"If you spend a great deal of your time pretending to be an asshole to get a reaction from people...you aren't pretending. You are an asshole."It has happened again. A troll has engaged the Susan Boyle fan community. Following the usual methods, it has tried to get a response. Unfortunately it has succeeded.
—Ed Brayton
There have been several trolls and many targets; sometimes Susan Boyle herself, sometimes other fans, sometimes other celebrities. In the most recent case, the troll decided to pick on a fan who has never had a bad word to say about anyone. Why her? The obvious reason is that others would feel compelled to come to her defense. But that is the wrong thing to do.
What does a troll like this want? First and foremost, it wants attention – any attention, positive or negative. This is similar to a small child, and not coincidentally, the insults are often at this level of intellectual discourse.
There is nothing to be gained by responding to the troll’s bait. In fact, responding encourages the troll.
Why respond?
You cannot reason with the troll. There are not enough facts in the world to convince the troll that it is wrong because facts do not matter to the troll. You cannot educate the troll because its posts and tweets are driven by malevolence, not lack of information.
You cannot shame the troll. It has no shame. If it did, it would never have engaged in this behavior in the first place. Your indignation actually feeds the troll. It gives it what it wants, a reaction. The more outraged and upset you are, the better the troll likes it.
You cannot out-shout the troll. You may think that if you have more posts objecting or refuting the troll, that you win. This is not true. The troll wins. It has gotten a lot of attention and you have helped.
You cannot “defend” your friend or the celebrity who is the focus of the troll. Most of the statements made by the troll are so outrageous that they should not be taken seriously. And to defend or refute them is to take them seriously.
What about “outing" the troll? Be very careful. Just because you think you know who it is, that does not mean that you absolutely do. If you are wrong, you will have hurt an innocent person. That has happened before.
And the worst thing you can do is to try to match the troll in insults. If you start a slanging match it is a win/win situation for the troll. Not only does the troll get lots of attention, but you have conceded the high ground. You have no moral authority to criticize the troll once you have engaged in the same behavior
Because the troll wants attention more than anything else, there is one thing you can do. You can ignore the troll. Deny it the attention it seeks. If no one replies to the troll’s tweets, how does it know that they were even seen? If no one replies to its posts in other places, it will not have the satisfaction of getting a response.
If you do not give the troll the satisfaction of a response, it will not succeed in its goal of getting attention and creating outrage. Let it be frustrated by being ignored. It is the best thing you can do.
