Influx of Trolling Comments in 2020

Even though we’ve only been in 2020 for a short period of time, I’ve had quite the influx of trolls and trolling comments, not necessarily here on my blog, but on my Youtube channel.  I felt like I needed to write a blog post about this, because it just keeps increasing in quantity of trolling comments.  I would like to start off by saying that I personally don’t get upset at these comments, however, each one makes my IQ drop more and more haha.

The reason why I say this, is because some people really reach for points, and try to justify them by the most absurd reasoning.  The blogging community has been great to me, and over my 6+ years of blogging, I can say, I never encountered quite the number of negative comments as I have on my Youtube channel ever since starting back up again September of last year.  I do realize that I talk about my views on a very controversial topic, and I do understand that not everyone is going to agree with me.  I did prepare myself for that when I shared my first ever video on the subject of being Anti Multi Level Marketing.  Just the other weekend, I had to make a video specifically targeting certain comments and issues I’ve faced recently, and I am taken back by the fact that I even had to do this.  In that video, I had to tell my audience that under no circumstances will I allow anyone to bully my subscribers.  While I welcome people to share their opinion, we are adults, and I think we should act like them.

Example Comment #1

On a recent video, I had someone commenting about how I had no common sense and that I was spreading lies and tried to argue his opinion.  While I do always tell everyone to share their opinion, even if it differs from mine, I do expect the same respect that I give people.  Attacking someone and then calling them names whether it be me or someone who is a subsciber is not something I stand for.  Youtube has recently released new terms and conditions where they will not allow bullying and harassment of any kind, people will still try to be down right rude.  I personally, don’t care if someone does not like me, or calls me names (y’all know I was bullied growing up so I’ve literally heard every insult known to man), but I do not agree with bullying or making fun of other people who comment on my videos as a way to try and get your point across.

Example Comment #2

Over the weekend, I had another comment that really blew me away.  Just to give a little background on why this person would even try and go this route with his comment (which I will get to, I promise) I wanted to give an idea of what the video was about.  I was having a casual chat about Pro MLM vs Anti MLM.  I always start off my videos with a disclaimer stating this is for entertainment purposes only and just my opinions, and if I have anything that I claim is factual, I leave my sources in the description box (which most of the time people don’t even look at because they ask me about it in the comments section, which this point is important to remember for a little bit later).  I do encourage people to also do their own research, because maybe there is something that I did miss, and if I did, I encourage people to correct me.  This has happened twice already, and I do pin those comments to the top of the comment section.  The last thing I want is misinformation out in the world.

As y’all know, my family owns two businesses.  The one business, is our own brand of products that we researched and developed, while the other one is an auto shop that we bought out from another individual.  The reason why I bring this up is because we are business owners.  I compare this to the MLM reps who try and argue that they are business owners, when they in my personal opinion, are not.  They do not have control over their products, product development, pricing, discounts, etc.  They are not CEOs or Founders, because there is already a CEO and founder of the company.  MLM Reps like to compare themselves to franchise owners as well, which is incorrect, because with a franchise, the mother company does market analysis to make sure that the business will be successful.  They do this so that there is no market saturation.  Would you open up a McDonald’s right next to another McDonald’s?  No, because they would be in competition with one another, while in MLM, market saturation isn’t a worry.  I do not agree with the predatory business practices and the fact that if you look at income disclosure statements, more times than not, a small percentage (most of the time, under 10%) of reps make a decent living wage and under 5% make 6 figures.  They make money off of their downline, regardless of if their downline makes money or not.

Well, this person truly reached in their argument.  They started off by saying that while they do like that I’m exposing the darker side of MLM, a lot of the things I said in my video were opinion based and not factual.  Which, of course, because the video they watched was opinion based, however I do deep dives into specific companies as well where I spend countless hours researching and making sure I have all of my ducks in a row.  I also create videos that have nothing to do with MLM, they are more light hearted videos, because I don’t want my entire channel to just be about controversial topics.  They continued with their comment with a warning to everyone who watches my videos.  He believed that I was only making videos on a “hot topic” to promote my business and market my business so that we would be successful.  He then stated that everyone needs to stop giving me views so that they could see just how fast our business would crumble and how lost I would be.  Furthermore, he tried to say that he finds it very alarming that I’m adding my business website link in the description box.  Remember how I said this would be important to remember for the future?  Well, like I said before, maybe a handful of people ACTUALLY read what I have in my description box, and trust me there is a lot in my description box so I’m sure people don’t even see it.

