Miramichi — It’s 2:30 p.m. on a Wednesday, or “the golden hour,” as Clive Franklin likes to call it, but recently Franklin has been struck by troubling times. He sat down with The Manatee to explain how, as he put it, “Shit’s starting to get outta hand” when it comes to the state of professional outrage on Facebook.
Clive “Trigger Machine” Franklin is no stranger to attention. Earlier this year, he was recognized by the Provincial Organization for People who Orchestrate Facebook Feuds, or POP OFF, as their “Rising Star.”
“It was easy back then, really all you had to do was post anything about any of the Irvings and people would line up to fight with you, no matter which side you took,” Franklin explained. “I remember there was one afternoon where I started an argument by posting that they were robbing the people of New Brunswick blind in taxes, only to then argue against someone who sided with me that they were also the province’s largest employer…They didn’t even realize until we were a good 30 posts deep — it was amazing!”
When we asked Franklin what has changed between now and then, his tone became very serious.
“Honestly, everything is different. There are just too many actual things to trigger people. Before I can even finish posting that Air Canada made the right move suspending service, or that vaccines are going to turn us into turtles, or my go-to: that the government is [insert literally anything here], the next thing has started and people are onto that.
“The longest online argument I’ve had in a month was three posts with some lady in Sackville about how we need to get back to work and old people have had their chance…halfway through her third reply I just watched the ‘someone is typing’ message and knew I’d lost her.”
With a shrug, Franklin thanked us for our time and turned back to his computer. On our way out, we overheard him mutter under his breath, “I guess I could always go back to accounting.”