I’ve been on a mini quest to try and get my Twitter account banned without doing anything strictly against the ToS and my first idea was to start messing with people who say something completely untrue, then refuse to back down under any circumstances. But that got me thinking, is it okay? I’m not outright insulting/cyber bullying them, more just arguing with them with a little bit of sarcasm.
It’s not necessarily unethical, but it’s usually a waste of time. Kinda like Twitter.
I guess instead of bullying them you could agree with them but go into a more extreme and absurd direction than them that they start thinking you are crazy. Like if someone talks about flat earth then agree and say the earth is also filled with holes that leads to portals which is what gives the illusion of the earth being round, and that they are run by celestial beings who were created by tadpoles who ruled over our galaxy billions of years ago before departing into being portal keepers. And that the circles are a lie and that even balls do not exist and are just actually cubes that are operating on another dimension that vibrates so fast the movement gives the illusion of a globe which is an impossibility if you look at the true physics papers written by Einstein that the overlords want to keep hidden from us. And you know this because you have gained access to the third eye and can now see all truths on all planes of reality.
Can you make a community where you do a weekly conspiracy theory based on a few keywords given by the public or something? I would follow that.
Though i agree it could be fun at first, conspiracies are legit dangerous. People are so desperate for meaning, 17% of Americans believe the government is lead by a kabaal of satanic lizard people eating babies and shit like that.
My mom is deep into the rabbit hole of nonsense, and it genuinely consumes her. Nearly all her friends abandoned her, she almost lost her job, and that’s only reinforcing these convictions. If something like January 6th was happening in my country, I bet you, she’d be there. The time conspiracies were harmless fun are gone. They ruin people’s lives.Be very careful with what you come up with. 4chan does this and it’s done an incredible amount of harm.
Like with many weapons and tactics of manipulation, it depends on the circumstances. Using it for offense and defense are fairly different, for instance. It’s essentially a form of cyberbullying though, and one should certainly be aware of that if they choose to partake.
Frankly though, I personally think trolls trolling trolls is a time-honored tradition of the internet since at very least the early days of the first big chat rooms. This frankly is not yet a world where one can necessarily exist free from digital violence, so having some personal skills for identifying and dealing with trolling can be helpful. And there’s really only one way to get them.
If you’re gonna troll, that’s a good place to do it. Everyone else is. Except the small handful of poor journalists (or interns) who still have to monitor it for actual news anyway. Poor fools.
The most poignant thing I ever read from a 4chan greentext:
“Ironic shitposting is still shitposting”
Do with that nugget of information what you will.
