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Is there virtue in being a Second Life troll?


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A lot of trolls or griefers are not very good at their 'art' and end up bringing ridicule on themselves, which I suppose is a source of mild entertainment to others.  On another SL forum I recently mentioned how I visited a busy welcome area and decided to turn 'voice' on, for a change, to listen to the conversation (I nearly always have it turned off).  What I heard was mainly  an incoherent abusive argument, with other people making random comments and noises.  While this was disturbing (the abusive chat was overtly racist) I will admit it was entertaining in the same way as people in the 19th century used to pay to visit lunatic asylums for entertainment.

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9 minutes ago, Conifer Dada said:

A lot of trolls or griefers are not very good at their 'art' and end up bringing ridicule on themselves, which I suppose is a source of mild entertainment to others.  On another SL forum I recently mentioned how I visited a busy welcome area and decided to turn 'voice' on, for a change, to listen to the conversation (I nearly always have it turned off).  What I heard was mainly  an incoherent abusive argument, with other people making random comments and noises.  While this was disturbing (the abusive chat was overtly racist) I will admit it was entertaining in the same way as people in the 19th century used to pay to visit lunatic asylums for entertainment.

I love that you just directly compared SL to the "lunatic asylums" of yesteryear. Love it. Please note, I'm not saying you're wrong to do it. 

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1 hour ago, Luna Bliss said:

Oh BilliJo, you reaaaly got me...how will I ever extricate myself?
Once again, we see how black & white thinking rules you, and that nuance is not your friend.

No credible person has ever advocated changing our usage of words that associate the color 'black' with evil and the color 'white' with good, in fact that would be impossible to eradicate. What is advocated however, is to become more aware of how evil associations can be transferred to people of color so that we don't discriminate against them based on their darker skin:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-bad-is-black-effect/

The ramifications of associating dark skins with evil personality traits is heartbreaking. Numerous tests demonstrate we do this on an unconscious level. One tragic result is that darker skinned people are more likely to be found guilty and so they're incarcerated at greater rates than whites. Whites are more likely to be hired for jobs too, and less likely to be gunned down by police, and they receive shorter prison sentences than blacks.
In all these tests it's easy to see what plays out in all facets of society -- basically any time a person is judged by society the darker skinned people are more likely to be perceived as wrong.

** deleted**

 

Edited by BilliJo Aldrin
Nope nope nope, not going there
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6 hours ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

I know, trolls are bad people and all, but I admit that I can be one as well (especially in the Zindra Safe Hubs.) But I only troll to fight other trolls and jerks. I try not to troll innocent people.

The question I ask is that if anything good could come from trolling.

A better question would be, does any good come from self gratification? That is what trolling amounts to, regardless of where the trolling occurs.

Self gratification is not a virtue. Since only one person gets anything "good" out of it, it's pretty damn selfish.

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17 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:
18 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I have a patchwork seamstress outfit (kinda like the worst looking car in the neighborhood belongs to the auto mechanic) that I call "Seamstress of Gor". I visited the Gor sim of a friend and went off on a tirade about how I could whup any sword carrying fella with my knitting needles, and had the tarsk corpses to prove it. I don't think the masters disapproved, but the slaves, as with your RP, were all laughing.

Given that the place has tangibly less gravity than Earth, and they apparently spend half their time in space on their capture missions, you should be able to knock any one of them down with a bloody felting needle. Weightlessness is not good for you and astronauts don't call it the "vomit comet" for nothing. Everyone on Gor should, by rights, be weak, spindly, sickly, anaemic and permanently nauseous. In RL, they probably are.

Is there a sci-fi/fantasy canon that doesn't require substantial suspension of disbelief?

In my own personal fantasies, not only can I fly my li'l spaceship with the windows down, but it runs on E85 gas. Unfortunately, it has no fuel gauge.

543358550_TowingSpaceship.thumb.jpg.712801ee188e4a98c1aaa842d23d85de.jpg

But that's no strain on credulity compared to my imagined ability to seduce damsels in distress.

Edited by Madelaine McMasters
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4 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

Is there a sci-fi/fantasy canon that doesn't require substantial suspension of disbelief?

