"I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long …arousing and persuading and reproaching…You will not easily find another like me."

a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response...

< LULZ

In any community of like minded people, there is a serious problem: they are LIKE-MINDED. Discussions invariably reach the same conclusions, the facts are all agreed upon and rarely challenged.

The danger involved is that such a once dynamic community faces a serious danger of becoming static. Anyone who has a dissenting view is an idiot. Dissent itself is discouraged and shunned.

The truth becomes lost somewhere in the sickly sweet goo of good intentions called political correctness and we talk in codes where words like men, honor and truth are replaced by people, customs and beliefs. That which is special loses its uniqueness because we find new, non-threatening, homogenized, sanitized language because we might inadvertently offend someone.

Well- you know what? SOME PEOPLE NEED TO BE OFFENDED. SOME PEOPLE ARE EXTRAVAGANTLY, EMBARRASSINGLY AND EGREGIOUSLY FULL OF SHIT. TO ALLOW THEM TO SPREAD THEIR POISON UNCHECKED AND UNCHALLENGED FOR FEAR OF OFFENDING THEM IS COWARDICE.

This is where we need a gadfly. A small buzzing creature that finds a weak place in your arguments and lies and stings the living shit out of you.

Granted: for some people being a troll is just an excuse for poor manners and bad behavior.

Trolling done right, as a Socratic gadfly to sting the consciousness and prod the psyche to see beyond the conventional wisdom, we need that sting. We need that bite. We need to know that there are horizons and truths beyond the end of our nose and the edge of our sweet, gentle village.

There is a wide, wild world out there filled with things that challenge and even threaten us. To ignore it is a mortal peril of stagnation.

Not every gadfly's objective is to get you to see the other side. When it is however, it's a good idea to think first and then tell him he's crazy.