5 More Tips for Dealing with Trolls

Mar 08, 2021

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
-Martin Luther King Jr.

Be Agreeable

When you're trying to get someone to connect with an issue, it's best to find common ground first. This can be difficult with trolls, since they usually offer very little substantive content with which you could possibly agree, but it doesn't hurt to try. Even if you have to stretch the truth a little bit, you want them to feel like you truly understand where they're coming from. And, in a general sense, you do because even though you may not have had the same exact experiences as them, you likely both came from a place of pre-vegan speciesism.

For instance, if confronted by a hunter, though you may have never hunted in your life, you probably once believed it was acceptable to eat and use certain kinds of animals, so you have a commonality there. Always try to tell them that you once thought the same way as them, but you changed, and everyone is capable of change, even if they don't realize it.

Insult Their Insults

While killing with kindness is the best approach to take when confronting a new troll, sometimes it doesn't work. Most often, trolls say variations of the same thing: I'm going to eat even more animals, I like killing animals, veganism is stupid, etc. So, if you're getting a lot of these kinds of responses, sometimes it's ok to punch back a little. (But you should never directly insult them as an individual. Snark is fine, but only a little bit.) Try something like, "Please, if you're going to attempt to insult me, come up with something more original next time," or, "Wow, I've literally never heard that before."

Never Act Superior

There are so many times when you'll feel compelled to say something really snide and sarcastic (and maybe you've actually gone through with it), but before doing that (again), take a step back and think about how your words -- as good as they may feel at the time -- will sound from their perspective. When doing so, they often give an air of superiority, as if you're looking down on them and being the stereotypical judgmental vegan. Which is what you definitely don't want to do.

What you have to remember is that, unlike them, you can't say whatever you want. Vegans always have to take the high road, be the bigger person, blah blah blah. And that's hard. Not being mean to people who are so blatantly disrespectful is difficult, sometimes even painful. But if you can't bear to be polite, the best option may be to stay quiet and not respond to avoid getting into exhaustive dialogues that may not go anywhere.

Just Ignore It All

Let's be clear, you are under no obligation to respond to any comments carnists make, especially if they're trolls. As I said in part one, trolls generally just want to rattle you, so getting into these kinds of conversations often does more harm (to you) than good. Choosing to ignore them is usually the best solution, particularly if you don't handle negativity well.

Remember the Point

The odds are probably a million to one (maybe even more) that you will ever get a troll to admit they're wrong. Most trolls will generally ignore you once you've made your point and defeated their argument, but others will keep jabbering on incessantly.

But the point is that you are never going to get them to admit to you that you've bested them. That doesn't happen. However, you have likely made an indelible impression on them, and it's something they will probably continue to mull over with time. Maybe one of those "plants feel pain" advocates was horrified when you told them that an omnivorous diet uses 18 times more land than an herbivorous diet and decided to do more research into it on their own, even though they kept calling you a murderer for slaughtering soybeans. You'll probably never know what they thought after that conversation, but you made the points you needed to make. Now, you just have to sit back and watch the seeds sprout into new vegans.

be conscious, be kind, be vegan