This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture

an “indignant correction” was the ultimate goal of these so-called trollers.

the fact that online trolling is par for the mainstream cultural course.

trolling is, or at least can be, an extremely effective rhetorical strategy.

Like a spiteful housecat whose sole interest seems to be property damage, trolls take perverse joy in ruining complete strangers’ days.

trolls’ simultaneously symbiotic and exploitative relationship to mainstream culture,

trolls are born of and embedded within dominant institutions and tropes,

Trolls believe that nothing should be taken seriously, and therefore regard public displays of sentimentality, political conviction, and/or ideological rigidity as a call to trolling arms.

snapping its audience to attention, either by activating emotional investment or by forwarding a claim so outrageous that one cannot help but engage in a dialogue.

mistakes the symptom for the disease.