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posted by janrinok on Saturday August 20 2016, @03:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the troll-on-trolling dept.

Paraphrasing an article by Time Magazine's Joel Stein:

The Internet's personality has changed -- once it was like a geek with lofty ideals about the free flow of information. Now the web is a sociopath with Asperger's. [ Submitter's note: the "Sociopath with Asperger's" comment is not my addition, but a verbatim phrase in the source article ]

The people who relish their online freedom to act under influence of the online disinhibition effect are called "trolls." Trolling is, overtly, a political fight; but it has become the main tool of the alt-right, an Internet-grown reactionary movement that works for men's rights and against immigration. They derisively call their adversaries "social justice warriors" and believe that liberal interest groups purposely exploit their weaknesses to gain pity, which allows them to control the leverage of political power.

When sites are overrun by trolls, they drown out the voices of women, ethic and religious minorities, gays -- anyone who might feel vulnerable. The alt-right argues that if you can't handle opprobrium, you should just turn off your computer. But that's arguing against self-expression, something antithetical to the original values of the Internet.

The article closes with a description of an exchange between Stein and a detractor. In meeting the detractor in real-life, he was surprised by her lack of bravado, to which she responds, "The Internet is the realm of the coward. These are people who are all sound and no fury."

Stein ruminates in response, "Maybe. But maybe, in the information age, sound is as destructive as fury."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @06:43AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @06:43AM (#390507)

    > From someone who has more cred as hacker than Mr. Stein

    Just what is it about being a hacker that makes someone an expert on sociology or psychology?

    Seems to me that at best the two are orthogonal and that in practice being a hacker blinds you to how people (and especially groups of people) work because humans are all analog and fuzzy logic which is the opposite of computer systems.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @07:19AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @07:19AM (#390526)

    Seems to me that at best the two are orthogonal and that in practice being a hacker blinds you to how people (and especially groups of people) work because humans are all analog and fuzzy logic which is the opposite of computer systems.

    I don't think so, unless someone goes around treating humans like computers. You could probably find people who appear to be like that in some insignificant aspect, but it would just be pure hyperbole.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @01:24PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @01:24PM (#390562)

      > I don't think so, unless someone goes around treating humans like computers.

      It isn't about "treating humans like computers" it is about developing an understanding of the human condition. Hacking does nothing to increase that understanding. Unlike, say, being a reporter where your entire job is nothing but reporting on various aspects of the human condition. Practice makes perfect, and hacking provides zero practice.

  • (Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Saturday August 20 2016, @07:52PM

    by cubancigar11 (330) on Saturday August 20 2016, @07:52PM (#390684) Homepage Journal

    Just what it is about Internet that makes all kind of sociology majors and gender studies majors and English literature majors think they know how and why of internet community?

    See, we can go on and on about shredding this article to pieces. The truth is that Mr. Stein is just as much as trolling as it wants to blame its detractors of it. The reality is that trolls using left-wing terminology are just angry that right-wing is just as good at trolling. Is it a coincidence that every dumbass today is having an opinion about trolling or "violence-against-women" or misogyny or white privilege or rape culture or BLM? Do you really think this has got nothing to do with elections? Where do you think all those millions are getting spent? Could it be that sympathetic journalists are being paid to write more about certain topics and being paid to ignore certain other topics?

    For example, if you believe this article, men's rights are against gays. Not seeing the flaw in that is pathological condition yet left-wing astroturfing is so strong due to democrats being in power and republicans busy pandering to richest people, that there are several times more people who are against men's rights than people who know what men's rights are demanding. (Hint: they are demanding equal rights for gays.)

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @11:15PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @11:15PM (#390768)

      > Just what it is about Internet that makes all kind of sociology majors and gender studies majors and English literature majors think they know how and why of internet community?

      Just what is it about the Internet that makes all kinds of socially impaired hackers think they know the how and why of human behavior?

      Would you trust a sociologist to write a DNS server? No? Then why would you trust a programmer to explain social behavior?

      Just because hackers participate in the internet doesn't make them an experts in human behavior on the internet any more than driving a car on a freeway makes someone an expert on road grading, and paving aggregates.