Tag: trolling

A word of advice

I’m a veteran of various online battles during the 00s, from the days of IMDB message boards to the message boards of Reddit and Free Republic. I also dabbled in shitposting and trolling on Twitter and the days of MySpace. I officially retired in 2020.

Kids point and laugh at my advanced age, but let me tell ya something: there ain’t nothing I haven’t seen. So listen to me when I say that NO ONE is undefeated in internet battles.

I’m not gonna name any names, but I’ve seen one too many caustic personalities, championed by their legion of followers, playing with fire. Remember all the pre-2016 trolls that created an internet culture which led to Donald Trump? They’re all laughingstocks now. You think your followers will always have your back? That’s a false sense of security. The sad reality is that all of your followers have a love/hate relationship with you.

They WANT to see you fail.

And the bigger you are, the harder you fall. So heed my advice, grasshopper: one day you will get absolutely OWNED. So choose your battles wisely.

Personal note: I was not referencing you Joe Newcomer. Keep up the good fight 😁👍

the art of trolling

Oh to be young again.

I say that internet trolling has gotten BETTER since my day of IMDb message boards and AOL chat rooms. It was easier then. People were far more gullible.

Kids today are craftier, resourceful.

They rarely tip their hand.

A good example is the “fuck.atheism” accounts on Instagram. Of course, I’m assuming that they are trolls (allegedly ran by some jailbird named “Brandon Walsh”). For the sake of my sanity, I have to believe that they are.

Take a look:

This is “fuck.atheism.5”. This is number 5 of 6 accounts with this name and avatar.

“Obviously that’s a troll,” you might say.

I wouldn’t be so sure:

“So the guy’s committed to the bit. Kudos to him,” you say.

Yeah, I suppose. But…Jesus, who the fuck is this for?

Look, in my day, I probably could have pulled something close to this out of my ass. But if this is a bit, where’s the parody? Is it the blatant science denialism? I would have never of wasted that much time for a joke!

See what I mean?

This is either skill or overzealousness. And it pisses me off that I can’t tell which it is.

“Who cares?”

Well for posterity’s sake, I think things like this should be recorded and analyzed. We are either looking at modern art or batshit insanity. Or maybe it’s both.

Someone has to explain to future generations what we were doing with the internet. And that’s what this website’s all about.

I’m a historian. Not a shitposter.