Fun Trolling vs. Bad Trolling

I'm all for trolling the Left a bit, especially because so much of their current ethos is anti-fun, scolding, joy-crushing drudgery. There are different levels of such activity, however, and some sense of propriety and civic virtue should always be kept in mind. Especially when the trollers are running the federal government. At level one, there is harmless, enjoyable, and perhaps even a bit juvenile trolling.

Elon Musk's 'name change' stunt comes to mind, inspired by a DOGE-related controversy, which generated instant classics like this:

“Take a deep breath and ponder Big Balls” - MSNBC’s Joy Reid

This is real 🤣 pic.twitter.com/cwq1KfMhBW
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 11, 2025

HAHAHA CNN is forced to refer to Elon Musk as Hairy Balls after he changed his name on X. 😂 pic.twitter.com/BygbvdcSjw
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 11, 2025

Level two involves relatively clever trolling that strikes back in a recent culture war, with a twist:

Bragg is back! I just signed a memorandum reversing the naming of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg. pic.twitter.com/EGgZNHK72x
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) February 11, 2025

U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth has signed a Memorandum, once again renaming Fort Liberty in North Carolina, formerly Fort Bragg, back to Fort Bragg, but instead of having the Namesake of the Base be Confederate Civil War General Braxton Bragg, it will instead be named after Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, a World War II Hero who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his Exceptional Courage during the Battle of the Bulge.

'Exceptional courage' is right. My goodness:

The new name pays tribute to Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II hero who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge. "During these hellish conditions and amidst ferocious fighting, PFC. Bragg saved a fellow soldier's life by commandeering an enemy ambulance and driving it 20 miles to transport a fellow wounded warrior to an allied hospital in Belguim," the memo states..."The directive honors the personal courage and selfless service of all those who have trained to fight and win our nation's wars, including PFC. Bragg, and is in keeping with the installation's esteemed and storied history," the memo said.

Then there's level three trolling, which crosses a line, in my mind. Pronouncing the Gulf of Mexico hereby remaned to the 'Gulf of America' is one thing; punishing a media organization for not adopting the current administration's preferred terminology is quite another. Maybe pressure the AP over its embarrassingly false, recent 'fact check' of Trump, instead of this silliness?

Punishing journalists for not adopting state-mandated terminology is an alarming attack on press freedom. That's viewpoint discrimination, and it's unconstitutional.

President Trump has the authority to change how the U.S. government refers to the Gulf. But he cannot punish a… pic.twitter.com/EX0HarvhkW
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) February 11, 2025

If the Biden administration had retaliated against, say, Fox News because the network wouldn't dutifully refer to sex change operations for minors as 'gender-affirming care,' how would conservatives have responded? If Joe Biden woke up one morning and decided the Atlantic Ocean was suddenly the Hunter Ocean, named for his criminal son, would everyone on the Right just shrug if the White House froze out outlets that didn't play along? Were media figures supposed to treat his bizarre and laughably lawless assertion of a new constitutional amendment seriously, because Biden said so? You may not find these examples analagous, but it's about the principle. Presidents don't get to dictate press style guides. FIRE has earned credibility, through consistency, on free speech and the first amendment. Other groups, like the partisan and hypocritical American Bar Association, are much easier to write off and ignore as hacks:

The ABA supported Biden tweeting a constitutional amendment into existence. https://t.co/hARzoOrl3j
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) February 11, 2025

Biden cited the ABA in his insane statement conjuring a made-up, illegitimate "constitutional amendment" during the lame duck session after his party lost the election.