On Griefing for Goodness

[paulhope]

secretspice posted this really good article a while ago. Among other things, it presents a sympathetic view of Something Awful's griefer community (guys that will, for example, disrupt Second Life interviews and entrepreneurship with flocks of flying penises

Comments

[paulhope]

Isn't it kind of ironic to be talking about this on the internet, mostly with people you'll never meet?

I don't think so. Why do you?

And what about these guys, proud to be social retards, devoting hours to trolling online?

Yeah, ok. That's bad.

When I wrote this, I intended to include all sorts of caveats and tie it in with a bunch of other things, but thought it was already going on too long and so decided to cut back to more or less one side of the story.

But of course, there are people who are assholes on the internet just because they are assholes, and of course people who just troll for kicks aren't really contributing anything to society.

What was interesting about the article, though, was that it pointed out a group of people who, far from being social retards, were highly social and organized and, in a weak sense, ideologically driven. Their kind of griefing becomes a kind of performance art or activism. That's really interesting to me.

But it's probably a bad idea to glorify them too much, since it would no doubt validate trolls who just suck and can't think of anything better to do with their time than piss people off. A thin line?

[util]

I saw it as ironic because I thought you were saying everything on the internet is somehow hollow. I see you have said otherwise in the comments here, and of course this would not be consonant with what I know of you anyway.

I don't see why the idea that there is some substance common to all pleasant experiences is so laughable. One can identify an experience as such instantly... based on something. Nor do I see video games being justifiably looked down upon as a problem for the view that locates value in the sum of pleasure. Perhaps individuals decrease their short term happiness when they choose more "productive" activities, but it seems to me that almost invariably the more productive life is also the happier one long term (and not just because of social values/punishment) and even more surely, it is also the one that leads to more happiness for others. And intuitions being heuristics need only tendencies to arise.

I don't see why one needs to be especially concerned with "content" as such to see worth in being long-sighted, in carefully considering one's values and actions, in looking at wide range effects. What system wouldn't suggest doing this?

[paulhope]

Dammit. the internet ate my response to this. I'll try again later.