Sterling's Truths for Life #25

Explanation

This is not the same thing as trolling. I promise.

There are two kinds of trolls on the Internet. There are those who are trolls because their pride blinds them from their own hubris. They really, truly believe the nonsense they scream in all caps at others on the Internet. These vile, hate-filled fools can’t help it. These are the trolls that I’m talking about here.

The other kind of troll are people like me, the humble troll. Occasionally, but not often, I get tired of hearing a troll spout nonsense and decide to deal with them. When you’re a humble troll (well, not that humble, but not blinded by pride, I hope), the goal is not to teach the troll a lesson. That would make me a foolish troll, blinded by my pride. Oh no, there’s no pretense on which I might think the troll might learn a lesson. He or she is a prideful fool and pretty unteachable, especially on the topic they have blinded themselves with.

No, what you’re doing is setting that troll a trap to use as an example to others. You set this trap by providing them all the rope needed to craft a carefully constructed noose and hang themselves with it. Then, you just let them do it. They destroy their own position by simply stating their position clearly and anyone with eyes to see says, “Ah, I see what you did there.” Almost never is the person who does this the person who walked into the trap.

For an example, here’s an abbreviated conversation I had online with an atheist. I posted this as a comment to another post. I fully expected a random atheist to respond, proving my point. I was not disappointed:

Me: Any atheist that makes an argument regarding right and wrong at all betrays themselves, a living contradiction. The central hope of atheism is that there is no judgement, no sky god will smite them, regardless of what they do. The moment they make any claim about right and wrong as categories at all, they demonstrate a desire to be seen as right rather than wrong, demonstrating an abiding belief in those categories. …
Random Atheist: Incorrect. Morality is a human endeavour. It is humans who do the categorisation. No religion necessary, no god necessary.
Me: Exactly my point. Thank you.

Atheism is too easy to pick on. Most atheists are insufferably moralistic. They have to be. Otherwise, they’d be pagans or something else. The very fact of their moralism makes them unable to resist refuting their own position by making moral arguments. If the universe is amoral chaos, as it must be according to an atheist position, then simply arguing that their way is right and my way is wrong (whatever argument they choose to follow) proves, by contradiction, that they do not truly believe their own position that morality is a human construct. Very few atheists are able to recognize this contradiction in my experience. Based on the like by Random Atheist on my final comment, it may be that he is an exception.

I do not approve of prideful trolling by screaming ever. However, if done carefully and infrequently, I do approve of humble trolling, whether the cause be just or not.