A skeptical argument for troll-feeding

Why do I talk to trolls?

I spent some o' my precious time last night feeding a concern troll over on Respectful Insolence. Trolls exist to argue. They only have power if you argue with them, i.e., feed 'em. I've been around the internet block, I know better than to troll-feed... and yet...

Here's the thing. I view troll-feeding as a useful tool in the skeptical arsenal--because I owe much of my skeptical "conversion" to reading skeptics' responses to internet trolls.

Let me back up a bit. Bear with me, won't you, while I take you on a guided tour of how one woman went from innocent technophobe to 83% 4chan. :)

Computers were good for two things, as far as I used to be concerned-- Photoshop, and email. Let's look through my email back then. My dad loves a good conspiracy theory. He used to forward them willy-nilly, without fact-checking, because he "just wants to inform people," claiming he held no opinion one way or the other. Well, way back in the day, my father was forwarding me antivax newsletters, and they scared me silly! THIMEROSAL!!! MERCURY!!! POISON!!!! and the dreaded a-word... AUTISM!!!!!!! I was first-time preggers. Soon afterward I was a new mom-- sleep-deprived, paranoid, and scared all the time that I was accidentally going to harm my child. I was vulnerable, confused, parched for objective information, and the antivaxx Kool-aid was sitting right there on the table in front of me. I even asked the nurse at the pediatrician's office about thimerosal-- she sounded irked, and replied shortly that their office doesn't even order the ones with thimerosal.

Ok... fears temporarily assuaged. But why did she sound so short with me? What was that all about?

Welllllllll....

As a new mom, and a stay-at-home one at that, I used the magic of the internets to connect with other adults throughout the day. It saved my sanity. What did I read? Well, LiveJournal. I started with my husband's friendslist before I made my own. Then, when our friends weren't posting enough to keep my mind occupied, I read the comics blogs my hubby linked to. One of them is Polite Dissent, written by a doctor-- a review of medicine in comic books! HOW AWESOMELY GEEKY! Exactly my cup of Supersoldier-serum-laced tea! Plus, I liked the title of the blog. "Polite Dissent." How clever! How pithy! And look, he has a sidebar full of links!... Hey, lookit that blog there-- it's called "Respectful Insolence." Sounds kinda like "Polite Dissent," only sassier. Lemme check that one out.

*click*

And thus was my skeptical conversion begun.

I read Respectful Insolence voraciously, going through all the archives. I clicked on links on his sidebar-- I found myself addicted to medical blogs! I still am addicted to medical blogs. They are shiny. They make me feel happy, interested, engaged, and intrigued! They stretch my mind and my heart. (Ew.) They are the ultimate human drama, and the fact that the stories are true makes them that much more awesome. I love reading about real people doing real things to help other real people! These blogs, especially the activist blogs like Orac's and others written by docs and scientists in the fight against pseudoscience, denialism and quackery, put forth arguments for vaccination so reasonably and refuted the antivax complaints of which I had read in my dad's emails so deftly that I was able to see that the evidence was FIRMLY on the side of vaccination being good for the human race. In fact, they made me itch to get my own vaxxes updated (which I did, thank you). Kool-aid averted, reason prevails!

Well, one late night I was reading a doctor's blog-- I cannot for the life of me remember which one, alas!!!-- and the author was dandily refuting some antivax canard or other. It was so fun to read that I scrolled into the comments.

These particular comments were plagued by an antivaxxer by the handle of "Sue." She has shown up in many blogs and blog posts devoted to autism and vaccines, and has adopted many handles, "Common Sense" being ironically among them. And what I saw was denialism in action. No matter how many times she had her ass handed to her, she ad hom attacked the arguers as stupid or pharma shills, flagrantly ignored any argument she couldn't refute, resorted to "nuh-UH" and dismissing out of hand any studies that refuted her position, and generally repeated her same already-refuted arguments over and over and over. This went on for pages and pages!!! She argued, people replied, the cycle kept going! NOW I UNDERSTOOD why my pediatrician's nurse was so brusque when I brought up thimerosal-- those who have heard the antivax canards TIME AND TIME AGAIN have refuted them SO MANY TIMES that we just sound SNIPPY to anyone who hasn't heard the whole argument a MILLION TIMES!!!

So, why feed trolls? What good does it do to keep arguing?

Because trolls, through their own incoherent rantings, are making the skeptical arguments FOR us.

THIS was the truth I realized while I was reading those pages and pages of Sue. She was making her own side look terrible, and the people who argued against her just kept on providing evidence-- evidence which was helpful to me in finding objective answers! Reasonable but underinformed people, like me, will read the thoughtful, logical arguments, see the evidence with links to the science, then see the screeds of trolls in the comments for a shining, foetid example of how the other side thinks.

So, take a moment to thank the troll sitting next to you. Thanks, troll! You've helped save my kid from getting measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, Hib, polio, pertussis, and more!!! Jus' keep on talkin'... :)