Trolling The Internet (satire)

Over the years, I have observed people online, mainly by trolling, and have found that the difference between ignorance and stupidity is that ignorance depends on the person's will while stupidity is bereft of it.

For example, an ignorant person can have a master's degree but be a right wing racist who has authored a lot of opinions to prove that a person's intelligence is determined by his race. However, a stupid person will use the ignorant author's words to bully anyone he thinks beneath him, regardless of color.

When caught, the ignorant will behave righteously but the stupid will utter threats until he is called out. Then they'll move on to easier pickings.

In the end, you shall realize you have been trolled if you ever took their bait.

Yet the intelligent of people will never reveal their biases and prejudices so candidly because the Internet appears to attract narcissists who desire attention (the more selfish of the trolls), empaths (the idolaters of trolls of all stripes), sociopaths of varying degrees of failure and success, and everyone else who display varying shades of normality.

Therefore, it is difficult to categorize people based on what they disclose online, since their candidness and subsequent ability to remain truthful is dependent on our ability to separate fiction from fact while dispelling rumors.

Yet the more intelligent the person, the more likely he may either be a successful sociopath or be merely an adorable eccentric. However, these labels of empath, narcissist and sociopath are not diagnoses but are descriptions of Internet personalities based on what each and everyone on the Internet have said and/or written.

Even so, I do not base my descriptions on chance conversations in an Internet community on Googleplus, except to test the waters. That is what a troll is: the online analog of a depth charge designed to stun your followers until someone who might be worthy of dialog comes along to troll me back!

Thus, I tend to believe that, regardless of whether they are aware of it or not, most people on Google Plus might troll out of ignorance, just to test the waters but most likely to reassure themselves according to their intelligence.

Think of the empath as little fish, the narcissist as tuna who subsist on the empaths' adulation, and sociopaths as the shark who only pick off the little fish but cull the narcissists when they get too full of themselves. Think of the sociopath as the fisher throwing depth charges to bring to the surface the (re)action of people, depending on their level of intelligence.

Then, when you find someone as intelligent as you, try not to project your empathy, your narcissism or your sociopathy on that person lest you scare them away.

For s/he probably is as intelligent as you, intelligent enough not to be deliberately ignorant and certainly not as stupid as you would like to think.


Why do you think s/he is here? Except to be entertained by the little fishies of the Internet and to make friends with the other big fish in this microcosm of the world we live in, wherever that may be.

Enjoy trolling, but remember: the Internet is not solely a catch and carry feeding ground. It is a little catch and release pond. The more you release, the more you get to troll.