John Bauer's 1915 book illustration, "Look at them," troll mother said. "Look at my sons! You won't find more beautiful trolls on this side of the moon.":
In Scandinavian folklore, trolls are a mythical, often magical, mischievous and monstrous, creatures usually found living in caves or under rocks.
The internet has given rise to, though not the birth of, the troll. Internet trolling, according to Evita March an Australian psychology researcher, is "malicious online behavior, characterised by aggressive and deliberate provocation of others."
This site is the first and only social media site I've joined and actively participated in, except when I was last banned and migrated to another blogging site for a few weeks. Generally it's only recently that I've encountered trolls. Though I've been blogging for well over ten years, it's only in the last couple of years that I've been trolled. And, it has to be said, that I've been the target, like many others, of MAGA trolls. These trolls seem rather emboldened of late.
My take on this is that I've been trolled because of my politics. By nature, I'm a political animal and I don't hide my politics. I've been trolled for being liberal, left-wing and green. (On the latter, I've found that I'm less likely to be trolled if I talk about extreme weather rather than climate change.) More recently, I've been trolled for being European. I wonder why?! I think I know why. It's because of MAGA trolls are blindly and unthinkingly carrying out the executive orders coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC. MAGA trolls are like sewers discharging presidential sewage.
Now I readily accept that other members have been trolled and trolled far more, especially women from entitled but rejected men here. (Please don't get me wrong, I'm not playing the victim card here.) And I accept that members with conservative and right-wing politics may be trolled by liberal left-wing trolls, but I see less of that (though I'm likely to see less of that because of whom I mix with on this site). For the record, I have blocked a left-wing troll here because he was being abusive of others in his comments as no one was left wing enough for his liking. But most members I've blocked here, especially recently, are MAGA trolls. And for the record again, I don't block members because they disagree with me, I block them because they are being abusive and offensive.
A common strategy when being trolled is to ignore the troll. 'Don't feed the troll' is the mantra. This strategy is based on the premise that trolls are seeking attention and, by denying them attention, they'll be disappointed, lose interest and even go away. But do they give up trolling? I suspect not and they'll just move to their next target.
Though 'don't feed the troll' is probably good advice, I find it difficult to follow. I realise reason doesn't work with trolls because they live in an alternative universe. I love Mark Twain's advice about arguing with stupid people and, let's be honest, trolls are stupid people:
"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."
Though trolling has a long pre-internet history, I'm thinking of the radio shock jocks here, it seems to have increased massively with the advent of the internet and especially social media. I suspect it's the anonymity that brings the trolls out. The anonymity allows the keyboard warriors to be far more brazen and offensive than perhaps they would be in real life.
Briton Rivière's Aggravation, 1896:
The American writer Ben Radford links the role of present-day trolls to the role of jesters in centuries gone by and to the role of clowns more recently. Like jesters and clowns with their painted faces and costumes, trolls thrive because of the anonymity of the internet and social media in particular.
Whitney Phillips, a media studies researcher at the University of Oregon, argued trolls have "an insistent need for anonymity." More worryingly, the University of Exeter's Tom Postnes, a professor of psychology, argued: "Trolls aspire to violence, to the level of trouble they can cause in an environment. They want it to kick off. They want to promote antipathetic emotions of disgust and outrage, which morbidly gives them a sense of pleasure."
Bringing back Evita March, a senior psychology lecturer at Australia's Federation University, she found that trolling is linked to both low self-esteem and sadism - see March E & Steele G (2020) 'High esteem and hurting others online: trait sadism moderates the relationship between self-esteem and internet trolling' Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 23 (7). Trolls get off on trolling. It seems they need psychological and maybe even psychiatric help!
Have you been trolled? If so, when was the last time and what was it about?
What are your strategies for dealing with trolls?
Why do you think most trolls are men?
Though I'm now quite relaxed about being trolled, at first I wasn't, I can't claim any effective strategy to combat the psychologically disordered troll. Clearly the reason strategy doesn't work. But I suspect the silent 'don't feed the trolls' strategy doesn't work either.
Generally I block trolls if they are very abusive, though I don't delete their abusive words so that others can see them for what they are, trolls.
