Can We All Stop Trying To Be Twitter Trolls!?!

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Yesterday Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz decided to put something on Twitter that got him into some trouble. He tweeted out something that seems by many to be witness tampering.

"Hey @MichaelCohen212," Gaetz tweeted on Tuesday afternoon. "Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she'll remain faithful when you're in prison. She's about to learn a lot..."

Originally Gaetz tried to defend the tweet, saying it was just “witness testing” but not meant to be intimidation. He has since then deleted the tweet and apologized for it. What was he thinking?

Many are arguing that indeed this was meant to be witness intimidation. Gaetz was doing all he could to stop this testimony and help his buddy Trump. The diehard Trump supporters will argue the opposite, cheering Gaetz for calling out the lowlife who is lying about Trump. Where does the truth lie?

Gaetz probably had no intention of actually trying to intimidate the witness because he probably didn’t even think Cohen would actually see or read his tweet. So why then did Gaetz do it? The tweet was not really directed at Cohen, it was directed at Gaetz’s supporters and possible voters. It was meant to be nice red meat that would get him attention from the rabid Trump supporters who love that stuff on Twitter. Everyone wants to be a Twitter troll. This is the world we live in now.

It is extremely tempting to put out all kinds of vitriol on Twitter. The fact is a lot of times it works for you. Not many people are better Twitter trolls than Trump and now he’s President of the United States. Democrats are learning from this too. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been able to gain all kinds of attention for herself by putting stuff out on Twitter. It’s all just about getting attention and winning!

This is probably an unpopular opinion in 2019, but I think it’s time to stop with all of this nonsense. This kind of stuff is not healthy for the future of our civil society. It’s all just creating more hate and division among us and really preventing many of us from having constructive debates over policy. We all say things we shouldn’t sometimes, but there used to be a want to display some dignity and self-respect when you’re talking to the public, or even your neighbor!

The sad thing is many who are guilty of this should know better. They are self-proclaimed Christians who say they follow the Bible, but throw away those values when it can score them some political points on social media. They know the personal attacks and vitriol is not how Christians are called to behave.

I know I sound like a broken record here, but I will say again this does not mean we should not fight the good fight. I’m not saying we should be snowflakes who get offended at every little thing said that we might disagree with. But these personal attacks against each other on Twitter actually hurts our ability to have that fight. Instead of convincing people why our policy positions are right for the country, everyone is focused on the latest personal attack on Twitter or Facebook.

I see some of the most disgusting things said on Twitter by people on both sides of the political isle and it frankly just annoys me. It does nothing to add to your credibility or justify your argument. I wish our nation’s leaders on both sides would at least think before they tweet. Have some respect for the offices you hold, or at least have some self-respect for crying out loud.


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