User blog comment:ForestFairy/How to Take the Fun Out of Trolling/@comment-162.192.193.236-20150604212448/@comment-452-20150624143201

If they can be "shut down with a high enough combination of intelligence and a good wit", then they're not actually trolls, they're just users with a different opinion than yourself, or a lack of understanding about the subject.

However, a common tactic of trolls is to continue arguing something which has been disproven, or to make continually make illogical/incorrect statements: so "intelligence" and "wit" will do nothing.

But sometimes, it's hard to tell whether the person is pretending, or genuinely believes what they're saying despite the fact that what they're saying is wrong/irrelevant/nonsense.