# Why feed the trolls? I mean really... **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 1, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-feed-the-trolls-i-mean-really/491525 "2009-04-01T01:30:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-feed-the-trolls-i-mean-really/491525/21 "2009-04-06T03:31:47Z")
_ **THE MENU IS THE GOD of ORDERING** _ ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-feed-the-trolls-i-mean-really/491525/22 "2009-04-06T04:24:38Z")
1. It’s fun. 2. It allows me a moment of feeling superior to somebody. 3. It’s still fun after I describe to myself how lame my superiority really is. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-feed-the-trolls-i-mean-really/491525/23 "2009-04-06T12:15:06Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > _ **THE MENU IS THE GOD of ORDERING** _ You should have posted that in the thread linked to by the OP - it’s a valid alternative viewpoint, surely? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-feed-the-trolls-i-mean-really/491525/24 "2009-04-06T18:33:28Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Why the need to constantly engage these people when it is perfectly clear all they really want is to get a rise out of you? Because someone is **wrong** on the **Internet**. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-feed-the-trolls-i-mean-really/491525/25 "2009-04-06T18:56:10Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > What she said. I try not to do it too much, but I’m sure I have. It’s the internet, and responding to stupidity usually costs you nothing. > > I agree that **Lacunas Quell** is witnessing and not really interested in a discussion, but that’s not the same thing as trolling. > > People often talk about trolling as if it means the same thing to everybody and is equally obvious to all readers. It doesn’t work that way. We try to interpret trolling to mean deliberately being inflammatory and being a jackass, not just saying things that are unpopular and being confrontational. The poster in question has been warned a few times for being insulting, and he’s gone across the line of debating and witnessing a few times that I’ve seen, but that’s not necessarily the same thing. I stayed away from **LQ** ’s thread for personal reasons. But I can fully understand **Mrley** ’s point here. It’s not trolling to advocate unpopular reasons that you sincerely and personally hold – in some cases, it may be intellectually dysfunctional, a failure to subscribe to the same reality that the rest of us tend to deal with, but it’s not trolling. For me, the classic definition of trilling is showing up and saying something outrageous simply to see what sort of trouble you can stir up. Nobody needs that sort of asshole. On the other hand, believing that X is doing the work of Satan or Y is covering up a conspiracy to mislead the public may be delusional thinking – but this is the meat of argument. I’m certain that much of the public believed that Bernstein and Woodward were a bit out to lunch in 1972 – who could believe that the President of the United States would have his hand in a conspiracy to perpetrate a couple of incompetent burglaries? And we have the Republican Party’s own words that Clinton’s pointing to the Middle East as a likely fertile spot for terrorists was simply an expedient to divert attention from his criminal acts in engaging in adulterous conduct and then lying about it. True, I doubt that NASA faked the Moon landings, with or without the assistance of the Satanic Lunar Raccoons. But the thing to do is to hear the arguments for a nutball theory, patiently fight ignorance by unearthing where it came from, and then defeating it with facts and logic. What survives this test becomes accepted wisdom. Everyone gets angry with people who seemingly stubbornly and wrongheartedly take points of view opposite to what’s obviously right to you, Certanly they do that to me enough! But the thing is, occasionally we’re wrong and they’re right. And we find that out by hearing out the opposition and then debating it farily. A troll will give himself away in the course of this – and that’s the point to stop feeding him – even if your anger needs an outlet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-feed-the-trolls-i-mean-really/491525.md?page=1)