• intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    I always kind of wonder generally why it is that the time-tested and great advice of “don’t feed the trolls”

    For the same reason “if you see something, say something” would stop getting adhered to if people got sloppy, or self-serving, with their interpretations of the word “something”.

    The concept of “troll” used to mean: Inducing a person to spend lots of effort responding to some nonsense, as a way of messing with them.

    Now the word “troll” refers to: Any and all bad actors online. Which includes people who ask me politely for sources when I make bold claims. They’re the baddies, and I know because of this baddie checklist:

    • Polite
    • Asking questions
    • Claims to want to understand me
    • Wants to see sources