Most trolls are, as the Brits might say, stupid cunts. They thrive on only one thing: your reaction to them. Some months back, I had a troll come visit my blog, under several different names (the cowardly practice of "sock puppetry") for the sole purpose of casting insults. You, Dear Reader, knew nothing about this because I said nothing. My response to the troll? Exactly as stated in my comments policy (which the cunt obviously hadn't read): deletion.
Nothing drives a troll away like silence. But it was fun to watch the idiot basically yelling uselessly down a well for several days before finally getting a clue and giving up.
What a stupid piece of shit.
Sunday, July 01, 2018
on trolls
6 comments:
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This is my policy now—deletion—but I once had a troll (whom you might even remember, who knows?) who, by virtue of being someone I'd known in real life many years before, kind of slipped in by being normal and sane sometimes, and then being a total troll at other times. It was a crazy year of gaslighting, and then I banned him and he immediately tried sockpuppet shitposting, and I tracked the IP to his workplace and threatened to call his boss and get him fired for harassing people online on company time and using the company's facilities.
ReplyDeleteWhich sort of shut him up, though it took a year more before I was willing to take the evidence I posted down (in exchange for him deleting a very insulting post about me on his—now-defunct—blog). Looking back on it, I was probably too patient and exerted too much empathy toward him along the way, but the behaviour of an online troll is so utterly pathological that it's hard to imagine how someone you know, who was seemingly normal, could become so screwed-up as to be not just capable of it, but willing to sink hours and hours into it.
Haven't thought about him in years, but what bubbles to mind was me saying at some point, "Does your wife realize you do this? You should talk to her, maybe she could help you stop and, you know, focus your energies somewhere more constructive?" He retorted that she knew all about it and encouraged him in it, which... well, it could be he was bluffing, but maybe it was true, and they're both nuts. Either way... lost cause.
Which made it extra-chilling, since when I knew him, he was a seemingly-nice comic book nerd. Well, a bit of a prick at the end of our childhood friendship, but he didn't seem like troll material. I guess it's always the quiet ones? (Our mutual acquaintance whom you met at Daegu Catholic, not the Bug but the one who harassed a student, was less of a surprise, because I saw him acting like a horrible fucking prick in real life back home.)
Eeek, which reminds me: the troll had also passed through Korea. Strange coincidences. (He left quickly and went to Japan, though, before emigrating to the US on a spousal visa or something.)
So do you dare tell us which post set the troll off?
I can't even remember which post it was. Whichever one it was, he thought it was banal, and he thought the blog as a whole was banal... and when I think about it, he may have had a point: I write plenty of banal, slice-of-life posts on this blog. It's a wonder I have any readers at all!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm sorry you went through that shitty experience, but amen to all of your insights.
When you're catching flak, it usually means you're over the target.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm over it. He was forgotten for (literally) years until I saw your post. The bright side is that random people who show up and shout at me barely register. One has to troll me for more than one stupid comment before I actually even bother to take notice of him*, beyond deleting the rant. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, huh, you get more traffic than me. But then, I post pretty rarely these days...
(*Let's be honest, trolls seem overwhelmingly to be male...)
The World's Greatest Troll
ReplyDeleteHaha! Banal? You should have just referred him over to LTG. My blog's so banal even the trolls are repelled!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I almost feel sorry for these pathetic losers who seem to have no purpose in life other than to troll. They are all over Facebook. I just block and ignore.