# Social media trolls. Are you one?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [February 14, 2021, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896 "2021-02-14T19:30:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/1 "2021-02-14T19:30:46Z")
I think social media trolls are passive-aggressive assholes enabled by the anonymity of social media. Cowards who wouldn’t confront someone in person. In The Pit, it seems like trolling is ‘Let’s gang up on an easy victim to show how smart or witty we think we are’.
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### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/2 "2021-02-14T19:36:55Z")
I don’t think you understand what an internet troll is.
Generally, it is thought that they are posting something that they may or may not agree with, for the sole purpose of enraging others and provoking a negative reaction.
When someone here acts or posts like an asshole, and then they are called out in the pit for the assholishness, and then others agree that they behaved like an asshole; This is NOT trolling.
Get your definitions together, and then try this again.
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### Author:  [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/3 "2021-02-14T19:46:14Z")
I wouldn’t say the usual pit starters and sycophants are trolls. I would say they are toxic, nasty, and emotionally damaged people who derive joy from online bullying. In real life they are probably vastly more pleasant out of a reptilian instinct of self preservation.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/4 "2021-02-14T19:59:06Z")
Yes, I suppose that if I were to meet you face-to-face I wouldn’t find you nearly as off-putting.
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/5 "2021-02-14T20:00:45Z")
That’s true of virtually everyone.
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### Author:  [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/6 "2021-02-14T20:07:57Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#):
>
> Get your definitions together, and then try this again.
I got the common definition here:
[https://unlcms.unl.edu/engineering/james-hanson/trolls-and-their-impact-social-media](https://unlcms.unl.edu/engineering/james-hanson/trolls-and-their-impact-social-media)
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#):
>
> When someone here acts or posts like an asshole, and then they are called out in the pit for the assholishness, and then others agree that they behaved like an asshole; This is NOT trolling.
How can you tell who’s the asshole?
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/7 "2021-02-14T20:13:27Z")
> [@EastUmpqua](#):
>
> How can you tell who’s the asshole?
How can you tell anyone in meatspace is the asshole? Some combination of common sense and social consensus. Norms differ depending on context.
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### Author:  [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/8 "2021-02-14T20:51:20Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#):
>
> How can you tell anyone in meatspace is the asshole? Some combination of common sense and social consensus. Norms differ depending on context.
I (sadly) admit most of my experience with social media has been with Facebook. I guess I really don’t get the motives for deception. I don’t disclose intimate details of my life on social media, but what’s the point of bullshitting?
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/9 "2021-02-14T21:03:38Z")
I try not to insult people, even in the Pit (I am not claiming to have never resorted to insults, just not often.) But if they’ve crossed a line, I will say it. The Pit in particular is a unique place. People can and do viciously insult one another at times, but if you really pay attention, even in what looks like a pile-on, not everybody comes to it with that level of vitriol. Some people are just there to say their piece and check out. Or persuade the Pitee to their way of thinking. And sometimes people start with insults but eventually find common ground.
It’s fascinating.
Facebook IME is a cesspool and half the inflammatory things posted there are probably not even real people. Social media has been targeted by Russians and others as an easy place to sow division. I try (_try_) to avoid public pages where I don’t have to see the trolls.
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### Author:  [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/10 "2021-02-14T21:18:53Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#):
>
> Facebook IME is a cesspool and half the inflammatory things posted there are probably not even real people.
I have around 150 friends on Facebook. I know who all of them are: family, real friends, people I went to high school with, friends of friends. I sometimes get random friend requests but it’s easy to tell what’s fake, especially if it’s sexual. What interests me about SD is that I can talk about GR or mRNA vaccines and there’s always someone who knows more about the subject than I do.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/11 "2021-02-14T21:29:23Z")
> [@EastUmpqua](#):
>
> How can you tell who’s the asshole?
It’s usually very obvious from the content of their posts.
For example, **[in this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/climate-change-is-not-the-immediate-threat-facing-us-today/931737)** in which the OP (the post) is a pile of blithering nonsense, and the OP (the poster) has been suspended for a month for general idiocy, we find the following posts:
#56
rboyce understands atmospheric science better than most. He’s right that climate change probably isn’t human’s most existential threat.
#96
Nice Wikipedia search. Unfortunately you don’t understand any of it.
That last one was purposeless gratuitous hostility in response to my posting of facts. Granted, you then apologized in an apparent effort to regain some plausible deniability, and then went right on trolling.
tl;dr: What I’m saying is, look in the mirror, troll.
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### Author:  [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/12 "2021-02-14T21:34:08Z")
If we’re being honest, most people behave and communicate differently online than they would in real life. People are anonymous for a reason.
I see nothing wrong with it unless communication causes emotional distress.
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### Author:  [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/13 "2021-02-14T21:40:16Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> tl;dr: What I’m saying is, look in the mirror, troll.
Are you mad at me for pointing out that you didn’t know what ‘existential threat’ means?
> [@Existential Threats](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existential-threats/932232/122):
>
> Sure, “existential threat” _ **could** _ be interpreted in a narrow sense to mean a threat to our very existence, and hence a discussion about the imminent extinction of _homo sapiens_ . But as I said, this is not a very useful or interesting discussion.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/14 "2021-02-14T21:52:46Z")
Right, just like I supposedly Google things that I don’t understand. 🙄
No, I’m frustrated with you for either not understanding climate change or pretending not to understand it, and trolling about it. Your inconsistency is all the proof I need that your only intent is to annoy.
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/15 "2021-02-14T21:54:36Z")
That OP was… Wow.
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### Author:  [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/16 "2021-02-14T22:09:34Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> No, I’m frustrated with you for either not understanding climate change or pretending not to understand it, and trolling about it. Your inconsistency is all the proof I need that your only intent is to annoy.
You might have missed some of my previous comments. Anthropogenic climate change is occurring. You don’t seem to be interested in its political aspects, or the evolution of the science, and computer models that are trying to describe it. You’re satisfied with ‘The debate is over’.
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### Author:  [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/17 "2021-02-14T22:16:58Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#):
>
> That OP was… Wow.
Yep. Earth is (for some reason) a captured interstellar rogue planet, etc. But he did post some good links about Earth’s axis tilt. That person probably has mental-health issues. That doesn’t mean they should be canceled.
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/18 "2021-02-14T22:24:01Z")
Was he suspended for that OP? Or some other reason?
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### Author:  [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/19 "2021-02-14T22:27:06Z")
I have no idea. I commented on his post and got a bunch of shit. I’m not familiar with any of his other posts or why he was suspended.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2021, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/social-media-trolls-are-you-one/932896/20 "2021-02-14T22:47:23Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#):
>
> Was he suspended for that OP? Or some other reason?
For repeatedly disobeying mod instructions in posting download links.
[https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rboyce-suspended-for-one-month/931863/2](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rboyce-suspended-for-one-month/931863/2)
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