The Strategic Importance of Trolls

Cafe Locked Out

In my live last night, I stated my belief that social media is the chessboard of culture, with each comment a move.
But it’s an unfair board.

Café Locked Out just proved that by keeping my hospital journey live and interactive.
Not all, but plenty of the comments were from people who weren’t far off from wishing me dead—hate speech.
Yet these comments were not censored by the platforms.
Meanwhile, Café Locked Out’s main page was given a ten-year ban by Facebook, simply for sharing the stories of everyday Australians.

Another example is the Batshit Crazy Cooker page, which is allowed to mock us at will without any retribution from the platforms.
Many of us also have fake pages set up against us, which the platforms refuse to remove.

This alone proves that Advance Australia Fair is no longer a goal for our leaders.
But don’t despair—because the people who have been hating upon us ever since Covid arrived can, surprisingly, be a great benefit to us.

Before we move on though, another important question: are they even real?
Many of them have false profiles and very few friends.

They could be AI bots—but I think the majority aren't.
If AI were given the task of changing our minds, or shaming us into silence, then after a few days it would have reviewed its progress, realised that simple name-calling wasn’t working, and would have started exploring other strategies.
Whereas our trolls just repeat the same old thing, over and over again, despite their complete failure to stop us.

Most also have silly false names and cartoonish profile pictures—whereas I believe AI would present itself more convincingly.
So yes, some could be bots, but many are just people.

Who they are exactly, who knows.
They could even be members of our own tribe—because most people are still unaware we even exist.
The other theory is that some of them are paid, and that could be the case—for why, when you have such a short time to be alive, would you invest this much time pointlessly hating?

Finally, the longer they persist with their unabashed cruelty, the more we can have them start working for us.
I managed to grow my X followers quickly—not through my rants or live shows—but through my interactions with trolls.

I never expected to flip one.
Instead, I used our interactions to circumnavigate the algorithms that are shadow-banning us.

Because you see, once you start interacting with a troll, many people start quietly watching.
Think of it like an online MMA fight—and the prize is that they follow the winner.

But I would strongly advise that you interact with them on our terms.
Meaning: we choose the battleground.

As you know, they are usually condescending and rely mainly on name-calling:
Anti-vaxxers, Cookers, Grifters, Gropers.

What’s interesting though, is that many of us are now happy to publicly wear these labels—because we know it disarms them.
But I am yet to see one person, with a real face and a real name, proudly declare themselves a troll.
So secretly, they must be ashamed.

But, like I said, draw a line.
If they get too aggressive, ignore or block them.
Force them to set up a new email and a new profile just to come back.
Train them to fight on our terms of decent interaction.

The importance of this is simple: it allows us to show the world how strong our characters are.

If we join them in name-calling, then they win a small victory.
But if we ignore the hate and reply only when they offer us a decent and respectful challenge, then we can begin to instigate the very conversations our politicians don't want us to have—
healthy debates about the issues facing our culture.

And we can start now, by sharing this post.

And remember:
There is no page out there, set up by us, where we mock them—unlike the Batshit Cooker pages.
Which means the truth is simple: they need us, but we don't need them.

—A Suggestion by Michael Gray Griffith
Founder, Café Locked Out