Pointless
I read a lot of feminist blogs, and I guess anyone who's ever read a feminist blog or just been on the internet knows that people on the internet get threats.
Especially in the case of threats directed at women, the discussion tends to be bogged down by people insisting that the persons doing the threatening are "just a bunch of rapey 14-year-old boys". And while I can't dismiss the notion outright, not having a ready access to how boys in their early teens think, I always have that niggling feeling that boys of fourteen couldn't give a shit about things like whose face is on the 10£ bill or who wins at tennis (TENNIS!). I read Herman Hesse in my youth, and I have tastes that were and remain juvenile. If I was a teenage boy, I imagine I would spend a lot more time thinking and perhaps waxing poetic about tits than I would being outraged about people protesting HB2 or what ever.
Not threatening people with death or violence is actually pretty easy. Maybe I hang out at the wrong places, or maybe my personality is not aggressive enough, but I don't remember any instances of doing so. Chatting, I imagine I mention arson a lot, though not necessarily because it would perhaps be the most likely crime I would commit, and I always wonder if maybe these chat logs are raising little red flags somewhere. Then I realize, with all the shit going on online, there's simply no way any authority would be interested in a frankly negligible risk of property damage I might pose.
I don't really understand the point. Time spent fantasizing about physically assaulting someone is time one could've spent fantasizing about something nice like sex wasted. Hoping someone would get raped is pretty stupid when you think about it, since if one actually expects ones wishes to be granted (and honestly, what is the point otherwise?), it would make infinitely more sense to wish for the grand prize in the lottery. Writing an abusive comment implies that one has time and online access available, and those could so easily be put to use in googling up some tits and looking at them.
Of course, it turns out that the people doing this kind of shit are not so much depriving themselves of pleasure by wasting the time they could spend pleasuring themselves by being douchebags on the internet, but that they actually derive a sort of pleasure from the act of eliciting disgust. Which I think is quite interesting. Being disgusting and threatening online is then not unlike to the practise of chikan, or sexual harrassment practised by a certain kind of Japanese men. According to some data I read once that I sadly don't have at hand now, the most prevalent type of molester does not even hope for a positive response from his gropee, but gets off on the disgust and shame he elicits. Chikan has been linked to the crisis of masculinity, but of course I wouldn't dream of suggesting that trolls troll because they themselves feel threatened. I wouldn't dream of suggesting that the same people who habitually express opinions our cave-dwelling ancestors would've thought as crossing a line, are the same people who piss and moan on OKCupid about nice guys finishing last.
Especially in the case of threats directed at women, the discussion tends to be bogged down by people insisting that the persons doing the threatening are "just a bunch of rapey 14-year-old boys". And while I can't dismiss the notion outright, not having a ready access to how boys in their early teens think, I always have that niggling feeling that boys of fourteen couldn't give a shit about things like whose face is on the 10£ bill or who wins at tennis (TENNIS!). I read Herman Hesse in my youth, and I have tastes that were and remain juvenile. If I was a teenage boy, I imagine I would spend a lot more time thinking and perhaps waxing poetic about tits than I would being outraged about people protesting HB2 or what ever.
Not threatening people with death or violence is actually pretty easy. Maybe I hang out at the wrong places, or maybe my personality is not aggressive enough, but I don't remember any instances of doing so. Chatting, I imagine I mention arson a lot, though not necessarily because it would perhaps be the most likely crime I would commit, and I always wonder if maybe these chat logs are raising little red flags somewhere. Then I realize, with all the shit going on online, there's simply no way any authority would be interested in a frankly negligible risk of property damage I might pose.
I don't really understand the point. Time spent fantasizing about physically assaulting someone is time one could've spent fantasizing about something nice like sex wasted. Hoping someone would get raped is pretty stupid when you think about it, since if one actually expects ones wishes to be granted (and honestly, what is the point otherwise?), it would make infinitely more sense to wish for the grand prize in the lottery. Writing an abusive comment implies that one has time and online access available, and those could so easily be put to use in googling up some tits and looking at them.
Of course, it turns out that the people doing this kind of shit are not so much depriving themselves of pleasure by wasting the time they could spend pleasuring themselves by being douchebags on the internet, but that they actually derive a sort of pleasure from the act of eliciting disgust. Which I think is quite interesting. Being disgusting and threatening online is then not unlike to the practise of chikan, or sexual harrassment practised by a certain kind of Japanese men. According to some data I read once that I sadly don't have at hand now, the most prevalent type of molester does not even hope for a positive response from his gropee, but gets off on the disgust and shame he elicits. Chikan has been linked to the crisis of masculinity, but of course I wouldn't dream of suggesting that trolls troll because they themselves feel threatened. I wouldn't dream of suggesting that the same people who habitually express opinions our cave-dwelling ancestors would've thought as crossing a line, are the same people who piss and moan on OKCupid about nice guys finishing last.