What is an internet troll?

I believe that our definition of a troll has also changed with the times

So I seem to remember back in the day when an internet troll was considered someone who would work to distract from a discussion, try to turn things ugly, and was relentless at dominating conversations with pure volume. These were people who would were adept at name-calling, spamming, or otherwise just being disruptive. Oh, and don't ever misspell something or forget a comma around a grammar troll.

In fact, there is a meme about how an internet troll is like the pigeon playing chess. The pigeon will knock over all the pieces, shit on the board, and then strut around like it won the game. That is how I see an internet troll.

We have all dealt with them. There was a person back on the old Soars board who would take any and all conversations, turn them into a personal insult regarding the intelligence level of the other person and then always ended his comment with "thanks for playing" as if that insult won the battle (that name is on the tip of my tongue). You had Opie the insulter, James the spammer and grammar police, and of course who can forget Roger, who was a real true do-it-all once in a lifetime trolling talent.

But now that has seemed to be amended to show deference to our current generation of snowflakes. I did some reading on what people see as an internet troll and it turns out there are quite a few different definitions going around. Here is one of those definitions:

"a person on the Internet who intends to sow discord by posting inflammatory messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses, whether for the troll's amusement or a specific gain.”

Now as suggested, there are a ton of different definitions, and some still include what we might traditionally see as a troll. However, in the example the word inflammatory is a fairly generic term that can include a lot of different concepts. What concepts are people particularly concerned with?

Well, the popular opinion right now is that the worst of the worst trolls are not the one who want to shut down a conversation or call someone a name, but rather the person who just wants to garner an emotional reaction. What makes this troll apparently more menacing is that what they post can be true statements or valid arguments, so they are harder to define. But when the design of that true statement or valid argument is to upset someone with a different opinion, then they become the dangerous troll to be avoided at all costs. This would be why so many liberals ran from Twitter/X and over to Bluesky. The idea that they might see or read something that upsets their own way of thinking is actually little more than people trolling. As if the very notion that someone disagrees with you makes then a troll if they provide that opinion.

The other day, on a thread over at Political Wire regarding the chopper plane crash, I used one of my monikers to ask whether or not anyone thought that there was any truth to the argument that the hiring standards had been changed or even lowered during the course of the Biden/Buttigieg Department of Transportation tenure. I was hit with double digit down votes (16) which is the largest number of negative responses I have ever seen on the site. I had multiple people "block me" and was called a "troll" by several people who responded to my comment. Not a single person addressed the question. I had a previous moniker literally banned by Goddard after being flagged by someone (or possibly more than one person) as a "troll" over providing a link to a story that contradicted what was being discussed. For the people over in that particular circle jerk, anyone who questions anything is a troll and will likely see themselves blocked by many of the commenters.

So there you have it. In 2025 it is now considered trolling to go to anywhere that people have a different opinion and question those opinions. At least according to many people in the liberal crowd.