Math Trolls Gone Wild

As usual for my third-party interviews, my last appearance on "Theories of Everything" with Curt Jaimungal (shared with Bernardo Kastrup) led to a certain amount of trolling.

As most readers should by now understand, "CTMU troll" is virtually synonymous with "deceitful and thoroughly immoral Truth-obscuring moron". While there has never been an exception, some CTMU trolls are worse than others.

There are various kinds of trolling. Almost all trolling is anonymous; whether nasty, mentally ill, or simply mercenary, trolls are generally vindictive cowards who are terrified of being exposed under their real names. Such exposure would put them in danger of being sued, prosecuted, or simply humiliated and forced to answer for their lies and defamation, which they would much rather avoid.

Although trolls can usually be refuted, it costs time to do so. The most dedicated trolls are either obsessive nutjobs who fixate on their targets for personal reasons, or they are paid. Both kinds have unlimited time to waste, and neither kind faces any risk. The sole object of a troll is either to get its jollies by abusing the target, and/or do as much damage to the target and waste as much of the target's time as possible while being paid for it under the table.

An especially insidious kind of trolling is the authoritative and self-righteous variety. It goes roughly like this: