2005-05-04 - 11:37 p.m.
A troll is somebody who posts stuff with the intention of getting a big negative reaction out of people. I try mostly not to be a troll. I will pick certain fights if I find something or someone partcularly irritaing, but I hate arguing about stuff for the sake of arguing. Too many people running around with that chip on their shoulder. What's to be gained from throwing around hostility? There was a day when if you had a problem with somebody, you could just fight them. In online culture, that's never a possibility, there is no physical threat. I don't know if I'm advocating violence, but without that possibility, our interactions can become empty and weightless, so many feathers slapping each other in a giant wind tunnel. In cases where I've beat people (as a younger person), I didn't feel great about it really, but on some level I felt vindication, that I'd proved I was the better person. Getting beat had kind of the opposite effect. Feeling weak, like nothing at all. I don't believe humans can ever build a world where there is no violence.
Now, don't get me wrong. I hate war, I hate modern weapons. No one should fight anyone else's fight. Combat should be as personal and intimate as sex. One is a metaphor for the other, both integral parts of our humanity. Massively destructive, impersonal weapons are a perversion of violence. If it's not worth getting in a knife fight over, it's not worth fighting over at all. Any douchebag can kill people with a bomb, he hasn't proved anything, it's a pansy way to fight. Weapons of mass destruction are like the internet. They both take essential human presence out of the picture completely.
So, I started out talking about how I hate trolls, then proceeded to say some kinda trollish stuff. Well, I always come around and bite my caboose if I let my train of thought run long enough. I'm tired, I work too much, don't listen to me.
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