General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Misogynist Trolls Have An Agenda, And It’s Not Lulz [View all]Decoy of Fenris
(1,954 posts)The article above is seeking ill-intent; they will thusly find it. Any time a group goes searching for a result, they'll find it one way or another, and that's exactly what has happened in the article.
I'll give you probably 40% of displayed hate on the net is real. The rest, though, I'd wager is simply to elicit reactions.
See? Here's the crux, right here. You say "I judge people on the net by what they put out", and that's fine and good. But you're not judging me (or anyone else). You're judging the person I display on this particular forum. You're not judging a person, you're judging a name, and that's why the Internet is as much a weapon as a tool: I could viciously insult you, degrade you, humiliate you here, and I, -personally-, am not held accountable. Sure, Skinner could ban my username or my IP, but in the end, in the real world, I am suffering no ill effects, while you could (potentially) suffer from emotional injury and other ill-effects.
There's no consequences, no retaliation of note, no reaction that can harm or otherwise stop the lulz-folks. That is why they do what they do; they can say anything, hurt anyone, help anyone, or do anything they wish, with no repercussions, simply because they want to. Hence the maxim, "For the lulz".
I see where you're coming from, but it's not something that can be stopped, short of policing the entire internet for hurtful words and phrases.