Avid Reader Bookshop and Cafe in Brisbane, Australia, became the target of a brigade of anti-feminist Internet trolls earlier this week when the store shared a Facebook post from Australian feminist writer Clementine Ford celebrating a contract to write a book on toxic masculinity, the Guardian reported. Chris Currie, the store's social media manager, began noticing a flood of one-star reviews on Avid Reader's Facebook page, along with nasty comments about Ford, the store and her supporters, on Monday night.
But rather than simply watch the abuse happen, supporters of both Ford and Avid Reader teamed up. In less than a day, positive comments and reviews had outweighed the trolling reviews by nearly 3,000 to less than 250. Benjamin Law and Michelle Law, two writers who had previously worked at Avid Reader, prompted the online outpouring of support.
"Ben in particular fearlessly waded into the reviews with the type of stinging retorts you would pay a lot of money to see," Currie told the Guardian. "Michelle encouraged people to buy books from us and write five-star reviews in response (and boy did people do that!). The best comments, really, were from regular customers, who are of course the wittiest people on the planet."
Check out the posts for some examples of refreshingly direct and humorous replies to some nasty comments.