Beyond the Meme: When Trolling Stops Being Funny 🧨

Recently, my sister and I got into a heated argument. She posted something I found mean-spirited and dangerous. I responded — not to win, not to shame, but to stand for compassion, to offer an ethical perspective. When things cooled, she told me, “I’m just trolling.”

That’s when it hit me: I didn’t fully understand what trolling had become. And maybe I’m not alone.

So, let’s talk about it.

What Even Is Trolling?

Trolling, in internet speak, means deliberately posting provocative, absurd, or inflammatory content to get a reaction. Not to contribute. Not to persuade. But to provoke.

Classic trolls aren’t arguing in good faith. They’re baiting, laughing, watching others rage while they stay detached.

But trolling isn’t just some teenage prank on Reddit anymore.

When It’s Personal 🤝

When it’s someone you love? It stings. Not just because they’re joking, but because you’re not. Because someone you care about sees cruelty as comedy, sees real harm as “content.”

You’re not being too sensitive. You’re not lacking a sense of humor. You're holding onto your humanity in a world that increasingly asks you to laugh at pain.

⚖️ When It’s Political ⚠️

What’s more alarming? Trolling tactics are now showing up in the highest offices of power.

Some leaders now troll entire populations: mocking the vulnerable, ridiculing survivors, denying atrocities while cracking jokes. This isn't random edginess. it's calculated cruelty dressed in irony.

And while online trolls post memes, state trolls pass laws.

Let’s be clear:

—   Stripping healthcare? Not trolling.

—   Dehumanizing migrants? Not trolling.

—   Bombing civilians while tweeting jokes? That’s not trolling.

That’s violence, plain and brutal.

🔥 Troll Culture and the Death of Empathy 🔥

If troll culture has a motto, it’s this: Caring is cringe.

But caring — about justice, about others, about truth — is the only thing keeping this world from falling apart. It feels as though trolls gave up on compassion to become nihilists. Trolls want you to numb out. Laugh it off. Clap for the clever insult and scroll on.

And in doing so, we risk becoming passive witnesses to real harm.

If You’ve Been Trolled, You’re Not Alone 🧭

If you’ve ever responded with integrity and been laughed at…

If you’ve ever stood up for someone and been mocked as “soft”…

If you’ve ever tried to bring compassion to a mean world…

You're not behind. You're ahead. You’re not confused. You're awake.

Let’s Be the Light!

At the LCD Center, we teach more than media skills. We teach discernment. We help people, especially those from historically excluded communities, learn to read the world critically, not just scroll through it. Because when power cloaks itself in jokes, we need cultural literacy to unmask the violence beneath the laugh.

Our work is torch work.

The motto at Claremont Graduate University, where I study how power influences culture, exhorts “Multa lumina, lux una.” Many flames, one light.

Let that be us.

Let’s be the ones who burn through lies, cruelty, and apathy, not with rage, but with righteous clarity. Let’s use our words to illuminate, not inflame. Let’s reclaim the internet, the classroom, the public square from the trolls who pretend that nothing matters.

Because it does.

And so do you.

“’Tis the torch that people follow, whomever the bearer may be.”

— Elizabeth Burr, 1955