In Order To Beat ‘Em, You Have to Know Their Game …
In order to beat Internet trolls, you have to know their strategies.
Below are 17 common games played by trolls to disrupt our power to learn, inform, and organize on the web …
1. Threaten those who speak out, to try to intimidate them and their readers into silence.
2. Misquote the Bible to pretend that God commands us to be obedient slaves to authority … even if the powers-that-be are downright tyrants.
3. Start a partisan divide-and-conquer fight or otherwise push emotional buttons to sow discord and ensure that cooperation is thwarted. Get people fighting against each other instead of the 3corrupt powers-that-be. Use baseless caricatures to rile everyone up.
For example, start a religious war whenever possible using stereotypes
like “all Jews are selfish”, “all Christians are crazy” or “all Muslims
are terrorists”. Accuse the author of being a gay, pro-abortion
limp-wristed wimp or being a fundamentalist pro-war hick when the
discussion has nothing to do with abortion, sexuality, religion, war or
region. Appeal to people’s basest prejudices and biases. And (as
explained by H. Michael Sweeney’s 25 Rules of Disinformation) push the author into a defensive posture:
Sidetrack opponents with name calling and ridicule … Associate opponents with unpopular titles such as “kooks”, “right-wing”, “liberal”, “left-wing”, “terrorists”, “conspiracy buffs”, “radicals”, “militia”, “racists”, “religious fanatics”, “sexual deviates”, and so forth. This makes others shrink from support out of fear of gaining the same label, and you avoid dealing with issues.
(The person trying to smear reputation may not be a random knucklehead … he may, in fact, be a government agent, or a member of the group he’s smearing.)
4. Question motives. Twist or amplify any fact which could so taken
to imply that the opponent operates out of a hidden personal agenda or
other bias. This avoids discussing issues and forces the accuser on the
defensive. Or accuse the author of being a narcissist.
5. Pretend it’s hopeless because we’ll be squashed if we try. For
example, every time a whistleblower leaks information, say “he’s going
to be bumped off”. If people talk about protesting, organizing,
boycotting, shareholder activism, spreading the real facts, moving our
money or taking other constructive action, write