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How to Beat Internet Trolls
In order to beat Internet trolls, you have to know their strategies.
Below are 17 common games played by trolls to disrupt our power to learn, inform, and organize on the web ...
1. Threaten those who speak out, to try to intimidate them and their readers into silence.
2. Misquote the Bible to pretend that God commands us to be obedient slaves to authority … even if the powers-that-be are downright tyrants.
3. Start a partisan divide-and-conquer fight or otherwise push emotional buttons to sow discord and ensure that cooperation is thwarted. Get people fighting against each other instead of the 3corrupt powers-that-be. Use baseless caricatures to rile everyone up. For example, start a religious war whenever possible using stereotypes like “all Jews are selfish”, “all Christians are crazy” or “all Muslims are terrorists”. Accuse the author of being a gay, pro-abortion limp-wristed wimp or being a fundamentalist pro-war hick when the discussion has nothing to do with abortion, sexuality, religion, war or region. Appeal to people’s basest prejudices and biases. And (as explained by H. Michael Sweeney’s 25 Rules of Disinformation) push the author into a defensive posture:
Sidetrack opponents with name calling and ridicule … Associate opponents with unpopular titles such as “kooks”, “right-wing”, “liberal”, “left-wing”, “terrorists”, “conspiracy buffs”, “radicals”, “militia”, “racists”, “religious fanatics”, “sexual deviates”, and so forth. This makes others shrink from support out of fear of gaining the same label, and you avoid dealing with issues.
(The person trying to smear reputation may not be a random knucklehead … he may, in fact, be a government agent, or a member of the group he’s smearing.)
4. Question motives. Twist or amplify any fact which could so taken to imply that the opponent operates out of a hidden personal agenda or other bias. This avoids discussing issues and forces the accuser on the defensive. Or accuse the author of being a narcissist.
5. Pretend it’s hopeless because we’ll be squashed if we try. For example, every time a whistleblower leaks information, say “he’s going to be bumped off”. If people talk about protesting, organizing, boycotting, shareholder activism, spreading the real facts, moving our money or taking other constructive action, write things to scare and discourage people, say something like “we don’t have any chance because they have drones and they’ll just kill us if we try”, or “Americans are too stupid, lazy and greedy, so they’ll never help out.” Encourage people to be apathetic instead of trying to change things.
6. Demand complete, fool-proof and guaranteed solutions to the problems being discussed. For example, if a reporter breaks the story that the big banks conspired to rig a market, ask “given that people are selfish and that no regulation can close all possible loopholes … how are you going to change human nature?”, and pretend that it’s not worth talking about the details of the market manipulation. This discourages people from reporting on and publicizing the corruption, fraud and other real problems. And it ensures that not enough people will spread the facts so that the majority know what’s really going on.
7. Suggest extreme, over-the-top, counter-productive solutions which will hurt more than help, or which are wholly disproportionate to what is being discussed. For example, if the discussion is whether or not to break up the big banks or to go back on the gold standard, say that everyone over 30 should be killed because they are sell-outs and irredeemable, or that all of the banks should be bombed. This discredits the attempt to spread the facts and to organize, and is simply the web method of the provocateur.
8. Pretend that alternative media – such as blogs written by the top experts in their fields, without any middleman – are untrustworthy or are motivated solely by money (for example, use the derogatory term “blogspam” for any blog posting, pretending that there is no original or insightful reporting, but that the person is simply doing it for ad revenue).
9. Coordinate with a couple of others to “shout down” reasonable comments. This is especially effective when the posters launch an avalanche of comments in quick succession … the original, reasonable comment gets lost or attacked so much that it is largely lost. Use “forum sliding” and “topic dilution” to so dilute and distract the conversation that people forget the original point.
10. Use technology and numbers to gain leverage. You can either hire low-wage workers in India or other developing countries to “astroturf” (see this and this) or – if you work for the government – you can use military personnel or subcontractors to monitor social media and “correct” information which you don’t like (and see this). You can pay students to post pro-government comments online. You can even use software which allows you to quickly create and alternate between numerous false identities, each with their own internet address. Or program software to write the comments itself.
11. Become incredulous and indignant. Avoid discussing key issues and instead focus on side issues which can be used show the topic as being critical of some otherwise sacrosanct group or theme. This is also known as the “How dare you!” gambit.
