Studies confirm trolling linked to psychopathy

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Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode Studies confirm trolling linked to psychopathy
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James Comey

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Post: #27

RE: Studies confirm trolling linked to psychopathy

I've listened to the article... I'll try to form my opinion.

First, there seems to be a lot of confusion on here with the definition of "sociopath" and "psychopath"; actually, they are quite interchangeable. From what I understand, actual, true, sociopaths seem to encompass roughly around 4% of the US population. Are all these people the trolls on internet commenters? While it roughly coincides with the 5% as stated in the article, it's probably not entirely accurate to assume that every internet troll is an exact sociopath.

Second, the motivations for trolling are not completely clear; while the article implies that "trolls just want to have fun", this seems a bit too simplified and linear. Sure, there are definitely people who want to cause havoc just because they enjoy it (a la Daesh), but what are the deeper motivations here? Is it because these people have suffered pain? Is it because these people are simply doing it because the behavior is widespread? This is never made clear.

Third, I don't really like where the discussion is headed; again, true sociopaths are a bit of a rare breed; it is definitely possible that a lot of people who are sociopathic aren't necessarily naturally so; this is actually I believe an issue in the United States justice system, which automatically assumes that people cannot change their ways, and that we are static; this is complete fucking bullshit, since I have changed in many ways, and I definitely years ago had a lot of sociopathic tendencies. Does this make me a bad person? No. So it's important to note that the definition of a "sociopath" again, isn't really clear here.

Those are just my thoughts, take them as you will.