Trolls

I am not sure if you have heard about TamTamPamela yet? In nutshell, she is a self-proclaimed “troll”. What it means is that she intentionally made some videos like the one below as a “sarcastic” (I never thought I will put that word in sarcastic quotes) comment on the religious fanatics.

This last video of hers caused a lot of back lash including threats of death and rape. Her phone number and address were disclosed at some forums which made these threats very real. She deleted her account and went into hiding. She confessed her intentions in this video (people have refused to believe her):

Okay, I don’t get the idea of making troll videos to enrage people. But that doesn’t infuriate me. What do infuriate me is the threats of rape made against her. See, that’s a very specific kind of threat. A threat that can only be made against a woman by a man. The threat that’s used to establish supremacy of man over woman. Even if she was a religious fanatic and the person making the threat was an atheist (she is an atheist troll: she makes video focused on atheism), I don’t get how the idea of rape is relevant here, except for the fact that she is a woman. Had a guy done this, would they have made the same threat? Why is that the moment a woman does anything to annoy a bunch of people, one of the first threat that comes out is of rape? Is it considered a tool of “disciplining” women by such commentators? Why else would they insinuate such a thing? And if that’s what they mean, do they really have a right to be infuriated by a religious fanatic’s video? If you ask me, they themselves are living in dark ages.

Speaking of which, her second video has a comment stating:

“Women are too stupid to be successful trolls. Get the f**k off the computer and do the dishes or something.”

Again, what is the relevance of her being a female? Had this been a guy, would this have been successful? And honestly what do they mean by “successful troll”? If it means infuriating a lot of people intentionally: I think she is one of the most successful troll I have known.

P.S.: 1. I don’t approve of such satire humor, especially in the face of tragic events as massive as Japan’s recent tragedies, but I will take it over real religious fanatics claiming the same anytime.

2. Poe’s law is being discussed extensively in this case. Poe’s law states that: it's difficult to distinguish between parodies of religious fundamentalism and genuine proponents of religious fundamentalism, since they both seem equally insane.