One of the most unpleasant and tedious aspects of maintaining a blog is the bouts of the dreaded troll virus. There's usually a flair up when some particular issue surfaces that seems to resonate with the troll culture. Donald Trump is a case in point.
The trolls show up, hurl abuse (I guess they can't fling their pooh on the internet, must be frustrating) and then cast aspersions on Hillary, often on the blogger and other commenters as well, never responding when challenged to back up their claims.
I began to wonder why this apparent bond between these trolls and Donald Trump. I remembered, vaguely, a report I had glanced at some time ago, a psychological study of internet trolls. A bit of Googling and I found it, a report published in Psychology Today in September, 2014, "Internet Trolls are Narcissists, Psychopaths and Sadists." It seems they're "prototypical, everyday sadists."
Geez, that sounds a little bit like a candidate now running for the presidency of the United States of America. Is there some natural bond between these trolls and Trump based on their common behavioural disorders? Are they compelled to run to the defence of one of their own? I'm guessing when they look at Trump they do, indeed, see a lot of themselves.
