jimhines

Hmm. I do think there's some congruency between "clueless asshole" and "troll", actually, in that neither has any interest in conversation. Their comment, and any response to it, is there purely to serve as their personal arena. In the case of trolls, the arena is for their amusement; in the case of the clueless asshole it usually seems to be for their self-justification. In both cases, though, I'd say the point of setting that arena up is to make them feel all comfy with themselves at the clear expense of others. So I think I can see why the two would be used interchangeably in all three of the examples above, and especially the first. The clueless asshole may, as you say, in very rare cases be brought to a state of lesser cluelessness with sufficient hammering--there's a bit less deliberate intent to cause pain and upset there. Usually. Hopefully. But the effect overlap is pretty big, between CA and T, and given that part of most privilege-asshole conversations involve debunking the "I didn't /mean/ to insult anyone egregiously" thing I can also see why some people are starting to use "troll" on the basis of effect rather than intent.