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Opinion | Seriously, why should we care about anything Twitter trolls have to say?


The recent death of David Onley, Ontario’s former lieutenant-governor, got me thinking about the dearth of personal civility and the decline of intellectual honesty.

In my weekend column paying tribute to Onley, I also wrote about his experience with Twitter rage. Inspired by his previous career as a TV journalist, he’d embraced social media in search of greater public engagement, only to be attacked by trolls second-guessing his decisions.

The Twitter tweeters berated him for not overruling the premier of the day, Dalton McGuinty. Never mind that Onley had his own council of constitutional advisers to give him legal and political context — the critics insisted they knew better.

Pre-Twitter, politicians already had poor impulse control. But as social media gained traction, even non-politicians discovered that they too could take their turn at the online megaphone.

Now, all these years later, social media is socializing us all in unmediated ways. Whether anyone is listening to the cacophony today is a good question.

Most people I know aren’t on Twitter. And most of the people on social media are unknown to me.

So why do the mass media spend so much time relying on and amplifying social media?

For trolls, demonizing is easier than engaging. Equally, for reporters, harvesting over-the-top quotes off an algorithmic feed — presorted for maximum emotion and confrontation — packs more punch than parsing the unrehearsed thoughts of someone they’ve just interviewed.

But does anyone think a small, self-selected, unrepresentative sample of tweeters somehow reflects public thinking? Or that tracking hashtags can be a barometer of broader social trends?

Writing about Onley’s early frustration with the social media mindset brought to mind the more recent explosion of contempt masquerading as wisdom during the pandemic, when the world camped out online. And lost its mind.

Coincidentally, a friend sent me a revealing Twitter exchange last week between two public health experts. These two physicians became minor celebrities at the height of COVID-19 — until their paths diverged.

I’ve never spoken to Dr. Isaac Bogoch, but whenever I’ve listened to the advice he’s offered on television (or Twitter) he came across as thoughtful and measured, never contemptuous or fear-mongering. I don’t know Dr. David Fisman, but whenever I heard his unmodulated musings, I wondered why anyone would heed him.

The other day, Fisman (who resigned in protest from Ontario’s science advisory table in 2021) launched a personal attack on Bogoch (who served on the COVID-19 vaccine distribution task force). Fisman berated him for the supposed sin of contextualizing, rather than criticizing, the reluctance of B.C.’s provincial health officer to impose a mask mandate anew:

“Not sure why you’re running interference for Bonnie Henry on masking, @BogochIsaac,” Fisman tweeted at him. “You’re a smart guy. You understand reproduction numbers. This is an absolutely terrible framing …”

You can read their tangled Twitter exchange for yourself. But what stands out is not so much Fisman’s puerile argumentation as Bogoch’s more restrained remonstration — not on matters relating to the scientific method, but social media madness:

“I’ve been reflecting on this thread for a bit,” Bogoch began. “I have zero intention to be unkind to David here, rather it is an opportunity to touch base on the current state of social media/public discourse & our current trajectory (extending well beyond COVID).

“Summary: Vey iz mir.”

(Translation, for those unfamiliar with the Yiddish language: “Woe is me.” Or, translated into body language, it looks like an eye roll.)

“Distorted & toxic discourse is at least partially responsible for why many have stopped engaging in public forums, social media, public office, etc … And in the medicine/science/public health world, we also confusing the hell out of people ….

“So where does this leave us? Unfortunately with conversations dominated by increasingly loud & polarized voices from fewer people, with less nuance & lacking meaningful discussion.”

Bogoch’s answer to the social media miasma is to appeal for more critical thinking, credibility and respect between interlocutors. He calls for greater understanding of bias and nuance. And he insists he isn’t giving up yet.

“I’m sticking around & will continue posting things that I feel are important/interesting & will do so in a data-driven & respectful manner. Zero disrespect to David here, I don’t typically engage with comments like his, but it is an opportunity to highlight our current state.”

End of thread. Proof that Twitter still has teachable moments, I suppose.

Yet Fisman remains a hero to some who persist in blaming politicians in power — and their top medical advisers — for every setback in the pandemic. Bogoch remains a voice of reason for those seeking context in a complicated world, where nothing — neither variants nor vaccines — is ever simple, or easy to explain.

It continues to amaze me how some derive dopamine jolts out of putting down others on Twitter for a few fleeting “likes” — what one colleague calls “impulsive compulsives.” In my own role as a columnist, I seem to live rent-free in the heads of some trolls — of all political parties and persuasions — who see themselves as unbeatable strategists or defenders of the faith.

Increasingly, we live in a world where people only hear what they want to hear, and dismiss opposing views as betrayal. If you deviate from dogma or stray from orthodoxy, you are guilty of heresy or apostasy.

Woe is us.

Martin Regg Cohn is a Toronto-based columnist focusing on Ontario politics and international affairs for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @reggcohn

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