Since y'all like the writing about trolls, maybe this can entertain you until I'm functional again. Teresa at Making Light started a thread about the verbal cues that tell you when someone isn't looking for real conversation. The comments are packed with trollish goodness (badness?). Note, it's called bingo because one is not enough to indicate ill intent.
A few of my favorites:
"I expected a group of [insert type of group here] folks to be [enlightened|loving|accepting|welcoming|more evolved]. But you people are a bunch of [unenlightened|hateful|rejecting|cliquish|troglodyte] [insert plural noun for male or female animal or genitalia here]."
God, you all are a bunch of sheep/lemmings/silent Germans in the 30's/brainless followers.
"You're typing with one hand, aren't you?"
"I already told the moderator about you. They're going to ban you now."
(Particularly amusing if it's on my own site and the troll doesn't realize they just told the site owner she's going to get banned.)
If it's so important for [minority group] to have the freedom to live their weird and perverted lifestyle, why don't I have the freedom to live my normal, regular life and think badly of the weirdoes if I want to?
Reasonable people can disagree on [issues that affect an oppressed group the speaker is not a part of]
*bites his tongue*
[meta] Because if you don't actually express your objection, but only make reference to your noble self-control in not expressing it, no one can actually refute whatever it is you're feeling smug about. [/meta]
[Posts rambling screed full of half-truths, non-sequiturs and pure mis-information]
[Gets a dozen responses picking apart the misinformation point-by-point]
"Those were some very interesting replies, but unfortunately, I have a life/job/hobby/ingrown toenail, so it'll be a while before I can respond to all of you."
Don't bother replying to this [abusive commentary], I'm not going to read anything more you write.
"Well, if somehow, somebody found that offensive, I'm sorry."
what [group of which i am not a part] need to do to [choose 1: improve their credibility... win an election... get my sympathy... deserve public services for which they already pay taxes... purge their ranks of extremists... behave/appear in a manner more resembling myself... i could go on] is...
Many, many more where those came from.
9 comments:
Closely related to some of these is the "If we allow those other people to have their place in the public square, it's TAKING AWAY MY FREEDOM!" followed by some incoherent rambling of self martyrdom.
Example:
"You're persecuting Christians by letting gay people get married."
Orwellian redefinition of common words is another favorite of mine. You could probably do a whole post consisting of a list of typical word-targets of this tactic.
Here, I'll start:
Science
Persecution
Evidence
Minority
Hate speech
History
Communist
Fascist
Freedom
I'm still not entirely sure what the definition of a "troll" is......but this stuff fits what my impression has always been.
Though I admit, I'm guilty of a couple of them. Like "I know I'm probably gonna get flamed for this, but...." and "Go ahead, flame away..."
But that's most often on my own blog, so I'm not sure that would be considered being a troll.
Can one be a troll on one's own blog? I guess you could *act* like one, but it doesn't seem the same, somehow!
Lou, in addition to redefining words, there's a whole series of cues related to denying that words have any connotation whatsoever.
JLK and Silver Fox, I think when it's on your own blog, it counts as troll baiting instead. :)
Silent Germans in the 30s...? That's pretty terrible.
Isn't it just? I'm amazed at just how nasty people will get while trying to insist that they're really interested in conversation or debate. Blech.
Dsmvwlng sms t hv gn t f styl fr dlng wth th trlls. t rll mks thm md.
Bkmrk Ths Pg.
"Lou, in addition to redefining words, there's a whole series of cues related to denying that words have any connotation whatsoever."
I've encountered this, and at the risk of narcissism still happily recall one way I found of dealing with it that I'm particularly proud of. With some effort, this tactic can probably be generalized to any discussion. :D
Azkyroth, that was beautiful. Thanks for linking. I'd missed it the first time around.
Post a Comment