Trolls provoke for pleasure, not to persuade anyone
Evidence
In any case, the motivation is not proselytizing for a belief, but the pleasure in provocation. … Contrary to what the name suggests, the provocation of trolls is by no means always clumsy, but can have the character of a sophisticated intellectual game. In any case, the main goal is to make the other person look bad. To this end, trolls like to use logically incorrect argumentation such as trick questions, black-and-white thinking, or appeals to seemingly unassailable authorities or to “nature.” It is equally popular to make an assertion and demand that it be considered true until proven otherwise. A popular variant of this, especially in social networks, is the linking of YouTube videos, sometimes lasting several hours, to which a statement is then demanded, possibly with the announcement that the video contains new arguments that have never been heard before. If someone actually takes the trouble to watch the video and respond appropriately, then the troll can simply link the next video with a promise of even newer and more spectacular arguments. If you draw the troll’s attention to the inadmissibility of his argumentation or explicitly refuse to respond to it, then you give him the opportunity to put himself in a victim role. — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 303
Categorization
- SHARE: The YouTube video-escalation tactic is a specific, grimly recognizable pattern worth forwarding to any friend who moderates an online space.
- XREF: Ties to the illusory-truth effect and to the general theme of bad epistemologies from the book’s opening chapters. — connects to: Trolling is a personality-driven abuse of conversational decorum linked to sadism and psychopathy — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 986