Steve Lichtman describes the "kindness steamroller," a strategy for handling online trolls: respond with overwhelming grace and appreciation. Trolls either soften, look foolish, or disappear. He argues kindness is the most effective way to protect your peace and keep your community positive.
Hey folks, in today's episode, it's kind of tailing a little bit off of what we talked about in episode 26 when we talked about haters. And what I'm calling this is the kindness steamroller. Because, you know, it's something people deal with way more. And I've been noticing it way more on LinkedIn especially. I mean, Instagram's always been a disaster. X is a battleground daily. But the trolls and the bots have been increasing every single day. And I wanted to hit this one more time just for a few minutes. So that way in this run of episodes at least you're really understanding what I mean about not wasting your time on bad people, right? Because bad people build rubbish. If a troll hits you from the side and you don't see it coming, drown them with kindness. Just drown them with kindness until they go away. I promise you, if you try to help them, they're going to leave and they're going to stop bothering you. So you could say something like, hey, I appreciate the passion. Hope your day's turning around, buddy. That kind of puts it on them, right? Either they're going to soften up and they're going to chill and they're going to be cool and they're going to be maybe even a productive member of your socials in your community, or they're going to double down and look like total jerk offs and foolish and they'll vanish. So you really win. It's really three ways, right? They're either going to get softer and they're going to chill, they'll double down and look like an idiot, or they'll disappear on their own. So that's three wins in a row. Take them. It gets these people out of your world. It gets these people where they understand that they're just not welcome because cruelty is always going to starve without a fight. And people are so cruel to each other on the Internet and in social medias and in the world these days, it takes somebody a little stronger, it takes somebody with a little more wherewithal, and it just takes somebody with a lot more kindness in their heart. For the people that aren't feeling that and the reason they don't feel it, we could talk about that for years, about why they're being trolls and why they're so sucky and why they're trying to crap in other people's yards and all that good stuff. But at the end of the day, and this is going to be the riff of the day too, Grace is the ultimate power move. Think about that for a minute. Your next win, or your next quick win is just the next time somebody throws a jab your way, just roll them over. Just steamroll that sucker with kindness and just watch it disarm them every single time it's. It becomes too powerful, you're going to swarm them with kindness in a way where they're going to realize that either they're a jerk, they're a bot, and if they're a bot, they'll probably bounce, or they're somebody who has the potential to change and actually become somebody that down the road, might provide value and content in your world. So keep your vibes high. People can't touch great vibes. You know, the Knicks talk about this all the time. Immaculate vibes, right? That's what the boys say on the roommates podcast that they have with Jaylen and Josh and crew. Immaculate vibes. If you're providing immaculate vibes every day, well, then the haters, the trolls, the miserable people, they've got absolutely nowhere to go, and they've got absolutely nothing they can do to you. So with that, I'm Steve Lichtman, and this has been unfiltered and unshakable and stay unshakable. Don't let these trolls ever get the best of you, because you're better than that, your content's better than that, and you as a person are better than that. Take it easy.
