I'm a troll, Ask Me Anything

[Anonymous]

Are you sexually frustrated so you troll to release the tension?

[Anonymous]

WHO WRONGED YOU?

[Anonymous]

I can't speak for the OP but I personally have been called a troll many times on many sites. Obviously, people don't get to the point where they troll repeatedly and unrepentantly unless they were abused by someone else. But there's more to it than that.

I can't stand all of those little pieces of conventional wisdom that people take for granted. Every culture, profession, and church has them, and they're mostly fantasy. Look at the peculiar views inherent to being a cop or a car enthusiast, for example. They don't think like the rest of us, and most people just leave them alone as a result. But they're wrong about so many things... your own father probably has a more rational view on cars than the idiots at StangNet.com, for example, and probably has a healthier perspective on law enforcement than many cops.

I enjoy calling such people out on their BS because they deserve it. Domain knowledge is these people's only redeeming quality. When they suck at it, they suck as people. That guy at StangNet who swaps in a 6-speed from a Corvette and loses 0.5 seconds in the quarter mile, that cop who tells his buddy things like "I don't beat my female perps any harder than their boyfriends do," and the washed-up computer programmer talking down to the Indian kid who wants help with an assignment etc. are not going to log off and turn into a decent person.

No, these people suck at being petty little experts because they suck at life, and they suck at life because they spend their time trying to be petty experts. A disinterested but disdainful outsider is their worst nightmare. I'm not in awe of their little area of expertise, but I do notice how distorted and incestuous their thought process has become.

Within me there is also a strong resentment of individual achievers and ultimately of the culture that celebrates them. As someone who's achieved a little recognition and security after a lot of work, I have a certain disdain for those who have achieved more. One has not only to be talented to achieve true greatness, one must also be lucky.

As someone talented but unlucky, I refuse to join the talentless in their hero-worship. The latest great athlete or scientist... he has nothing I don't except that people were kind to him but not to me. Trolling the plebians is a good outlet for the resentment that results.

After all, 99% of people are just hangers-on. They don't formulate their own opinions. Using their own stupidity for my own amusement is easy payback.

[Anonymous]

why do you troll looking for trolls?

[Anonymous]

Do you date/ marry other trolls or you prefer genetic diversification?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't speak for the OP but I personally have been called a troll many times on many sites. Obviously, people don't get to the point where they troll repeatedly and unrepentantly unless they were abused by someone else. But there's more to it than that.

I can't stand all of those little pieces of conventional wisdom that people take for granted. Every culture, profession, and church has them, and they're mostly fantasy. Look at the peculiar views inherent to being a cop or a car enthusiast, for example. They don't think like the rest of us, and most people just leave them alone as a result. But they're wrong about so many things... your own father probably has a more rational view on cars than the idiots at StangNet.com, for example, and probably has a healthier perspective on law enforcement than many cops.

I enjoy calling such people out on their BS because they deserve it. Domain knowledge is these people's only redeeming quality. When they suck at it, they suck as people. That guy at StangNet who swaps in a 6-speed from a Corvette and loses 0.5 seconds in the quarter mile, that cop who tells his buddy things like "I don't beat my female perps any harder than their boyfriends do," and the washed-up computer programmer talking down to the Indian kid who wants help with an assignment etc. are not going to log off and turn into a decent person.

No, these people suck at being petty little experts because they suck at life, and they suck at life because they spend their time trying to be petty experts. A disinterested but disdainful outsider is their worst nightmare. I'm not in awe of their little area of expertise, but I do notice how distorted and incestuous their thought process has become.

Within me there is also a strong resentment of individual achievers and ultimately of the culture that celebrates them. As someone who's achieved a little recognition and security after a lot of work, I have a certain disdain for those who have achieved more. One has not only to be talented to achieve true greatness, one must also be lucky.

As someone talented but unlucky, I refuse to join the talentless in their hero-worship. The latest great athlete or scientist... he has nothing I don't except that people were kind to him but not to me. Trolling the plebians is a good outlet for the resentment that results.

After all, 99% of people are just hangers-on. They don't formulate their own opinions. Using their own stupidity for my own amusement is easy payback.

Wow, where to start? For a troll, though, you raise some interesting points. So could I ask:
(1) Why are you so sure you're smarter than the "petty experts" you seem to disdain? I disagree with your statement that my dad, a lawyer, knows more about law enforcement than cops. Plus, as you've probably noticed yourself, many trolls seem to have below-average intelligence, judging by their minimal powers of logic - why do you think you're superior to the bog-standard internet troll?
(2) Who made you the internet police? Do you think you're performing a public service?
(3) In your last few paragraphs you talk about "disdain" but it really reads like raw, green, oozing jealousy. Would you agree?
(4) In a global cost-benefit scheme, why does your personal need for "payback" and for your "own amusement" outweigh the annoyance you cause for so many of us?

[Anonymous]

Talented troll--I doubt that you are as talented as you think you are.

[Anonymous]

Are you the author of the post about the handicapped spot? How about the frequent posts about discovering a spouse on Match or dating website?

[Anonymous]

Why haven't you answered the question about your gender? Do you secretly fear that your trolling is just due to a hormonal imbalance?

[Anonymous]

This is an old post. I responded earlier asking the troll to account for whether or not he / she actually considers the fact that people get caught in the crossfire. I also asked if it was a man trying to fan the flames of the mommy wars from the sidelines. Nothing more pathetic than that - for the men or the women who take the bait.

When I see what I think is a troll post on DCUM, I tend to report it and call it out. I know Jeff prefers you report trolling via website feedback but I don't like when trolls get away with it. I try to put others on notice that it *might* be a troll, in my view. Sometimes people are like "oh, yeah." I do sometimes respond to questionable troll posts, like "my SD is a pig" because I think that other people reading the thread are getting worked up and it just seems like a bunch of mean-spirited people hammering it out with one another, and then a few gullible folks getting upset. And I wonder how that would look to someone who doesn't understand trolls, etc, and just needs info. So I try to give the info anyway.

and yeah, sometimes I'm goaded into a response to a troll and later regret it. Because you can end up offending other people who aren't the troll but for whatever reason identify with something troll has said. It's so bizarre, this whole internet culture thing.

I have a friend IRL (well, kind of former friend) who admitted to me she was all over DCUM. Then she later admitted she trolls the hell out of them sometimes. I know she posts real questions, too, but she trolls a lot, according to her own boasting about it. She said it was if I was supposed to admire it. I think it's so pathetic, and we haven't really hung out since. Not that I think trolling is so horrible and offensive, but I just always think of her as being pathetic now. Hate to say it because in many ways she was / is quite nice. But I can't get past the mean girl side of her that she seems so proud of.