Whats your idea of a troll?

[Population: 1]

One of the techniques of trolling is common and effective. So when you say something pejorative or negative, the troll accuses you of being just what you have criticised. Or alternatively, if you say something positive, they praise you for just that positive quality. It works, and it remains hidden, perhaps it is called, stealth trolling.

Are you talking about me? Or looking in a mirror while you type and post?

 

[Mole]

Words of wisdom? Or more flakey psycho babble? You create threads and people attempt to respond and you pitch condescending drivel at them. So much so that only those ignorant of your ways post in them at this point. Sounds trolly to me. Preach on though.

This is one of the techniques of the troll: to accuse you of what you are criticising.

I do though think it is unconscious: it is the unconscious expression of hidden but deep seated ressentiment. It does though become psychologically damaging when the unconscious ressentiment is shared by a group of people, and so it becomes self validating.

Click on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ressentiment_(Scheler]Ressentiment (Scheler)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ressentiment (Scheler - Wikipedia[/url])

 

[Population: 1]

This is one of the techniques of the troll: to accuse you of what you are criticising.

I do though think it is unconscious: it is the unconscious expression of hidden but deep seated ressentiment. It does though become psychologically damaging when the unconscious ressentiment is shared by a group of people, and so it becomes self validating.

Am I getting the half hour or full hour amateur psychoanalysis by Mole? Please continue, this is fascinating.

 

[Frosty]

Someone who messes with people without any care of any sort of decency.

Someone who uses others truly maliciously- or even- just because it doesnt effect them in any way.

Someone who plays with people because they can.

 

[Flâneuse]

I think the most defining characteristic of a troll is that they get some sick enjoyment out of upsetting others. I guess the underlying reasons vary and sometimes overlap. Maybe some feel isolated and ineffectual in real life and being able to have any strong effect on others, even a bad one, gives them some twisted sense of importance. Maybe some are disdainful misanthropes who view many/most other people as silly tools undeserving of respect or even deserving of hurt and manipulation. I also see a lot of intolerance for certain beliefs behind the act of trolling - the troll may be decent and respectful with some groups, but view others who hold opinions or beliefs they personally find stupid or ridiculous to be automatically undeserving of respect and deserving fodder for ridicule not just for the belief itself, but for their passion and emotional investment in it. (Of course, you can debate others and challenge their beliefs without trolling. It depends on intentions.)

Insincerity is also a common characteristic, but not always. I generally think of a troll as someone who wants to offend so much that they will gladly say offensive things they don't even mean, though it's possible for a troll to be 100% sincere. As long as they are saying something primarily to offend, whether it's meant or not, it's trolling.

 

[Mole]

I think the most defining characteristic of a troll is that they get some sick enjoyment out of upsetting others. I guess the underlying reasons vary and sometimes overlap. Maybe some feel isolated and ineffectual in real life and being able to have any strong effect on others, even a bad one, gives them some twisted sense of importance. Maybe some are disdainful misanthropes who view many/most other people as silly tools undeserving of respect or even deserving of hurt and manipulation. I also see a lot of intolerance for certain beliefs behind the act of trolling - the troll may be decent and respectful with some groups, but view others who hold opinions or beliefs they personally find stupid or ridiculous to be automatically undeserving of respect and deserving fodder for ridicule not just for the belief itself, but for their passion and emotional investment in it. (Of course, you can debate others and challenge their beliefs without trolling. It depends on intentions.)

Insincerity is also a common characteristic, but not always. I generally think of a troll as someone who wants to offend so much that they will gladly say offensive things they don't even mean, though it's possible for a troll to be 100% sincere. As long as they are saying something primarily to offend, whether it's meant or not, it's trolling.

On the other hand, free speech means nothing without the right to offend.

 

[Lark]

Are you talking about me? Or looking in a mirror while you type and post?

The earlier you notice this the better in my experience.

 

[Norrsken]

A troll could be anybody and the reasons aren't always negative. Sometimes, people troll because they're just bored. And they don't actively try to cause harm but to make an audience laugh over their shenanigans.

 

[Flâneuse]

On the other hand, free speech means nothing without the right to offend.

Of course we have the right to offend, but it crosses into harassment when the main purpose is to hurt others' feelings. On the other hand, if someone is speaking primarily out of conviction and/or a desire to inform others rather than hurt them (and any hurt feelings are not the desired effect but instead viewed as an unfortunate side effect of getting a potentially difficult point across) then it's not trolling or harassment IMO. Though I agree with Merced's comment that motivations are hard to determine, especially online. Ignorance vs. malicious trolling vs. merely holding a well-thought out but deeply unpopular opinion can all easily be confused with each other.

