The trolls have organized, industrialized, and multiplied like cockroaches. They have also changed from a few phbb forum assholes posting to stir shit and bait people to agenda-driven agents of propaganda. They no longer subsist on lols from making people mad, they get paid money or tribal power.

Also, F the victim blaming that, what...? People should sit back and let the trolls have it all? The fault isn't with the individuals replying, it's with the service provider that willingly accepts and pushes such activity for profit and engagement.

I'm so happy I was introduced to the 'net in the 90's - when the mantra was "don't believe everything you read on the internet."

It's too bad that fell out of vogue.

Everyone acting like this is a problem with algorithms or whatever. Nah, algorithms have nothing to do with it. Humans are just this stupid and will follow their desire to be "right" even if it leads them off a cliff. I mean, Lemmy loves feeding trolls. No one on Lemmy seems to understand the concept of "block and move on" (not that I'm totally guilt-free, I love feeding trolls for the same reason I love feeding campfires).

No one on Lemmy will just ignore the trolls. Quite honestly, I'm wondering if the Internet should adopt a new strategy: mock the troll-feeders. If you catch someone engaging with a troll, you start making fun of them for feeding it. Make it clear that's why you're mocking them. Then maybe they'll grow a brain and stop feeding them (except intentionally, because that's honestly kinda fun sometimes).

I feel like back in the day trolling was more of an art where you'd say something stupid to expose someone's cognitive dissonance.

Now it just refers to people being dicks. Trolling itself has become enshittified.

Really nobody in the thread is going to talk about Kremlin disinformation campaigns? That's absolutely part of it.

Except it's not their fault. At least, not entirely. Every single fucking centralized social platform tweaks its content algorithm to drive engagement, and they found that the best way was to piss you off. They shove it in your face until you can't help but say something to fight the unending flow of utter bullshit.

The block button is amazing.

I kinda get it, but I also understand why it happens. People are outraged by how the world is being fucked up and they speak out. It's resistance to Idiocracy. They may be feeding trolls but saying nothing is ignorant compliance. So claiming it's their fault feels like victim blaming. Also, the amount of neuro diverse people is also growing. They, we, often don't understand sarcasm and trolling and take too much seriously. And are triggered by things meant to be a joke.

It's funny how I reply seriously on this post. It's like I'm inviting trolls to take me hard. I say: bring it! I brought lube.

I think the default comment, even here, is "I disagree".

Folk have mistaken contraryism for discourse and argument for engagement.