jacket to look so accomplished and scholarly… was that a coupon for the JC Penney photo studio so you could have a “professional” photo for your resume since you were unemployed?

In fact, you couldn’t get work so you went back to school. At least that’s how I understand your writing:

“As those of you who keep up with the news know, student loan payments are coming due in October. Despite having had two good years in a row, I had several bad years in a row after graduating from college the first time: it’s one thing to know a field, another to have skill in a field and yet another to have connections that allow you to get started or level up in a field.”

So it sounds like you yourself were struggling with the idea of making student loan payments while underemployed.

Crazy.

Then you signed up for the wrong class in college when you went back because you literally can’t understand the abbreviations for college courses:

“Well, actually …I wanted to sign up for American Government. But in order to register for classes, you have to copy the course number…and, it turns out, that despite having worked with computers for over 20 years, I copied the wrong number and wound up in Alabama History.”

Geez. That’s a bummer. Strange for a man who seemingly makes no mistakes in his life!

Then you dropped that class because it involved too much reading, and then you found out you couldn’t get a refund for the class you dropped after the widely-publicized drop date:

“I’ll write a separate post about it because I want to expand on the reasons and remedies, but suffice it to say that the first of three books that was required reading in that class was not easy to get into-so much so, it was the reason I dropped the class. Now, having attended a few colleges in my lifetime, I thought I had 2 weeks to drop a class and get a full refund. But it turns out that the institution I’m attending only allows you to get a refund (and even then, I think it’s a partial refund) if you drop within the first 6 days of class. (For those of you from Cal-i-forn-i-a, The People’s Republic Thereof®™, that means during the first week and then the first day of the second week of class.) So now, I’m at less then half-time, owe the full tuition for two classes and will have student loans resume in October.

FML.”

Man, that fucking sucks dude. Seriously. But the women of the world didn’t make the decisions to fuck over college students, just FYI.

Now you live in an apartment that costs between $960-$1095 (not sure when you moved in and if your rent was locked there in Sun Lake Bay “lakefront” apartments), which is, by the way I feel compelled to let you know, vastly under the national average for rent. Probably one of the perks of living in Alabama, I’d wager.

Except that… oof, it looks like you may have moved, into some really shitty, rundown apartments where your rent was even lower, around $400? Lucky guy!

You currently drive for Uber, or at least you did as recently as December, along with other gig work like DoorDash. In fact, you wrote an exasperated piece on how gig work . With a Computer Science degree. I’m sorry. That sucks!

And I’m assuming you do this, perhaps in addition to a job in your field, to make ends meet, to save money, to pad a retirement fund, everything you should be able to do on one salary, especially with a degree like you have, so you see my friend….

You are also a product of the shittification of this economy. You are no more a “professor” than I am a burlesque dancer, my guy. And yet you take your rage out on women on the internet instead of the people who actually made your life shitty.

You made good choices, it appears. You graduated high school at 15/16? That’s awesome. And then you went into a high demand field. That’s awesome!

And you also made some human mistakes, like enrolling in a wrong class and still having to pay for it. Who made that decision? Women? Joe Biden?

No. Greedy ass colleges feeding a greedy ass student loan system and who were allowed to do so by greedy ass politicians.

You are no more in alignment with billionaires than I am, Tom, so why the rage baiting on the internet? To make your life feel better, because it is sad? But that isn’t your fault, it’s the fault of the game that has been designed to make our lives shitty for the benefit of a select few billionaires.

Oh, and all your info is public record. I’d lock that down if I were you.

Maybe I do have an “attitude”, but at least I direct my anger at the corporations and billionaires making all of our lives shitty, not the other people down here struggling with me.

I hope your job sticks and your life improves. You’ve worked hard for that degree and you deserve a decent quality of life. But hey, also take a look around and figure out why you’re directing so much anger at women who just speak the truth instead of the system that landed you where you are. That really isn’t cool.

And my husband, for the record, is my best friend and vice versa. We’re okay. Thanks for your concern.

We’re more alike than you think, Tom, you and I. We all are. The sooner everyone gets on board with that, the better off we’ll all be to join forces and push back against these exploitative systems. In fact, in your words:

“Despite all the gig work I have tried during this stint of unemployment, none of it has been consistent enough or paid enough to live on, so once again, I find myself wondering how I’m going to make it to the next job or real business idea. Based on what I’ve see over the past two month, it looks like no one has money” on a post where you then proceeded to ask for donations to make it through to 2025, but you blamed it on “Bidenomics” when the economic hurdles you’ve experienced have been decades in the making, far before Biden.

People experienced those same hurdles and difficulties in 2019, when Trump was president, with the exact same companies, because neither Joe Biden nor women made the gig companies make such shitty policies that people can’t live off their work with them.

I hope, genuinely with my whole heart, that you get back on your feet, Tom. You seem like a bright guy who’s been fed some disturbing propaganda that encourages you to place blame at the feet of outspoken women and singular presidents without acknowledging the far greater picture of the oligarchs who have spent decades getting us into this position for their greatest benefit and gain. And I know you are smarter than that, to have graduated at 15 and pursued a college degree.

Maybe just consider it, Tom.”

When you’re ready to join the rest of us resisting corporation domination, we’ll be here, Tom. I hope you come around.

---

Ladies, don’t let a man shut you down with name-calling and dismissal. Google is still free, and there’s a wide world out there of information on just about anyone. Take a good look at the men trying to make you feel bad because their life is shit.

Anyway, I try to keep my sociopolitical rants separate from my other work at CounterStory Media. Subscribe here if you want all of my content.

If you are a woman [femme-identifying] and you have a rant/vent/rage-out of your own, send it to me so I can share it in an upcoming Rage Rag!

Much love,

My name is Melissa Corrigan, and I’m a freelance writer/thought sharer/philosopher in coastal Virginia. I am a mom, a wife, a veteran, and so much more. I deeply enjoy sharing my thoughts and receiving feedback that sparks genuine, respectful conversation.

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