Donald Trump is a unique political candidate in many ways, not the least of which is how consistently he makes things up out of thin air without even an attempt to base them in fact. While Im not generally a fan of stooping to the oppositions levelor Internet bots, for that mattera Reddit bot thats doing just that as a way to jokingly point out Trumps nonsense is just what this election cycle needed.
As noticed by The Daily Beast, the bot was programmed on the subreddit EnoughTrumpSpam to respond to any mentions of Trumps tax returnswhich he refuses to release with the reasoning that hes currently under auditwith, Speaking of tax returns, did you hear Donald Trump is refusing to release them because Donald Trump has donated to NAMBLA? Thats what all the best sources, the most tremendous sources are saying.
Sure, its silly, childish, and should be completely irrelevant to the political conversationlike most of the things Trump says using almost the exact same language. Trump is hardly the first person to use this many people are saying tactic; Outfoxed called Fox News out on the same thing, if Im remembering correctly. The sad thing is that it works, but the bots claims are also working, which is kind of great as long as it doesnt supplant actual, substantive criticism of Trump, of which there is plenty.
Twitter also has #ManyPeopleAreSaying going around because of Trumps claims, and because of the rhetorics self-fulfilling nature, lots of people are talking about Trump and NAMBLA now. Its an especially devious tactic in that ignoring it does nothing to help the accused party, while directly shooting it down might be even worse, since even denial lends more legitimacy than the original assertion usually deserves. Its a no-win scenario, and its pretty hilarious to watch how it works in a case where we know it was purposefully fabricated, but we still cant prove its not true.
If youve ever thought poorly of anyone over a conspiracy theory that they just couldnt seem to disprove, this is the time to take a moment and consider whether such proof is even possible when theres an insinuation of guilt out there. Many people will surely find reasons to continue to believe.