I want to cover three topics in this, and wish to start with an error that is being made by the Australian Authorities. They are going to prosecute a troll: the implications around freedom of speach are worrisome.
The son of a former Split Enz drummer is under investigation by Australian police for internet stalking and is said to be “inciting hatred” online from his New Zealand home.
Tristan Barker, 18, is wanted for questioning by Melbourne police for encouraging his alleged 300,000 Facebook followers to ridicule people… But Melbourne police are unable to interview him because he is back in Rotorua living with his dad, Michael Barker, a former drummer from bands Split Enz and the John Butler Trio.
In one of his posts, about the Colorado movie theatre shootings last year that claimed 12 lives, Tristan Barker called it a “social experiment”.
“I don’t give a f*** about the victims, I don’t give a f*** about their families, I don’t care, no one should care,” he wrote on Facebook. He went on to request Americans “end themselves”.
“I wanted to see if you could create disgust,” he said this week.Barker gained notoriety early last year after trolling the Facebook page of pop star Nicki Minaj with an abusive rant that attracted more than 100,000 “likes”.
In another rant, Barker called on his followers to harass Muslim families by making prank telephone calls.
He said he used White Pages to search for a family with the Ibrahim surname and phoned to joke a packet of bacon had been placed on the family’s doorstep.
OK. Tristan here is a prat. No question. But this is not behaviour that is criminal, this is behaviour to be mercilessly mocked. Let him offend.
Besides, there are natural consequences. He is staying in Rotorua: there is a large Maori population there and a number of them are Muslim. I’m sure that they will make their displeasure known.
Silly rabbit. Should have known the only safe people to offend are the Catholics (which is why this Calvinist defends them: I despise bullies with power more than silly teenage wannabe trolls).
On a more general note, most of the lectionary for today and the sermon for today was based around the idea of repentence. We used the gospel text in Kirk — if you do not completely change your attitude (metanoia) you will be damned.
And this is where trolls are as useful as the left. They show us what not to do.
1I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3and all ate the same spiritual food, 4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
6Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. 7Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” 8We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. 10And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. 13No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
12“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” 17But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
Looking at the first bit, we should take a look at the examples of the world and consider what not to do. For we are all very good at rationalizing — using double-think — to justify what we have done: indeed the left uses this constantly because progressives cannot make mistakes.
In other words, the rationalization hamster is a coping mechanism because the host’s brain cannot sustain the entirety of her situation otherwise she would be crushed and no longer able to function.
Naturally, as the hamster spins its wheel faster and faster, creating more and more excuses and rationalizations, it places its host on a trajectory of a delusional life, especially in the context of “sexual market value” (ie-you’re always hot, you’re always a catch, men are evil for not wanting to raise 4 other mens’ children, etc.). Since the host doesn’t live, nor make decisions, based in the real world, this trajectory sends her at mach 4 into “The Wall.”
“The Wall” is the theoretical point at which the empirical and anecdotal evidence is so numerous, compelling and condemning, the host has no choice but to ignore the rationalization hamster and accept reality. The host is “all of the sudden” 55, men are no longer hitting on her, but her younger contemporaries, and despite being the hot thing back in the Reagan administration, she is effectively now a grandma, whether she has children or not.
Currently, there is debate if it is even possible for a host to hit “The Wall” in that it requires the host to accept reality. Rationalization hamsters are INCREDIBLY powerful creatures driving women to think they’re still sexy at the age of 70 (Jane Fonda any one?). And no post-Wall-collision hosts have been identified in the wild, just women with their cats wondering why they can’t find a man.
Now the cure for this is not nice but needed: some call it the Red Pill. You need to accept you cannot eat that cookie, you will have to live within your means, and that it is probably better to stay with the one you have, and guard your heart.
But this requires that you repent: you change your attitude. You stop seeing yourself as a victim of this time and this place and instead see yourself as an agent for good. You have to be fit. You have to work on maintaining your relationship. You have to guard you eyes and ears from that justification that will keep you in bed when you should be training, or take you away from the work when you should be reading.
The imprtant things in live are hard. They require discipline. Most of the time you do not want to do them. But the habits of training keep your body fit and the hours of meditation, prayer and study keep you grounded in the word. For we should not adapt to this culture. We should change it.