>the sheer volume of trolls and shills here is a great wake up call for anyone thinking it isn't
Anon, every right wing politics board that is in any way popular will attract trolls. There are many, many, MANY groups, sites, forums etc with large userbases that do nothing but look for people to fuck with online. Flak only means you are over a target. It doesn't always mean that you're over the target you're aiming at. Go do a search for "kiwi farms" if you want to see an example of what I'm talking about.