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Internet trolls come in all forms shapes and sizes, but the most atrocious are the ones that frequent political threads and are prone to only talk in "talking points' of their beloved political party and not receptive of anything else. Unwilling to accept facts, but are very quick to want you to offer facts. When you offer facts that they cannot refute they begin to obfuscate, refute. Some even call there friends on the phone to come and help them out and if that doesn't work they begin to call you names and insult you. (More than likely to get you to do the same thing so they can cry foul or say that's is typical of a Liberal, or a conservative or any faction other than their own.When that fails they block you. When that too fails they call the Internet Cops. Also they resort to sending you personal messages in your inbox. I would like to know if this or something simular has happened to you?

Have you ever met an internet troll? A troll is a special class of sociopath.

These nasty individuals are the ******** ne'er-do-wells of the digital realm, the misanthropic misfits of information age. Unlike a normal person, when a troll enters an online discussion, he is not seeking truth or clarification. He usually doesn't even know how to debate in an intelligent manner. All he wants to do is inflict pain, ridicule, and humiliation on a targeted person.

Encountering an internet troll can be a disturbing, even frightening, experience for someone who has not had to deal with one. It can be an unexpected event, a strange twist that takes the discussion to a whole other level. You are taken off guard and find yourself struggling to defend yourself, instead of exploring a topic.

You're posting comments on a blog, forum, or social media platform like ********. There are probably other people expressing themselves, some agreeing with you and cheering you on, others disagreeing with you and trying to debunk your **********. The conversation is heated, or passionate, but civilized. Strong opinions are stated and countered with other strident points of view.

Suddenly, someone starts attacking you. They may use filthy language, wild insults, and crazy misinterpretations. Often they will put words in your mouth, along the lines of "So what you're saying is...." or "Nutjobs like you are only interested in ...."

The main tool of the troll is accusation. It's a form of psychological torture, to break you down by turning your words against you, twisting your statements and pounding away at one aspect of your viewpoint. No matter what you declare, the troll will question you as a person. Understand this immediately: it's you as a person that they are attacking.

Personal attacks are often banned in forums, and not tolerated in blogs and social networks. Administrators tend to block and remove anyone who engages in trollish behavior.

The troll doesn't care. Trolls don't follow the rules or terms of service. They jump from one platform and one conversation thread to another, causing as much damage as possible.
Trolls are easy to recognize by their mode of operation. They will never compliment you for a smart statement, or admit that your question is difficult to respond to, or tone down the rhetoric with a smiley emoticon.

Trolls accuse and insult. Trolls needle you relentlessly. They love to flame others. They enjoy causing grief, trying to make another person feel bad. Trolls will quickly move from serious discussion about an issue to a sustained personal *******.

The goal of a troll is to disrupt an online discussion, picking on one person, or on everyone who expresses a particular point of view. This brings me to the issue of how to defeat a troll. Here are a few quick pointers on troll-smashing that you may want to copy and paste into a text editor, print out, and tape to your computer monitor for future reference.

(1) Ignore the troll. Just refuse to interact with him. Respond to others in an online discussion, but shun the troll and give no reply to any of his accusations or remarks.

(2) Post "don't feed the trolls" in the debate thread and leave the conversation. Let others deal with him if they want. Just identify the troublemaker as a troll and move on to other websites or activities. If a person is trolling you via email, just stop opening and reading their messages. If you can blacklist them to prevent them from sending you emails, do that. If it's on Facebook, block -- don't just unfriend, but block – the person and if necessary, report him as abusive.

(3) Keep hammering away at your viewpoint, ****** yourself like steel, and never give in. If you want to disturb the troll for a short while, just to give him a taste of his own medicine, you can relentlessly restate your opinion, in complete oblivion to anything the troll says, like you're not even reading his remarks.

(4) Misinterpret his statements. This is a very effective technique for derailing a troll and making them upset. You may even provoke the troll to give up and leave the conversation thread. Twist what they say and make it seem like the troll is agreeing with you. "I agree. Thanks for seeing my viewpoint. We seem to be on the same page now. That's exactly right. Glad I was able to convert you to my opinion."

(5) Praise the troll in a facetious way that translates into not-so-subtle rebuke. "Oh my, you are so incredibly well informed. You are the smartest person in the whole universe and everyone should sit at your feet and soak up your wisdom. Nobody can argue with you, for you have all the answers." Then sign off and leave the discussion with "You sad and silly troll."

Remember that the only purpose of a troll is to antagonize and cause trouble. There is no point in trying to reason with a troll. Generally, they are not educated in debate or rhetorical skills. All they want to do is hurl slurs and incriminations. They want to make you angry, upset, confused, and exasperated. They want to take over the conversation and reframe it as an ******** of how bad or stupid you supposedly are.

Trolls may have been victimized by a mind control cult based on humiliating people to cause them to go into meltdown mode, so they can replace a personality with their cult's indoctrination. Other times you may suspect that a troll has been abused by a rogue psychiatrist who was keen on dismantling a person's inner self and then manipulating the defenseless victim.

No matter what their origin may be, trolls enjoy raining on parades, maliciously pouncing on innocent people, and acting like a verbal predator. Trolling can turn into cyberstalking and cyberbullying (intent to cause serious harm or even suicide).

Learn how to quickly recognize a troll and you've won half the battle.

Mess with them briefly to expose their true nature to others in the audience or the discussion, then kick them to the curb by leaving the conversation. If necessary, report the troll to an administrator.

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22 Answers

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moderated...
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nein bist du?
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I think that I would rather have a decent discussion with anyone even if opinions differ without the vitriol.
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xD, I type the first thing that comes to mind. I don't swear and have never called anyone anything negative but boy do I get blocked and I've been called everything but a man. Makes me rather glad that these kind of people are out there as it makes for an easy way to make a living.as the world is full of them.
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I look at some of these other polls and think the same, but I also have to remember that is someone else's poll not mine.
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not at all I just didn't want you to think my response was directed at you
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but this is a poll of a discussion that I started. I am sure no one will be upset if I took the liberty to respond in the discussion anywhere I please...Are you upset that I chose to respond to your statement? If not please continue. If yes,..Please continue.
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Ah my response was to that of the Jester's, not anything you posted.
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I am not doing anything any different than anyone else on this site is doing.I made my own poll. Formulating my question for a particular audience with answers that I selected. If you are not happy with the question or the answers you are not obligated to participate in this poll. However I get the impression that you are feeling some kind of way. There is enough room on ******** where you can make your own poll with your own questions and with your own answers. That is the beauty of ********.
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So hand out the answers you want to the questions you ask. Remember being upset or tired
of responses is only because said responses were not what you expected.
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Et tu, Trolle?
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Trolls just downright **** me off! Going off the subject here, may I ask why Atheists worship Satan and why Liberals hate America?
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well if you don't consider yourself intelligent then neither do I. We don't have to bring this subject up anymore.
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Now that would be purely subjective answer "intelligent". I've seen a lot of 'intelligent people do some really stupid things.
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This is my thread. my topic, my answer choices. If you don't lke it you are welcome to leave. You are one of those 'Intelligent " trolls right?
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loaded choice of answers but I learn a lot more from people I disagree with that from those I agree with from the start. I keep an open mind and prob for answers. Besides it's kind of fun
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Yes,. people who call you an idiot and add no details. But those people usually *** up being reported many times for hateful content to their comments and often have their accounts terminated.
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I only seek meaningful dialog minus the vitriol.
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it happens all the time. I wish there was a troll flag.
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there are plenty of them out there.
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Also why *** People eat Babies?
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I don't mind either way or even if they block me. They can't get physical on here and I do respect the 1st.
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