16
22 comments
Unfortunately, like many social sites, they do exist on here, often using multiple profiles to feed their obsession. My post for this month’s New Virtual Symposium challenge touches on my experience.
I'll look forward to reading your symposium contribution. I cannot yet decide what to write about this month.
The meme at the bottom is spot on 😂
I love that cartoon too. It begs the question, why are so many trolls American?
@spunkycumfun Because the American lower education system seems to be designed to discourage thinking or at least critical thinking.
@justskin1
Conservative politicians have been chipping away at education for the longest time and now they've created a population who can't think for themselves and believe whatever a certain "entertainment" network tells them.
@justskin1 That's an interesting observation. I expect most trolls to be American here because of the site's membership profile but I don't think I've yet come across a non-American troll. There's always time!
@spunkycumfun
Troll farms are run out of Russia and North Korea.
@JN63JPN I hope those farmers stay away from me!
@spunkycumfun
They mostly meddle in elections and spread conspiracy theories 😂
@JN63JPN I guess I'll need to get my milk and potatoes elsewhere!
I had a couple of trolling comments on my post about my bus stop encounter. The first one, I didn’t reply and left a laugh reaction on the comment. When they came back I blocked them without further interaction.
Sometimes it has to come to the block where reason fails.
Like you said my friend, DON'T FEED THE TROLLS has always been my position as well as there are way to many that need feeding if you get me..
And not arguing with stupid or ignorant people is always something I try to stay away from as it is just so very draining.
I don't deal with any BS and I have noticed the older I get I have less patience and have noticed the nice bitch in me coming back out and bitch slapping some for their idiotic or mean comments. The fun thing is they don't know they got bitch slapped lol..
Trolling is so ridiculous in my book and we should never engage it or interact with it!! I hope your Monday is a magnificent start to your new week..
I wish the site had a firmer stance against the trolls. Trolls who are gold members are given considerable licence to abuse members.
Keyboard cowards. It’s easy for trolls when consequences are minimal.
Oh! Google reviewed me aren’t much better🤣🤣🤣no limits or age required
I totally agree with you. Thanks for stopping by.
I've never heard the what's behind trolling articulated, but it makes sense to me. El presidente is the number 1 troll. He says all sorts of crap on social media, but can't say it to people's faces. If trolling includes a cyclist being yelled at "get off the road" or people honking loudly as they pass, then I've been trolled.
The US President is most definitely the world's number one troll. His attempts at diplomacy are little more than trolling.
Have I been trolled? Probably but I don't remember when.
How do I deal with them? If it's on my blog, I might say that their comment was not appreciated. If there's a reply to that (other than apology) then I delete and block.
If I encounter a troll doing their troll-thing on someone else's blog, I will generally scoldingly point out the error of their statement.
I'm thinking, though, that the best way is to tell them how boring/unoriginal they are.
Trolls aren't renowned for the witty and original humour!
As you know, I've been trolled many a time recently by trumpy cultists. I start off with reason, then will easily shoot their nonsense down in flames because there's never any factual basis to it, then with the abuse I generally tend to ignore but leave the comments up for all to see, then I start to delete the comments, then the block button comes out. Only once was I blocked by a troll - the panty sniffer - because I kept calling him a pansy, which enraged him. I do see the maga trolls as fair game, I can't stand injustice, bigotry, lies, and often find it difficult to ignore them without some sort of sarky smart arsed retort.
Otherwise, I've been trolled by a couple of female stalkers in the distant past, I stood up to them both and they disappeared fairly quickly.
I also acknowledge that many women here have it much worse.
I've not yet been trolled by female members here. I seem only to attract the gay MAGA trolls!
Especially the trolls that sniff their stepdaughter's panties. Now that's a troll.
That troll gives me the creeps even though he's very stupid. I've blocked him so he can't have a platform to troll, but there's a little voice inside me wanting to know what disturbing shit is inside his head!
@spunkycumfun honey I get that. You just wanna let him troll so you can tell him to F off.
@mysexualgoodtime And even to make him see sense, which I know was an impossible task in his case.
