Monday, August 21, 2006

The Concern Troll

On the internet, and in real life, there is perhaps nothing more annoying than the concern troll, the person who claims to be on your team but is forever fretting about the tone or substance of a particular criticism of the other side. Lieberman has deservedly criticized for his stated anti-democratic belief that criticizing the president imperils the country, but what he was really doing was setting himself up to be the ultimate concern troll. You see, it is actually okay to critcize the administration, but only in the time and place and manner that Joe Lieberman says you can. When is it okay? When Joe says so! Otherwise, it imperils the nation!

Lieberman really revealed his concern troll colors with this comment about Vietnam, a war he has long proudly opposed:

"I was worried about a repeat of Vietnam," he said Friday during an interview aboard his campaign bus. "Public opinion was moving away from supporting the war for reasons that were understandable, but not complete."


Sure, the war was bad but what really concerns Joe is that some people who opposed it maybe opposed it too much! Or for the wrong reasons!

I hate concern trolls.