Rachel's deconstruction of trolling last night (video) got me thinking about the word "troll." Like:
1. Where did those freaky troll dolls come from anyway?
In 1959, Thomas Dam could not afford to buy his young daughter a birthday present and instead carved for her a doll inspired by the legendary trolls which were believed to live in the Nordic forests and would bring luck to any humans who could catch them. Dam’s daughter took to the doll and dressed it up and showed it to local villagers. The doll attracted the eye of a Danish toy store owner and soon Dam was selling versions of the doll all over the world, selling more than a million of the in the United States in 1964 alone.
2. Of course, in World of Warcraft, trolls are a whole different thing:
Trolls are often tall, lanky, and muscular. They have both elven and orcish characteristics with their fierce fangs and long ears. Their long arms, strong legs and quick reflexes make them adept hunters. Trolls have only two fingers and a thumb on their hands, and they have only two toes on each foot. Like the tauren, trolls do not wear standard shoes or boots, although while tauren are unable to do so because of the shape of their hooves, trolls are simply more comfortable barefoot.
Trolls have a characteristic way of speaking. Words like "yo" (a greeting) and "mon" (man) are common expressions. They speak with varying accents that resemble that of Jamaicans and Cubans. Cuban-sounding accents are more common among forest trolls.
3. According to Urban Dictionary the word “troll” can also mean (among many many other definitions):
(noun) Term referring to a person who, throughout the course of a beer pong game, failed to make a single cup and as a result must sit under the beer pong table for the duration of the following game.
Chiefly used in Michigan to describe the residents of Michigan's Lower Peninsula who live south of (or under) the 5 mile long Mackinac Bridge that connects Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.
4. Some useful knowledge about web trolls from the Rules of the Internet:
11. All your carefully picked arguments can easily be ignored
12. Anything you say can and will be used against you
13. Anything you say can be turned into something else - fixed
14. Do not argue with trolls - it means that they win
15. The harder you try the harder you will fail
42. Nothing is Sacred.
43. The more beautiful and pure a thing is--the more satisfying it is to corrupt it.
5. First Lady Lady Bird Johnson owned a troll doll. So it must be OK.
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When the segmant aired about trolls, I thought you were going to discuss the "Shoot the NRA" game put out by a trolling group to inflame the RW.
GGGRRRRRrrrrr Trolls , I Hate Trolls .......................................................
So Rachel thinks everyone saying something she doesn't agree with is a troll? That's some serious arrogance. As always, IOKIYAD
Did you even watch the segment? She very clearly defined what is and is not a troll.
OT: Holy crap it's a basketball hoop, I thought your icon was a snake for the longest time.
Annie Oakley: I am a certified Troll Hunter, but I'm afraid to have to tell you that you are not worth too many points. Way too much sheer consistency my friend. Even trolls have standards, and you have fallen so far below the Mendoza line that your point value has sprung a leak. How about picking it up a little, get into a groove...
Katherine...,
The Blank is an admitted, no-conscience troll. Even if he did watch the segment, he would not hesitate to lie about it.
Well I will give Shooter some kind of credit...for what it's worth he isn't anywhere near as annoying as the Troll-o-matic 1000 who was lurking around during the election. I don't mind dissenting views (even warped ones) as long as they are at least semi-coherent, but just to come on and name call and babble schoolyard nonsense just for the sake of mischief is just plain stupid and childish.
Shooter's just mad Rachel didnt mention him in the segment.
Actually, Rachel did mention him by his other name "troll".
And it just went waaayyy over Blankman's head...
Shooter242 on moelane.com on June11, 2012:
http://moelane.com/2012/06/09/troll-hunting-101/comment-page-1/#comment-191137
This is a good one Steve ! It seems Shooter is Trolling here...Singing, uttering with NO Facts....
Yuck... Jonah Goldberg... I feel so dirty... Must suck when proir trollery catches up to you... karma some might call it...
howd that work out for ya shooter? you may have got your jollies but you didnt get the white house. that HAD to smart, buddy. haha
Why wowwiki? Wowpedia is so much better!
Also, troll as in "Troll the Ancient Yuletide Carol." Troll (verb). 1. to sing or utter in a full, rolling voice. 2. to sing in the manner of a round or catch.
Full of the sound & the fury, perhaps, but signifying only circular logic?
My first thought was of the Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson. If only all trolls were so delightful!
Ibsen's character, Peer Gynt, has lived his whole adult life by a philosophy that he learned from the king of the trolls. The Troll King tells him that what separates man from the beasts is man's philosophy, "to thine own Self be true." The trolls' counter-philosophy is "to thy Self be enough,"
The troll issue really Rachel, you don't pay me to answer that. And care to say any website like this.
