Trolls just want to have sadistic fun
They take pleasure in your pain.
Well, of course. It takes time and effort to be a troll. And it takes a bit of time and effort to get rid of them. That’s their sport: annoying you, trying to hurt you, and distracting you into the bargain.
I learned early in my internet experience—way way before I became a blogger—that there are online sadists. I observed one of them do his intensely destructive business on a website that dealt with various illnesses, a discussion board type thing.
I was there because of my arm injury. At the time (mid-90s), it was one of the few places I could find information about it and compare notes with other people who had a similar chronic problem. This troll terrorized people (and “terrorized” is not too extreme a word) who were in a different section of the forum, one that dealt with mental health problems. His m.o. was to befriend them, start a personal email correspondence with them and get them to bare their souls to him, and then after being helpful and kind for a long time—in some cases, years—slam them in an unmercifully abusive fashion and reveal the deepest secrets of their wounded hearts to others on the board.
The forum wasn’t properly patrolled at the time by its administrators, so a few of us set out to try to deal with the troll. Ultimately that campaign was successful, at least online: he was banned. But the destruction he had already done was incalculable.
And that’s why I have no trouble thinking that some trolls are sadists.
Not spambots, though. Spambots are helpful.
We need internet P.I.s who can track these people down and give them the beating they deserve.
I’ll bet the incidence of trolling would go down.
Yes, they are sadists who take pleasure in terrorizing others.
I remember, back in the days of AOL and their chat rooms, I had a co-worker who bragged about going into the gay chat rooms and enjoying watching people get into a “tizzy” (his word) by calling them things like faggot, fruitcake, etc.
Well, I guess I am a bit of a sadist too. When his longtime girlfriend, who had been living in another state, moved in with him and came to the office Christmas party, I made sure that I introduced myself and said you must be and then used the name of another girl that she suspected he was also dating. (he was, in fact cheating on his longtime girlfriend)
Although, I never heard the end of my “faux pas” from him; I felt it was the least I could do for all those he terrorized. Not to mention, hopefully, his longtime girlfriend would realize what an ass he really was.
Humanity’s weaknesses to evil cannot be exaggerated enough. So many people have no conception of what it is they are dealing with and refuse to accept that the threat exists. Whether it’s physical violence, crime, political corruption, human evil, zombie evil, people would prefer to stick their head in the sand and wait for the tsunami to pass them safely by.
Yet they dare to call themselves “citizens” that deserve “rights”? It’s an entitlement process that is far and above beyond what is sustainable any more.
I wish society would pay more attention to the natural human defense against evil and sadistic/narcissistic tendencies by the livestock.
For while sadists hunt around for people to terrorize, as Neo aptly told in her story, there are also certain individuals that, for a number of reasons, hunt for sadists using a similar motivation.
Those that enjoy killing and blowing up Taliban that throw acid in little girl’s faces, may be doing things indistinguishable from a sadist. Except that there’s a major social difference between a hero and a mass murderer. A hero can kill 50,000 people and be called a war hero, someone who helped his society. A mass murderer killed people that his society didn’t want to kill. From a certain point of view, hunting down and killing killers is no different than what serial killers do. But from a social perspective and a human hierarchy maintenance perspective, there’s a world of difference between a serial killer and a war hero.
There is a big difference between one who defends society and one who attacks society. The sheepdog and the wolf is an apt analogy. They may be hunting and killing but the motivation makes all the difference. Hillary’s “what difference does it make?” is not a good answer.
Okay. But I’m more of a simple ogre. I merely enjoy fools suffering their pains for being foolish. I don’t really revel in suffering, my own or that of others. As I mentioned, save for fools. Actually I don’t really revel in that, mostly. I’m more hoping the psychic bloody nose will learn them. I guess I smirk because I know that most stupid people can’t or won’t learn. Not so easily.
On the other hand @yesnicksearcy, the actor who plays Art Mullen on “Justified,” takes to Twitter for the express purpose of mocking the hell out of leftists just to see them holler.
He’s more the magpie to the Leftist cat, teasing the putative predator just because he can. Most of them think that his insults and boasting about his wealth and fame are deadly serious, but he’s actually laughing his head off while taking the Mickey out of such humorless scolds. Having adopted a black son, he relishes being called racist because he can throw that fact in their faces.
They can’t tell that they’re being mocked; they think they’ve encountered Chris Matthews’s quintessential conservative and are horrified by Searcy’s apparent bigotry. (I’ve even taken a few of them aside and explained that they’re being played, that Searcy is not a bigot, he just plays one on Twitter. They never get it.)
Is that sadism on his part?
Maybe. He said on an AoSHQ podcast that he was performing a public service by taking these snot-nosed brats down a few pegs. It’s not how I would do it, but I’m not the measure of all things, either.
I guess he’d cross into sadism if he started picking on the truly vulnerable instead of driving smug Tweeters into a rage. Closest analogy would be bear-baiting, only the bear in this case could have ignored him and walked away.
Meeting force with force is not trolling, vis a vis Nick Searcy. I think Trolling has to do more with people taking joy in hurting people who are doing nothing to deserve it.
And I mean real trolling not simply, as it’s been now connoted to mean, looking for attention. “You’re just trolling now…” etc.
The internet has opened up the crazies to everyone and it’s a little disturbing. Rather than out on street corners yelling, as someone on Twitter remarked, they can be on your computer. In your house, basically. I’m not sure what, if anything, can be done about it though I should say that one area I can agree with the Left on is the need for everyone to have access to mental health counselor. I’m sure our host would agree! 🙂
Online internet trolls are psychopaths and sadists, psychologists claim
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/technology-gadgets/online-internet-trolls-are-psychopaths-and-sadists-psychologists-claim-30017680.html
What doesn’t break you makes you stronger.