new (to me) lexical item: "concern trolling"

[Martin Kaminer]

I really don't think it's constructive for our group to be focusing on this
term; I believe it would be wise for us to devote ourselves solely to
traditional dialect analysis and not get wrapped up in things that are so
contemporary.  The best course for us IMHO would be to restrict ourselves
to examining usage from the 19th Century at the latest, ideally earlier,
because of the availability of references and the scholastic consensus that
comes with time.  I'm worried that if we run willy-nilly after every new
internet term that appears all we'll achieve in the end is the degradation
of our own scholarship, which would redound adversely on us as individuals
and as a collective.

On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 12:50 PM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: new (to me) lexical item: "concern trolling"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 12:17 PM, Alice Faber <faber at haskins.yale.edu>
> wrote:
> >
> > On 4/9/12 12:08 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> > >
> > > An early WOTY candidate, or has everyone been aware of concern trolling
> > > for longer than I have?  Ben?
> >
> > The phrase has been used on progressive blogs like pandagon.com,  for a
> > number of years. The oldest instance I can find in a quick search of
> > shakesville.com is from 2007:
> > <http://www.shakesville.com/2007/06/fight-teh-gay-with-sharpie.html>.
> > The oldest one I can find on Pandagon is mid-2008. Both instances
> > presume that the reader will understand the term without any explication.
>
> The noun "concern troll" has been around since at least 2005. In a
> 1/14/05 post on the Metacomments blog, it shows up as a variation on
> "concerned troll":
>
> ---
>
> http://web.archive.org/web/20050312161350/http://metacomments.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_metacomments_archive.html
> A Troll Bestiary [...]
> We'll start with that subspecies of Trollus Assholicus I personally
> hold in greatest contempt, The "Concerned" Troll. [...] You will know
> without fail that you are in the presence of a "concern" troll when
> their concerns are expressed in the form of moron-level GOP talking
> points.
> ---
>
> "Concern troll" appeared in various online forums in '05 and '06 --
> this one has it in the verbal phrase "doing a concern-troll":
>
> ---
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.radio.talk.dr-laura/msg/2917a23945680823
> alt.radio.talk.dr-laura, July 14 2005
> In short, from what I've seen at artd-l there's little original about
> this "Rick" character; he's another RWer doing a concern-troll ("I
> voted for Barak Obama! I'm a registered Dem! I'm *concerned* about the
> direction of my beloved party!") schtik. Maybe at afr-l or aa this is
> something unique but in the blogosphere such concern trolls are common
> as dirt.
> ---
>
> And Ana Marie Cox defined the term in Time Magazine on 12/16/06:
>
> ---
> http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570701,00.html
> Concern troll: Noun, derived from "internet troll." A more subtle
> beast than your standard troll, this species posts comments that
> appear to be sympathetic to the topic being discussed but who, in
> reality, wishes to sow doubt in the minds of readers. In a 2006 New
> Hampshire Congressional campaign, a Republican staffer resigned after
> reports that he had posted to liberal blogs claiming to be a Democrat
> who thought the party should give up on the race.
> ---
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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