"Do not feed the Bears"

So said the signs in Jellystone Park. It's just never a good idea.

There is an internet corollary and it is simply this: "Do not feed the Trolls." They usually thrive on combative rhetoric and attempts to drive them out. In my experience, such efforts don't work.

Dean Barnett on Friday made what I think is an exceptional exception to the rule. While making great points about the boorish behavior of Paul Hackett, Dean takes on Hugh's troll in such fashion as to--in my thinking at least--perhaps drive him away out of pure shame. But it could just be me. Read for yourself:

3) But it is about you. You get all bothered because Hackett called Dan Senor an Unterfuhrer and yet you call people names yourself. Do you or do you not frequently employ the term “nutroots”?

Guilty as charged. Indeed, I think a long time ago I may have invented the term “nutroots,” or more accurately, stolen it from an email I received and then popularized it. But, if I may be so bold as to identify the obvious, there is a clear difference between me referring to the “nutroots” and Hackett calling the son of a Holocaust survivor “Unterfuhrer.”
The latter is deeply offensive, the former is not.

4) Who are you to say what’s deeply offensive?
It’s a common sense thing. Which explains why it so eludes members of the angry left. Look, I don’t find the term “wingnut” offensive; it’s a childish putdown, in the same class as “nutroots” but without any of “nutroots’” cleverness. But I’ll make you a deal – if anyone except Anonymousmaestro says they find the term “nutroots” deeply offensive, I’ll stop using it.

5) Why exclude Anonymousmaestro? Is that fair?
I’ll compromise – if he puts his complaint in one of those clever poems, he too can play.