The phenomenon of trolling

Discussion in 'Religion & Philosophy' started by bricklayer, Dec 18, 2018.

  1. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Trolling is a phenomenon, and we here at PF have some phenomenal trolls. We even have one who pictures herself as a pig in a burqua.

    I am quite interested in knowing, and motivated to understand, what brings a person to troll.

    I have known people, even as a child, who would seemingly conduct themselves in such a way to purposefully inspire the ire of others. They were hard to like and easy to pick on.

    I wonder what motivates different trolls. I can imagine that some people may have fetishes that require the ire of others. I can imagine that some people are angry or hurt and therefore want others to join them in their anger and/or hurt. I can imagine that there are those who simply cannot get any notice from anyone unless they provoke them in some way. Perhaps it makes them feel less invisible.

    Many of us have been writing here at PF for many years now, and most of us who have been around for those years sort of get to know each other, and we all certainly know who the trolls are. I want to know what our community thinks about the causes of trolling; but more then anything, I really want to hear from the trolls themselves. Even if they cannot lay down their characters to be sincere, their in-character comments tell us quite a bit, albeit like reading writing written backwards in a mirror.
     
  2. The Wyrd of Gawd

    The Wyrd of Gawd Well-Known Member

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    Just because people don't buy into your delusions it doesn't mean that they are trolls when they disagree with you. If you continually get upset when people disagree with you then you should stop gossiping about yourself and your beliefs. That is because other people could consider such beliefs to be silly and asinine based upon their own experiences and beliefs. After all, they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and so maybe they learned more about it than you did and therefore know that the biblical God is an evil entity who is the enemy of mankind.
     
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  3. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    We do indeed have a selection of Trolls here, they come in different flavors:

    1) The National Troll~ These are creatures of dubious intent, generally under directive and often scripted....easily noted by their directed mentality and single minded posting style.
    See Russian Troll.
    2) The Mindless Troll~ These are creatures of minimal intellectual ability and can delve into any subject with equally ignorant uselessness, though they often cling onto specific neurosis.
    See Cerberus
    3) The Purposeful Troll~ These are intelligent creatures that enjoy creating Chaos and frustration in virtually every interaction, often hijacking entire conversations/threads.

    Trolls are harmless and best avoided as they can be contagious.
     
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  4. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Are you sincerely left to believe that I consider everyone who disagrees with me to be a troll?
    Is either everyone a troll or no one a troll?
    Do internet trolls exist, or are they all examples of people imputing that title to those who disagree with them?

    Hey, wait a minute. Are you trolling me now?
     
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  5. Blaster3

    Blaster3 Well-Known Member

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    one could say that this thread is a troll
     
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  6. Blaster3

    Blaster3 Well-Known Member

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    true

    one would have to believe there is a 'god' in order to condemn the 'god'
     
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  7. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    If it were, it would present as an obfuscation (a pretending to misunderstand).

    However, my inquiry is sincere. I am genuinely curious, and I do want to understand.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2018
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  8. Pycckia

    Pycckia Well-Known Member

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    There are "virtue signalers" who know the PC stance on any given subject and are eager to display their political correctness even if they don't have anything to contribute. Their preferred strategy is to say something obnoxious.
     
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  9. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    So basically nice people piss you off....got it.
     
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  10. Grau

    Grau Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You're right in that some forum members get to know each others' opinions, level of civility, and debating style over the years.
    I suspect that you already know why some people behave as trolls but I would guess that they behave as they do to derail a thread that is contrary to their belief or to taunt another individual with whom they have had some form of feud to name two reasons.
    I can name at least one country that maintains a paid army of trained trolls to help salvage its dismal international image by trolling the internet, editing Wikipedia, influencing US elections & participating in forums like this one.

    Online internet trolls, like so many other things in life, can only annoy you as far as you allow them to.
     
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  11. RiaRaeb

    RiaRaeb Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Of course you also have to remember there are paid internet trolls, for instance those who work for the Jewish State. They are easy to spot and their motivation is simply money.
     
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  12. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That's a great point. I sincerely did not think of that. People also troll professionally, for profit.

