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Trolls are just bullies, I guess. For some of them, getting a rise out of people strikes then as funny, probably because of superiority issues. The psychology is interesting, but those people likely aren't leading very happy lives. Karma probably isn't top of their priority beyond it being funny how many people have gotten a rise.
There's also toxic people who hang around with trolls and other toxic people. They form social groups where some minority group becomes the butt of a joke, which then becomes an "in joke". This historically has been against lgbt folks, certain nationalities, furries, disabled people and neurodivergent people, among others.
Then those people internalise those feelings, and spread them to other social groups, where they either land or the person gets confused as to why people hate them. If you run a community, you need to keep an eye out for this sort of thing and stop it before it takes hold.
Trolls attack people to get a reaction. Toxic people attack people out of indifference to their feelings.
There's also a group of people that feel they have a moral imperative to help people. That is, they should actively spread their own moral views and opinions so that other people may learn from them. This may or may not be a problem depending on the views of you and the platform.
Anyway, that's just me rambling a bit, sorry if it's all nonsense.
I guess that's the root of it. I don't really understand the mentality of bullies.
Like, the kid who gets picked on and stays picking on the smaller kids when he gets bigger because his home life sucks and that's just always the way it's been for him... I maybe get it, but I don't think anyone thinks that's a good way to be, and they can stop once they start interacting with a better social group and see how it can be better. Right?
Is it really just that but online, or what have you? Idgi
I guess for some people there's no "good" or "bad" way to be. There's just the real world, and that's it.
If people have been through abuse and trauma, they've been surrounded by people who think that power is the most important thing. And I guess that gets internalised to the extent that "strong" and "weak" becomes their axis instead of "right" and "wrong".
I think it's rather telling that the narrative that these people lay out usually revolves around the idea that people should get a thicker skin or learn to deal with it.
And sadly, I don't think people that have gone through those things are able to find and maintain a good social group of positive people.
That tracks, I suppose. Kinda makes me want to help somehow...
I’ve found that unless you already know someone at a personal level, someone that thinks they don’t need help is unable to accept it. In their mind, needing help means they weren’t strong to begin with. It’s a show of humility to ask for help. Humility is often misinterpreted as weakness.