 

[Jaq]

Something that is not [MENTION=30122]Cat Brainz[/MENTION]. That guy just tries too hard,

 

[Jaguar]

JihadiJohn.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

JihadiJohn.

No way someone with a name like that would be a troll. I can't fathom it.

 

[Galena]

My definition is pretty narrow and biased by what I've witnessed in the past elsewhere; its basically just hateful behavior, and maybe that's a better word for it. There's a sadistic factor where they enjoy and are entertained by harm coming to others, and a superiority factor where they hold themselves as better than those who emotionally react.

On the other hand, there's messing around with the mores and format of a space just in a spirit of fun and not hate - others might call that trolling, but I wouldn't use that word for it.

My bias is that I had a friend once who got into more hardcore trolling activity, and I ended up removing myself from them not because it affected me, but because I couldn't trust them knowing they enjoyed that. From very early on I felt there was something intensely traditional and normative to the unspoken philosophies of many who engaged in that despite the performance of being rebels - like, people who got targeted seemed always to be those who struggled with or openly flaunted the dominant cultural measures of success, age-appropriateness, manners, appearance and so forth.

 

[Siúil a Rúin]

Trolls are truly brilliant, they are able to grab our attention and hang on like limpets. So trolls are highly motivated, but what do trolls want? It is somewhat banal, somewhat ordinary, and it is what most of us want. Trolls simply want relationship. They are beyond desperate. And their desperation drives them to extreme measures until they succeed in getting under our skins.

I agree with others who said this is insightful.

I think that people who are especially lonely will try to find ways to control their social interaction. When people feel lost about connecting with others, they can create ways to get predictable reactions from people. Some people do this by being overly sweet and kind to try to get a predictable positive reaction, some do it by being rude and triggering to get a consistent negative reaction, some can even learn how to insure no interaction.

People are very unpredictable and that is typically what causes us to get hurt - when someone acts in an unexpected way. By exaggerating our own behavior, we can control the reactions others give us. It can lessen the hurt to be in control of the negative reactions from others.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Mola Ram was sort of a troll.

 

[Mole]

Of course we have the right to offend, but it crosses into harassment when the main purpose is to hurt others' feelings. On the other hand, if someone is speaking primarily out of conviction and/or a desire to inform others rather than hurt them (and any hurt feelings are not the desired effect but instead viewed as an unfortunate side effect of getting a potentially difficult point across) then it's not trolling or harassment IMO. Though I agree with Merced's comment that motivations are hard to determine, especially online. Ignorance vs. malicious trolling vs. merely holding a well-thought out but deeply unpopular opinion can all easily be confused with each other.

Yes, it hard to know the intentions of another. Also we can give offence and take offence, and we can choose to take offence or not. And now it is a political tactic to deliberately take offence, and so shut down free speech.

 

[Fluffywolf]

I can't remember ever having taken offense to anything. Life is amazing, consciousness from stardust as Neil deGrasse Tyson has said, the world is awesome.

When I look what happens around me, in the news and the media. I wonder what world those people live in. All I know, it isn't in mine.

 

[Icaro10100]

Doing something to provoke emotional reactions on other people, those reactions are not always negative; you can troll to make someone laugh too.

 

[Metis]

I agree with others who said this is insightful.

I think that people who are especially lonely will try to find ways to control their social interaction. When people feel lost about connecting with others, they can create ways to get predictable reactions from people. Some people do this by being overly sweet and kind to try to get a predictable positive reaction, some do it by being rude and triggering to get a consistent negative reaction, some can even learn how to insure no interaction.

People are very unpredictable and that is typically what causes us to get hurt - when someone acts in an unexpected way. By exaggerating our own behavior, we can control the reactions others give us. It can lessen the hurt to be in control of the negative reactions from others.

That's pretty insightful itself. I actually do the "some can even learn how to insure no interaction" irl. I hadn't thought of it as a way to have a more predictable experience with regards to other people's reactions. You might be onto something. Thanks for the insight, [MENTION=14857]labyrinthine[/MENTION].

 

[Ace_]

I like trolls that have some style and sophistication. Some trolls make you think, they fool you so hard that it's art.

But yes, trolls can be some seriously mentally unhealthy and toxic people too.