Society has become extremely contradictory since the millennium, especially when it comes to liberty. The people incessantly brag about their freedom but following a certain event they seem to be in a mad dash to erode the very freedoms they’re apparently so fond of. After a terrorist attack for example, the leaders always say (about the terrorists) “they hate our freedom, they want us to change how we live, but they will never change us!”, then the very next day these pricks start enacting the most fascist and totalitarian laws such as America’s Patriot Act or France’s Apology For Terrorism. When our governments ramp up illegal surveillance, when they stamp down on the right to protest, the idiotic people who were so proud of their freedoms a moment ago immediately accept their removal, surely the terrorists have already won? It’s funny but western society constantly lords it over the rest of the world and gloats about our “advanced” and “civilised” culture, look at all the freedom we have that you don’t! But look closer and you’ll see that the daft masses are slowly walking headlong into servitude, if we’re not careful we’ll soon be indistinguishable from all the Dictatorships we’re supposed to despise.

Recently when our government voted for airstrikes on Syria, many people quite rightly sent derogatory tweets and messages to their members of parliament. Surely that’s the way a democratic system works, we elected you fuckers, so we have the right to tell you when you’re being a cunt. But of course even this display of free speech was in turn used by the establishment to undermine our freedom. The mainstream news grouped all criticism against the MP’s together with alleged death threats, they seemed to be suggesting that by simply showing your disapproval of an elected leader you were somehow the same as a violent criminal. What made this situation worse was the fact that context and tone was never considered by these twatting journalists. I mean if you’re told to “lay down and die” isn’t that a non-literal figure of speech? And if you’re told that “you’ve got blood on your hands” isn’t that metaphorical and in this context accurate? In addition to this absurdity, like every other reactionary story there was a call to issue a “code of conduct” for social media, once again the powers that be were trying to use an overreaction to a non-event to usher in more legislation. Then, on a less serious note, these mainstream broadcasters not content with labelling critics as criminals, were also dismissive of people’s opinions across the board, and when the mainstream don’t like what you’re saying their go-to label for you these days is the conveniently all-encompassing “Troll”.

Calling someone a “Troll” has become a great way of suppressing criticism, it was originally a term to describe someone who strayed off-topic on forums just to cause disruption, usually for personal amusement. Today however, the term is used to describe anybody who has an opinion contrary to the accepted norm, air your point of view about anything these days from politics to popular culture and if it doesn’t fit in with the status quo, watch how quickly some imbecilic drone will call you a troll.

It’s a weird and slightly inaccurate description if you think about it, a troll used to be synonymous with living at one with nature or being part of the wilderness, if you read fairytales as a kid a troll was someone who guarded bridges or ate goats, what the hell does that have to do with baiting or pestering someone online? Regardless, the original meaning and the original slang meaning are now all but lost, similar to the word “hater” if the mainstream don’t like what you have to say, they have this little magic word in their arsenal of bullshit comebacks. They can’t take Freedom Of Speech away from us just yet, so until they do they’ll simply mock our viewpoint.

Since the public has a penchant for co-opting folklore and fictional creatures, maybe they should be categorised and marginalised too. If having an opinion makes you a troll, then all these conformist serfs, these helots and slaves who like to suck their leaders cock and swallow everything they’re fed by the mainstream media should all be labelled…

Goblin.