I see that the trolls I was talking about are managing to find their way to Lemmy. They never have any actual insightful things to say, it’s just reducing your arguments to the most simplified version and repeating them back in a childish condescending way. It’s almost like…that’s not all the protest is about? Not sure if these are just kids trying to be edgy, or if they’re working for Reddit, or if they’re just u/spez being petty. I try to be an empathetic person, but I have a really hard time understanding thinking it’s fun to belittle people for caring about things. It’s such a waste of energy. If you need attention, learn a skill and impress people with it, I assure you it’s a much more fulfilling way to get people to notice you. I hope these people can get the emotional support they need someday.
I agree with all of this. I definitely think at least some of them are astroturfing. The mods from r/adviceanimals got kicked and ever since then, they mostly post memes that say things like “the official app isn’t so bad, you guys!” We all know u/spez isn’t above editing comments for petty reasons and since he got caught, I’m sure he’s more careful about not getting caught editing things to suit him now. I wonder if the voting system is rigged, too, at least in some subs.