Internet trolls

See also:  The War of the Worlds and Hooker
*When the world gives you beef, eat beef.*
In Internet terminology a troll is someone who comes into an established community such as an online discussion forum and posts inflammatory, rude, repetitive or offensive messages as well as top post flooding and impersonating others -- designed intentionally to annoy or antagonize the existing members or disrupt the flow of discussion. A troll's main goal is to arouse anger and frustration or otherwise shock and offend the message board's other participants, and will write whatever it takes to achieve this end.

One common trolling strategy is the practice of Winning by Losing. While the victim is trying to put forward solid and convincing facts to prove his position, the troll's only goal is to infuriate its prey. The troll takes (what it knows to be) a badly flawed, wholly illogical argument, and then vigorously defends it while mocking and insulting its prey. The troll looks like a complete fool, but this is all part of the plan. The victim becomes noticeably angry by trying to repeatedly explain the flaws of the troll's argument. Provoking this anger was the troll's one and only goal from the very beginning."

A particularly effective way of provoking anger is by "turning the tables". The troll tries to guess what the other participants are thinking about the troll (for example, "you are a hypocrite") then the troll will accuse the other participants of that.

Trolls want to turn every conversation into a trial with themselves as self-appointed judge jury and executioner.

Experienced participants in online forums know that the most effective way to discourage a troll is usually to ignore him or her, because responding encourages a true troll to continue disruptive posts — hence the often-seen warning "Please do not feed the troll".

## The only winning move is not to play

Skillful and experienced trolls can, and often do, craft arguments where both sides have good points and seem reasonable but on closer inspection both sides are found to be deeply and fundamentally flawed. Groups of trolls then sit around pretending to argue about this "important issue". In reality they dont care about the issue at all. They just want to argue. Unwitting victims are draw in to what they think is an important discussion. No matter which side the victim chooses they are immediately and viciously attacked.

## Gaslighting

From Wikipedia:Gaslighting:

Sociopaths consistently transgress social mores, break laws and exploit others. Then, when people try to resist them, sociopaths use gaslighting tactics to undermine their victims resistance.

Gaslighting is a frequently used form of psychological manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, and sanity.

The term originates in the 1938 stage play Gaslight. The play's title alludes to how the abusive husband slowly dims the gas lights in their home, while pretending nothing has changed, in an effort to make his wife doubt her own perceptions.
Sociopaths are convincing liars, sometimes charming ones, who consistently deny wrongdoing. Thus, naive people who have been victimized by sociopaths may indeed doubt their own perceptions.

An abuser's ultimate goal is to make their victim second-guess their every choice and question their sanity, making them unable to resist the abuser.

Warning signs of gaslighting include:

1. Blocking and diverting the victim's attention from outside sources;
2. Verbal abuse, usually in the form of jokes;
3. Minimalizing their actions (i.e. "Lighten up. I'm just playing with you. Dont you have a sense of humor?");
4. Trivializing the victim's worth; and,
5. Undermining the victim by gradually weakening them and their thought process.

A tactic which further degrades a target's self-esteem is for the abuser to ignore, then attend to, then ignore the victim again, so that the victim lowers their personal bar for what constitutes affection and perceives themselves as less worthy of affection.