Dealing With Online Trolls
I recently made the mistake of stepping into the snares of an online troll. I was reading a political op-ed with an anti-Trump perspective (on another writing platform) when I decided to peruse the comments. The commentor, obviously MAGA, accused the female writer of being “stupid, ignorant and clueless.” Instead of addressing the content of the essay, the comments were personal insults. This galled me. So stupidly I responded.
I replied, “Since you’re happy with a sexual abuser as president, why don’t we scour our prison system for an embezzler as Secretary of Commerce, a medical fraudster as Secretary of Health and an arsonist as head of the EPA. Please stop polluting the world with your deranged projections.”
Oops.
The retribution came fast and furious. In the next hour this anonymous entity lobbed digital IED’s, venomous hate speech and defamatory personal attacks in my direction. He (I’m assuming it was a man) called me an “utterly clueless imbecile,” “a totally pathetic excuse for a human being” and “a very ignorant writer with his head up his own ass.”
Once again I replied complementing the Troll on his choice of adjectives but reminding him of Stephen King’s advice to avoid adverbs since they suggest amateurish writing. This triggered him to hurl a half-dozen more insults my way. Over the next few days he…
