He asked a random girl out in the middle of the street. How does a personality with over confidence like that conflict with an internet troll's personality?
Whenever I’ve imagined these trolls, I’ve always envisioned balding, middle-aged men sitting in their mom’s basement and snickering as they stir up trouble on the random websites. Or maybe skinny, teenagers and/or college students with acne busting out all over their forehead, patting themselves on the back and feeling superior to all the stupid internet people who fall for their prank.
He is not balding. He is not socially awkward.
Whoa whoa. Why the hate against skinny or balding or middle-aged men? Those are perfectly decent people.
And why does she consider the trolling of her boyfriend like being cheated on? That's a complete non-sequitur, he is not your slave, he is your boyfriend. Wow, he did something she did not know in his spare time. Big deal. What a self-made problem.
She is building him up in her brain as someone that he's not. Similar to what people do with those they respect in authority positions or very accomplished. "Wow look at the way that Paul Graham gets yelled at by his mother that's so surprising!".
Also I think you have to separate the "balding middle age" from those that "are middle age that live in Mom's basement".
Living in Mom's basement whether middle aged or not (regardless of hair loss) is probably makes you (except if there are mitigating circumstances) what we would perhaps call "a loser". Otoh it's clear that being middle aged and bald is literally meaningless in terms of what you have achieved and something you have no control over (unlike having to live in your mom's basement except if there are mitigating circumstances). [1]
Now notice I said "mitigating circumstances" so yes there are valid reasons why someone might have to live with their mother (at any point) but as a generality if you were taking a 100 people like that not the case.
[1] Notice even with this that if your mom was wealthy and she had an estate and you lived in a big house with a wing of your own (or an outhouse) it wouldn't be viewed the same way but perhaps even with a halo around it. So specifically here the issues is "basement" or "ordinary house bedroom" that causes the deprecation of the individual (as well as the age).
Edit: Explanation of downvotes would be appreciated.
'Troll' seems to be a name for someone whose opinions you disagree with. Since internet is a huge echo chamber, any sign of contrary opinion is seen as trolling (like 'Are you serious?' or 'This guy must be trolling'). Calling someone a 'troll' is a psychological defense mechanism where a person is trying to use a label (i.e. do ad hominem) instead of rethinking their beliefs, which is hard to do.
An overused meme: "Trolling used to mean something" specifically, it meant baiting people into flamewars/arguments that the troll didn't necessarily agree with, but which provoked a response that gave them their fun. If we trust the author's opinion of their boyfriend, then he is probably doing just that, using hyperbole to troll people online.
This is very interesting writing but it's a "so what".
What if she had found out that her boyfriend fantasizes about other women that he sees? [1] If trolling (and I don't like that term btw) makes him happy in some way, then what is wrong with that? It's not a drug habit or that type of "addiction". It's not overeating. It's not harming small pets or children. (Ditto for fantasies). I say "better that than some other potentially harmful things.
My wife doesn't know that I comment here. I am sure she might view it as a waste of time and laugh at me. But I don't know what she does that might be equivalent. I don't know how she spends here day (and I don't want to know). If people do something that is relatively harmless why does it need to be criticized? Troll is a very loose term anyway. A way of putting someone down often and painting them in a bad light (same way eccentric paints a rich person in a good light vs. "crazy").
[1] Because you know that he does that and she probably does as well (about men that is) it's the type of thing that people typically keep secret. Ditto for viewing porn. She wouldn't be happy (neither would I) but really why does this matter?
It's concerning because it reveals something about the way he views other people. There's an old saying that you should carefully watch how your date treats the waiting staff because that is how they will treat you one day.
The fact that Internet trolling has become commonplace doesn't make it acceptable. I don't say that just because it damages the emotions of the victim but because it tends to warp the minds of those that perpetrate it.
To the OP I would say that she should be extremely careful in trying to tackle this herself which is what she sounds like she is trying to do. I wish the best for both her and Chris.
Can you even imagine the furor that would occur if the article had been written by a man and had been titled "Help: My Girlfriend is (anything negative whatsoever)"?
