I think it goes beyond trolling, I think it is astroturfing. A lot of it seems too on the nose to just be some rando cranking out messages on his phone. But like you said, the rest of the fediverse is pretty okay.
I also like being exposed to alternative viewpoints, but it’s hard to find viewpoints online that aren’t extremist these days. Everything is so tribalistic that ideologies seem to become parodies of themselves.
I miss the authentic conversations that used to be common on forums, then Facebook, then early Reddit. You don’t find them very often on any of the remaining sites. But we’re kind of having one here, so I guess it still happens, just not as often.