A real troll you wouldn't even know. The idea is to get your entire mentality in the tip of their finger so they can wind you up and down whenever they need to.
I think taking any sort of behavior we don't like and saying obviously no decent person could enjoy it therefore it's only for those who are pathological[0] betrays a gross misunderstanding of decency. It is in fact fun for normal people to act like a dick, in the same way that it's fun to shoot roadsigns or piss on the sidewalk.
The reason we don't do these things is a mixture of training (we all know doing these things will make society worse off, perhaps we personally don't like it when we're driving along and a roadsign has been shot up), consequences (people will probably think less of you for urinating on sidewalks, it's illegal, etc) and maybe a healthy dose of inbuilt aesthetic and moral standards, empathy (how much and to what extent these really end up resulting in object-level actions as opposed to determining on what axis object level actions will be inhibited doesn't seem clear cut to me).
People who are willing to go around dominating and exploiting others for the sake of mere petty cruelty are unpleasant, the common term is 'bully'. Few people would want to be on the receiving end of it. Most people find this behavior less than charming. There is also the element of personal danger, who wants to be around somebody that might manipulate them for fun? So it makes sense to play up how different we are from such people, because that shows others how righteous and safe we are to be around. However as the child with the magnifying glass who burns ants shows, the capacity for petty cruelty is within all of us.
[0]: There are some behaviors which are pretty much reserved for pathological people, but the set is probably smaller than we imagine.
I'm very surprised you're getting downvoted for this, since it's basic psychology, the basic human condition, and unequivocally correct. Do people really not understand the human condition? It's a very powerful thing once you come to grips with it and quantify its role in your life, and it was key in me shedding a lot of parts of my self that I did not want.
I personally believe it's important to accept it instead of trying to deny it, before you can progress toward the positive role you want from your life. How can you be good if you don't understand your ingrained propensity for bad? How can you control something you do not understand?
You should heed what this comment is saying and think about it, rather than try to be 'above' it. It's accepting yourself...
I think you're right in general, but keep in mind that my question was in response to this quote:
"The idea is to get your entire mentality in the tip of their finger so they can wind you up and down whenever they need to."
Let's deconstruct this:
- get your entire mentality in the tip of their finger.
- wind you up and down when they need to.
The first part of that is an extreme level of control. The second point hinges on the word 'need'.
The OP previously claimed that he/she knows many trolls and they are among the most intelligent and sanest (his/her words) people he/she knows. This comment does not jive with that.
