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Troll for a Day


You know what really pisses me off? Trolls. Trolls are abusers who hide behind computer screens and tear people down. They lurk in the comments sections, ready to pounce, waiting for someone to point out their fallacies so they can attack. Ugh, I hate bullies. I really hate them. And I really hate watching them get away with it.

In the past, when I saw a troll I would disengage and slip out of whatever dust cloud they were trying to stir up. As someone who has a low tolerance threshold for assholes, this was probably a good idea. But now that I've unlocked some of my anger, it's time to fight back. Of course, engaging in any kind of reasonable argument is futile and crazy-making. However, I decided that for one day, I'm going to indulge myself.

For one day, I'm going to troll the trolls. Whenever some troll attacks or acts in an abusive way, I'll post memes about abuse. I'll attach the definitions for gaslighting and word salad. I'll poke holes in their line of thinking. For one day, I will call out their behavior to their face. Maybe I will hashtag it. #TrolltheTrolls

I don't actually believe that this will do any good for them, but it might do some good for me. I have been hiding behind a facade of "niceness" all my life. I rarely call out strangers, because I see the futility in it. But, what if, for a day, I do? Even in situations of bullying and physical violence, I was taught to never fight back. "Don't argue, just walk away." I grew up in an area that was aggressive and confrontational, for no good reason other than to intimidate the other. In elementary school, I was slapped just because I was standing there. In middle school, I was targeted, just because. It didn't matter. And yet, I didn't do anything about it. If I fought back, I was the one who was being bad and wrong. If you've been reading along, you already know that I was taught all sorts of things by my abusers that made me absorb all their cruel deeds and kept me squarely under their power. Sometimes, fighting back is the answer. Not for them, but for you.

I do believe, in most cases, that there is little to be gained from arguing with a fool. But when you've been silenced into arguing with no one, it's time to test some waters. I used to freeze up in situations where bullies were allowed to exert their cruel and senseless behavior, so now it's time to unfreeze. As a woman of a certain age, I am no longer in situations where people around me are threatening physical harm, but there is a ton of cyber-bullying I see every day. Most of what I see now is intellectual bullying. People who think they are *so* smart and therefore superior to everyone else piss all over themselves and others with their warped thoughts. I'll pick a day when I have some time to set aside to troll the trolls, and I'll let you know how the experiment goes.
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