Here’s an interesting story. A journalist has been plagued by a troll who has followed all her writings and articles, and infested the comments section with mean and nasty little snarks. So the journo decided to find out exactly who this person was, and she actually went to the troll’s house (lair!) to confront here; but the troll wasn’t home. Go and read the details. (I couldn’t post an excerpt because the article has been preserved as a screen save rather than as text, but the link should be good.)
My thought: Rosie Green is a better person than I am, in that she’s refused to name the troll. Honestly, had I been in her place and discovered the troll’s identity, I would have published her name — not her address, that’s doxxing — so that this foul cockroach would be revealed to the world.
The only way to end anonymous trolling, stalking and mean-spiritedness of this kind is to tear away the veil of secrecy. I’ve been the subject of such behavior myself often in the past, but typically it’s gone away over time because ‘ve just ignored it. Without a reaction, the impulse to snipe goes away in the same way that one would eventually get sick of kicking a large boulder. (Death threats, by the way, have always disappeared when I offered to send the threatener my home address, with an open invitation to come and try to make good on their threat: with the caveat that they bring a gun, because I most certainly would.)
I know for a fact that if I’d been in Green’s shoes and found myself knocking on the troll’s door, the 1911 would most certainly have been in its holster — not to use, unless threatened.
Reactions like this, I cannot help but think, would end this little reindeer game quite quickly.
Fortunately, though, I’m an old man now, and I haven’t been trolled by anyone for well over ten years. So I very much doubt that I’d respond in the manner above — although I wouldn’t rule it out, either.