Brian63
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2001
- Messages
- 1,639
- Location
- Michigan
- Gender
- Male
- Basic Beliefs
- Freethinker/atheist/humanist
“Trolling is defined as creating discord on the Internet by starting quarrels or upsetting people by posting inflammatory or off-topic messages in an online community.”
Over the last several weeks I have been spending time online at Ray Comfort’s Facebook page, who is a popular fundamentalist street preacher and evangelist. There are several other atheists that post there, but we are largely outnumbered by fundamentalist Christians. Whenever atheists and Christians debate each other, some of those Christians behave very courteously in part as an attempt to witness to us because they think we largely have a grudge against god. Other Christians outright block or ignore us and advocate for others to do the same. Many others are very hostile and aggressive to us, however. We sometimes are harsh ourselves, though I largely limit my own harsh criticisms to the beliefs themselves and not the believers (hate the sin, love thy sinner about sums it up). Since they perceive any kind of criticism of their beliefs as a criticism of themselves as a person, they naturally tend to react very harshly and defensively. They will be very insulting, aggressive, inflammatory, bullying, name-calling, etc. while ignoring addressing the substance of your views, even if they were presented in a very courteous manner. They will exaggerate how rude you were.
Over the years I have encountered hundreds of such trolls in various online discussions/debates, and each time a new one comes along they unfortunately are just another to add to the list. Each of them either seems to think they are special and unique though, as if nobody else had ever name-called me before or they do not care if others have and will continue to do so themselves because they receive satisfaction from trolling. On Ray Comfort’s FB page, there is one particular troll that is not the worst troll ever, but on that half of the spectrum. He quoted the above definition of “trolling” (I do not know the source, but would concur with that definition). He ironically seems infatuated with calling others trolls and punks and other bullying names, all the while criticizing those others of being trolls. It is projection times a million. Others there also regularly call several of us atheists trolls, but not nearly to the same degree, even though they are still more trolling themselves than the ones they accuse of trolling. There are some trolls on this message board here as well, particularly in the political discussion forums.
What is the best way to handle trolls? How does a person become a troll in the first place? How can someone mature at least a little on their trolling behavior, even if not entirely? If given infinite time, I do think most trolls could become at least slightly more mature given enough guidance. We just do not have that luxury. The president of the United States is himself a troll, and he poses a severe threat to global security. We simply cannot wait for him to suddenly grow up after about 70 years of living the way he does. How have you interacted with trolls in the past? Either online or real-life? Do you try to help them, or do you consider them lost causes but still interact with them for the sake of exposing that mentality for the benefit of onlookers, or do you ignore them entirely?
I had provided a link over there to this particular forum (and thread now), so sorry to the mods if you see a swarm of trolls headed your way.
Over the last several weeks I have been spending time online at Ray Comfort’s Facebook page, who is a popular fundamentalist street preacher and evangelist. There are several other atheists that post there, but we are largely outnumbered by fundamentalist Christians. Whenever atheists and Christians debate each other, some of those Christians behave very courteously in part as an attempt to witness to us because they think we largely have a grudge against god. Other Christians outright block or ignore us and advocate for others to do the same. Many others are very hostile and aggressive to us, however. We sometimes are harsh ourselves, though I largely limit my own harsh criticisms to the beliefs themselves and not the believers (hate the sin, love thy sinner about sums it up). Since they perceive any kind of criticism of their beliefs as a criticism of themselves as a person, they naturally tend to react very harshly and defensively. They will be very insulting, aggressive, inflammatory, bullying, name-calling, etc. while ignoring addressing the substance of your views, even if they were presented in a very courteous manner. They will exaggerate how rude you were.
Over the years I have encountered hundreds of such trolls in various online discussions/debates, and each time a new one comes along they unfortunately are just another to add to the list. Each of them either seems to think they are special and unique though, as if nobody else had ever name-called me before or they do not care if others have and will continue to do so themselves because they receive satisfaction from trolling. On Ray Comfort’s FB page, there is one particular troll that is not the worst troll ever, but on that half of the spectrum. He quoted the above definition of “trolling” (I do not know the source, but would concur with that definition). He ironically seems infatuated with calling others trolls and punks and other bullying names, all the while criticizing those others of being trolls. It is projection times a million. Others there also regularly call several of us atheists trolls, but not nearly to the same degree, even though they are still more trolling themselves than the ones they accuse of trolling. There are some trolls on this message board here as well, particularly in the political discussion forums.
What is the best way to handle trolls? How does a person become a troll in the first place? How can someone mature at least a little on their trolling behavior, even if not entirely? If given infinite time, I do think most trolls could become at least slightly more mature given enough guidance. We just do not have that luxury. The president of the United States is himself a troll, and he poses a severe threat to global security. We simply cannot wait for him to suddenly grow up after about 70 years of living the way he does. How have you interacted with trolls in the past? Either online or real-life? Do you try to help them, or do you consider them lost causes but still interact with them for the sake of exposing that mentality for the benefit of onlookers, or do you ignore them entirely?
I had provided a link over there to this particular forum (and thread now), so sorry to the mods if you see a swarm of trolls headed your way.
