| 1. | concern troll | |
In an argument (usually a political debate), a concern troll is someone who is on one side of the discussion, but pretends to be a supporter of the other side with "concerns". The idea behind this is that your opponents will take your arguments more seriously if they think you're an ally. Concern trolls who use fake identities are sometimes known as sockpuppets. In the 2006 election, an aide to Congressman Charlie Bass (R-NH) was caught concern trolling the opposition on local blogs. While pretending to support Bass's opponent, Paul Hodes, the aide argued that Hodes couldn't win because Bass was an unbeatable candidate. Hodes won the election. | ||
| 2. | concern troll | |
A person who lurks, then posts, on a site or blog, expressing concern for policies, comments, attitudes of others on the site. It is viewed as insincere, manipulative, condescending. A concern troll commented, "You should be careful about what you write because you might get in trouble with the government." Another concern troll wrote, "This debate makes our side look disorganized." | ||
| 3. | concern troll | |
January 27, 2011 Urban Word of the Day A person who posts on a blog thread, in the guise of "concern," to disrupt dialogue or undermine morale by pointing out that posters and/or the site may be getting themselves in trouble, usually with an authority or power. They point out problems that don't really exist. The intent is to derail, stifle, control, the dialogue. It is viewed as insincere and condescending. A concern troll on a progressive blog might write, "I don't think it's wise to say things like that because you might get in trouble with the government." Or, "This controversy is making your side look disorganized." | ||
| 4. | concern troll | |
In a situation where there exists mutually exclusive positions A and B, a concern troll is someone who supports A but professes to support B around genuine supporters of B. However, they express their "concerns" about aspects of position B in order to sow doubt and uncertainty amongst genuine supporters of B. Whilst this does genuinely happen, the term is used by some paranoid people to effectively mean "anyone who does not agree entirely with the standard dogma of position B, thus must actually covertly support position A", when said person does actually support B, just only 99%. Thus: disagreeing *at all* with the standard dogma of B will get you branded by such people as The Enemy, and you will get generally treated with hostility and suspicion and, at worst, forcibly ejected from the B-supporter group. Result: everyone stops thinking about the issues, and discussion descends into not arriving at logical and interesting places but who can most furiously support B. 1: "All Democrats should be hanged, drawn and quartered! Grrgrrrgrrrgr!" 2: "Uh.. that's a bit excessive. I mean, I don't agree with the Democrats, but maybe we shouldn't actually, like, KILL them.." 1: "CONCERN TROLL! CLEARLY YOU ARE 100% DEMOCRAT! BEGONE, SINNER!" (everyone flings rotten fruit at 2 until he leaves) | ||
| 5. | Concern troll | |
Someone who raises a false question as a means of injecting a totally unsupported allegation into the public discourse. When challenged on the barely-veiled insinuation, they claim that they were "only asking a question." A concern troll would say, "I'm not saying Congressman Smith engages in oral sex with farmyard animals, but isn't it awfully coincidental that he has a picture of a sheep in his office and always carries a handkerchief? The public has a right to know!" | ||
| 6. | Concern troll | |
A phrase of absolutely no meaning, used by bloggers to shut down debate on their sites. "Ignore the concern trolls." | ||
| 7. | Concern Troll | |
A phrase used by the progressive netroots whenever someone questions the effectiveness of their activism, or notices that they are acting like fools, and discrediting their causes by incredibly silly gestures. (Noting that facebook isn't a good vehicle for protest makes one a "concern troll.) | ||
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Comments
Hi Street -
To answer ur question, Nope. The people on #TGDN in Twitter are experiencing a heavy volume of those who pretend to be concerned and on our side, but who, in fact, are there to derail the conversation and the enthusiasm. Our organizer, Todd Kincannon was recently dogged by a 'concern troll' and after some searching the internet, I found the description on some urban slang dictionary. I have seen the same thing here in posts where people are excited and ready to organize and write their reps, but a concern troll comes in and defuses their spunk therefore keeping them from acting and making their voice heard.
---- U know the other term for it is "wet rag"
Very informative. I copied and pasted this posting and intend to read it over and over several times.