don't feed the trolls

Let Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy Be the Hero to Rid the Internet of Trump Trolls One Facebook Letter at a Time

27th Annual Byron Bay Bluesfest 2016
Jeff Tweedy is watching you. Photo: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

Ever a precious voice of peace in these chaotic times, Jeff Tweedy has braved the hells of the internet not to feed the trolls that keep it burning, but instead nourish their minds. In a letter on Wilco’s Facebook, Tweedy is politely engaging with Trump supporters who’ve flooded his band’s social-media accounts rather than wholly dismissing them. After catching flack from trolls for playing at benefit shows for Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, Tweedy offered them an open invitation to get enlightened and join his bubble: “If you can trust a reality TV star billionaire when he says, ‘believe me,’ surely you can believe me when I say you’re welcome in my bubble. I grew up in what I think might be something like your bubble. You should at least try this one! Come on in!” But only if it’s not their intention to burst it. In which case, may they proceed in trolling Wilco with their Twitter fingers where it’s relatively safe.

“I can take it. I’m not afraid of you. There are more of us here and there always will be. So please come back!” he writes. “We’ll keep laying out dishes of warm outrage for you to lap up … and in turn we’ll have peace of mind in knowing that you aren’t out in the world acting on the anger so evident in your hastily typed and misspelled defenses of a man who has been elevated to a position of immense power but in whom I’ve yet to see any evidence of virtue.” Who needs cybersecurity when we’ve got Jeff Tweedy, comment-section watchdog?

Jeff Tweedy Writes Letter to Trump Trolls