12. Use a straw man. Find or create a seeming element of your opponent’s argument which you can easily knock down to make yourself look good and the opponent to look bad. Either make up an issue you may safely imply exists based on your interpretation of the opponent/opponent arguments/situation, or select the weakest aspect of the weakest charges. Amplify their significance and destroy them in a way which appears to debunk all the charges, real and fabricated alike, while actually avoiding discussion of the real issues.
13. Associate opponent charges with old news. A derivative of the straw man usually, in any large-scale matter of high visibility, someone will make charges early on which can be or were already easily dealt with. Where it can be foreseen, have your own side raise a straw man issue and have it dealt with early on as part of the initial contingency plans. Subsequent charges, regardless of validity or new ground uncovered, can usually them be associated with the original charge and dismissed as simply being a rehash without need to address current issues — so much the better where the opponent is or was involved with the original source.
14. Censor social media, so that the hardest-hitting information is buried. If you can’t censor it, set up “free speech zones” to push dissent into dank, dark corners where no one will see it.
15. When the powers-that-be cut corners and take criminally reckless gambles with our lives and our livelihoods, protect them by pretending that the inevitable result – nuclear accidents, financial crises, terrorist attacks or other disasters – were “unforeseeable” and that “no could have known”.
16. Protect the rich and powerful by labeling any allegations of criminal activity as being a “conspiracy theory”. After all, it was the CIA itself which created the perjorative term “conspiracy theorist” and gave advice on how to attack people on that basis. For example, when Goldman gets caught rigging markets, label the accusations as mere conspiracies. Throw in the tired out cliches “tinfoil hat” and “live in your mom’s basement.”
17. Hit and Run. In any public forum, make a brief attack of your opponent or the opponent position and then scamper off before an answer can be fielded, or simply ignore any answer. This works extremely well in Internet and letters-to-the-editor environments where a steady stream of new identities can be called upon without having to explain the criticism — simply make an accusation or other attack, never discussing issues, and never answering any subsequent response, for that would dignify the opponent’s viewpoint.
Postscript: Over a number of years, we’ve found that the most effective way to fight disruption and disinformation is to link to a post such as this one which rounds up disruption techniques, and then to cite the disinfo technique you think is being used.
Specifically, we’ve found the following format to be highly effective in educating people in a non-confrontational manner about which game the troll is playing:
Good Number 1!
Or simply:
(include the link so people can see what you’re referring to.)
The reason this is effective is that other readers will learn about the specific disruption tactic being used … in context, like seeing wildlife while holding a wildlife guide, so that one learns what it looks like “in the field”. At the same time, you come across as humorous and light-hearted instead of heavy-handed or overly-intense.
Try it … It works.
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Yep. Thats why I ask the good questions.
I imagine all of us have unintentionally used one of these methods to discount what another commenter has said. Comments to other commenters are generally outpourings and not always well thought out prior to hitting the save button. I have cringed a number of times after reading mine.
I do however hold those who comment on the author's offering to a different standard. The commenter is giving a critique of an article and so their comment should reflect some genuine thought or direction in laying out an argument of either pro or con in relation to what the article conveyed.
How we counter trolls (in my opinion) is best handled with a down vote and move along. To argue with someone who is interested in misdirection gives that person much more of a platform and draws attention away from those who really may have a good point.
Sometimes I think the goal of trolling is to sow so much distrust that we are unable to come up with any cohesive front. I am going to do my best just to down vote and refrain from acknowledging them any further. Unfortunately brevity is not my strong suit.
You can also point out anti-social behavior and bring the group to consensus that it will not be tolerated without falling into the trap of trying to argue with them. Pointing out their aggressive attacks and how inappropriate they are can bring a group's social nature back when trolls have destroyed it.
It's important to take back what trolls have stolen, or you have lost another place to normal people to talk. Which is their goal all along. Notice the internet has grown barren of conversation under the reign of Google's filter bubbles and concentrated trolling of sites that turned them into graveyards?
https://alethonews.wordpress.com/2013/08/24/israels-propagandists-shoot-...
Extra Credit.:
25 Retired Seals, Delta and Rangers Launch OperationTyranny Response On DC To Counter Jade Helm...:
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=14209
"Misquote the Bible to pretend that"
lmao
anybody that falls for this fairy-tale BS deserves being trolled.
