Quote:
Originally Posted by Arch0wl
"troll" is often equivocated (that is, people will use the same word for different meanings and fail to distinguish the meanings.)
there's the "troll" as prankster, the "troll" as argumentative person, and the "troll" as internet sociopath
|
No. A troll is "someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion." Word up, Wikipedia.
They're sociopathic by nature. They intend to manipulate people for fun. They find it humorous to elicit emotional responses from their marks. Probably because it's not "cool" to have emotions.
Is it human nature though? Probably. Humans are ****ed up. But that's not what you're describing with politics. They act the way they do because of the system in place. They act to gain power and they act to maintain power. They don't act the way they do to elicit an emotional response, they don't object to the opposition just to make them angry.
Fun-fact: "disrupting on-topic discussion" actually IS a legitimate tool congressmen use. It's called filibustering. But they don't do it because they get jollies out of annoying people, they do it to stop legislation that they oppose.
ps arch, there's no need to use a "big word" if you're just going to explain the term anyway. If you're going to pander to the lowest common denominator, don't stroke your ego first.