The obvious, simple answer is no. The first Gor novel was published in 1966. We've learned a lot about how Earth and other planets work since then so it makes suspending certain beliefs that much harder to achieve. Especially the glaring ones like lower gravity producing heavier, stronger humanoid bodies when we now know lower gravity produces the opposite effect. This is what makes so many of the old(er) scifi movies so corny to us now. They're still fun to watch but there is just no way many of us can suspend current knowledge to achieve the level of immersion needed that was once so easily achieved.

Those that still can, do. More power to you! 🛸

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1 hour ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

Is there a sci-fi/fantasy canon that doesn't require substantial suspension of disbelief?

Probably not, but when it's one that constantly interrupts itself to w@nk on for 40 pages about how every single human being should actually be trying to live like this (i.e., like hateful and alarmingly simple-minded psychopaths who are incapable of sustaining any relationship not founded on negging and trauma bonding), and has an actually religious following from people who continually quote said w@nk books like a holy canon, then it is my God given right to mock it at every possible opportunity. There's breaking the fourth wall and then there's steamrollering the audience while bulldozing the theatre.

Besides, even suspension of disbelief can't account for an entire planet full of stunning women who all faint to the ground with their knickers over their heads at the very sight of a ginger from Bristol called Tarl. I mean, come on. Even Lord of the Rings never asked us to accept anything quite so utterly laughable.

 

Edited by Amina Sopwith
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8 minutes ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Probably not, but when it's one that constantly interrupts itself to w@nk on for 40 pages about how every single human being should actually be trying to live like this (i.e., like hateful and alarmingly simple-minded psychopaths who are incapable of sustaining any relationship not founded on trauma bonding), and has an actually religious following from people who continually quote said w@nk books like a holy canon, then it is my God given right to mock it at every possible opportunity. There's breaking the fourth wall and then there's steamrollering the audience while bulldozing the theatre.

Besides, even suspension of disbelief can't account for an entire planet full of stunning women who all faint to the ground with their knickers over their heads at the very sight of a ginger from Bristol called Tarl. I mean, come on. Even Lord of the Rings never asked us to accept anything quite so utterly laughable.

I've only visited two Gor sims in my 11 years here, and neither of them took the canon terribly seriously. In one, the residents freely admitted that Norman was a crap writer, but they had fun taking some of the Gor ideas and running with them. Had I been approached by a Gor asshat, I might have emitted some snark, but that's never happened.

The idea that God gives people the right to mock w@nk books requires a similar suspension of disbelief for me, but I quite like the idea. And Steamrollering an audience while bulldozing the theater is something I'd love to try.

Mind you, I grew up wanting to live in the Looney Tunes universe. SL is as close as I think I'm gonna get.

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39 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

I've only visited two Gor sims in my 11 years here, and neither of them took the canon terribly seriously. In one, the residents freely admitted that Norman was a crap writer, but they had fun taking some of the Gor ideas and running with them. Had I been approached by a Gor asshat, I might have emitted some snark, but that's never happened.

Well, let's just say my experiences of the place and its inhabitants were very different, and on plenty of occasions I wasn't even in Gor at the time (they also ruined every capture/combat enabled RP sim I ever loved, a story for another time). And I did read a few of the books. I must admit that initially they're not too egregious...the characters are all crap and have exactly the same two-inch-long* story arc, and the man clearly needs an editor more than Stephen King and Philip K Dick combined, but they weren't actually hateful.

Go a little way in, though, and Norman goes absolutely underpants on head insane. I really wouldn't mind if they were just a bit of fun sexy escapism, in fact that was what I was hoping for, and I can accept that fantasy needs to be a bit more extreme to compensate for not being real. But every two inches there's another 40 pages of w@nk telling you NOT to suspend your disbelief, that this REALLY IS how humanity should be living and if a woman is frustrated or upset then the only reason can be because she hasn't been raped and beaten senseless enough times yet. It is honestly like being slowly run over. And his argument for this is "because it used to happen a lot", by which mad logic we should still be buying and selling Africans as slaves, colonising India and warding off the plague with pomanders. 

Quite aside from all that, every woman's journey to enslavement involves being called fat or ugly and getting sexually rejected (I wasn't kidding about the negging). I can't understand how so many women read the books and seem to miss this one, it happens every single bloody time. 

So yeah, anyway. Hand me your spare knitting needles...

*Norman's favourite length, apparently.

 

ETA: I've just remembered, they throw women into sacks of manure for prolonged periods of time too. 
 

