The advent of social media platforms has allowed people of any race, gender, size or religious conviction to have a voice. You know, to express themselves, to join comment threads and lash out etc.And in Bermuda it is no different.Media opportunities to get things off your chest are everywhere.For instance, I called up an American website yesterday. I can tell you what it was: www.xe.com. It's an up-to-the-minute currency conversion site. I always want to know how the Greenback is doing against the Aussie dollar. So I look at this site about 20 times a day.To my astonishment, while on the site, a Standing Strong for Bermudians youtube ad came on down the side. The face of this large single mum stared at me, and I immediately thought, "wow, this is odd.How did the Progressive Labour party get a three minutes long youtube advert embedded into this site? So I clicked on the ad to see what it was all about.I saw our Premier declaring that 'they' (presumably the OBA) won't tell you the things you're about to see. And to emphasize this, a senior Bda woman came on and talked about how great FutureCare is, and that single mum came back on to talk about how wonderful the PLP initiated Day Care Program is. "You want hear of these stories from 'them'. They don't want you to know that we are making sure and steady progress," concluded our Premier.On Facebook, the same ad appeared on my Home Page. I felt violated.And again, on another site, and again on one that is made in Australia. How? Why? Where...etc?This same propaganda message was showing up every time I called up a site. I don't know enough about the back operations of websites to get into specifics, but if I were selling something, I'd find out who got this PLP video up and on soooo many sites. Gold Standard Bermuda has done the same thing. Their ads beseeching you to bring your left over gold items in and receive money - are ubiquitous. They too are on my Home page on Facebook, as they are yours if you look.Now, the content of the PLP youtube ad is one thing and I'm not about to dissect it here, but what it and the Gold Standard ads do are this; they showcase how easily it is for someone to say what they want on social media platforms. Paula Cox has her own Facebook page, as does Michael Dunkley, his former mate Wayne Furbert and a host of other pollies. Look 'em up some time. They are for public consumption and when the pollies cross swords on each other's pages....wow. I have actually stayed up until 3am reading the threads.Just as entertaining, and at times even more so, are the comments that appear under every story in The Royal Gazette online. Actually, as often as not, they are collectively more entertaining and revealing than the stories themselves!I am an avid reader of the comment threads which appear online under pretty much every story that appears.Some are just people sounding off about the content of the story with little regard to anything other than their own agendas, while some are clinically written and educational. If I owned a business, I'd be contacting the Gazette to sponsor a page every day with the best of the comment threads on them - no editing involved. Just let 'em rip and read it.As a result of the growth of the comments section, pseudo heroes and villains have arisen - most of whom write under pen names.Some of the many well versed and clever RG comment handles include:MISTER WOLF. His/her witty comments are always worth reading but he/she does seem to save the best threads for PLP attacks. Another threader of quality is LOCAL LAD. He/she is always insightful and a little more balanced than some of the others. There is a depth of understanding life in this threader that resonates with me. My only complaint re LOCAL LAD...he/she doesn't write enough.OLEANDERBYE and PROUDBERMUDIAN are prolific comment threaders. And by and large they often write with both passion and commone sense. The person behind the threads by I GOTTA BE ME calls it clearly and cleverly too. And, while I detect an OBA bias, there are at times balanced political comments from I GOTTA BE ME. Another I always read is BROSIVE BROTELHO. He/she can be quite explosive at times and writes like a journalist as LOCAL LAD surmised the other day. But if he is a journo, so be it, it makes for compelling reading.The writer known as ZENDRIVE is articulate, clever and often lurches into cynicism...which in itself is also entertaining, while ATWORK, OBSERVER, DINTY MOORE, SYL HAYWARD and McQUEEN actually seem to read all the comment threads on all stories and write with a great deal of understanding and intelligence. Which makes me think re them - do they actually ever work? Lots of reading and writing going on from that quintet...which has a knock on effect for me as I read everything they pen too. Wait a minute - does that mean I need to work more also?There are many others who infrequently write their thoughts, but I can't list everyone.I do want to isolate some thread villains, though.The guy/girl who pens FRANKLY MY DEAR is probably not so much a villain just as really difficult writer to comprehend. Sounds bright but it rarely comes over that way. And John Charles is often aggressive and paints biased pictures. If that is his real name, though, I applaud his guts and to write boldly in front of everyone and not hide behind a name, irrespective of his words, is commendable.Same applies to RAYMOND RAY and MARION WILLIAMS. They hold nothing back and appear to be strong OBA supporters, or at the least anti PLPers. They cause rival factions to react and that is good for the reader. They have even been known to attack the leadership of the RG!I love a good verbal bashing and these two always provide provocative reading.But the number one, chief villain of all time must be he/she who writes under the pen name....BETTY TRUMP.I'm trying as I write this to come up with a person in any field that works so well as an agent provocateur. Perhaps Dennis Rodman the tattooed former basketballer. He always got people talking...oh wait, the Kardashians. They aren't liked by anyone and really should never be in the news for anything.I'm not saying the same of BETTY TRUMP, but he/she's bias toward the PLP and his/her unrelenting sycophantic defending of EVERYTHING good or bad that happens in the media re the PLP, is on one hand admirable (you'd love to have a spouse that loyal), but on the other hand causes normally calm, decent, tolerant people to turn into vicious, voracious verbal assassins. And BETTY seems to have a way that unites threaders to attack like a pack of hungry wolves.Imagine you have two Manchester United or New York Giants fans on steroids. Put them into either the sponsors’ box of Man City and the Dallas cowboys…..fill them with alcohol and start ripping into their teams. Watch the fireworks. Well….that’s BETTY TRUMP.Because I write for the RG I am often asked just who is BETTY TRUMP.I know lawyers and doctors have client-practitioner privileges in place, as the anonimity of the threader on the RG is too. This is so no one ever finds out the identity and talks between them, but boy wouldn't it be something to actually find out which rock dweller is BETTY TRUMP.