Opinion
Faceless Internet Trolls Aren’t Brave Enough to Write Their Own Stories
They hide behind a fake profile picture and prey on others in the comments.
Some people on the Internet have extremely strong opinions. They often believe they are right, but they never write their own articles.
Instead, they lurk in the comment sections of social media posts, getting ready to show why everyone else is wrong.
It amazes me.
Keyboard warriors, hiding behind a fake profile name and a fake profile image, with nothing to lose. Without any skin in the game. Their words are cheap, because they lack any responsibility behind them.
Disagree? Prove me wrong.
Don’t post a comment. Write your own story.
It’s easy to be an armchair expert
In just the past couple of years we have seen lots of armchair experts.
COVID-19 erupted, and overnight people were smarter than Dr. Fauci.
Then, Russia invaded Ukraine, and people ditched their PhDs in virology and immunology. Overnight, social media swelled with PhDs in geopolitics and international relations.
Universities must be working at 120% capacity minting all the new degrees.
It makes me laugh.
Are these Internet keyboard warriors or sponsored propagandists? Are they perhaps bots? Or just trolls?
Or is this the famed Dunning-Kruger effect in action?
I guess I will never know. These folks never seem to have a real profile picture.
It’s easy when you’re faceless
Most people fear public speaking. People fear it because they are aware that others are watching them. Shame is a strong motivator. Shame is also a strong policing agent in social interactions.
After all, most properly socialized individuals do not wish to commit cultural faux pas, or be ignored, or hated due to bad manners.
In the online world, social norms of interaction, like courtesy and civility, melt away into thin air. It’s worse when you don’t even need to use your real name or show your face.
On the Internet, anyone can be anyone — or no one, and nobody would ever know the difference.
Why bother to obey the norms of social interaction when no one knows who you are?
No one was talking about Ukraine and Russia, and then, suddenly — people started parroting John Mearsheimer without even quoting his name.
Others went so far as to characterize Zelenskyy’s actions as “comedic,” insinuating that he played a horrible and cruel game of sending his fellow citizens to their deaths.
“Once an actor, always an actor.”
“He is a comedian.”
“He went too far with his ego.”
If that doesn’t qualify as an attempt at character assassination, I don’t know what does.
It is easy to make all these comments hiding behind a fake profile picture.
I don’t pretend to know the situation on the ground very well.
I don’t pretend to be an expert on post-Soviet geopolitics. I’m not, and I’ve avoided writing analyses about the causes of the war.
What I know is this — it is a very bad time to be making unempathetic statements like these.
Your what-aboutisms can wait.
It’s easy when you have no skin in the game
Nicholas Nassim Taleb, who embedded the term black swan in our popular consciousness, wrote a book called Skin in the Game.
In it, he wrote,
“If you do not take risks for your opinion, you are nothing.”
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Sometimes, enraged by the nonsense and irresponsible comments that these profiles spew, I engage them. But then, I almost always regret it. For these people have no face. They do not use their real names. They are anonymous.
These people have no responsibility; they do not own their words.
They hide behind their keyboard, hammering away, spouting their whatabout-isms – all the while playing the victim game and shaming everyone who stands in the way of their professed ideology.
To these faceless Internet trolls, everyone is a hypocrite.
Reason does not work with them, because reasoned discourse is not their motivation.
Dialogue is not the goal; disinformation is.
They delight in spreading chaos — either profiting directly from it, or enjoying a kick out of calling out others without the fear of retribution.
If these faceless trolls do not take risks for putting their opinion out there, they are nothing.
The only logical response is to reflect that which they are back at them, and do nothing.
Be brave enough to write your own story
If you’re convinced that you’re right, I challenge you to come out in the open. Stop fanning the flames on the Internet and quit being a troll.
We’ll start to take you seriously when you stop hiding behind your anonymous profile and lashing out in the comments section.
We’ll take you seriously when you write your own articles and stories, and expose yourself to the same judgment that you so often unleash mercilessly on us.
If not, please pack your bags and go home. Please, just log off the Internet.
We don’t want to feed the faceless trolls.
We don’t want any armchair experts with 100% hindsight accuracy.
We don’t want any more disinformation.
We don’t need you.
Maybe I’m wasting my breath.
Humans haven’t evolved much at all.
As long as social media exists, as long as people believe that they can remain anonymous on the Internet, there will be trolls, sponsored disinformation propagandists, keyboard warriors, and armchair experts.
If you’re an Internet troll reading this, I can’t wait for you to drop your comments down in the comments below. I look forward to it.
But really, you ought to write your own article or story if you feel that strongly.
If you do not take risks for your opinion, you are nothing.
©Alvin T. 2022
The author writes on a variety of topics. His key topics are Japan, society, culture, modern work, and cryptocurrency, with the occasional fictional story, creative piece, or reflective essay. Discover his most-read stories here.
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