Secular Pro-Life
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet The Team
    • Mission and Vision
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Stances
      • Abortion
      • Religion
      • Contraception
      • The Rape Exception
    • Terms and Conditions
      • Opt-out preferences
  • Content
    • Index
    • Blog
    • Presentations
      • A Secular Case Against Abortion
      • Building Bridges
      • Deconstructing Three Pro-Choice Myths
      • Overlooked Findings of the Turnaway Study
    • Research
      • Abortion Law and Abortion Rates
      • Abortion Law and Pregnancy Rates
      • Later Abortion
      • Embryonic Hearts
    • Collections
      • Becoming Pro-Life
      • They can hear you
      • Parents can hear you
      • Our children’s heartbeats
      • Ask An Atheist
      • LGBTQ and Pro-Life
      • Fixed that meme for you
      • For the biology textbook tells me so
    • Print Materials
      • 100 Pro-Life Sign Ideas
      • Overview of SPL
      • 3 Reasons to tell people you’re pro-life
      • How to talk (not fight) about abortion
      • Bridges PRC Curriculum
      • Fetal Remains Disposition Protocol
      • FAQ handout
      • Presentations overview card
    • Store
  • Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Why support SPL?
    • Donor Opportunities
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Volunteer Survey
    • More Surveys
      • Why do you support SPL?
      • Best and Worst Abortion Arguments
      • “Ask An Atheist” Interview
      • Non-Traditional Pro-Life Survey
      • LGBT Pro-Life Survey
      • Parents experiences with prenatal screening
      • Your experiences with adoption
      • Your experiences with processing abortion
  • Donate
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

We Asked, You Answered: Dealing with Trolls

June 7, 2024/in Dialogue strategy, Uncategorized, We Asked You Answered /by Kelsey Hazzard

Ah, online debating. Sometimes it’s a great way to strong-man the opposition, change hearts and minds, and even spare someone from death by abortion. And other times, you’re rudely insulted and asked how many rape-conceived babies with Down Syndrome trapped in a burning IVF lab have YOU adopted, HUH???!? It can get a little exhausting. So we asked our followers on social media:

In the context of online debates:

1. How do you define "troll"?
2. Are there different kinds of trolls?
3. How do you respond to trolls (if at all)?

— Secular Pro-Life (@secularprolife) May 30, 2024

Without further ado, here are a few of our favorite responses, edited for clarity and length.

Derek B.: “(1) Generally, a person who derives joy and entertainment value from making others angry, unhappy, or otherwise upset. (2) Yes, but the categorizations are probably nebulous and fuzzy at the borders. I think at least broadly I might differentiate them between people who believe their own arguments and those who will take any position just to make people angry. The former are more limited in their scope, if you avoid that topic, but also more dogmatic and tenacious when the subject does come up. The latter are more widespread but will also give up easier when they could have more fun elsewhere. (3) The general rule is to not interact, as it will ruin their fun and make them seek targets elsewhere. But you can’t always immediately tell who is a troll vs who is legitimately debating (even if heatedly).”

Lucy F.: “Someone who uses every brand of dodgy rhetoric. Constantly asks you to repeat yourself. Restates what you’ve said, getting it completely wrong, forcing you to try again. Repeats exploded mantras. True trolls are hard to pin down – they seem to have no agenda apart from infuriating you and engaging you in an unending non-debate.”

Amy B.: “There’s no point responding to them, but responding to their comment with other people in mind who might be reading is appropriate.”

Craig F.: “I’ve a clearer idea of common overbroad misuse of the concept of trolling to include cases of people merely sincerely disagreeing with the prevailing view of a community than of how it should actually be defined.”

Kelly F.: “I recently made a pact with myself on pages that represent an organization that helps women. I will donate $2 for every response that makes accusations against those organizations. Let Them Live got $20 from me today.”

Testing 123: “[A troll is] someone who presents no logical argument, refuses to cite evidence for their claims, and seems to argue for the sake of arguing. Extra points for ad hominem and other logical fallacies.”

Michael S.: “A troll is someone who comments for reasons other than a good faith comment / discussion. They’re either intentionally trying to simply provoke emotional reactions, or they’re trying to derail threads and conversations by asking repetitive questions they have no interest in the answers to. I respond by exposing them as trolls and mocking them.”

If you appreciate our work and would like to help, one of the most effective ways to do so is to become a monthly donor. You can also give a one time donation here or volunteer with us here. Photo credit: Mark König on Unsplash.

Related Posts

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
https://i0.wp.com/secularprolife.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/mark-konig-mx94V7uE1eU-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1 1440 2560 Kelsey Hazzard https://secularprolife.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SecularProlife2.png Kelsey Hazzard2024-06-07 03:50:002025-07-08 20:01:01We Asked, You Answered: Dealing with Trolls

Follow via Email

* indicates required

Categories

  • Ableism
  • Abortion pills
  • Administrative
  • Adoption & Foster Care
  • Biology
  • Bodily Rights
  • Dialogue strategy
  • en español
  • Later Abortion
  • Legislation, laws, & court cases
  • Miscarriage & Pregnancy Loss
  • Personhood
  • Philosophy
  • Pro-Life Demographics
  • Rape Exception
  • Religion
  • Research
  • Speeches, Discussions, Presentations
  • SPL Emails
  • They Can Hear You
  • Top SPL Articles
  • Top SPL Graphics
  • Uncategorized
  • We Asked You Answered
  • Year In Review
  • Your Stories

Archive

It’s crucial that we demonstrate that anyone can–and everyone should–oppose abortion. Thanks to you, we are working to change minds, transform our culture, and protect our prenatal children. Every donation supports our ability to provide nonsectarian, nonpartisan arguments against abortion. Read more details here. Please donate today.

DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
© Copyright 2025 Secular Pro-Life. All rights reserved. Website Design by TandarichGroup

Related Posts

Economic Elites Pour Millions into Abortion Advocacy “Rape is violence. Abortion is more violence.”
Scroll to top
Manage Consent

To provide the best experience, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent may adversely affect certain features and functions.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Want to receive our email newsletter?

We’d be happy to keep in touch. Subscribe for access to our newsletter and other updates.