Attention Seeking Trolls Who Tweet Racist Garbage Don't Deserve Attention

Last night after the Bruins lost 4-3 to the Canadiens, a number of people went to Twitter to call PK Subban the N-word.

If I had to bet, I'd say many of these folks are attention seeking trolls. You know the kind. They'll post jokes about the Boston Marathon bombing, or 9/11, whatever it takes to get attention. They don't care if it's negative or positive. They feed off the retweets, the responses (both good and bad). They love getting negative responses. They feel powerful because they've made someone else feel something. And when they collectively make their garbage trend, and piss off the entire internet, they feel even more powerful.

Also many of the people who Tweeted this filth are truly racists. They get mad when they see someone with the color of PK Subban's skin happy and celebrating. It pisses them off, it defies their view of the world, and their idea of the proper order of things. Blacks should be the low-wage janitors cleaning up the arena, not the star hockey players standing triumphant on the ice.

Both of these groups, the attention seeking trolls and the genuine racists, are not worth the attention.

I'm not saying we should ignore racism and hope it goes away. But the racists themselves deserve little to no recognition. They can't be reasoned with. They should be identified and marked (which unfortunately is near impossible over Twitter) as racist. Then their rhetoric and jokes should be dismissed as the childish crap that it is.

This is one of my favorite scenes from the classic film Twelve Angry Men. The movie is about 12 jurors arguing the guilt or innocence of a young man accused of murder. In this scene one of the jurors uses his racial prejudices to argue for convicting the defendant. I love the reaction of the other 11 jurors.

These People Twelve Angry Men — MOVIECLIPS.com

That's what we should do to these trolls and racists. Ignore their vile language. Don't give them the recognition they crave, just mark them and move on with your life. "That guy's a racist, his opinions are crap, don't pay attention to him."

If I could talk to PK Subban today, I would reinforce to him that most of us in Boston dislike him because he's a flopping douche, and because he plays so well for a team we dislike so much. I'd dislike him just as much if he were white.

And as much as I dislike Subban, I dislike these trolls and racists even more. PK Subban deserves my attention. These idiots do not.

Tim Thomas and Roberto Luongo Endure Painful Separation

Tim Thomas and Roberto Luongo were teammates for mere hours, but I don't think either will forget the experience. Thomas was traded to the Dallas Stars just before the NHL Trade Deadline on Wednesday. Thomas will backup Kari Lehtonen as the Stars push to make the playoffs. Dallas currently has the 8th best record in the West.

Thomas and Luongo were teammates for less than a day, although Luongo probably flew to southern Florida for the Panthers next game at home against Buffalo. Thomas was up in Boston playing in net for the Panthers, who lost 4-1 to the Bruins. I doubt the two were ever in the same room. However both goalies were able to make light of the situation, and poke fun at the other. Luongo's unverified Twitter account posted this on Tuesday:

And on another note me and Tiny Tim are gonna rip it up the rest of the year!!!!!!! #dreamteam
— Strombone (@strombone1) March 5, 2014

Tim Thomas, after Tuesday night's Bruins-Panthers game, was asked about being teammates with Luongo...

"It looked like [Florida GM Dale Tallon] went kicking some tires and found one that needed to be pumped."

Thomas also seemed to think that his time with the Panthers might be nearing an end, as he continued to say "I don’t know how things are going to work out assuming I stay in Florida, it will be interesting."

Once Thomas was traded, Luongo's Twitter reacted with this:

@TSNBobMcKenzie NOOOO!!!!!!!!
— Strombone (@strombone1) March 5, 2014

So no reality TV show in Sunrise. There will not be a second dream team in South Beach. No Twitter vs. Facebook debates. All of this makes perfect hockey sense, but it is disappointing that there will be no Bobby and Timmy Show.

Apologies to New Balance, St. Louis Man Who Tweeted About Marathon Bombing Works for GROUP360 Worldwide

Bobby Metzinger, the jerk in St. Louis who tweeted jokes about the Boston Marathon Bombing, does not work for New Balance, as a now deleted post of mine had stated. Full apologies to New Balance for the misunderstanding. According to a LinkedIn page that Metzinger made about himself (and writes about himself in the 3rd person), he is the Social Media Manager for GROUP360 Worldwide.

Some of GROUP360's clients include Anheuser-Busch, Stop & Shop, Bass Pro Shops, Panera, Perdue, and Johnson & Johnson.

Stop & Shop, by the way, has its headquarters in Quincy, MA.

GROUP360 Worldwide has suspended Mr. Metzinger, according to their Twitter feed:

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. This is offensive & inappropriate & does not represent us or our clients- he's been suspended.
— GROUP360 Worldwide (@GROUP360WW) October 22, 2013

He's been suspended for these two tweets:

(deleted) MT"@bobbymetzinger: Putting my loft up for a ridiculous "Boston-only" rate for the #WorldSeries. Pressure cooker sold separately."
— Baseball's Best Fans (@BestFansStLouis) October 22, 2013

(Deleted) RT “@bobbymetzinger: The #WorldSeries will be another finish line not crossed by #Boston.”
— Baseball's Best Fans (@BestFansStLouis) October 22, 2013

A suspension is fine by me. Although, the guy lists his title as "Social Media Manager" at GROUP360, and describes his job as "Managing social media communities for Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Marine. Internal social media management for Group360 WW." Then he makes a major social media blunder like this one, drawing all sorts of negative attention to himself and to his company (and to his former company), all just to make himself laugh.

That's who you want managing your social media, GROUP360? Good luck with that.