Edited by Amina Sopwith
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I tend to agree with people who say that trolling is self-gratification. As Selene asks, 'is there any virtue in self-gratification?' My thought is, the virtue is minimal. Though, I'll admit, while I'm a rule-loving good girl...my friends tend to have a mischevious streak in them mile wide. None of them are actual griefers. Anymore.

I have a good deal of reluctant affection for griefers.

But when it comes to trolls. I got nothing for trolls.

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What everyone is forgetting is that trolls and griefers are just trying to get people riled and it only works if you let stuff get to you. Get a thick skin and have a laugh or ignore and mute. Many times they can be hilarious to observe if you keep a thick skin and don't take anything serious. I find Lavender Storydell and Esteban Winsmore and Britbong to be absolutely hilarious. People take Second Life way too seriously.

I have been trolled and griefed and when it got too much I just leave or mute etc. I never react. That is what they want.

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11 hours ago, kali Wylder said:

I think there must be some therapeutic value to trolling, else why do so many persist?

for most people, it's fun to see others suffer. if you see someone stumble, first laugh, then you go to see if it's ok. Just human nature. why do you think all that home videos with "epic fail" compilations are soo p
opular? they difference is trolls provokes that situations, for the "fun" ( or what they think is fun). is ok to troll the trolls? yea, if you are sure they really are trolls.

 

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11 minutes ago, Rex Short said:

People take Second Life way too seriously.

I have been trolled and griefed and when it got too much I just leave or mute etc.

When it reaches the point that someone else has to change their behaviour just to avoid it, then it's no longer "absolutely hilarious".

People take SL way too seriously? Try having kid avatars calling you a pedophile in open chat, just because you have the word 'gay' in your profile. That sort of accusation can ruin lives.

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38 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

When it reaches the point that someone else has to change their behaviour just to avoid it, then it's no longer "absolutely hilarious".

People take SL way too seriously? Try having kid avatars calling you a pedophile in open chat, just because you have the word 'gay' in your profile. That sort of accusation can ruin lives.

Really? That gets you wound up? Just mute them, no need to get so wound up.

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It depends on context, intent and result. Trolling your friends or with them for the laugh where no one is physically or financially harmed, or emotionally distraught, is fine. Trolling other people without being obnoxious and with the knowledge that they would be 100% ok with it is also fine (a'la april fools' jokes kinda trolling)

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9 hours ago, Gopi Passiflora said:

Thanks for the replies everyone. Just posting to say I skimmed through most of them and have not abandoned this topic at all.

But I guess all the trolling I do in those Safe Hubs is all for my self-gratification. I guess I am being selfish....

There is nothing wrong with being selfish. Why should everything you do be of benefit to someone else?

https://www.aynrand.org/novels/virtue-of-selfishness

Edited by BilliJo Aldrin
added stuff, added a link
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13 hours ago, Amina Sopwith said:

I love that you just directly compared SL to the "lunatic asylums" of yesteryear. Love it. Please note, I'm not saying you're wrong to do it. 

I'm only comparing a tiny portion of SL to 19th century lunatic asylums!   

Edited by Conifer Dada
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19 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

 

No credible person has ever advocated changing our usage of words that associate the color 'black' with evil and the color 'white' with good, in fact that would be impossible to eradicate.

Double reply, but oh well

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2796447/lyrics-baa-baa-black-sheep-changed-kindergarten-teachers-racial-overtones.html

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32 minutes ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:

I remember this. I think it was changed to baa baa rainbow sheep or something. To me it's a children's nursery rhyme with no racial implications at all. We really do need to chill as a society sometimes. If someone is being openly hateful and racist towards another person then by all means social justice away. But a nursery rhyme?. If we are doing this then I propose the following changes :

The grand old person of York

Gerry had a little lamb

Wee silly pinky ran through the town

Little Jo Horner sat in a corner

 

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1 hour ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:
20 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

 

No credible person has ever advocated changing our usage of words that associate the color 'black' with evil and the color 'white' with good, in fact that would be impossible to eradicate.

Double reply, but oh well

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2796447/lyrics-baa-baa-black-sheep-changed-kindergarten-teachers-racial-overtones.html

The operative word is "credible".

There will always be outlying cases such as this, or people you encounter in life playing the race card (cases you delight in finding) -- stop using these in attempt to create false equivalencies -- it only makes you look stupid (unable to make apt analogies, unable to use logic in appropriate ways).

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