Concern trolling is a widespread phenomenon, not specific to feminist communities. The definition given in the first two sentences of that article is the exact concept that the phrase was coined to name:
A concern troll is a person who participates in a debate posing as an actual or potential ally who simply has some concerns they need answered before they will ally themselves with a cause. In reality they are a critic.
The article does then go on to broaden the concept to the point where it can be used as a club to invalidate anyone:
Concern trolls are not always self-aware, they may also view themselves as potential allies
Well, no. The whole point of the concept is that a concern troll is lying. They are, in fact, an enemy deliberately, consciously, intentionally, posing as a friend in order to undermine discourse. Someone who is actually a friend with genuine questions that they actually want to be constructively discussed is not a concern troll, even if those who do not wish the questions to be raised at all call them that.
I think there’s a Poe’s law type thing going on here: looking at behavior alone, it’s very difficult to tell the difference between a concern troll and a tentative ally with the right ideological background. That’s probably especially true for cultures like social justice that use a lot of endogenous concepts and terminology: within those movements, any concerns that don’t speak the language are going to pattern-match to “enemy” on linguistic grounds and suffer from the corresponding horns effect.
With that in mind, I suspect they exist but are pretty rare.
Incidentally Poe’s law is also highly misleading, specifically it’s mostly a statement about the person attempting to tell the difference not about the person being parodied.
I’ve seen them, and unlike Nornagest, I don’t think they’re at all rare. They’re one of the common forms that trolling takes. A certain person who was run out of here on a rail a few months ago fitted the form. (I’m not going to link, but his username in rot13 was WbfuRyqref.)
As for how you tell, well, how do you ever tell pretence from truth?
Would you mind sharing your evidence that (rot13: WbfuRyqref) was concern trolling, via PM if you’d prefer? I wasn’t involved in that little spat, and looking over his comment history it doesn’t seem entirely implausible, but on the other hand I’ve elsewhere seen people with, er, similar opinions posting in what I’m pretty sure is deadly earnest.
I have only the evidence of his own postings. This comment of mine was about him, and the pattern I describe there, running through all his postings, is a pretty clear sign to me. He appeared out of nowhere, made an unusual claim about himself that no-one in that position would have any good reason to disclose, then sat back and never engaged with anyone, instead trying to keep the pot boiling by muttering disingenuously about forbidden topics. Fortunately it didn’t work and he left (or was kicked, I don’t know.)
It is possible that he was also what he said he was (although I wouldn’t take the “celibate” part on his word), and using the cover of trolling to indulge a desire to talk freely about these things without the danger of being believed.
Of course, none of this is definitive. But we have to make judgements of people’s honesty all the time, and do the best we can. This is mine.
Concern trolling is a widespread phenomenon, not specific to feminist communities. The definition given in the first two sentences of that article is the exact concept that the phrase was coined to name:
The article does then go on to broaden the concept to the point where it can be used as a club to invalidate anyone:
Well, no. The whole point of the concept is that a concern troll is lying. They are, in fact, an enemy deliberately, consciously, intentionally, posing as a friend in order to undermine discourse. Someone who is actually a friend with genuine questions that they actually want to be constructively discussed is not a concern troll, even if those who do not wish the questions to be raised at all call them that.
Do concern trolls actually exist? I’ve never seen one (or maybe they were subtle enough that I didn’t notice).
I think there’s a Poe’s law type thing going on here: looking at behavior alone, it’s very difficult to tell the difference between a concern troll and a tentative ally with the right ideological background. That’s probably especially true for cultures like social justice that use a lot of endogenous concepts and terminology: within those movements, any concerns that don’t speak the language are going to pattern-match to “enemy” on linguistic grounds and suffer from the corresponding horns effect.
With that in mind, I suspect they exist but are pretty rare.
Incidentally Poe’s law is also highly misleading, specifically it’s mostly a statement about the person attempting to tell the difference not about the person being parodied.
I’ve seen them, and unlike Nornagest, I don’t think they’re at all rare. They’re one of the common forms that trolling takes. A certain person who was run out of here on a rail a few months ago fitted the form. (I’m not going to link, but his username in rot13 was WbfuRyqref.)
As for how you tell, well, how do you ever tell pretence from truth?
Would you mind sharing your evidence that (rot13: WbfuRyqref) was concern trolling, via PM if you’d prefer? I wasn’t involved in that little spat, and looking over his comment history it doesn’t seem entirely implausible, but on the other hand I’ve elsewhere seen people with, er, similar opinions posting in what I’m pretty sure is deadly earnest.
I have only the evidence of his own postings. This comment of mine was about him, and the pattern I describe there, running through all his postings, is a pretty clear sign to me. He appeared out of nowhere, made an unusual claim about himself that no-one in that position would have any good reason to disclose, then sat back and never engaged with anyone, instead trying to keep the pot boiling by muttering disingenuously about forbidden topics. Fortunately it didn’t work and he left (or was kicked, I don’t know.)
It is possible that he was also what he said he was (although I wouldn’t take the “celibate” part on his word), and using the cover of trolling to indulge a desire to talk freely about these things without the danger of being believed.
Of course, none of this is definitive. But we have to make judgements of people’s honesty all the time, and do the best we can. This is mine.
I’d like to agree with you, but how do I know you’re not a concern troll?