Do ND's engage in trolling activity?

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I have found that an activity referred to as 'trolling' has become very common online. Personally I don't engage in such activity, and find it to be depraved. I am wondering how other ND's feel about this?

Trolling is often associated with dark triad personality traits.

I think for anyone remotely normal minded, trolling is something undesirable.

I used to do so. I think it really depends on what you're talking about, though. Actual quality trolling is as much an exploration into what makes other people tick as it is about angering people. Unless somebody is seriously screwed up as in somewhere near the dark triad, folks tend to grow out of it over time.

I learned so much about how to interact with people via trolling. In retrospect, there's a bunch of things that I would have done differently, but it's not like I had a diagnosis or any sort of reasonably access to more productive means of figuring out what was going on. It was give people a malformed packet and see what came of it.

That being said, the vast majority of what I see being called "trolling" isn't trolling. Trolling is more like fishing. You put out some bait that seems reasonably enough, but is deficient in some fashion that really upsets some subset of the population. Even if you're not engaged in it, good trolling is a thing of beauty where you're not quite sure if they're trolling or it's a genuinely held belief.

Side note, people generally spell it trolling, but it's probably more clearly spelled as trawling.

Yes, yes they do.

Yes, if someone is trolling me first.

Trolling trolls is the best.

I remember once someone said my eyes should be fed to my pet lizard. I trolled back with, "Yes, I used to feed her my eyes as part of her regular diet but the vet said she was getting too fat and I had to cut back and stick with lettuce." The person actually apologized for their original comment.

Folks on the autism spectrum are ...intrinsically morally superior...and never indulge in trolling.

Just kidding.

Trolling is usually in the eye of the beholder. Rather subjective.

A no longer active WP member would post radical views but ...just expected us all to accept them w/o question, and without him making his case...or even explaining what his often seeming self contradictory views were in the first place.

I would keep after him - to get him to lay his cards on the table and explain it to us. Which he would never do. He just expected us to read his mind, and instantly totally agree with him. And finally he just whined that I was a "troll". His seeming dishonest discourse struck me as "trolling".

That was a good outcome.

But you shoulda said that your eyes are not for your lizard, but...


https://youtu.be/FvzNeh4Mq1o

Oh you're right! I should have!

Welcome to the internet. Trolling is not new.

Trolling isn't even limited to the internet; it simply isn't called trolling when it occurs offline. There are people who say or do things in real life just to provoke others or get a reaction. Online anonymity simply makes people more willing to do so. Comment sections and forums allow online trolling to get a reaction from a larger audience.

I don't engage in trolling, but I've been accused of it anyway (not here).

Poe's Law states that any parodic or sarcastic expression of extreme views can be mistaken by some readers for a sincere expression of those views.

However, the reverse is also true. A genuine expression of an unusual belief, especially one that seems extreme, will often be dismissed as trolling.

Trolling is a social skill, but not such a difficult one as to be beyond the abilities of most people, ND or not.

Absolutely.

It's even an example of skill where one's previous social failures and faux-pas can serve as inspiration and (unintended) practice. Those unintentional failures become examples of what irritates people and if irritating people is the goal one chooses, they just need to apply the knowledge and tactics they're already familiar with.

Tangent:

I don't think that's only relevant for trolling. I've interacted with someone who was diagnosed who wasn't very socially skilled, but had learned to manipulate those around him through open displays of learned helplessness. Whether or not he recognized his behaviour as manipulative, it was in practice, and he had loads of experience engaging in it.

He understood appearing pathetically helpless bought both sympathy and assistance.
He understood that making displays of being that way attracted more eyeballs than not drawing attention to himself.
Yet, no one was supposed to recognize the behaviour as manipulative because he was too socially impaired to manipulate people despite consistently demonstrating the ability manipulate people.

I guess him not admitting to it was enough to convince some people.

I'm sure when he started doing it he didn't understand that it was manipulative, but just like how most toddlers eventually figure out meltdowns can change the behaviour of those around them and then start to engage in tantrums in hopes of seeking a desired outcome, he eventually recognized how people responded and began intentionally relying on manipulating people through the strategies he had so-far found effective.

People can learn cause-and-effect, even those of us with ASD. Understanding I do this and others respond like this isn't outside of our abilities. This is why it's disgusting when people try to insist those with ASD can't be manipulative, can't be trolls and/or can't learn to improve our social behaviours (it's not his fault he's a creep, he'll never learn no matter how many people (even others with ASD) tell him his behaviour is unacceptable).

Whether or not something is "trolling" is subjective

A subreddit had the nerve to ban my worthless corpse permanently for "trolling" but I was not trying to be "trolling". However the subreddit has a right to ban my worthless corpse or anyone else

If you say "ND's" and two NDs troll, the whole statement is correct

The thread title wasn't a statement - it is a question.

I define trolling as being online all the time with the intention of getting into arguments or following / stalking certain people. Most trolls have a certain agenda they try to push.

I'm online a lot because I'm home 24/7 on disability and I enjoy writing. I'm not into arguments or following people and I don't have an agenda to push.

I've known quite a few trolls and I'm sure some of them are ND, although the worst ones I've known are more questionable. They never give a straight answer about whether or not they're ND or why they use the site. Sometimes their answers change multiple times, and other times they tell one person they're ND but tell others they secretly aren't.

Those people are whackjobs regardless of their neurotype.