“Why don’t you block the pro-choice trolls?”
At SPL, we regularly get messages from followers asking us to block “pro-choice trolls.” Some thoughts.
Recognize the difference between a troll versus someone who is simply pro-choice and disagrees.
The pro-choice person disagreeing might not always be the epitome of honesty and politeness (neither are some pro-lifers), but there’s still a distinction.
There are no hard and fast rules here, but generally the more a person appears to be just trying to anger and provoke people, rather than engage in any substantial conversation, the more they lean toward the “troll” end of the spectrum. People who are making actual arguments (even if they make them emotionally) and sticking around to elaborate, discuss, cite sources, follow trains of thought, are more toward the “non-troll detractor” side of the spectrum.
We welcome discussion, disagreement, and engagement. You do not have to be pro-life to engage our accounts.
Even if someone is being a pure troll, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’d block them.
First, sometimes a single person goes through phases of substantial engagement to trolling to engagement again. Sometimes a troll evolves to engagement, and on rare occasions even starts to moderate their stances (depending on the quality of responses). These are other reasons to lean toward allowing engagement.
And even people who are always trolling can have uses. They can provoke thought, boost engagement, and prevent echo chambers.
Very importantly, they can also stand as off-putting and alientating examples of our opposition, giving moderate pro-choice people who are reading the comments (there are plenty of them, I assure you) pause, and opening the door a little for us to indirectly engage silent readers.
[Read more – Quick tips for making online abortion debates worthwhile]
Trolls can also inspire their opposition to action beyond online commenting, such as donating or volunteering, or just doing more research. It would be hard to measure how much SPL content exists because of “inspiration” from trolls. We’ve also had quite a few donations over the years in honor of specific trolls.
For all of these reasons, and perhaps more I’ve forgotten, we err on the side of not blocking “trolls.”
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