It takes the remarkable courage born of ignorance to post what you wrote.
And yet you went to the trouble of posting it again when you realized you had posted to the wrong thread . sad
But actually there is an answer and solution to the issue of the troll issue, you just don't get it. And sadly it shows your ignorance. Pitty.
And they can kick me off this site too if they want to, if it bothers them so much to what I say. Either way I get an answer of some sort and so far the news media just uses these blogs and twitter accounts to help make millions of dollars a year. And they can whine all they want to about it, but most people sit in poverty or near it as these media people collect big fat paychecks and that is wrong.
How can you leave out rule 34? It's the most important rule of the internet!
Well, perhaps my memory is all messed up, but I don't recall it as being that pejorative. Back in the 70s in hippie commune type scenes, there was acceptance, if not expectation of countercultural challenges to practically any norm you can think of. So we not just looked like trolls, but kind of instinctively stood in opposition to conventions unless the proper answer could be given. But there were some individuals who seemed to relish being contrarian for the sake of it, or as a method of evading any collective activity they didn't feel like participating in. Some enjoyed their lightening rod status, and honed it. At this point the person was not so much a hippie but a hairy old troll sitting around doing nothing but challenging people and waiting to get a meal for free. But using the troll doll association would kind of diffuse the bad feelings but the suggestion that they were cute in their curmudgeonry and we still loved them. You could use it as a gentle nudge.
Maybe some other old timer could comment on that meaning. I have a hippie dictionary around here somewhere- maybe if someone has one handy they can see if there is an entry for it.
Anyway, the first BBS's in the early 80s were populated with a lot of long haireds, so maybe that meaning transitioned from that direction.
I don't recall anyone using that term in reference to hippie culture. But I do remember it being used to describe ugly people, hippie or other. Maybe it came out of some sort of early computer game.
I found my Hippie Dictionary (McCleary). Unfortunately, there is no mention of the sense that I gave, so perhaps this was just a local usage. Anyway, his definition is just the grumpy sense- minus the slacker or contrarian associations.
Same page serendipity:
OMG! I never realized before... I'm a TRUE HIPPIE!
Explains the poetry, doesn't it?
its from warcraft. just to clarify. not fishing or toll dolls. haha. good effort though. every new word nowadays derives from that video game. no joke. "noob", "pwned", "nerdrage", "qq"(means to cry)... and "trolling". since people would perposefully clog the "trade chat" with racial slurs, biggoted remarks, or f@rt jokes just to get people angry and spamming comments. like a 12 year old drinking his first beer, thats where Fox gets its material from. are you suprised?
....and after you get the person good and angry, you follow it up by saying, "you mad, bruh?" over and over until they explode from rage. haha
There may actually be a confusion here between trolling and "Poe's law" made manifest. "The idea that without a clear indication of the author's intent, it is difficult or impossible to tell the difference between sincere extremism and an exaggerated parody of extremism." - Wikipedia.
Someone else who are nothing but trolls is the Westboro Baptist Church. You know, the God Hates Fags people.
Apparently, they've always been trolls. I was reading up on their history the other day and the shocking thing about them is that they got their start (I swear I couldn't believe this when I read it) fighting for Civil Rights!
It seems that way back in the day, fighting for Civil Rights in Kansas did not make you very popular. They seemed to enjoy angering people.
Fred Phelps, who heads this loony group of trolls, later got into trouble and was stripped of his license to practice law because he blamed a court clerk for him losing a case. She had apparently been late copying some papers for him, but it didn't effect the case. He blamed her anyway, and later sued her. When he got her on the stand he accused her of (get this) of being sexually promiscuous. Apparently, his questioning of her was so vile that she broke down in tears.
Yeh, Fred Phelps is a total troll.
After that, he decided to jump on the "God Hates Fags" thing and been a total jerk (to put it mildly) ever since.
Yeh, the right wing are nothing more than trolls. All they're doing is trying to anger people.
That's not to say that I don't think there isn't value in occasionally ruffling feathers. I think that we all should always challenge what we believe.
Mark Twain once said something along the lines of, "when you find yourself in the majority, it's time to pause and reflect."
I couldn't agree more.
I love "troll dolls", kinda like ET so ugly they're cute. :-)
Troll people not so much....
I don't understand what that first photograph of Mitch McConnell has to do with this story..
Exhibit A: human troll
I play a couple of Trolls myself.
I have a Troll Druid and a Troll Rogue.
Cuban-sounding accents are more common among forest trolls.
Also among Floridian trolls.
For the record, I believe the fishing term is people mispronouncing the word "trawling."
TROLLING FOR MEN? TROLL-LOL!!