I believe that many incompetent 'losers' feel like they are 'someone important' when they attack others while hiding behind the anonymity that the internet provides. That’s why I think a good policy is simply to ignore them, and if that’s combined with blocking their access to your blog, even better.
I haven't had serious problems so far, but that's probably because I don't talk directly about politics, even though I often share my personal opinions on many topics beyond just eroticism.
It seems that debating with reason, common sense, data, and facts is 'no longer in fashion,' and it’s in that kind of environment that trolls and pathological fools find fertile ground to grow like mushrooms in manure.
The internet has brought many good things... but it has also dragged trolls out of their sewers
I suspect the age of scientific reason is over, at least for now. Scientific truth, always contested, is no longer so believed.
Certain politicians have spread this move. By constantly lying, people no longer believe in truth and will just therefore retreat into their own private domain, which makes it easier for those certain politicians to control its people.
My stalker troll..well the last time I had big problems with her happened in a Community group chat room...her innuendos in the room were subtle...she would never say my 'name' in the room when she made condescending remarks but she knew I would know she was talking about me. I did ignore her as i definitely do not bring drama into the Community group chat rooms...most room owners will ban someone for bringing drama into the room. After three times of this subtle bashing and me ignorinng her, she finally had enough and blasted me royally in the room. And, despite the fact that she had ingratiated herself with many of the mods in the room, she did get banned. Her retaliation against the room was intense and very public but eventually, with much reporting, that did stop. She has come back to that room, with new profiles...it's an ongoing thing. I try very hard to just stay away from her, once I know it's her.
The site can take down a troll's abusive comments and even ban them. But they keep coming back like zombies. It's a game of whack-a-croc!
@spunkycumfun that is very true, I did forget about that...in that case, perhaps just blocking them is the best?
@AmyGood4Mea Blocking has the advantage of getting trolls out of your life, though no doubt they'll bother someone else.
Yes, I've been trolled. Hmmmm, the last time? That's a hard one to answer because, imo, there are two different kinds of trolling: the very obvious, in your face, aggressive trolling and the more subtle trolling...the kind that only you can see, because the troll is unfortunately someone you know, someone you have a history with. The first kind, it has been quite awhile..maybe two years ago, even. It involved a very well known male troll in one of the main dating-side public chat rooms. He attacked people (men and women) seemingly at random. With me, as with many he attacked, he said I was a fake. What was quite alarming was that he started posting details of many things I had said in those chat rooms over the years I have been on the site. For instance, my drinking...I usually enjoy a glass of wine or a bourbon with coke while I chat on the site...he took that and ran with it, stating I was an alcoholic who spent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, on the site, getting drunk. Another troll joined him and she stated it was quite interesting that my age never changed on the site. She claimed I was hacking into the code on the site to make me never age. There was a male friend in the room and this female troll stated he and I were the same person. Pretty sure the female troll was my female stalker on this site but that's another story lol So my friend went on cam, invited everyone to watch him on cam, he would hold up both hands to show he was not typing and instructed me to keep on posting in the room, which I did. The female troll then said there were programs that made it so you could do that. lol Obviously, my friend and I were not following the rule of 'don't feed the trolls', though usually that's what I did. This particular instance felt much more personal and sometimes you just have had enough of not responding to the trolls. I did block them both when they continued to bash me and my friend. You are right. Ignoring them means two things; you have to listen to them for probably hours and everyone in the room has to listen to them unless they have already blocked them and two: if they do eventually get tired of the game, they will move on to someone else. Besides ignoring trolls and blocking them, you can also copy and past their filth in the chat rooms and report them, including the screen prints in the report. This well-known male troll finally did get banned by the site. He did come back a few times, got banned each time. I haven't seen him in probably a year.
Thanks for recounting your experience of trolls. Trolls are difficult to deal with. Ignore them, you feel rolled over. Engage with them, it's an endless and pointless exchange. Fight fire with fire, you've sunk to their level. I wish I had the answer.
@spunkycumfun you have two choices: engage, get it out of your system, take screen shots, report them, block them or ignore them, take screen shots, report them then block them. imo
@AmyGood4Mea You're right there.