The troll dismisses authorial intent in determining interpretation. They judge themself the sole authority on the meaning of their target’s words. These words will be selectively deconstructed and misconstrued in order to fit in with the troll’s preconceived notions. The last thing the troll intends is to engage people to better understand their viewpoint. The troll brings a dogmatic (and often kooky)  ideology to the discussion, and all parties must come around to supporting it. To question the veracity of the troll’s claims is a grave sin and offence, and puts the other party’s character into question.

The troll believes that the world not seeing itself their way is an injustice. To them, the other party is offensive and they are the victim. Any derogatory behaviour from them should therefore be justified and overlooked.  The troll doesn’t see how their pathetic ego and absurd expectations leads to their anti-social behaviour. The troll wants desparately to assert themself above others in order to cover over their negative self-image.

People don’t seek out trolls in order to listen them, so the troll has to approach others, for example on blogs such as this. The troll thinks they are successful if they are seen to vanguish the other party in ad hominem attacks. The troll never succeeds however, because they have ignored something important: authorial intent. No blog author intends for the troll to be the authority on interpreting what the author’s words mean. Troll posts may be humoured for a while, but if they persist, become repetitive, boring and tiresome, and distract from what the author wants to say, they will be deleted.

Pity the poor troll?

The reason why people blog is because their self is bound up in it. Blogging is utterly egotistical and I am not one to pretend otherwise.

However, contrary to myth, blogging isn’t a bastion of rampant individualism. Most bloggers are well socialised and follow the norms of the dominant Blogosophere culture and its rationality. Bloggers learn the demeanour and etiquette of blogging through feedback on their posts and commenting on other blogs. They check out blogs more popular than their’s in order to keep up with the latest blogging fashions and lingo. They follow the leader in writing about topics that they hope will advantage their blog stats and give them prestige amongst fellow bloggers. Bloggers put an inordinate amount of time into the content of their blogs for very little substantive result. They hunt for pictures with Google Image Search, dig up quotes and references  and rip off YouTube videos in order to enhance the life of their blog. They need to do this so that their cry, “look at me!”, will pay off in terms of more than momentary attention.

It is very rare that I come across a blog that speaks to me of the author’s deep sense of existence. There are far too many people blogging to be seen by men, rather than facing a profound and shared sense of being alive. Bloggers don’t take advantage of the radical freedom of thought and speech they have on the Web, instead they demand high blog stats and status amongst their peers as compensation. If you are looking for spontaneous, idiosyncratic, enthusiastic, ecstatic and confronting outbursts of self-expression it is best to avoid the Blogosphere; it is the herd of the dead.

Nietzsche’s idea, not mine. I will give it a go someday. Results won’t be pretty. Stay tuned!

I find it remarkable that anyone, especially people who have their own blog, could make this statement.

Nietzsche noted that philosophy, which purports to be ‘objective’, is by its nature confessional, reflecting the  perspective and prejudices of its author. It would be absurd to think that blogs are any less confessional.

This blog is the most important blog on the Internet!

Surely you will say, blasphemy!

But it is for me and that is all that matters. To pretend otherwise would be to lie to myself.