David Maddox has a piece in today's Scotsman about the limited number of participants on the Scottish Government's so-called "National Conversation". George Foulkes is quoted in the article discussing "the small army of cybernats who bombard media and political websites in Scotland". Anyone ever visiting the Scotsman or the Herald's political articles is familiar with the phenomenon.
So is it any surprise that the army strikes in the comments to this very story, and strikes hard? You have to laugh at their touching faith in the power of ranting to deliver independence.
Ranting, and also always renaming. Even more than the Trots, this particular section of the Nat ecosphere loves to rename. It was always Tony Bliar, from Nu Liebour (even in this set of comments), however dull and pointless that kind of "humour" sounded the nineteen thousandth time. So in this story the Scotsman becomes "DeadManWalkingsMan" or the "CringeMan", Foulkes becomes "Lord Zebedee" and "Lord Foulking Drunk", while Wendy is "Bendy Wendy" and the "Mouth of the South."
The irony is I can't imagine anything more likely to drive the floating voters away from the SNP as they float across the websites of our national papers. Keep it up, troops!
I really think the SNP should sort this out - for their own sake. Their annoying ranty "cybernats" make them look like a bunch of illiterate, single-issue, insomniac lunatics.
Worst comment I have come across recently was on an article about forced marriages and the need for legislative change to protect, particularly, black minority ethnic women in Scotland: "I hope this law addresses the forced marriage of 1707".
Seriously. Shut up.
That's an appalling example, way beyond the trivia I found!
What kind of person sees 21st century Scotland entirely through the prism of the Declaration of Arbroath? Ah yes, an SNP activist..
The reality is that extremists on any issue tend to put off the majority of people. Whether that's keeping the union, ending it or a range of other things.
Sometimes when reading the more extreme examples of these comments I like to think that the person making them is being funny and ironic. Sadly I'm not convinced.
The most worrying comments though are not the angry ranters against conspiring unionists (or whatever the conspiracy theory of the day is) but the ones who write about what they genuinely believe that an independent Scotland will honestly deliver utopia, ignoring the fact that every country in the world has problems.
All very true. Come along and gaze in amazement at many more examples of the ever-intense Discourse of the CyberNats at www.our-scotland.org