Why Does it Have to Get Ugly?

I’m not a person to get too deep into politics. I don’t watch Fox News or MSNBC though I will watch CNN because that seems to be the most politically mild of the two. I don’t spend my Sunday mornings watching Meet the Press and I cringe when it’s voting season and the political ad campaigns begin. I can’t stand all the bickering and the mudslinging on either side. Oh, this politician picked his nose in public! Oh, the politician on this side left the bathroom without washing his hands! How anyone can stand all that backbiting and arguing is beyond me.

When it’s time to vote I do my duty and I’m done. I don’t talk about it at work. I don’t discuss it with friends. Other than the people in my household, no one knows the way I voted. I like it that way. I don’t feel like arguing and I don’t like people in my personal business.

What I don’t understand is how the comment section of online articles can turn into a den of political trollery (yes I made that word up). It can be a story about a lost dog and somehow it’s Obama’s fault. Just a few minutes ago I pulled up the hilarious article about Steven Spielberg ‘killing’ a dinosaur. I thought there may be some funny comments in the feedback section of the article and lo and behold every other comment is politically slanted.

‘The only person dumb enough to fall for that is a liberal.’

‘Yeah, those teapublicans are stupid.’

For the past few years this political trollery has gotten worse and worse and it’s annoying. I’m reading the comments to get more insight as to how people feel about the story, not argue about whose side is better. It’s childish and it makes both sides look like a bunch of toddlers arguing about whose toys are the best. Nobody wants to know how you voted and what side you’re on, get real. Vote and keep your civic duty to yourself.

The politicians do enough arguing. Why do we have to do the same?