SCOTT BROWN- THE NAKED CLOWN, ER- TROLL! ( this was a Halloween costume i wore for a girlfriend a few years ago. she was going through some hard times in the great recession of 2008- about lost everything. I spent the day cleaning her kitchen- because she had to sell her house- her dog died, you name it. she really needed a laugh, so needless to say- this ridiculous get up was just what the doctor ordered..) She was so happy, she put it on, and well- use your imagination..
note: no nudity- FORMER SENATOR SCOTT BROWN SHOWED MORE SKIN.
SPEAKING OF- I HEARD FORMER US SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS SCOTT BROWN HAS A NEW GIG:
http://www.thelmagazine.com/imager/the_best_of_nyc_politics/b/original/1224466/66ba/The-Naked-Cowboy.jpg
http://dontdatethatdude.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/naked-cowboy2.jpg
TROLL!
http://alanas-vintage-collectibles.com/images/Toys/troll1.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XJZiQ0IuZuc/UPiog37wPGI/AAAAAAAAEnQ/R6PHl2zsBw0/s1600/1123091507b%5B1%5D.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VZe4JU4EZV0/UPio0HZqJ_I/AAAAAAAAEnY/mMBtFnA461s/s1600/1123091507a%5B1%5D.jpg
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&tbo=d&biw=994&bih=587&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=green+haired+troll+doll&oq=GREEN+HAIR+TROLL&gs_l=img.1.1.0j0i10i24.4629.14129.0.17042.17.17.0.0.0.0.254.2160.7j6j3.16.0...0.0...1c.1.h9Kve2EbY3I
SCOTT BROWN- THE NAKED CLOWN- ERR- SENATOR... LOL!
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&tbo=d&biw=994&bih=587&site=imghp&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=SCOTT+BROWN+nude&oq=SCOTT+BROWN+nude&gs_l=img.12...7000.10004.0.11999.9.9.0.0.0.0.129.664.7j2.9.0...0.0...1c.1.QA-
mRkqmE6I
ELIZABETH BROWN REBUTTAL- CHIEF BROWN HAS LITTLE TENT...
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NKb2k4SAf8k/To-LSHQ6-oI/AAAAAAADBbk/BzoAfB6BOf4/s1600/ElizabethWarren.jpg
I thought Rachel's piece on trolls was interesting if not entertaining. But [love me, hate me, just don't ignore me] The idea that trolls just want attention in a way makes us all trolls.
Also considering all the shock - jock, talking head, actor, rockers etc. out there. From Howard Stern, to Rush Limbaugh, it seems that trolling can make you rich and famous. I still think that many of Limbaugh's listeners don't actually like him, but like to hate him. Or at least listen just to hear what's going to come out of the bulls ass next.
Well, after living through the troll doll craze, it's once to know the story of how the name Dammit doll came about. That's what "we" called them, although I was never that "into" the crazes. I never could understand all the Beatles screaming, either (or any screaming for musicians).
it's
oncenice to know…Also, I was searching for an auto part for someone and visited the message boards for any clues. Well, trolls were there, too… silliness abounds, ignoring seems best.
Rachel, I appreciate what you're doing/saying (and I am so thankful you are brave and present and on-air to educate us and to provide FACTS..... thank you!) However, in this case, the "trolls" are not just having fun irritating Progressives. There are thousands of people who believe them, believed the election ads, and are acting accordingly with great fear and passion. I live among them, and it is scary. Some really do want to start an armed civil war. So, we must not be dismissive of them as if they were merely clowns. They are not above assassinations. They are not interested in facts. Do love your show and actually will rearrange my schedule around it!
Troll Hunter is a fun film. I enjoyed it very much.
The Logic of the Trolls (Rule#4...11-13, 16-43)
The NRA and the Republicans have been trolling President Obama and the Democrats before the American people over just about everything... from ObamaCare(s) to gun control issue.
Hard as they try to comply with Rule# 14 and 15 the Republicans failed. Obama won a second term.
Then, there's your standard AD&D Troll...
Not unlike the cave troll (from Lord of the Rings : War in the North computer game)...
DNFTT
Lest we forget. From a geek perspective, the most unpleasant of Trolls. The AD&D staple.....
From the Wiki
Trolls are infamous for their regenerative abilities (sounds like a common trait with thier internet cousins) able to recover from the most grevious of wounds (facts) or regenerate entire limbs, given time (see:Glenn Beck).
Severing a trolls head merely results in temporary incapacitation, rather than death. (But I thought I BANNED him?!)
After cutting off a trolls head or other limbs, one must seal the wounds with fire or acid to prevent regeneration. (Flame war-anyone?)