Yea I used to think about this a lot when studying the dialogues. Socrates is definitely the ancestor of trolling, although Socratic Irony is one of like two or three different interpretations of his strategy. Most of the time Socrates stresses he does not know the answer to his questions and is merely trying to seek out truth. There are some conversations however, especially the passages with Callicles in Gorgias where the entire thing reads exactly like a TL flame war. They both get pissed at each other and become extremely bitter and sarcastic while disregarding everything the other person says. It's probably my fav dialogue out of the few I've read.

TheAntZ

Israel6248 Posts

May 11 2010 20:56 GMT

#26

On May 12 2010 04:47 Liquid`NonY wrote:
Yeah I think he may have been the original troll. He would talk in such a way to make people look idiotic and become annoyed. When he did this to his friends their response was sort of like "damn it Socrates, just tell me what you think already" but in a respectful way. When he did it to others, well, the city ended up having him killed.

We should still do this sometimes

PanN

United States2828 Posts

May 11 2010 20:59 GMT

#27

On May 12 2010 04:12 Sadistx wrote:

Show nested quote +

Wrong. They are just often labeled as trolls by forum dummies, because it's easier for dummies to label someone a troll than to find a valid counter-argument.

This is so wrong.

zulu_nation8

China26351 Posts

May 11 2010 21:09 GMT

#28

On May 12 2010 05:59 PanN wrote:

Show nested quote +

This is so wrong.

It's definitely not, the term troll is often misapplied.

Kgosi

Iceland79 Posts

May 11 2010 21:18 GMT

#29

I don't really think that he was really trolling since he wouldn't just jump in and start throwing around words such as Bonjwa to piss off SC players or start arguing EM is the game mode for skilled people in HoN. He asked General's what bravery was and young boys what love was. More importantly he got the people to agree with a series of statements such as: ( 1. Humans Die, 2. You and me are humans ) which led them to have to agree with a conclusion ( Me and you are going to die )

Sure, there are some similarities but this is by means "trolling". I'll agree he was a troll the day trolling means asking a person who genuinely thinks they are an expert in some matter and do a lingual roller coaster with they until they have to disagree with their original statement

Madkipz

Norway1643 Posts

May 11 2010 21:34 GMT

#30

On May 12 2010 05:56 TheAntZ wrote:

Show nested quote +

We should still do this sometimes

We still do, its called getting a ban.

excessive or disruptive trolling usually earns you one.

Now at least i can feel proud of my troll heritage.

[image loading]

ShaperofDreams

Canada2492 Posts

May 11 2010 21:34 GMT

#31

I've read some of Socrates stuff and the guy seems to be a huge bullshitter. He'll string together a bunch of statements that sometimes have very little to do with each other in order to "prove" his point.