Or a goy could just study the Hasbara manual, if it hasn't been scrubbed from the internet yet.
{Dupe.}
Remember, folks, there is only one war, the Class war. Race, sex, sexuality, religion, nation, region, the prosthelytization of any firm sense of identity -
these are the divide and conquer memes.
That's truthy right there.
Which classes?
Flyfishing vs. spincasting?
Well, that's the end of my Trolling career, it was good while it lasted but now I've been busted its back to pushing little old ladies in front of traffic to give the media something alternative to write about, bugger.
So let me guess what would a web site that was full of all different kinds of trolls look like.. ?
and do the trolls all have a cheat sheet telling them who the other trolls on their team are so they don't waste time.. or is it simpler to simply have. and OMG list.. as in OMG there is a real person.. Nail Him...
You'll notice that sometimes the almost exact same post is made by several different posters.
Great minds think alike...LOL!
Websites that have been successfully trolled are dead. Nobody goes there anymore and they eventually stop paying the registration fee and disappear.
5. Pretend it’s hopeless because we’ll be squashed if we try. <<<==== I am guilty of this one.
But but I am not pretending. It is hopeless, isn't it??
I have seen most of these tactics and they are effective. There is no winning a war of the wits if the other person is unarmed. You just look silly trying to use facts against an imbecile. Especially if they are just acting like one.
Actually, it's very easy to win.
Stop trying to convince the idiot, and just make a show of the argument. Make it a spectacle.
When you write something thought provoking, and stump the opposition into shouting inanely, simply turn to the crowd and say
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!?
Pay me $20 per hour and I'll troll for the trolls.
So you are just another presstitute?
You will take payment to promote an idea rather than communicate your true and honest beliefs?
Have you no core principles?
Then you have just declared yourself and your words as incredible and those words to be treated as ingenuine.
Trolls obey. Trolls trust. Trolls find honor in deceit.
Think begins with Socrates,"I know nothing." Believe is to trust an authority. Trolls are apologists for lies, as are lawyers. Expand the legal dictum, if the law and the facts are against you, attack the man and/or pound the table. Consider only facts. Laws are constructs by gods/men to control men. Beliefs are chains in the mind.
I think, therefor I am master. Obey, because you're a running dog. Troll, because your apologies are dross. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/
18. Conceptual litmus tests. The troll often produces variations of these to control the narrative he wishes to present. If the target refuses to take the trolls stacked-deck tests (the tests answers are predetermined to be correct by the troll) the target is immediately attacked as a non-intellectual unworthy of forming any opinion on the subject matter at hand and/or is controlled opposition and/or has self-identified as a government-banker-neocon (insert appropriate boogy-man, dog whistle term here).
(See also, kafkatrapping.)
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=2122
My head hurts reading all this, whatever happened to just telling people to 'Bugger Off'....when did it all get so complicated?
That, sir, is an easy one. It started with "Reville for Radicals" in the '60s.
- Ned
It stems from Bernays' epic work, "Propaganda", published back in the 1920s
That book is a MUST READ if you want to understand their tactics.
People must be manipulated to control the masses.
They want control of your mind and will manipulate your EMOTIONS in order to get what they want.
That is the open door to your mind. Your emotions can easily be manipulated to shut down your ability to reason cognitively.
Bernays was an evil mother fucker.
It has been a mainstay of the ruling class - wherever, whomever - for millennia.
This is not a new problem. (and Bernay's just made the policies clearer) The difference is that our rulers aren't dragging us from our soapboxes and beheading, burning, poisoning, shooting, stabbing, or working to death.
Well, not enough for most to notice, even though it happens world round and not yet noticed by the majority, I should add.
Same old, same old. Allow men to rule men, trust men to rule other men, and this is what we have ALWAYS gotten.
Paul (Saul) of Tarsus, in Romans states, "love (?????) worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of law"
He also says, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye are also become dead to the law by the body of Christ"
In no way did Jesus, nor God (see Samuel), tell us to submit to evil rulers for ANY reason. Paul WAS one of the ruler's enforcers, until Jesus showed him the way, the truth, the life. And it wasn't in denying Christ for the Jews or Caesar.
The "Christians" that continue to assert these lies will have much to learn in this life, and the next.
Sadly, we all suffer with them. More sadly, same as it ever was.
