What is the point of trolls and paid and unpaid disruptors on the "internets" ?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

What is the point of trolls and paid and unpaid disruptors on the "internets" ? Do they believe they are changing any minds?

They do seem to annoy, as in how the hell can any sentient person believe their bovine excrement.

[HughBeaumont]

1. I seriously don't get it, paid or unpaid.

It'd be like any of us going on Faux, IJR, CSN or CNBC -- you might as well be talking to drywall. You cannot enlightened a brain that's passed around.

[sharp_stick]

2. I think there are too many

people willing to do it for free, the paid troll isn't anywhere near as common as some people like to think.

[el_bryanto]

4. I think you are probably right - that said I do believe a paid proponent may be more common

Someone to go around and not attack others but simply say positive things about their candidate or product. Getting people to do that probably isn't super expensive.

Bryant

[KittyWampus]

7. I think you're right. For many it's for lolz

[Gormy Cuss]

3. If you see a lie often enough, you may start to believe it.

Trolls work this way --- refute arguments over and over again and it plants seeds of doubt.

[Blues Heron]

5. They're simply time thieves, energy creatures

DNFTEC!

[KittyWampus]

6. IMO, chaos. Derailing useful conversations. Creating ill will amongst a group.

Trying to turn people off from using a resource.

[ret5hd]

8. Disrupting any sense of cohesion/common cause/trust.

What was the point of COINTELPRO spreading mistrust among the leftists of yesteryear?

Organization/cohesion must be nipped in the bud, I tell ya'. Nipped In The Bud!!!

[think]

9. It's not like they could alter the course of an election of a president or anything

{Edit: Ya, these are real life trolls rather than internet trolls. But it does give a visual representation of how trolling is real and how effective it can be.}



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannyn-moore/artificial-protestors-are_b_254276.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Brothers_riot

[onehandle]

10. The GOP paid online operatives in 2000 to keep Nader voters voting for Nader.

And to not 'swap' their votes for others' in states vulnerable to Al Gore.

Take for instance, Florida.

That operation paid off big time.


DU is full of trolls. The juries are controlled by trolls. Trolls have infiltrated the moderator ranks. But I think it's not paid trolls, just obsessed haters. DU is hardly even known of in real life political circles in my experience.

[treestar]

11. Maybe to influence the general zeitgeist?

Just to make it appear that there is more or less support for an issue than there appears.

The media is all about appearances.

People who participate have disproportionate influence. Ages ago I was at a meeting where a person said if you bombard a legislator with letters, they will think that it's a big deal to their constituents and do something, even if only a few people were writing a lot of letters.

People here want us to think of Hillary as "corporatist" and they keep repeating that as if it is a given. Knowing that the ignorant will just pick it up and repeat it. I think they do it for the easily swayed, ignorant voters, so they get the idea that something is so, or a common positions, whether it is or not.

[PowerToThePeople]

16. Hillary IS a corporatist

It is a proven point.

[treestar]

18. That's repetition number 499390929938493098920398432432

might work

[Adrahil]

12. Paid trolls, where they exist, are paid to change what the conversation is about.

I think most posters and trolls aren't paid, but they are out there.... we know Russia employs them, and I'm sure corporations and other governments do as well. They aren't REALLY there to change minds. I doubt many Americans REALLY think a Ukrainian Su-25 shot down MH-17. But if we are arguing about that, then we aren;t talking about the copious evidence that Russian hardware and personnel are in the Donbass. That's one example.

I think some of the more bomb-throwing Hillary-haters are Freeper trolls. Not all or even most... I do think there is significant and legitimate resistance to supporting her from the left, but I think the Freepers know she is likely to get the nomination, and if they can stir up enough anti-Hillary sentiment, and get some demoralized progressives to not vote, they consider that a victory.

[Zorra]

13. For paid trolls, and the people that pay them it's money

Just like Fox News.

[hunter]

14. The simplistic view is that trolls are attempting to drown out meaningful informed discussion...

...of specific issues, fearing such discussion might spread.

A more sophisticated view is that amoral paid trolls spread Fear, uncertainty and doubt among susceptible populations -- you're ugly without our product, a black woman is going to take your job, an Islamic extremist is going to blow up your airplane... the list goes on.

Unpaid trolls are then disturbed by others who don't share their own largely unspoken, ignorant, and mass media-driven fear uncertainty and doubt, and they will make whatever noises they can to disrupt the conversation.

On the surface Fox News makes people feel intelligent and informed, but below the surface it's all FUD.

To the troll, entering a conversation with people who do not share similar fears, uncertainties, and doubts is extremely disturbing, and they will disrupt it with whatever tools they've got, from smelly farts to talking points or sound bytes finely crafted by paid propagandists.

[PowerToThePeople]

15. not sure, tell me.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

17. I have no guile but I don't think I am changing anybody's minds, except that they might want...

I have no guile but I don't think I am changing anybody's minds, except that they might want to troll somebody else...U troll me... I troll U...


In real life I subscribe to Malcolm X's admonition:

Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.