Stef Explains Why People Troll?

[Mr. Wrong]

So I just read this youtube comment that I thought was right on the money. Under the video "Addicted to Managing Irrationality," it reads:

 

 - 

 - Stefan inadvertently explains the motivation for trolling.

 

Thoughts? Seems apt, especially the part about feeling victory.

[Kevin Beal]

It's the kind of crazy relativism with people who want to treat everyone with the same degree of respect, care and attention. The "needs" of the crazy person doesn't fundamentally matter because it's all false self bullshit anyway, and so they get the sane person to treat themselves as if their own needs don't matter. And then the crazy person gets to feel like their own whims do matter. It's a vampiric process.

 

When sane people empathize with a true self, this vampirism doesn't happen, so we might not develop defenses against it, becoming sensitive to the narcissism of that kind of interaction. And that makes us prey, and all their rationalizations and excuses serve to keep us that way.

 

I didn't quite get the victory part, unless maybe it's crazy people maintaining that relationship generally, the vampires wanting to protect vampirism as a whole.

 

What do you think?

[Alan C.]

Crazy people are searching for validation by soliciting acknowledgement from others.

[Psychophant]

It's the kind of crazy relativism with people who want to treat everyone with the same degree of respect, care and attention. The "needs" of the crazy person doesn't fundamentally matter because it's all false self bullshit anyway, and so they get the sane person to treat themselves as if their own needs don't matter.

 

 

People who don't define crazy - not as an insult but objectively, despite refering to a person as crazy, are driving me crazy.

[Kevin Beal]

People who don't define crazy - not as an insult but objectively, despite refering to a person as crazy, are driving me crazy.

I mean it very generally. In this case, the same person can be crazy and sane at different times. Crazy describing an incapacity to see the world for what it is, especially if it involves repetitively un-empathetic or destructive behavior. People stuck in some psychological complex and negatively affecting the people around them as a result.

 

The example I gave was really more specific to narcissists and exploiters, who I would put under the more general category: crazy.

 

Does that help? Is that an unhelpful or otherwise lacking definition?

[J. D. Stembal]

An alternative to the word crazy is irrational. It's in the title of the show, so it is applicable is this discussion. It is simpler to define since crazy is clearly a pejorative.

[RuralRon]

Generally speaking, haven't we all been "crazy" in the past, and is it not likely that many of the most "sane" among us will have episodes of crazy irrationality in the future? Can anyone claim to have reached the pinnacle of enlightenment and are thus impervious to emotional triggers for craziness / irrationality?

 

Doesn't facing crazy just call us to take a step back, reflect if we're being short on empathy or pause to consider if withdrawal might be a better course of action than engaging it?

[Mr. Wrong]

Alright. I didn't get much in the way of acknowledgement of my point. At least I don't think so. Maybe I'm missing something?

 

As for what I think, well, I posted it didn't I? I believe it explains trolling to a tee. Bringing someone down to a lower level, tricking them into caring about a non-issue you're lying about just to get their goat, and feeling elated and proud of yourself for dragging them down into the mud with you. It's an attempt to elicit an irrational response from an otherwise rational person and then bringing their failure to their attention with a hearty, "LOL!!!1!!1!!!1"

 

That's what trolling is in my mind. I've spent enough time on youtube to be fairly certain.

[Pepin]

I believe Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden have conveyed similar words, perhaps in regard to some subclass of the social metaphysicians, but perhaps elsewhere.