Nerd Church - An Unpopular Opinion On the 'Don't Feed the Trolls' Campaign

There's a new campaign in the UK using the previously informal hashtag of #DontFeedTheTrolls.

The Center For Countering Digital Hate advises that you don't engage with trolls. 

Ignore, block, report. Rinse, repeat.

Now, that's certainly not a bad option for dealing with trolling.

And you should ALWAYS feel that you can use the mute, block, report options, or some variant thereof, if you want to.

Cos you owe no-one, and you need to protect your mental health. Take care, ok?




So, what's my unpopular opinion?



Well, I think this campaign is overly-simplistic and dismissive.

You want an explanation? You should know by now that I never have one reason for anything!

Sit down and buckle-up:




- We simply don't live in a simple world

Yes, it would be great if one simple solution fixed a complex global social problem.

It won't.

People are messy and complex and nuanced, and this is the kind of black-and-white, cut-and-dried, solution that sounds good, but in reality does little to actually fix the problem.

Via Giphy

- This puts the blame on the victim...

You're being trolled? Oh well, you should just ignore it. If you ignore it, it stops dontcha know! If it hasn't stopped... well, you can't have ignored it right!

We've seen this 'you should've...' argument many times before. It ignores the fact that the trolls are the ones perpetrating the abuse.

It ALSO blames the victim for spreading the ideology of the troll, albeit inadvertantly.

How about we blame the troll for spreading the ideology of the troll? Just a thought.





- ...And empowers the trolls

Trolls already claim that people are 'scared' of debate, that people who support tolerance are somehow fragile and weak and can't handle their views being challenged.

Do you think this will stop that? It will just re-inforce those toxic social media bubbles we keep hearing about.





- It tells marginalised people to be quiet and ignore hatred

While it does advise reporting, and reporting to police if necessary, the message that marginalised people should not talk about the abuse they're receiving is... well, basically, horrible.



Marginalised people finding their voice and speaking against hatred is what trolls fear the most. 

And yes, there's backlash to that.

Many trolls are like wounded lions, backed into a corner. But that doesn't mean we should stop living our lives.

(I realise this metaphor was unfair to lions who are beautiful beasts who should never be injured and backed into a corner by human beings. They also don't have the capacity for cruelty that trolls possess. Lions rock.)

Via Giphy

Telling marginalised people to be quiet is essentially the very thing the majority of trolls want (esp. the right-wing kind.)

There's also an element of tone policing to that.

I'm not saying that the way to get things done is by automatically gettting angry, whether at trolls or at anyone else... what I'm saying is that denying the anger of marginalised people is a silencing technique.





- Context is everything

If there's 50 likes on that person's abusive comment, and only 5 likes on the positive comment next to it, then that goddamn abusive comment is already getting support and being spread.

Leaving it like that and not engaging implies that both it and the support it gets is acceptable.

So, yeah, sometimes you have to tell that person off, if only to show that it's NOT acceptable.

Historically, bad things happen when people stay silent in the face of hatred.




- Cultural differences are often lost in translation

...To be clear, I mean the translation from English to... well, English.

Someone might regard something as trolling, when it's meant in an entirely different way.



As a Brit, I'm still perplexed by the way many Americans, in particular, miss levels of nuance and sarcasm. Especially sarcasm. 

Via Giphy

A lot of Americans will only pick up the surface sarcasm, and in British conversation, sarcasm runs through most, if not all, of the layers.

I find that a lot of Americans take offence to polite conversation, whereas I've seen Brits actively trying to insult Americans and... they just don't get it; they think the Brit is being really nice.

Likewise, I get confused sometimes by Americans who are overly-sincere because... surely they're being sarcastic...? No-one is that brutally emphatic...? But no, apparently they mean it. Who knew.




As a good Welsh girl, I also end up inadvertantly offending people by using endearments. Because apparently people from other cultures don't use endearments like we do..?

It's perfectly normal for me to fill conversations with 'lovely,' 'sweetheart,' 'honey,' 'love,' 'cariad,' 'babes,' and many, many others. It's just what we do - our culture is loving. Sorry. *Shrugs*

I literally had a waitress the other day who called me and my friend 'babes' at the end of every sentence. It wasn't being offensive - it was being friendly.

And yes, we use endearments in arguments. Partly to de-escalate, and partly to point out that we disagree, but we still love you.

Sometimes, yes, there's a sarcastic edge - because we're British - but it's an edge, not all the way through.




No, if I wanted to address you in an offensive way, sweetie, it would actually sound quite polite: sir, madam, miss, mister, missus (no surname - surnames negate the offense.)

(But it's ok for, for example, a shopworker to call you sir or madam if they're serving you - yes, I know, our social interactions are uber-complex.)




- What even is a troll?


Some trolls are easy to spot: threats and slurs are pretty much a guarantee that you're dealing with one.

But others?

The line between abuse and debate is a lot less clear-cut than we'd like to think.



And while I've never been called a troll, I have been called a 'Twitter bully' (by someone getting defensive over Cultural Appropriation)

...and a 'sexist fake-news person' (by someone getting defensive over their racist theories on Asians taking all the jobs in the US despite the fact that they're already rich... or something equally bizarre.)

Not gonna lie, being called a 'sexist fake-news person' made me laugh. A lot. 😂😅

Via Giphy

My point, though, is that the people who called me that would probably put me in the categary of 'troll' - simply because I disagree with them and speak out against hatred.

Life ain't as clear-cut as we'd like, dearest nerdlets.

For all that though - there is a golden rule: do what's right for you.

Use the tools available to you on social media platforms.

Understand that you do NOT have to put up with anything, you don't owe anyone anything (except if you like, have a loan or something...) and YOU are important!

It's also totally OK for you disagree with any and all of my points (maybe not the ones involving slurs, just saying...) - it's just what I think *shrugs* 😊

What do you think?

Is there a single effective option to combat trolls?

Can we all agree on who the trolls even are?

Talk to me! 😎💬

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Previous Nerd Church Posts:

• Nerd Church - It's My Birthday (And I'll Cry If I Want To)

• Nerd Church - Caffeinated Current Events: We're F**ked (Like, Even More Than We Were Before)

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Last updated: 25th Nov 2019