A digital painting of a person sitting at a desk late at night, finger hovering over a “block” button on a laptop screen, while ghostly, repeated images of a smug, lecturing figure appear in the background among blurred social media comment bubbles.
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The weakest social media personality isn’t the troll

ByTC Marti

The worst social media personality isn’t the troll. It’s the one who waits months between posting and targets specific users and their following. 

I noticed one profile popping up all over the place on a certain social media influencer I follow on Substack. It seemed like anything this influencer said regarding economics and climate, the invading profile railed against them, but in an arrogant, self-righteous manner.

Not like a troll, which insults anyone who disagrees with them. Instead, I had seen them respond to anyone who commented and agreed with this influencer. Always disagreeing, and with a vibe of a smug college professor “correcting” students who carried dissenting viewpoints on any given issue.

“Mmm, no…” “Well, actually.” “Unlike (insert influencer’s name), I have real-world experience in entrepreneurship and climate science.”

Recently, they wrote a rebuttal to an article that influencer published in June 2025. In January 2026, mind you. So, when they invited me to read their rebuttal and “reconsider” my viewpoint on climate change (I’m what the Left calls a climate denier), I refused to click through to their piece.

Not because I was afraid that they could put that influencer’s take to shame with what was most likely a big-government, pro-State solution. Even if they did, I wouldn’t reconsider on principle because such a solution would require coercion, so there was no fear there.

No. The problem was the perpetual unsolicited link dump. Something you see from a lot of social media users seeking validation, regardless of their worldview and political leanings.

Don’t be that spammy social media user

I also clicked down the list of comments and, as I suspected, this smug prick resorted to a desperate tactic that made them look like a spam artist. Following those arrogantly-worded “Mmm, no…you’re a textbook case of term misuse” and “well, actually,” comments, this user shared a link to their rebuttal at the bottom of each.

Hey, if there’s a one-way ticket to people taking you less seriously on social media, it’s dumping the same link to every single user in the same comments thread. Even worse, waiting over six months to dump that link, which implies you’re a social media addict trying to “one-up” people you actively target before telling their followers, “Go read my article.”

For someone with supposedly high-intellect and decades of real-world experience (I’m clocking this cat in somewhere between 55 and 65), conduct research on how to build a trustworthy social media platform before you look like a spammer.

Worse than a spammer, really. Using phrases in comments that make me picture someone lecturing another who disagreed with them while closing their eyes and wearing a slight smile. That’s called smugness, and it’s not an attractive trait.

If you cross a social media user like this

Block them. Without hesitation, block them. Even after I told them to “never contact me again,” they still responded. This time, asking where they could read the hockey content I post under my real name.

That pissed me off even more. You deliver self-righteous comments to everyone in a thread, give off vibes that you’re a spammer, then try to be our friend? Seriously, I would’ve respected them more if they raised their hands in surrender and muttered, “Okay, they’re not interested.”

I used to work as a personal trainer and part of my job involved texting, emailing, and calling prospective clients. If a prospect told me to quit contacting them, I labeled their profile as “not interested,” and that was that. No hard feelings.

Unfortunately, this government-loving climate change activist who supposedly has real-world experience in climate science isn’t smart enough to realize it when someone isn’t interested in their work. If they’re gonna be a pest, I’m not gonna deal with them.

The right way to build a social media platform

Eirwyn Starweaver, the co-protagonist in The Witch of ThornvaleI crossed paths on Substack with Robbin Marx, who knows a thing or two about building social media profiles the right way. Robbin believes in the 5/5/5 method, where you post five times, comment respectfully on five other users’ posts, and restack another five posts.

I go even further, commenting on five articles other Substackers write in my niche. This has yielded fantastic results for both of my small but growing brands, including The Rogue Scribe.

Speaking of The Rogue Scribe, I have the first chapter of my literary portal fantasy, The Witch of Thornvale, up and running. Check it out if you’re into fictional stories based on real-life lectures, like Ludwig von Mises’ Six Lessons.

But don’t worry. If you don’t click through, I won’t spam you after saying “you’re stupid” in a smug, politically correct way like Leftist academics.

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