Our golden Tower of Babel is getting ready to fall. Good luck to us all.
amen
A lot of trolls or bots attack someone's time in service here when they have no retort to someone's questioning of their facts.
Right number 1.
Only 19 weeks?
Not a troll.
He has been here before and booted.
Just who is he is the question which remains to be answered.
If he is one of GW's greatest critics now then his pattern of behavior has probably not changed. He was one of GW's greatest critics then.
So who is he GW? You probably already know...if you search your gut.
.
Trolls exist everywhere ,, but the one thing that kept coming back to me with every technique is the White House Press Corps. Both whoever the current spokesman is and the "press" reporters play the game back and forth weaving tapestries of crapola. God that place needs fumigation.
18 Call the TSA.
True internet trolls have a lot in common with MSM. Many of the same techinques are employed to sway the audience by deceipt this way or that way, it's just a different method of delivery.
The tried and true "divide and conquer" continues to work amazingly well however. There are a lot are people out there who feel obligated to disrupt and argue based on their personal convictions, that ironically seem to stem from their particular flavor of media programming. The left/right thing is a perfect example and I listen (well not so much anymore) to people who think either the cause or solution to *everything* is "liberal" or "conservative".
I've got some family members that if locked in a room together would argue about politics and the general state of affairs...to the death. Not trolls, just divided and conquered, and will never, ever listen to another point of view. Like Marla said..."they just wait for their turn to speak".
And what do you do with internet trolls who write up some ridiculous conspiracy theory, and then claim a bunch of internet trolls are denouncing it as a ridiculous conspiracy theory?
I think that's the enemy of my enemies first cousins enemy theory.
And BTW, I don't try to push you into a defensive postion. I ask you to explain the discrepancies in you links to your blog. Some are accurate but they are over shadowed by you half truths and bogus propaganda from questionable source that are usually anonymous yet you draw certain con conclusions from them. And they are usually anti-American biased instead of true analysis. Funny how you never talk about the white hats vs. black hats that we are dealing with inside our government.
You only want to address those that agree. Providing more links to your site that is already lacking credibility does not prove you right.
Like I said in the past. Complete the circle to make your conclusions otherwise it's just speculation. I would pay you no mind like the others around here engage in this behavior but you are a contributor which is completely different.
Just ask Simon Black, or HH. They could be the same algo, yours, for all I know.
OMG!!!! Someone is wrong on the Internets!
GW
With that list, especially #8, anyone that is critical of your posts or blog, must be a troll.
Are you playing a 'victim'card?
Yes, the impression I got is that to disagree with anybodies opinion you are required to have cast iron facts that you can produce and verify where the blogger is allowed to pull any old innuendo from anywhere.....makes it hard for us Trolls you know, and we have to make a living as well mate.
The burden of proof always lies with the claimant.
GW
Trolls are human beings and they appear to be all over in life, not only on the web.
Who knows why they think the way they do or why we think the way we do?
It is like driving on a freeway which is fairly busy and someone is in the fast lane is doing 45 mph, causing a dangerous situation and a lot of aggravation to the people behind him. They are oblivous to horns and raised middle fingers and seem perfectly content in disrupting another's life, even if it is for a few moments.
This is why loaded automatic weapons come in handy.
That's a Clover.
http://ericpetersautos.com/2015/04/03/a-driving-lesson-for-clover/
Why trial by jury is so essential. Of course, I guess one would be denied a trial by jury for such a "small thing" as a speeding ticket. But perhaps one SHOULD NOT be denied that trial by jury.
Trolls are human beings
No, not any more. Many of them are bots. Really.
The bots are a bit tricky. But if you think on it you might find they have some short comings. Bad spelling screws with them and so does indirrect questions. If you word it right the bots wont respond even tho a person would.
So that is why the spelling nazi trolls are doing what they are doing.
They needz create a conduzive environment 4 dere boughts
Actually that makes sense, now.
It also gives me some ammo fer the next time when Iza enciunterz itz.
It would apper pedanticism has its place after all.
Hi CH1:
I think it was in the fine print of "Citizens United" decision ... yep "Bots are People too."
- Ned
The pentagon budget for "influencing opinion on the internet" is 2b/yr.
That buys a lot of bots, trolls, and propaganda.
Then there's the Israeli Megaphone network, as well as the hasbara patrol that is funded by Israel aka the US taxpayers.
Thankfully they're all lackey morons and easy to spot.