Why is the internet so hateful?

Antropov · Post by **Antropov** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:34 am

I've done my fair share of flaming, but why is the internet as a whole so fucking hateful? It seems like everything sucks to everyone on the internet and on the rare occasion that it happens to be deemed cool it becomes ridiculously viral and then it sucks because everyone knows about it and its played out.

There are a few places online that seem to be decent, but that seems to be based on the fact that the people "know" each other (i.e. here, elsewhere). When it comes to reading comments on posts and matters of the like it always makes me a bit embarrassed for those people. One of the biggest examples is the "Big Board" on Yahoo! Sports that ranks the top 50 players of the week (Scott knows what I'm talking about). While the author is very subjective in his picks, he is NEVER complimented for putting someone in the "right spot" but there is no shortage of, "Fuck you, Funston! You're mother must be a cock sucking whore because you think Albert Pujols is #2! MAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! I want to eat your spleen, motherfucker!!!!"

Why is the internet so inherently hateful?

Eternal Padawan · Post by **Eternal Padawan** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:05 am

1. There's safety in anonymity. People are more free to object and 'stand up" for themselves if there's no retribution for their actions. I doubt they would be comfortable saying "Fuck you." to someones face either because A. They'd be embarrassed for acting in such an immature manner or B. they were gonna get their ass kicked. Here, they can safely vent their frustrations and act like the maverick rebel we mythologize in popular culture. Everybody likes the Dirty Harry/John McClane, take this job and stuff it attitude but are afraid to do it in real life, so they do it here.

2. It's "safer" to disagree. The internet is so vast and opinions so specific and varied, that most likely, people will side with you, if you criticize one person rather than commend them. And if you do occasionally happen to fall into the minority, then you can, as you mentioned, fall back on the "too cool for school" and act the non-corformist/eletist whatever.

3. Most people aren't articulate enough to offer constructive criticism or praise because they don't understand the subject matter. If they don't understand it, they hate it. Ignorance leads to hate. Hate leads to potty mouth internet bashing.

Eternal Padawan · Post by **Eternal Padawan** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:08 am

anarky · Post by **anarky** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:42 am

And Liefeld's got a site on the internet. When Liefeld shows up, any medium becomes more hateful. Because he's a turd-cuddler.

Antropov · Post by **Antropov** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:44 am

anarky wrote:And Liefeld's got a site on the internet. When Liefeld shows up, any medium becomes more hateful. Because he's a turd-cuddler.

Well, that explains it all. Close the thread.

EP wrote:1. There's safety in anonymity. People are more free to object and 'stand up" for themselves if there's no retribution for their actions. I doubt they would be comfortable saying "Fuck you." to someones face either because A. They'd be embarrassed for acting in such an immature manner or B. they were gonna get their ass kicked. Here, they can safely vent their frustrations and act like the maverick rebel we mythologize in popular culture. Everybody likes the Dirty Harry/John McClane, take this job and stuff it attitude but are afraid to do it in real life, so they do it here.

While I don't necessarily agree with that, it's more of an answer than I've got.

2. It's "safer" to disagree. The internet is so vast and opinions so specific and varied, that most likely, people will side with you, if you criticize one person rather than commend them. And if you do occasionally happen to fall into the minority, then you can, as you mentioned, fall back on the "too cool for school" and act the non-conformist/elitist whatever.

But why is it safer to disagree? I'm not calling for Utopia or something here, I guess I just missed the memo when the internet said everyone had to be raging dicks to be "cool".

3. Most people aren't articulate enough to offer constructive criticism or praise because they don't understand the subject matter. If they don't understand it, they hate it. Ignorance leads to hate. Hate leads to potty mouth internet bashing.

That I agree with. It's much easier to say, "I'm gonna eat your spleen!" than it is to back up your claim with facts/stats.

It just gets really tired and boring to read the same shit all the time. The biggest offender is "Nerd City", the forums on the Bloodhound Gang's website. Unless you're a mod or have more than 3,000 posts you go ignored and are the ass-end of jokes (that being the reason why I and countless others, I'm sure, have never registered there). A close second is the comments section on collegehumor.com. Regardless of how funny or awesome the picture or video is, every comment tends to be something along the lines of, "ZOMG!!1! teh ghey! h4xor!!!1!!1!". While its not literally that bad, positive comments are very few and far between.

I can appreciate being an asshole on the internet if you're pointing out how bad someone sucks and using facts to do it, especially if you happen to be the funniest page on the intrawebs. firejoemorgan.com picks apart sports articles and pretty much anything said by ESPN's resident baseball idiot Joe Morgan and shows why they're wrong and what the real scoop is.

I guess my point is if you're gonna be a hateful douche, back it up. Otherwise, that schtick is just getting old.

Post by **vynsane** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 12:03 pm

i have to agree that it's the relative anonymity of the internet, and more specifically the chat board/forum that breeds this type of animosity. if everyone were required to sign up as their ACTUAL name and their avatar was a picture of themselves, not a picture of say... optimus prime hauling nachos... then i think the internet would become much more of a civil place. accountability, and therefore the lack thereof on the internet, is a big part of what makes civilization civil. the internet is still the frontier... you thought "www" stood for "world wide web"? it stands for the "wild, wild west" pardner.

Ran · Post by **Ran** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:20 pm

If you want some internet hate, you should see what Sabres fans are saying about the team's management. The hate is materializing in the form of a protest outside of the arena today at 5:30.

Antropov · Post by **Antropov** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:41 pm

Rogue II wrote:If you want some internet hate, you should see what Sabres fans are saying about the team's management. The hate is materializing in the form of a protest outside of the arena today at 5:30.

Oh, Jesus. It was just Briere and Drury.

Ran · Post by **Ran** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:38 pm

On the hockey site I go to, there are a few Sabres fans, like me, that are disappointed at the loss of Drury due to mis-management, yet remained sane. The other 80% are ready to riot. It's embarrassing when the majority of the fans of your team overreact like that. Most Islanders fans are pretty ticked, too.

I guess most of the sports websites I've seen get a bit...angry.

Snigtad Flornbi · Post by **Snigtad Flornbi** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 3:47 pm

cuz ur a pusse + guys fuck u sence thats what u do with a pussie

kidhuman · Post by **kidhuman** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:44 pm

Fuck you Cappy, hows that for hate?

I tend to stay away from most forum boards. There are 3 I post on, here there and a sports one. For the most part here and there are cool, but the sports one gets to me sometimes. I stopped posting on the one I told you about R-Deuce, but the other one, JN can be so annoying sometimes.

People are safe to assume saying Fuck you to someone in Romania when they are in LA. There are no repercussions, people sometimes just go to forums and try to piss people off. Some people are bored and have no life, so flaming is what makes them happy.