Internet Trolls ...

Okay .... I have been doing a lot of reading about Internet Trolls ... you can find some posts about this topic, with lots of links, in my Blog Archive .... but now I am going to go off on a tangent from all of those ...

According to my research, in most cases a "troll" is defined to be an "outsider" who has come into an established group with the express purpose to cause disruption.

So ... what do you call a beloved and trusted long-time member of a happy group who suddenly decides she wants to create havoc within that very group? Is that a "troll", too?

NO ... this beloved member's identity has not been stolen ... at least, not by a stranger.

YES ... this is the very same person whom you might have actually allowed into your home. The very same person with whom you you might have shared intimate secrets. But suddenly there appears an ugly side to this person ... a side so insidious that only the closest of friends recognize the change ...

What do you call that??

From all the reading I have been doing about Internet Trolling ... or Trawling ... or whatever it is called .... this person isn't a Troll. This person is MUCH worse ... and there is little being written about her and her ability to destroy that which is good.

For lack of a better name ... and because this is how I have been thinking about her in my head ... I will call her "She-who-shall-not-be-named".

I find it interesting that, according to research, 90% of Internet Trolls are Male. This is another reason for my belief that "She-who-shall-not-be-named" is not a Troll. On average, men do not possess the depth of evil and conniving and just sheer petty meanness which "She-who-shall-not-be-named" possesses.

Almost everybody at sometime or another has experienced the wrath of a "mean girl". It might have been in your middle school cafeteria, or on your elementary school bus, or something written in your high school yearbook. Almost everyone carries a scar or two from an encounter with some female who only takes the time to notice you so that she can smash you down to make others around her laugh and think she is cool. If you haven't experienced this yourself ... then ... ummm ... you probably WERE the mean girl.

"She-who-shall-not-be-named" is the middle-school "mean girl" times Ten ... she is far more insidious. Where others in a real life group often actually SEE and HEAR the mean girl being mean, "She-who-shall-not-be-named" must be READ. And I have learned from experience that for the most part, people don't learn as well just reading something ... they need to SEE it and HEAR it to truly understand it. "She-who-shall-not-be-named" uses the Internet and Message Boards to apply her evil ... and it seems that often it is only the person at whom she has aimed her barbs who truly feels the calculated meanness of her words. Others just tend to skim over the words ... not letting the intent and the feeling sink in.

But what the others DO KNOW is that they don't want those same words typed to them. And so they begin to distance themselves from the person whom "She-who-shall-not-be-named" is attacking.

This is obvious in a middle-school cafeteria .... fewer and fewer people sit at the same lunch table with the victim, or on a school bus .... where no one will let the victim sit with them ... but not so obvious on a Message Board, unless you are looking for it.

A Message Board is the perfect place to sow discord and reap paranoia. Soon ... nobody knows who to trust. And nobody wants to even "play". And the only people having a really "good" time are "She-who-shall-not-be-named" and her minions. Everyone else, the victim(s) and the people too afraid to do anything, are left on the sidelines or totally gone. And the happy paradise of friendship and laughter is destroyed.

But why would someone want to do this?? Especially in a place where she herself was once very happy?? How can this be??

This is exactly what I have been asking myself for months? I couldn't understand it. But then ... I am certainly not thinking like her ... and I don't WANT to think like her ... I don't WANT to understand her .... because to truly understand her would mean that I had crossed over to the Dark Side myself.

Yet ... this has always puzzled me .... Why would the White Witch prefer a frozen solid freezing cold Narnia, surrounded by mean spirited minions ... when she could have had a bright happy Narnia with 4 wonderful seasons (including winter) and be surrounded by normal regular creatures leading normal regular lives?

Why would Sauron ... the Dark Lord in LOTR ... surround himself with ugliness and nastiness and more mean-spirited minions living in Mordor .... why would he want to destroy The Shire, and in fact, take all that was beautiful and good and turn it into ruins?

Why is it always light and happiness that attracts EVIL? And yes ... I feel "She-who-shall-not-be-named" to be truly EVIL. And a couple of her hand-matrons to also be evil .... but most of her minions I feel are just very, very confused.

What? Somebody seems to be having too much fun? Here comes "She-who-shall-not-be-named" to destroy the day!

What?? There is a little tension somewhere else? Here comes "She-who-shall-not-be-named" to nurture that tension and make people distrust each other.

What??? Someone is hurting and needs the support of friends? Ha!! "She-who-shall-not-be-named" has no time for such frailties! Let the minions kick them while they are down as "She-who-shall-not-be-named" moves on to other victims.

Why take something that was good and beautiful and destroy it? Because she can. That's why.