Could be, though I’d question the prolificness. I guess that’s why the mods come down on us so hard. You can’t be certain of anything because…well, there ARE Russian bot-farms, Trumpers (even teams of them operating in tandem), and of course True Believers ™, and short of catching the guy in the act and examining his rig, you can’t be sure what you’re dealing with. That said, IMO, there’s not really a huge difference between them when it comes to debunking them. A vote for a third party is a vote for the major party most opposed to your third party in the USA. At least until we get RCV in more places!
What makes trolls so difficult to stamp out is they enjoy the process. You used to be able to starve them by depriving them of interaction, but after qanon demonstrated that internet trolling can have real-world effects, that method stopped working. Now it’s a combination of fun and political activism. Where fun leaves off as a motivation, the activism takes over and vice-versa. The combo can reasonably make one extremely prolific, just like how somebody can spend a whole day playing a video game they really like.
The only way to truly combat them at the community level nowadays is to embrace your inner teenager and approach them with the exact same duo of motivations. Since I’m also engaging in an entertaining process, while hopefully providing some education on trolling techniques and critical thinking, I can match his enthusiasm to the extent that real life allows me.
The rest is just checking your phone for notifications regularly, which I do anyway. lol
Could be, though I’d question the prolificness. I guess that’s why the mods come down on us so hard. You can’t be certain of anything because…well, there ARE Russian bot-farms, Trumpers (even teams of them operating in tandem), and of course True Believers ™, and short of catching the guy in the act and examining his rig, you can’t be sure what you’re dealing with. That said, IMO, there’s not really a huge difference between them when it comes to debunking them. A vote for a third party is a vote for the major party most opposed to your third party in the USA. At least until we get RCV in more places!
What makes trolls so difficult to stamp out is they enjoy the process. You used to be able to starve them by depriving them of interaction, but after qanon demonstrated that internet trolling can have real-world effects, that method stopped working. Now it’s a combination of fun and political activism. Where fun leaves off as a motivation, the activism takes over and vice-versa. The combo can reasonably make one extremely prolific, just like how somebody can spend a whole day playing a video game they really like.
The only way to truly combat them at the community level nowadays is to embrace your inner teenager and approach them with the exact same duo of motivations. Since I’m also engaging in an entertaining process, while hopefully providing some education on trolling techniques and critical thinking, I can match his enthusiasm to the extent that real life allows me.
The rest is just checking your phone for notifications regularly, which I do anyway. lol