By George Fallar 
Internet trolls are a persistent bunch. I’ve written about them before (click here and/or here) and have taken to ignoring them as much as possible with all the blocking tools at my disposal. One of them keeps coming back and is unique for a couple reasons. First, she is a female and the overwhelming gender of Internet trolls is male-ish. Secondly, she lives close by and she and her husband often attend Glendale City Council meetings (yet they live in Phoenix) while usually trolls live at some distance and/or cling to the notion that they are anonymous on the Internet.
Because of my use of blocking tools to rid myself of the Darcy annoyance, I thought Phoenix resident Darcy Marwick had decided to find another hobby after her last flurry of chirps. Nope.
Like A Dog With A Bone
I heard through the grapevine that Darcy had felt the need to comment on a post I wrote over at Hockey Writers. The entire sequence of comments has since been removed, I don’t know but it’s possible that site doesn’t appreciate vitriol and tragically misguided comments so they simply deleted them all. When the comments were up, I couldn’t see them because the site uses the Facebook posting engine and Darcy has blocked me on Facebook. But, she also posted her displeasure on her own Facebook page.
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It’s hard to read in the minimized image, but Darcy has decided to both misspell my name and misrepresent the content of my post about the positive effect of being located in a resort destination on Coyotes attendance. Her comment is:
Hey George,
You chirp homophobic and racial slurs versus Quebecors which is far worse than weather reports. Hypocrite!!!
If you actually read my post you’ll note the word “Quebecor” IS used in the first paragraph. Darcy, not having educated herself (I assume) in the facts of the Coyotes saga that well, doesn’t know that “Quebecor” is the company that will be running the new arena in Quebec City. Perhaps she thought that was somehow racist?
Even if I was using the incorrect term for “Quebecois”, the statement wasn’t racist. Even if I WAS somehow denigrating people that live in Quebec or Canadians in general, that wouldn’t be “racist” either:
Noun racist: a person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others.
Neither “Quebecois” nor “Canadian” is a race, therefore even if I was insulting either group, it would not be racist. I can’t even begin to speculate what Darcy is characterizing as homophobic in the post in question or ANY statement I’ve ever made, for that matter. I don’t support that thinking and I don’t say those things. I suggest that Darcy is acting like a:
Noun bigot: a prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own.
Past History
This isn’t the first time Darcy has decided to square off with me on the Interwebs. For some time back when the vote for the arena lease deal was coming up and around election time, she was prolific with her “witticisms” on Twitter. She gathered herself a bunch of Canadian based troll friends as kindred spirits.
Among other things, in January she posted the following on her Facebook page:
I know I shouldn’t gloat for someone’s misfortune. But, there’s this guy on Twitter harassing me & calling me the Dumb B-word.
Just found out he’s scrounging for cheap game tickets for the worthless Phoenix Coyotes. The great Save the Coyotes fan doesn’t have season tickets? LOL
First, I don’t consider myself the object of misfortune, nor should anyone else. I’ve got it made.
Secondly, I never harassed Darcy on her @zanjerofalls Twitter account. She, on the other hand, had been posting plenty of insults and more “LOL’s” directed at me, personally, versus just “Stupid Coyotes fans” in general. I admit that other people took exception to her nastiness and issued enough in the way of social media beatdowns to Darcy that she made her Twitter account “private”.
I also never called her the “B” word. I may have called her dumb. She earned them both, but I restrain my language on social media.
No, we don’t have season tickets. We have kids and dogs and a house that take priority over hockey tickets. We do, however, have 1/2 season tickets and usually fill in with a bunch of other games. If that’s funny to you, Darcy, laugh it up.
As far as “scrounging” for tickets, for the game Darcy thought was hilarious, Bea and I already had tickets. There was a special deal for season ticket holders for lower level seats. We bought five additional tickets, one for my Mom, two for a couple of our adult kids and two for a Coyotes fan (and his girlfriend) that is working on a tight budget and thus doesn’t get a chance to go to many games. Does that answer your question, Darcy? Is that hilarious in the world you live in?
Bea actually called her on her post, saying she was lying about the “B” word thing. Darcy denied it, after deleting the post from her Facebook page. Darcy doesn’t know the vagaries of Facebook and their policies. Learn the lesson, people, if you put it out on the ‘net, it’s there forever.
One More
What prompted this diatribe was the following Facebook post from Darcy yesterday (March 24) or so.
Doesn’t Faller (sic) need to know hockey before writing about it on HockeyWriters? Faller (sic) is the folk hero among idiots!!
I never professed to be an expert on hockey. I know a little about it and played the game a little when I was a kid. I really like the game, though, and really like my hockey team. I guess that’s enough to qualify me for HockeyWriters?
As for Darcy’s assertion that I am a folk hero among idiots, that requires some explanation.
It’s true that Bea and I are a bit well known in some circles of Coyotes fans and haters. It’s a result of the nine months that we’ve put in trying to do what we can to keep our hockey team in Glendale. Yes, it’s been nine months. So, if that makes us “folk heroes” then so be it.
The “idiots” Darcy refers to are a bunch of people that have poured heart and soul into whatever project was necessary to keep the Coyotes where they belong. These people are EXTREME fans, people who take the “Hockey The Hard Way” motto seriously. Lots of them stood around in ridiculous heat working to educate people being misled by petition gatherers. Being a Coyotes fan is NOT an easy thing.
As far as being idiots, I can honestly say that the people Bea and I have had a chance to meet and work with are an outstanding group. Doubt their intelligence and resolve at your peril, Darcy. I’m proud to have made the acquaintance of literally hundreds of these people you call “idiots”, Darcy, and you are way off base as are your compadres in the troll brigade. These people are bright, hard working, dedicated, funny and generally a wonderful group of people to be part of.
So, Darcy, find a group of “idiots” as good as mine.
Until then, would you please just shut up?
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