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Trolls create anger and conflict and conflict drives engagement. But that is as nothing compared to the engagement you get from public spectacles of righteous i

Trolls create anger and conflict and conflict drives engagement. But that is as nothing compared to the engagement you get from public spectacles of righteous indignation. Social media breeds a special sort narcissistic positive feedback loop and it turns out a very small amount of validation is all that is required to set people off. But trolls usually know they're trolls. On the other hand take for example Twitter user Oli London [1]. I can no longer tell parody from sincere in this "influencers" persona, but wow, does it drive engagement. Is this guy ok? There are thousands of accounts cheering him/them and many others on. [1] https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV

bellyfullofbac 5y ago
Hah, if he's willing to get botox in his lips he's probably being sincere. Or, maybe it's just some sort of video editing magic? A lot of online interaction is based on "If I can prove how this person is terrible, then I can be happy because I've proven to myself that I'm a better person.". Well, a glance at this Twitter account makes me feel better, because I'm certain he's a very unhappy troll, because people looking for offense wherever they turn surely will find them, and he's probably a very unhappy person because he feels he's been offended every day. Ah, that sweet persecution complex!
shoto_io 5y ago
This is… I don’t know. I lack words to describe it.
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techrat 5y ago
To say it succinctly... Psychopaths like psychopaths. https://www.psypost.org/2018/10/study-psychopaths-are-attracted-to-other-psychopaths-52414 https://www.psypost.org/2018/10/study-psychopaths-are-attrac...
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gverrilla 5y ago
that's a very positive and progressive profile imho
gnull 5y ago
You don't even have to look at extremes like Oli London (thanks for the link, them/they/kor/ean are awesome!) for an example. In the past few years, whenever I hear about something new American wokes are suggesting or something Trump said, most of the time I can't guess whether I'm being trolled or not.
CryptoPunk 5y ago
Trolling can have social value. It can expose the absurdity of a prevailing social movement, as in the case of Oli London, whose parody account acts as a devastating critique of the mainstream trans rights movement and its demands that gender be redefined as a self-sensed property that is assigned through self-identification, and demands pronoun use in accordance with this new definition (which is why university courses now start with each student declaring their personal pronouns). Non-conformity and conflict are not always bad things. They can be a symptom of disharmony, but the correct solution to the disharmony may be a shifting of the status quo, rather than a stamping out of the dissident voices. The path of least resistance to reducing conflict is to silence dissident voices, but that removes a valuable source of constructive change that reduces conflict in the long run.

bellyfullofbac 5y ago

Hah, if he's willing to get botox in his lips he's probably being sincere. Or, maybe it's just some sort of video editing magic? A lot of online interaction is based on "If I can prove how this person is terrible, then I can be happy because I've proven to myself that I'm a better person.". Well, a glance at this Twitter account makes me feel better, because I'm certain he's a very unhappy troll, because people looking for offense wherever they turn surely will find them, and he's probably a very unhappy person because he feels he's been offended every day. Ah, that sweet persecution complex!

shoto_io 5y ago

This is… I don’t know. I lack words to describe it.

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techrat 5y ago

To say it succinctly... Psychopaths like psychopaths. https://www.psypost.org/2018/10/study-psychopaths-are-attracted-to-other-psychopaths-52414 https://www.psypost.org/2018/10/study-psychopaths-are-attrac...

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gverrilla 5y ago

that's a very positive and progressive profile imho

gnull 5y ago

You don't even have to look at extremes like Oli London (thanks for the link, them/they/kor/ean are awesome!) for an example. In the past few years, whenever I hear about something new American wokes are suggesting or something Trump said, most of the time I can't guess whether I'm being trolled or not.

CryptoPunk 5y ago

Trolling can have social value. It can expose the absurdity of a prevailing social movement, as in the case of Oli London, whose parody account acts as a devastating critique of the mainstream trans rights movement and its demands that gender be redefined as a self-sensed property that is assigned through self-identification, and demands pronoun use in accordance with this new definition (which is why university courses now start with each student declaring their personal pronouns). Non-conformity and conflict are not always bad things. They can be a symptom of disharmony, but the correct solution to the disharmony may be a shifting of the status quo, rather than a stamping out of the dissident voices. The path of least resistance to reducing conflict is to silence dissident voices, but that removes a valuable source of constructive change that reduces conflict in the long run.