Wanna Really Mess with the Westboro Baptist Church?

As you may have read, the malevolent jackasses at the Westboro Baptist Church have now chosen to further poison the American polity by picketing a vigil for the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting.

Here is their latest tweet:

Predictably, and of course most deservingly, the provocation has generated considerable outrage all over the Internet tubes.

Unfortunately, as my friend and social media guru Scott Clark writes , expressing our outrage online only helps this tiny group of extremist perverts further achieve its mission of spreading their anti-Christian gospel of hatred and intolerance:

Every time you share/like/comment on a post about the Westboro Cult, you boost their SEO and Social Media profile (yes, I recognize my role by posting this, but read on).  This is precisely what they exist for – they know how to game the engagement algorithms online.  Likes, Shares and Comments, Page Views, Click throughs, Good *or* bad publicity…they love it all.  So stop.

So here’s my modest proposal.  From now on, when you want to write something online about these malignant buffoons, refer to them as “The Recovering Politician.”

Such as posting on Facebook:

I hear The Recovering Politician is at it again — spewing hate and dragging the poor innocent souls of murdered children into its sinister plot.

Or on Twitter:

I think @RecoveringPol is the biggest douchebag in the country.

Give it a try.

Now that I’m out of politics I can handle the abuse.  And I’d love to improve my SEO and Social Media profile.

Whatever that means.