>Aren’t you giving these trolls the attention they’re seeking by writing about them in The New York Times? Yes, probably. But understanding how these things hap

>Aren’t you giving these trolls the attention they’re seeking by writing about them in The New York Times? Yes, probably. But understanding how these things happen, and how easily joke memes can escape the internet’s seedy underbelly and morph into actual tools of influence, is part of understanding the mechanics of modern politics. Laudable goal. Yet they shot themselves in the foot. Instead of focusing on "everyone falls into the trap of substituting popular rhetoric in the place of critical thinking" they had too much of what could be dismissed as "orange man supporter bad."