Troll blog

we are the trolls, we are the trolls, we are, we are, we are the trolls.
First, a disclosure. When MM and AA discuss how similar their experiences with "trolls" are, there's a reason. For the most part, they're talking about me, and if not me, S,N!, though I'm not sure they recognize the connection. I'm the one who made a fake Facebook profile of Ann and freaked her out so (it was just so she'd be listed as a Friend of S,N!, sheesh), and I am very much a part of the horrible name stealing at S,N! that also upsets Ann, though I didn't come up with the idea. I don't mean to be egotistical and say their troll conversation is all about me, but I certainly feel flattered.
Now, a condensed version of their conversation about me.

Ann begins by naming us specifically as a troll blog. Ann wants FMM to succeed, having linked to us in the past, but she doesn't produce much added traffic. Links from HTML at S,N! are worth thousands of hits, but Ann only produced maybe a couple dozen extra.
Megan pretends not to know our name, and responds by saying she now has two troll blogs. I doubt Megan is really that unaware, more likely she doesn't want to flatter us with acknowledgment. Plus the two ladies, I suspect, think that discussing us trolls like that will set us off, as we're all angry, impotent little people who just like to get mad. More on that later.
Anyhow, they then offer their views on our motivations here, which are just wonderful. Ann thinks we're "jealous", whereas Megan ascribes this blog to a "dark fury", which, of course, really has nothing to do with her. The good news is all the criticism really did bother Megan at first, until one Saturday afternoon a bunch of folk started criticizing a recipe she posted. Then she realized it was all ridiculous and stopped caring. No suggestion that maybe bland recipes aren't the proper material for a fucking economics blog on The Atlantic, no recognition that maybe the overwhelming shoddiness of her work is too much for a great number of people to tolerate. It's that a bunch of grown men are impotent little haters and want to revenge themselves on women. Odd that Megan rejected this hypothesis to explain anti-abortion activists, but has no problem applying it to people who have a low opinion of her work. Wait, did I say odd? I mean typically self-serving.
Megan and Ann go on to present a portrait of me that I wish included a drawing, so I could print and frame it. Megan sees me "sitting in my bedroom" (Ann: "in his underpants") thinking I'm going to "get her". It's true, I do wish I had the raw popularity and sexual charisma of the Simpsons' comic book store guy, but I just can't stay that thin. I could join WoW to get some exercise, but I hear there are real girls there sometimes. That scares me. Safer just to rack up the experience points getting Megan with my sooper powars here. I sure do put that woman in her place. Go me!

And then, a moment of sublime beauty. Apropos of nothing, Megan segues into that NYTimes magazine piece on online trolls, thus confirming that she was thinking of us when she read it. Sure, the piece was actually about griefers, though the writer didn't know that, and what we do here has no relation to those kinds of activities, but we make Megan feel bad, so we're actually worse.
Megan takes a strong, controversial stand on the the griefers' documented activities ("those things are evil") and says that all us trolls just make her feel sad. After all, calling Megan stupid really is comparable to manipulating a young teenage girl into suicide because she was mean to your daughter. I'm such a monster, but I don't know how to stop.
You see, the criticism is totally unjustified and unfair. Megan says so. At 48:50 she says "I think I'm cool. I enjoy spending time with me", so we're just wrong. She goes on to say "Fundamentally, I think the great thing about blogging is it's about you". (I'm being slightly unfair in where I cut that quote, but too fucking bad.) Megan's point is that the criticism coming at her isn't actually about her; it comes from the massive reserves of hate that apparently fuel me. She explains that "being angry is fun ... but as a way of life it's unsatisfying". I'll come back to this moment in the semi-serious post, but I gotta say now that no, Megan, being angry isn't fun, though it tells me a lot about you as a person that you think it is. It also helps explain why you can't distinguish between hate and loathing, but I digress.
Megan follows up by once again claiming "I'm fairly good at being sarcastic and bitchy", which is wrong, but by this point Megan and Ann are really beginning to bond over dismissing their critics dishonestly. Ann is even actually paying attention to Megan at this point.
They go on to discuss what drew them into blogging, which we'll take up in the next post. I need a break. It's hard being this hateful, I need blood sugar.