My Stance on Negative People, Trolls, & How Trolling Works

This story starts with a video called "Howard Stern Makes 7-year-old Cry", where a 7 year old black kid raps on America's Got Talent (or X factor or whatever it is I dunno I don't care.)

Kinda of an incredible video, watching a 7 year old kid get buzzed out and humiliated in front of a large crowd... he's gonna get tough from that one, let me tell ya.  Howard Stern felt beyond awful immediately after the kid started crying.

Now I'm gonna say some negative things about trolls in a bit here, but I want you to understand my stance on trolls first: I like trolls, and I do on occasion troll myself, ESPECIALLY if someone's "asking for it."  After all, a primary method of growth and success is learning from failure, and if someone's failing in front of me and I don't point it out... how are they supposed to learn anything?

I look at it like this: If your dumb enough to take a troll's bait, you've earned what you're about to get, so like everything in your life, how you respond to things is ultimately your responsibility.  Trolling you is funny to me and should toughen you up in the long run if you ever *get smart* about it, like I did one day in 2009.

So I have no problem with trolls or trolling, however I do think when you trolling you're being rather "small" as a person.  You can't get much lower than starting childish fights just because making people mad is funny to you... after all, you're benefiting off the pain of others... but I'm never sorry about it if they're putting themselves out there and/or being an idiot.

Just like I don't feel bad for the kid in this video... he should have never been up there to begin with, so I blame the parents, plus he's gonna be TOUGH because of that experience, especially because he's clearly got a strong little ego.  If  it was different... say it was a scared, intimidated kid forced on stage, couldn't perform at all, and then was humiliated like that, I'd feel bad knowing that kid was taken advantage of and will probably develop some kind of social anxiety disorder.

The difference is when you choose to put yourself out there, you get feedback, and you learn.  When you don't choose to go out there, you're not getting feedback, and your not learning anything... so in this example, a little kid could be traumatized for life... but I highly doubt that happened to this little boy so full of confidence.

Anyways, back to the story here... below this video, some stupid troll comments "fucking stupid nigger was taught to cry if he fucked up".  Of course, this is completely normal, mindless trolling that you'll find on youtube at every turn (which explains why youtube keeps insisting that I start using my real name on youtube instead of DrinkElectrolytes.)

As commonly occurs, someone even stupider takes the bait and responds with "fucking stupid white asshole was taught to be brave behind a computer."

Now I do have some friends who are rather idealist and would think this guy's response is normal.  Like if someone said that in real life they should be hit in the face.

I personally disagree with this completely: If someone said something that stupid in real life and I was there, I'd laugh at how stupid they are and put them in the list of people I'm never going to take seriously.  Like, if a 7 year old was acting like a total asshole, do you take it personally, or do you realize "Hey, he's 7 years old, you can't take him seriously."  That's how I look at stupid people, ignorant people, a-holes, pretty much all negative people -- they're not on point so life's probably not going well and people aren't taking them seriously, why even respond to them, let alone take them seriously?

And isn't that really fair justice?  If you suck, no one takes you seriously, and you don't get ahead in life, and you're unhappy as punishment.  If you're awesome, the opposite occurs, and you're rewarded with happiness.

Anyways, in this case, I felt like it'd be entertaining to respond to this idiot by explaining how trolling and youtube works, just to have fun showing him how small he's being while doing one of my favorite things: Explaining how things work and why the world is the way it is.  And only 500 characters to do so with.  It's like solving a puzzle... it just captures me.

"No no no, he's a TROLL, not necessarily a "stupid white asshole" (he may be, whatever.)  Point is, he may as well be black (he's probably not, but anyways...)  A troll's goal is to evoke an emotional response from you, therefore your response seals his victory.  He'll keep posting like that so long as he keeps getting replies like yours from pissed off readers.  So stop feeding the trolls, unless of course you enjoy it.  I personally love trolls, I just wanted to point out how this works."

The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKrEtyJ8MdU