Hello Caring. Your posts are always interesting.

I have to better understand "troll" in the new political reality of the US and of Europe.

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll describes a troll as follows:

In Internet slang, a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion, often for the troll's amusement.

But I think that America, and the UK, are so firmly divided that for a liberal to read what a conservative/misogynist/xenophobe thinks about almost any topic is like reading a troll: Liberals can't stand conservatives; conservatives stink! And vice versa from what I read online. And that's perfectly OK with me although I am aware that because of the division we are all going to hell; I have always considered myself a pacifist but since the election, I want political war! No more communication!

I responded to the posts of some of the old timers on this board during the 3-4 months following the US election (the old fellows seem to have gone, which is OK with me): They are deeply conservative/brexits/trumpists/misogynists. It's deep, it's not superficial. For example I observed the poster called Fifi trying to "convert" Silverboy: Impossible. He would accept a few things, he would roll with a few punches, or he would submit to charm for a day, but he would always return to his misogynist and anti-immigrant core. With a rage. Like an elastic band that has been stretched to the max: FLAK!!!. The other 2-3 old fellows would not even move an inch, charm or no charm. For me, almost everything they used to write here corresponded to the above definition of a troll.

And the reciprocal is true: I just saw a reply from Taffy to Fifi at http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/forum/index.pl?read=129813 where he repeats that he is not interested in modern ideas (I am over simplifying things here for the sake of brevity).

So, my point is that in America for sure (and I would assume in the UK as well), half of the population is a troll to the other half.

The poor FTinPRC (ex Trump Diplomacy, thank you so much for the change of handle) wrote a few days ago that she/he (I strongly suspect that FT is a she) currently reads trumpist online publications like Breitbart ONE HOUR A DAY in order to understand how they think! But, still, he/she can't understand.

There is a barrier that splits most of the West in half, and communication no longer passes through the barrier because, for example, of fake news, allegations of fake news (trump yesterday said that it is the NYT and CNN that create the fake news!!!), and the troll label for example. Are we now in the same emotional communication boycott as Israel and the Palestine? India/Pakistan? Sikhs/Hindus? The Irish seem to hate each other less now than a few decades ago: Does it mean there is hope, in the short term (less than a generation) for the emotional divide of the West to mend a little, or is it going to keep increasing? What's your vision of the divide? Or can only the election of 2020 tell us?