These days people will choose certain labels to throw at people to shut them down. It is usually a form of deflection when they are saying something that is untrue or making themselves look bad. They will use a label to make someone else look bad instead, or to hopefully silence the person who might react to the word and suddenly want to be silent so people don't believe they are actually that label.

I like waking people up to these fallacies. Using a label as deflection is sometimes called an ad hominem attack. It is an attempt to attack the honor, integrity, and worth of the person challenging you rather than actually addressing the issue they are talking about. If you can get them to accept this then the discussion shifts from the actual ISSUE that was being discussed and you now have them busy defending their own character. This is an ad hominem attack.

Many things inspire me to write posts, but today it was reading @gavvet's post and reading through the comment section.

First this was yet another example of people hijacking the word Troll for their own purposes. It is also a good example of an ad hominem attack and deflection wrapped up in post form. There are also plenty of examples in the comments themselves.

A Troll is not someone who simply disagrees with you. If you are frustrated and cannot make them agree with you that doesn't suddenly turn them into a Troll. A troll is also not someone who simply challenges you. If you perform a questionable action or say something that someone believes is false. They have a right to challenge you on it. This is how life works, and how we learn things.

Just because you are frustrated with how things are going does not mean your opposition has turned into a troll.

So what then is a troll?

Typically a troll doesn't really give a damn at all about the issue. They'll tell you whatever they can to get a rise out of you. They are fond of exalting in their ability to Trigger you. If you agree with them they will likely change their mind simply so they can stay opposed to you and keep messing with you. It isn't about the issue, it is about keeping you intentionally frustrated. They likely won't care about being reasonable or presenting you with facts. They will mostly focus on emotion, and they will brag about getting reactions out of you...

Wait a minute... Could that @gavvet post have been trolling? If not some of the comments could have been. The deflection, character ad hominem attacks, etc are all popular tools of the troll.

I don't believe that is @gavvet's intentions were in that post, but it was clear he was hijacking troll to mean anyone that disagreed with him and was challenging him.

I am not even calling him out on the content of that post, the actual incident they were arguing about.

I found the deflection and ad hominems far more telling. They can be quite revealing. How a person chooses to deflect and what they do can also help to accentuate guilt rather than conceal it. This is something some media outlets today need to learn as well by the way.

Racist, Conspiracy Theorist, etc

Are often used the same way @gavvet used the word Troll. It was more about trying to silence disagreement. It is a modern incarnation of someone shouting "Heresy", "Blasphemer", etc. It is done very commonly with "Racist", or "Conspiracy Theorist". Why do people do it? Because, most people respond emotionally and want to hide from the stigma associated with the label. Yet most people have not been taught critical thinking. If they had then they would see through these attempts and they would not react in shame, or fear of being shamed.

This is one of my personal goals in life now. I want more people to see through bullshit, and I also intend it at help for people who unknowingly are using bullshit to defend themselves. They kind of go hand in hand. If you have not began looking at yourself critically and you don't practice things you don't know what to look for. I am learning new things to challenge myself on all the time. SO I am not expert on these things. I just know they don't really teach this stuff in school, they don't teach it in most media, so I try to get people at least started on the path.

Some of you are likely further along the path than I am. This was not intended on me attacking @gavvet. It was a learning opportunity. I didn't mention any of the actual issues in that post.

Steem On!