Don't Ignore the Trolls. Feed Them Until They Explode.

[redqueen]

...

I used personal examples there, because I happen to have those on hand (so, so many of those), but this isn't actually about how I, Lindy West, am treated on the internet. This is about how people —particularly women—are treated on the internet when we challenge entrenched power structures.

We are treated like subhuman garbage, and that's because internet trolling is not random—it is a sentient, directed, strong-armed goon of the status quo. And the more we can hammer that truth through the public consciousness, the sooner we can affect the widespread cultural change we need to begin tamping down online hate speech.

One of the pillars of conventional wisdom about internet trolling is that internet trolling just happens. You hear this all the time, from even the most progressive allies: Oh, well, it's the internet. There are trolls. Trolls troll the internet. Rape threats are like oxygen. Whatareyagonnadooooo. So, I'm just supposed to accept that psychological abuse is built into my job and I'm some thin-skinned rube if I complain about it? Easy for you to say, Señor Rando. Not only is that framework supremely unsatisfying for me personally, I'd go so far as to say that it's a dangerous and patently false myth. Internet trolling does not "just happen." It is not some mysterious, ambient inevitability that affects all internet users indiscriminately.
...

Broadly speaking, the type of violent, choreographed, overwhelming hate speech currently battering Creasy and Criado-Perez is directly aligned with our male-supremacist power structure (race is a deeply salient factor too, and unpacking that deserves its own article). I'm trying to think of an instance when anonymous women descended, spewing violent rape or castration threats, upon a man for expressing an opinion as innocuous as Criado-Perez's. I can think of instances of funny, political, retaliatory trolling—like when Twitter feminists co-opted the #INeedMasculismBecause hashtag, or when Rick Perry's Facebook page was deluged with questions about menses. But those are not examples of aggression, they are self-defense. They are not analogous to "I will rape you in an alley" or "Don't leave your phone at home, sweetie." They are reactions to misogyny—the same brand of misogyny that fuels internet trolling. They are women speaking to power—the same power structure that empowers and perpetuates anonymous trolls.

...

I feed trolls. Not always, not every troll, but when I feel like it—when I think it will make me feel better—I talk back. I talk back because the expectation is that when you tell a woman to shut up, she should shut up. I reject that. I talk back because it's fun, sometimes, to rip an abusive dummy to shreds with my friends. I talk back because my mental health is my priority—not some troll's personal satisfaction. I talk back because it emboldens other women to talk back online and in real life, and I talk back because women have told me that my responses give them a script for dealing with monsters in their own lives. And, most importantly, I talk back because internet trolls are not, in fact, monsters. They are human beings—and I don't believe that their attempts to dehumanize me can be counteracted by dehumanizing them. The only thing that fights dehumanization is increased humanization—of me, of them, of marginalized groups in general, of the internet as a whole.



http://jezebel.com/dont-ignore-the-trolls-feed-them-until-they-explode-977453815

More excellent commentary from Lindy West.

[ismnotwasm]

1. This ~~

We are treated like subhuman garbage, and that's because internet trolling is not random—it is a sentient, directed, strong-armed goon of the status quo. And the more we can hammer that truth through the public consciousness, the sooner we can affect the widespread cultural change we need to begin tamping down online hate speech.

One of the pillars of conventional wisdom about internet trolling is that internet trolling just happens. You hear this all the time, from even the most progressive allies: Oh, well, it's the internet. There are trolls. Trolls troll the internet. Rape threats are like oxygen. Whatareyagonnadooooo. So, I'm just supposed to accept that psychological abuse is built into my job and I'm some thin-skinned rube if I complain about it? Easy for you to say, Señor Rando. Not only is that framework supremely unsatisfying for me personally, I'd go so far as to say that it's a dangerous and patently false myth. Internet trolling does not "just happen." It is not some mysterious, ambient inevitability that affects all internet users indiscriminately.

[haikugal]

2. And this....

I feed trolls. Not always, not every troll, but when I feel like it—when I think it will make me feel better—I talk back. I talk back because the expectation is that when you tell a woman to shut up, she should shut up. I reject that. I talk back because it's fun, sometimes, to rip an abusive dummy to shreds with my friends. I talk back because my mental health is my priority—not some troll's personal satisfaction. I talk back because it emboldens other women to talk back online and in real life, and I talk back because women have told me that my responses give them a script for dealing with monsters in their own lives. And, most importantly, I talk back because internet trolls are not, in fact, monsters. They are human beings—and I don't believe that their attempts to dehumanize me can be counteracted by dehumanizing them. The only thing that fights dehumanization is increased humanization—of me, of them, of marginalized groups in general, of the internet as a whole.

Bravo!!

[boston bean]

3. see the passive aggressiveness in this very serious thread about men who

kill their entire family:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023463854

It's passive aggressive misogyny disguised as a joke. lighten up babes!

[redqueen]

4. It's amazing that DU finds such horrific violence to be nothing but fodder for teh lulz

and random personal anecdotes.

Wait, no it isn't.

[BainsBane]

5. It really is disturbing

[ismnotwasm]

6. How interesting

As is who showed up on that thread.

[geek tragedy]

7. Just a coincidence that there are virtually no female trolls who threaten outspoken

men and threaten to violate or castrate them.

[redqueen]

8. Ha yes, just a coincidence...

Sale with the whole violent crime thing. Nothing to see here, no reason to analyze...

[seabeyond]

9. hey geek... having read that those of us that are continually attacked are at fault

for not being more pleasant, i started thinking of the handful on du that are continually attacked and how it is allowed.

you know what i realized with all the unapologetic vocal people that are continually attacked?

all the people that say what they have to say without tippy toeing?

ALL of them???

four or five....

wait for it

four or five

WOMEN.

not a single fuckin' man is treated in this manner. all women that speak out on topic, not attacking others, but the manner they address an issue.

rubs some people the wrong way.

so

whose fuckin fault is that???

[geek tragedy]

10. under basic principles of fairness and justice, one gets a different answer

than the answer provided under the norms of the patriarchy

[seabeyond]

11. fuck 'em redq. simply... fuck 'em. they are pathetic human beings. nt

[redqueen]

12. They have an agenda - silencing women.

It's sad how so many still keep deluding themselves with all that whaddayagonnadoooooo shit.

[seabeyond]

13. oh... sigh, so. nt