It’s a disturbing trend that anyone who attempts to criticize Ron Paul will be subject to the vitriol of some of his supporters.In the post below this Tim cites a story revealing that many e-mails in support of Paul are coming from “spambots.” Here is a sprinking of the charming response he got:

The Ron Paul spambot scam has already been debunked by Wired… Get a life. Do something constructive.

The first part of this is a lie, as anyone who takes 5 seconds to look the Wired story can tell; the second part is just mean. Next comment:

This person [Tim] is a nutcase.

Thank you Anonymous. Somebody had to say it: Tim is a nutcase. And finally, from ilovetheconstitution, my favorite:

You should change it from maroon, to moron.

We’ll talk about it at the next editors’ meeting.Even better than the response that Tim got, was the temper tantrum that Zack Hill’s recent column caused. (To be fair, not all the response was nasty: We ran a perfectly civil letter in Friday’s issue.) Tim already quoted one (spambot?), but here are a few others:

You are an idiot. Hopefully the good students at U of C will continue to support Dr. Paul, who offers them change and hope for America. Hopefully they will ignore you and your ignorant drivel.Have you ever even read the Constitution? Good God, please read it sometimes and put down the Maxim magazine.

Good advice. Are you reading this Zack?Seriously though, why are Paul supporters so vehement that many of them have to resort to petty name calling? I genuinely like Ron Paul and strongly agree with many of his ideas–it’s a shame, then, that a few of his supporters are giving him such a bad name.