Matthew Gates 5m 1,281 #troll
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Something I’ve always been good at and take delight in is being a troll. I know, get a life. Most people would think such things and they wouldn’t be completely wrong. Thing is… I have a life and in my up-time, and in downtime, I’m always doing a bunch of things, but when I’m really in downtime, just scrolling the Facebook feeds, and I see a something that requires comment, especially to troll, I can’t help myself.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s day. I am a troll because I like to educate and enlighten people. I like to play the Devil’s advocate. I like to often prove them wrong or show them facts. I don’t usually argue too much with emotion, but I do enjoy landing a witty comment or just a jab, at anyone. I don’t really discriminate because once you do, you become a racist, a bigot, a zealot, a Trump supporter, an asshole, or anything else that I’ve been called.
So everyone is trolled regardless of whether they are gay, transgender, black, white, female, male, alien, dog, cat, lesbian, bi-sexual, Asian, Mexican, Muslim, Christian, Jewish. I don’t really care. We’ve all got things about our society, our culture, our religion, and our people with a belief or skin color that makes us all unique and different, and even with our senses of humor. And just for the helluvit, no one is exempt. Parents. Single moms. Single dads. Divorced. Children. Although I take a slightly lighter touch on children.
There are just some things I will not tolerate or dive out myself, and that is vulnerable children, most animals, the mentally and physically disabled, and anyone who is attacked and is less fortunate than others. I will protect anyone in need. But I like truth and, thanks to my mother, and my entire life, and having lived enough life to not really give a shit at this point who stays and who goes in my life, I prefer to just call it out like it is.
I am hardly exempt from this as well, as I have come across other trolls who have sometimes won their battles, but it is not too often where I am defeated with nothing left to say. Before I make any comment, I often take just a few seconds, sometimes even a minute or two, to think of some type of witty comment. This comment is intended for educational purposes as well as to cause others to be triggered, and to understand how they respond to my comments.
As you know from this website, if you’ve ever paid real attention to it, I tend to run experiments on people from time to time, sometimes on the visitors of this website, sometimes on social media, and even sometimes on something random that I will eventually report on. Almost everything in this world is fair game for me to test the limits of anyone and anything.
To further understand the power of a troll, you would have to understand the mind of a troll, and especially their primary choice of weapon, which is often memes. I love memes. I can’t tell you everything about everything nor the chaos that goes on in my head, but what I can tell you is that I don’t live to make anyone’s life miserable. I just live to try and have philosophical discussions and conversations with people. Hardly does it ever happen that way, though.
The other day, I decided to leave a comment about Greta Thunberg. The comment was not meant to offend Greta at all. In fact, I do have respect for Greta and understand her own vision and challenges, as it is not easy to market yourself and get a following. She’s done it and will continue to do it for her lifetime. So when I posted, it was actually directed at how parents raise their kids and the voice of Greta, who once said to the world’s leaders, “How dare you!” Her intentions were good to try and ask leaders why her generation would have to suffer.
Of course, there is some controversy in this statement and many people may disagree with her, while many people do agree. However, for the purposes of this article, that is not really what I am focused on. I was focused on the issue with people’s inability to focus on the actual statement of others.
Here is how it happened. I saw this posted the other day by a media group I follow on Facebook, as you see above.. The article just said that the “Greta Thunberg Effect” is real. I don’t disagree with the headline nor did I disagree with the article. However, I thought there was some humor in this, because if Greta can convince anyone to do anything, than so she can convince your children. So I said, “Show this to your children, and they’ll be right again.” The Giphy image was of Greta Thunberg’s moment of her saying, “How dare you.” I’m sure many of you parents out there sometimes think about this with your children.
A woman comes along to say that I must feel like a strong man for making fun of a “little girl” to which I had to laugh at because I wasn’t making fun of a little girl at all. She is also not little anymore, as several years have gone by since she’s made that statement, and Greta is actually 18 years old.
The comments continue on as I also defend myself, with a guy saying that kids should be able to be their own individual person. As a parent, you know that as kids, you are to help them, encourage them, and raise them to grow properly, but you also know that while they come with some personality traits that are specific to their own environment, as well as their soul, and including your own habits, children are technically a blank canvas and could not just go out into the world on their own without some formal parenting or training.
Finally, a woman comes along and says that my children — I don’t have any yet — will never be mentioned because they’ll never be known, while Greta will always be known. This is a true statement. However, she doesn’t know that I’ve written a book. Not that the book will make me known, or maybe it will. You just never know!
Again, I come to my own defense, before several people who finally get what I was referencing make their own comments and agree with me. So that is a day in the life of some of my trolling. This is not a one-time occurrence and happens quite often. I love being a troll. I love being trolled or people who make attempts at trolling. I think it’s quite interesting and enjoyable, though sometimes it can be frustrating, as trolling comes at a price: despite your trolling, no one is really in the comment section to learn anything. They are just there to make their own comments and move on.
So although I may spend time offending and defending myself, it hardly matters in the long scheme of things. Though technically, if I was on Twitter, or I suppose it can be used on Facebook, that if I am caught saying something, as a troll, it will be used against me in our cancel culture society. I’m hardly worried. If I am cancelled, then that just means I have less people talking to me or wanting to deal with me, so not many more than what I have in my life now.
Thanks for reading, trolls.
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