Confession.  I have a new hobby.  I’m a troll. 

I’m friends with the National Organization of Marriage (the makers of this ad and general anti-gay rabble rousers) on Facebook,  and every time they post something, which is usually something like “call your state senator’s unpaid intern and demand they provide umbrellas to all constituents for the gay sturm” or “let’s hear it for this dude that curb stomped 5 queers, but compassionately, like Christ would do”, I leave an inflammatory comment and my blog address.  At first, it was just a way to self-promote, but it is surprisingly fun. 

But I fear it might be like, a cocaine fun, not, say, a swingset fun, or a volunteer-at-a-children’s-hospital fun.  As in unhealthy, destructive,  borderline immoral, and addictive, but also sometimes resulting in “Back to Black”.

I think of it as a game and a challenge.  I try to make my inflammatory comment from the perspective of a gay marriage opponent, and then see if anyone can figure out (or rather, if anyone can’t figure out) that I’m just mocking them like an asshole.

Example (posted under an invitation to a anti-gay marriage rally in DC):

Me: Same sex marriage in Iowa caused swine flu! If DC doesn’t preservate opposite marriage, what’s next!? ZOMBIE FLU?!?1?
http://www.dyerstraightsgetit.com

This comment is immature, snide, condescending, sophomoric, and warrants no attention.  (Although I do want to call your attention to this statement from a person that got elected once.)

Yet:

Ellen: Steve – Silly comments and outrageous claims diminish the cause.

and

Sherrie: Be careful of what motives you presume to ascribe to God whose property is always to have mercy, Steve. His ways are far above our ways. By the way, it’s PRESERVE.

Both of these replies are also ambiguous as to which side of the fight they are on, although I suspect Sherrie is pro-gay marriage and Ellen is contra. I don’t think it matters one way or the other, since they both thought I was being serious.

The comment threads get pretty ridiculous, since it’s probably 50:50 [people for gay marriage that loved their Gathering Storm ad] : [people who agree with this organization].  Each side vehemently hates the other, yet everyone unsuccessfully tries to come off  as “respectful of the other side’s view”, as well as tries to be successfully persuasive.

Now, this trolling is enjoyable to me as a game and a cathartic way to release some anger against total strangers, and I don’t suspect I’ll a single person’s mind, but my question is this: Is outright mockery a useful tool of persuasion in a general sense?

I offer two examples. First, Stephen Colbert’s incredible slaying at the Press Correspondent’s dinner in 2006, as well as his show and existence.  You may have seen this article about the study showing that conservatives that watch his show don’t know that he’s kidding.

Second, Dan Savage’s ruining of ex-Senator Rick Santorum’s life. The background is that Rick Santorum was a pretty vicious opponent of gay rights, so Savage defined a yucky sex act result after Santorum in retaliation. 

I love both of these events as theater, and I’d say that I support the spread of santorum while acknowledging the moral grayness of it. They’re also not really anything more than really skilled trolling.

There are several things that pull me in different directions.  I want to successfully persuade people to not be homophobes.  I want to express the frustration I feel at the reality that gays need to persuade others that in a neutral state, we are moral beings. I also want to get pageviews.  I think I can do the first two or the second two, but not all three.