My Response

In response to that, y’all know that we have been operating this business for much longer than my comeback to Youtube.  We opened our business over a year ago and have been incredibly successful with it.  I only came back to Youtube in September.  The topic I talk about is a passionate one for me, because of my experience with MLM (I’ve spoken about it many times here on this blog going way back to 2017) and the experiences of people who have reached out to me.  I never have anything personally against the reps, but the people at the very top who are making lots of money off of in my opinion, such an unethical business structure.

A lot of these MLM companies in my opinion do walk a fine line of what is legal MLM and illegal pyramid scheme behavior.  I have an anti MLM Facebook group where people have told me the craziest stories, some of which include, their marriages failed because of MLM, people lost friends and family to these MLM companies.  These MLM reps have targeted many people in my group who have disabilities, or have shamed moms for their choice of either staying at home, or being a working mom.  Going back to my response, I don’t think I’ve ever gone fully in depth into our business, I’ve mentioned what it is a few times, but I do not actively promote it on my channel.  I don’t start off my videos with “buy our products” I only ever mention it in the argument of business owners vs. MLM “business owners.”  The ironic part, is that even though I didn’t want to give this person a view or the time of day, I did go on his channel to see that he too, promotes his business.

I do feel bad for trolls, here’s why

At the end of the day, the reason why I wanted to get this off my chest, is because I do feel bad for these trolls.  They must be incredibly lonely.  I know that I’m showing my weakness right now that I feel bad, while I should be angry.  I feel as though a lot of these people comment controversial statements to get people to check out their channels.  The trolling comments that I have gotten, I want to say about 75% of them are people who have Youtube channels.  They don’t have a high subscriber count, nor do they have very many views.  I do believe that they are doing this so that they can get people from my channel to go over to their channel.  The reason why I say this is because Youtube favors any type of engagement.  It does not matter if you get dislikes, or if your dislikes are higher than your amount of likes.  They favor any type of engagement and views.  That is why when I get these comments, I do thank them for their time because it helps me in the algorithm.

However, going back to my point about feeling bad for them.  The reason why I do is because, it takes a very lonely and sad person to have to take the time to not only watch a video, but to also leave such lengthy negative comments (which is much different than just an opinionated comment) on someone’s video.  For someone to try and tear down someone else down, they must have really been wronged in their life.  I would never take the time out of my day to go on someone else’s platform and say rude things about them, or about other people who comment on their videos.  I did make a video about this topic on my channel because I would never want to be held responsible for being that last comment to push someone over the edge.

Not everyone can handle the negative comments that people will make about them.  I prepared myself for that when I first talked about such a controversial topic.  I knew there would be very angry and nasty people commenting and trying to break me down and hurt my feelings.  I’m not sure why people in their adult life still feel the need to try and hurt people’s feelings.  I’m a strong person so I can handle it, but I do know there are people on the internet who cannot.  Even when I watch a video that I don’t agree with, I won’t leave a negative comment.  I don’t want to take time out of my day to hurt someone else.  Personally, I would feel so incredibly guilty if I had to live with the fact that my comment was the last straw to push someone over the edge.

In conclusion

With all of that being said, can we please make 2020 the year where we build each other up?  Even if we have a difference of opinion, I do think that we need to act like adults.  If anyone here does not agree with my opinions, that is totally fine.  I will never think any less of you if you have a difference of opinion.  If anything, I would think highly of you for speaking your mind and telling me your reasoning for it.  Can you imagine how boring this world would be if we all agreed on everything?

I apologize for this incredibly long rant, let’s move on to the linkup.

xoxo Monica

My Merch

Follow along on Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter

 I do deClaire  // Elegantly Dressed & Stylish // Glass of Glam// Shelbee on the Edge