“This is why, even if you loathe and forswear the internet, you should care about trolling – because it is fundamentally about the dangerous gravity of a compelling narrative. No religious patriarch in history thought he was burning sinners or stoning adulterers to preserve his own power or fulfil his sadistic desires. It was always for a higher cause. Race-baiting politicians tell themselves they don’t want immigrants to be demonised, dehumanised or attacked; they just want to stand up for the Common Man. It reminds me of the screenwriters’ adage: no villain knows he’s the villain. He thinks he’s the hero in a different film.”
– how to beat trolls: destroy the stories they tell themselves