The SJWs and feminists would be out in force condemning the man for criticizing his girlfriend's behavior online and for invading her privacy.
Ironically, this is probably fake. Reddit doesn't send emails for comment replies, or for anything, pretty much. (There's newsletters, and password reset, but nothing consistent with how it's described.)
This sounds like what someone would write if they were making something up rather than a genuine story.
Also, the NYT is pretty well moderated, you wouldn't get away with trolling there, I think.
Not sure that it matters even if it is real though.
It's close enough to what you believe might happen. I see many more things that are even much clearer in terms of potentially being made up (even posted here on HN frequently) [1] that it reminds me of back in the day contests to see who could get 'Dear Abby' to answer some letter (that was something that was done by college students many many years ago).
[1] Always the same theme "here is something shitty that happened to me don't they suck what should I do".
15 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 39.4 ms ] threadHe is not balding. He is not socially awkward.
Whoa whoa. Why the hate against skinny or balding or middle-aged men? Those are perfectly decent people.
And why does she consider the trolling of her boyfriend like being cheated on? That's a complete non-sequitur, he is not your slave, he is your boyfriend. Wow, he did something she did not know in his spare time. Big deal. What a self-made problem.
Also I think you have to separate the "balding middle age" from those that "are middle age that live in Mom's basement".
Living in Mom's basement whether middle aged or not (regardless of hair loss) is probably makes you (except if there are mitigating circumstances) what we would perhaps call "a loser". Otoh it's clear that being middle aged and bald is literally meaningless in terms of what you have achieved and something you have no control over (unlike having to live in your mom's basement except if there are mitigating circumstances). [1]
Now notice I said "mitigating circumstances" so yes there are valid reasons why someone might have to live with their mother (at any point) but as a generality if you were taking a 100 people like that not the case.
[1] Notice even with this that if your mom was wealthy and she had an estate and you lived in a big house with a wing of your own (or an outhouse) it wouldn't be viewed the same way but perhaps even with a halo around it. So specifically here the issues is "basement" or "ordinary house bedroom" that causes the deprecation of the individual (as well as the age).
Edit: Explanation of downvotes would be appreciated.
What if she had found out that her boyfriend fantasizes about other women that he sees? [1] If trolling (and I don't like that term btw) makes him happy in some way, then what is wrong with that? It's not a drug habit or that type of "addiction". It's not overeating. It's not harming small pets or children. (Ditto for fantasies). I say "better that than some other potentially harmful things.
My wife doesn't know that I comment here. I am sure she might view it as a waste of time and laugh at me. But I don't know what she does that might be equivalent. I don't know how she spends here day (and I don't want to know). If people do something that is relatively harmless why does it need to be criticized? Troll is a very loose term anyway. A way of putting someone down often and painting them in a bad light (same way eccentric paints a rich person in a good light vs. "crazy").
[1] Because you know that he does that and she probably does as well (about men that is) it's the type of thing that people typically keep secret. Ditto for viewing porn. She wouldn't be happy (neither would I) but really why does this matter?
The fact that Internet trolling has become commonplace doesn't make it acceptable. I don't say that just because it damages the emotions of the victim but because it tends to warp the minds of those that perpetrate it.
To the OP I would say that she should be extremely careful in trying to tackle this herself which is what she sounds like she is trying to do. I wish the best for both her and Chris.
The SJWs and feminists would be out in force condemning the man for criticizing his girlfriend's behavior online and for invading her privacy.
Chris?
This sounds like what someone would write if they were making something up rather than a genuine story.
Also, the NYT is pretty well moderated, you wouldn't get away with trolling there, I think.
Not sure that it matters even if it is real though.
It's close enough to what you believe might happen. I see many more things that are even much clearer in terms of potentially being made up (even posted here on HN frequently) [1] that it reminds me of back in the day contests to see who could get 'Dear Abby' to answer some letter (that was something that was done by college students many many years ago).
[1] Always the same theme "here is something shitty that happened to me don't they suck what should I do".
You can get them as RSS, though, and there are third party tools that will turn an RSS feed into email. See:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChangeMon/comments/32zmji/get_email...