I know I'm a little late for the bandwagon here...

[faeshale]

...which renders my opinions perhaps that much more personal?

Let me begin with this simple statement.

There is no justification for the actions of any of these people.

"Trolling" is the purview of half-assed misanthropists, losers who couldn't hack it (pardon the pun) in the world of flesh and blood and unable to reconcile themselves with the

Comments

You Fail

[faeshale]

You missed the point entirely. Being critical doesn't make you hitler. Assuming your own intellectual and emotional superiority, and further assuming that such would give you the right to torment someone (not "challenge", torment) does. The moment you convince yourself that someone is really too inferior to be allowed to live, you're crossing that line.

Convincing a little girl to commit suicide is sociopathic. The things the Paulites did to Greg is trolling. I'm not talking about the mere act of trading insults. I'm talking about manipulation and "IRL" attacks, which you yourself have been the victim of, whether you admit it or not.

There are many people who troll on the internet who aren't sociopaths, or who try to challenge people in non-destructive ways for genuinely good reasons.

Don't confuse yourself. Abusing someone who is unstable "for the lulz" is not "challeng(ing) people in non-destructive ways for genuinely good reasons". It's no different from a husband beating his wife to teach her "respect".

It strikes me that you sound so very party line.

Yes, I read the whole post, and Fortuny makes some interesting and suprisingly decent points. I even plan to read more of him, just for the fun of it. However, you of all people shouldn't be confusing emotional and psychological abuse with "teaching". If you can't figure that out, then maybe you do deserve someone like Weev. It's like you have Stockholm syndrome, and can't quite grasp that you yourself are the victim of the exact same abuses you're extolling. Or maybe you really do just hate yourself that much?

And as far as Fortuny's argument that the way to satisfy a troll (if ignoring him won't work) is to go along with it? Well, Hayden Tompkins' response to that post said it better than I feel capable of right now -

"I'm not entirely sure that I am interested in a 'friendship' with someone who is insulting me under the veil of a joke. I wouldn't put up with it in the 'real world', why would I do so online? To then define that demeaning aggressiveness as a joke, while extolling the virtues of revealing someone's 'true nature', seems a bit...well, like it's not really a joke.
"

If you think harassment is a legitimate discursive technique, online or elsewhere, all I can do is pity you. In your own terminology, that route is full of FAIL.

It's Not About You

[faeshale]

PRELUDE: Do you have to assume that everything I write in this fucking journal is about you? I'm getting awfully sick of writing "subjunctive" in every fucking post in order to cater to your inescapable assumption that You, JD, are the specific subject of every sentence I've ever written. Is it your ego, or do you really believe that I can't write about anyone other than DMLaenker?

further assuming that such would give you the right to torment someone

You seem to have missed that part. Did you at any point read the word "torment" or does your brain skip over that word in your rush to defend people you don't even agree with?

Well, I DON'T DO THAT.

Then stop defending people who do.

If you think "fuck you I'm a dragon" is legitimate discourse, or that Internet Tough Guys are worthy of legitimate discourse, or that I should tone down my contempt for that illegitimate discourse to milquetoast, d.p.s "Oh dear! I'm not as bad as him! Mayhap he has bats in the belfry!" type unfunny pseudo-distancing "snark" - rather than, I don't know, acting to establish and enforce some minimum requirement for the level of discourse in a forum - then I seriously question whether you know whether or how to pity anything. Maybe you should become An Hero yourself?

You still can't see the line between "enforcing some minimum requirement for the level of discourse in a forum" and telling someone to auf themselves.

You just suggested that one of your closest "IRL" friends kill themselves in defense of your own misanthropic social darwinism. Internet or not (and here's the rub), you have just convinced me that you aren't worth talking to. Goodbye.