What is 'trolling'?

[jr/shotglass]

I don't think you're a bad guy. I do honestly think that sometimes you believe you're just a little bit smarter than everyone else in the room. But hey, I've been guilty of that myself.

 

[cranberry]

I don't know if the Internet turns people into assholes or just reveals assholes where they already existed, but obviously I've rubbed a lot of you the wrong way, for a long time.

I'm sorry. It's not who I used to be.

Are you drinking?

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

I don't think you're a bad guy. I do honestly think that sometimes you believe you're just a little bit smarter than everyone else in the room. But hey, I've been guilty of that myself.

I believe that you believe that he believes that.

 

[Vombatus]

There are some easy things to do:

Have fun here.
Think twice before posting.
In my case, think three times.
Don't be a deck.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Not so easy... Smh.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

An open letter to privileged people who play devil's advocate

 

[Dick Whitman]

An open letter to privileged people who play devil's advocate

I think that people on both sides often try to reduce debate positions to cartoon versions of those positions, and I have a compulsion to try to jump in and try to get people to represent things fairly. You and Doc and Double J and your online circle are big-picture guys. For instance, ripping from the recent journalism headlines: My position might be, Jemele Hill has done some stupid shirt through the years and isn't all that great of a writer. Yours might be, Who cares? She takes more shirt in a day than any of us white males could imagine in a lifetime, so if I end up crediting her work more than it merits in the process, that's the side I'm happy to err on.

I'm going to try to get out of the provocateur game. I'm sure I'll have relapses. It's tough because I'm fairly non-confrontational in the physical world, so I end up working through the compulsion somewhere like here. But I'm going to stifle that moving forward and largely avoid potentially emotionally fraught battles. Not worth it for me anymore.

 

[cranberry]

I dunno. Provocateur deck is way more interesting than Remorseful Introspective deck.

 

[jr/shotglass]

If we didn't have opinions that we question here, it'd be a pretty comatose place.

Devil's advocates got a pretty raw deal in that piece.

 

[doctorquant]

If arguing that Elliott Rodger "could have been a madman and an anomaly" is considered playing Devil's advocate, then that's another phrase that's been rendered completely meaningless by the Privilege Platoon.

"Mike Trout's 0 for his last 10. He's lost it."

"Lost it? That's not even a slump!"

"Knock it off with the Devil's advocate shirt."

 

[SpeedTchr]

I don't know if the Internet turns people into assholes or just reveals assholes where they already existed, but obviously I've rubbed a lot of you the wrong way, for a long time.

I'm sorry. It's not who I used to be.

You're a lawyer. It comes with the territory.

 

[typefitter]

Every story about trolls I've ever read shows them to be sad people in real life. The only reason to act like a troll online is because you need to try to make yourself feel better by making other people feel worse.

For instance: Unmasking Reddit's Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web