    I have speculated on several motives. Some trolls do it to feel less invisible; its the only way they know how to get attention. Some trolls do it as a fetish; they receive satisfaction from the ire of others, and some trolls do it because they are angry and/or frustrated. They are lonely in their anger and/or frustration and want others to join them in their anger and/or frustration. The profit motive escaped me altogether.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2018
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  13. Grau

    Grau Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    It would seem that people troll for the same reason people do other offensive and / or illegal act; it brings them some sort of real or perceived pleasure or benefit even if that pleasure is in the form of vexing others.

    My other point was that you have control over the degree to which you let others annoy you.
    Trolls, like other offensive, angry and/or spiteful individuals are to be pitied for already living unhappy lives.
     
  14. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I can't honestly say that they annoy me, or that I pitied them. I am quite curious as to what exactly their individual motivations are. I find them to be very foreign, almost alien, and therefore very curious indeed.
     
  15. Pycckia

    Pycckia Well-Known Member

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    Those insecure and silly people don't bother me, actually

    Does your post count as trolling, btw? Aren't you trying to display how woke you are by trying to insult me?
     
  16. dairyair

    dairyair Well-Known Member

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    Of course they do. You have to put them down, just for being nice when commenting about PC people.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2018
  17. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    No idea how being awake fits into this...but expressing opinion of posted positions does not equate to trolling.
     
  18. Pycckia

    Pycckia Well-Known Member

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    Being "woke" is PC slang for being PC derived from Black dialect.

    "So basically nice people piss you off....got it."

    That is not an opinion. That is a characterization meant to be insulting.
     
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2018
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  19. rahl

    rahl Banned

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    lol, good lord
     
  20. Grau

    Grau Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    "RiaRaeb" is right in that the State of Israel does pay, train & script Hasbara Trolls "...to promote the Israel narrative and block facts about Palestine, the Israel lobby, and other subject matter they wish covered up."(1)
    Additionally, Israel's Hasbara Trolls are trained on how to best edit Wikipedia to their agenda so that Wikipedia has become an unreliable source for information about the Mid East, Israeli lobbies, the holocaust & related topics.
    However, just because some individuals are paid to act as apologists for the crimes of the Israeli government(2) doesn't mean that all pro Israel Posters are paid Hasbara Trolls


    (1) "How Israel and its partisans work to censor the Internet"
    https://israelpalestinenews.org/israel-partisans-work-censor-internet/

    EXCERPT "As it turns out, Israel and Israeli institutions employ armies of Internet warriors—from Israeli soldiers to students—to spread propaganda online and try to get content banned that Israel doesn’t want seen.

    Israel and partisans of Israel have long had a significant presence on the Internet, working to promote the Israel narrative and block facts about Palestine, the Israel lobby, and other subject matter they wish covered up.

    In addition to these, however, a number of orchestrated, often well-funded projects sponsored by the Israeli government and others have come to light. These projects work to place pro-Israel content throughout the Internet, and to remove information Israel doesn’t wish people to know.

    Under this program, Israeli students are paid $2,000 to work five hours per week to “lead the battle against hostile websites.”

    Campaign to infiltrate Wikipedia

    CAMERA called for volunteers to secretly work on editing Wikipedia entries. It emphasized the importance of keeping the project secret. Volunteers were schooled in ways to elude detection. After they signed up as editors, they were to “avoid editing Israel-related articles for a short period of time.”CONTINUED




    (2) "Jonathon Blakeley: A guide to Hasbara trolls"
    https://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/jonathon-blakeley-a-guide-to-hasbara-trolls.html
     
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  21. Thought Criminal

    Thought Criminal Well-Known Member Donor

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    I think that, like many behaviors, the motivations are basically unknowable.
     
  22. RiaRaeb

    RiaRaeb Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Have you some comment to make?
     
  23. rahl

    rahl Banned

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    pretty sure my comment was obvious.
     
  24. RiaRaeb

    RiaRaeb Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Nope, perhaps you can explain?
     
  25. rahl

    rahl Banned

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    ok. your statement was ****ing hilarious, in that batshit crazy conspiracy theory kind of way.
     

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