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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: 2, Informative) by Francis on Saturday August 20 2016, @02:19PM

    by Francis (5544) on Saturday August 20 2016, @02:19PM (#390569)

    It hasn't meant that in a very long time. The main reason why SJW is a pejorative is that they live in bubbles. They usually mean well, when they're not actually trolls, but they're so divorced from reality that they're a danger to the republic. They don't respect free speech or equality as it exists and are regularly tilting at windmills and trying to right past wrongs by screwing over people who had nothing to do with it.

    I personally think it's rather offensive to lump the anti-immigration people in with the men's rights people as those are two very different groups. In America it's difficult to find a measure by which men aren't behind. And the list is pretty much limited to sexual offenses. Even there, the women seem to be catching up.

    But, life expectancy, prison terms, conviction rates, homicide, suicide, work conditions, divorce rates and child care leave are all areas in which women are doing better than men and those are some pretty damn important things and hardly a comprehensive list. Hence why the SJW types have to silence the critics, they haven't got a leg to stand on when it comes to women's rights and as a result their only viable strategy is to silence the opposition before people notice the lies.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @03:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @03:52PM (#390592)

    Nice to see the special snowflakes are out in force. I'd hate to think that they would ever be confronted with somebody elses opinion.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @06:53PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 20 2016, @06:53PM (#390663)

    Shut up, Francis!