Remember when you were in elementary school and there were those guys who loved making fart sounds with their armpits? That was so funny, for awhile. Then it got tired and a lot of those guys moved on. But there was always this one guy who stuck with it, forcing it on us in high school hallways, hanging on to it at college frat parties, his audience growing smaller and smaller until people just vacated wherever he was.

It seems to me that social media trolls are getting like that, and if the alleged “Russian blackmail video of Trump enjoying golden showers” thing turns out to be just an outsized trolling incident, we may get to that point online.

Think about it; is Facebook anywhere near as fun as it used to be? How about Twitter? When asshats feel empowered to flex their lame sixth grade mysoginist tendencies or redneck racist anger or blind allegiance to elected officials actively working against their own best interests, who in their right minds want to be there?

But the tide may be turning.

I recently witnessed a jerk troll a witty woman on Twitter and then get absolutely buried by her followers, relentlessly talking truth to his lies.

And I got to see a Trumpian celebrating the oncoming demise of Obamacare discover that his ACA insurance WAS Obamacare.

And today, press coverage of the Russian reports or trolling was reported, mostly, with caution and restraint (the jokes online, however…)

Are we coming to a turning point when we are just finished with trolls and fake news? Are we ready to actively and aggressively reject trolls and trolling? 

I hope so.