When Is A Troll Not A Troll?

Cee R.
2 min readFeb 3, 2022

…or, Cee’s Brief Yet Fabulous Adventures in Internetland

Silhouette of a person against a blue circle
Photo by Ben Sweet on Unsplash

What even is a troll?

What ‘counts’ as a troll? Does anyone know?

Some trolls are easy to spot: threats and slurs are pretty much a guarantee that you’re dealing with one.

But others?

The line between abuse and debate is a lot less clear-cut than we’d like to think.

I’ve been called a troll for pointing out Homophobic and Transphobic statements and actions.

I’ve been called a troll and a self-hating White person for insisting that diversity is not a bad thing, and that no-one’s trying to replace you, dear ranting mediocre White man with no marginalisations.

I have been called a ‘Twitter bully’ (by someone getting defensive over Cultural Appropriation)

…and a ‘sexist fake-news person’ (by someone getting defensive over their racist theories on Asians taking all the jobs in the US despite the fact that they’re already rich… or something equally bizarre. Does anyone else find conspiracy theories hard to wrap your head around?)

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Cee R.

Writer, poet, (book) blogger @ dorareads.co.uk , Queer, weird, & a tad peculiar. Bookish rebel. Welsh as a tractor on the M4. Buy me a coffee @ ko-fi.com/ceearr