Interhate.

There are a few things I don't understand very well about people. And one of them is how you can, in good conscience, try your best to totally destroy someone you don't even know and try to drive them to suicide.

But this seems to be a disturbingly common thing here on the Internet.

I'm not going to name the site I'm referencing here because I don't want to give it any more undue traffic. I really wish people would realize what a hateful enterprise it is and try to tear themselves away from it and just let it wither. Let's just say it's a site dedicated to the ideas that 1. Hate is funny and 2. The people the hate is directed at do not have feelings and do not matter. This site launched a particularly evil campaign against an amateur anime artist on an art site who had gathered a very large fan base.

Their techniques, had this been a journal or any sort of legally-bound publication, would be considered dishonest and biased by even the most conciliatory judge. Their sole goal seems to be cruelty and hatred without conscience--as well as being as "politically incorrect" as possible. And no matter what the victim does in his or her defense, even so far as changing what they are doing completely, it serves only as fodder for more "trolling".

What I found truly horrifying about this though is that I went back to the site a few times. I realized intellectually and emotionally that it was a poisonous place, but something about it made me want to keep coming back. For whatever reason that site has some sort of strange appeal--I don't know if it is the shocking bluntness or just the novelty of such cruelty (after all people used to flock to the guillotines to watch executions). I don't plan on going back anymore, however, and I think it's best if you never go there for the first time.

This site had the strange effect of rallying me to the side of the victim of that pernicious article. I've never contacted that artist, mainly because I have complaints about the subject matter similar to that of contributors to that site. I would never use the kind of hateful language and low-blow techniques to express my views, however.

Really, however, this behavior is not limited only to this site. I've seen it all over the Internet--a notable example is youtube. If you've ever actually read the comments on some videos (often videos that someone created his or herself or videos of someone performing), they can be absolutely malicious. People will say things like "You have no talent why don't you just crawl in a whole and die" or "Go get laid you don't have a life" or "You are a fat ugly bitch and you shouldn't be in front of a camera". I've even been surprised by the behavior of people I know on this site. The anonymity of the internet has been given as an explanation for this phenomenon numerous times. On the internet you are known only by a username and what you say, and if things get too out of control you can get a new account or leave the site.

That you are typing this poison into a comment box under some pseudonym does not justify treating another human being this way, especially considering that some of the people posting content on the internet are not even in their teens yet. Most people's justification for this is "well they are too young to be posting stuff on the Internet anyway". Whether that's true or not, that doesn't mean that by doing so they give up their right to be treated as a human being. Even "really obnoxious twelve year olds" deserve to be treated with respect--get this--EVEN IF THEY AREN'T TREATING YOU THAT WAY. If you are over the age of twelve and consider yourself more "mature" than they are, then why not, I dunno, act like it?

I'm not trying to attack you or tell you that you are a bad person if you've said things to people on the internet that you probably wouldn't say in real life. I'm just trying to tell you that I believe the Internet can be a better place than it is, a place where people generally treat each other decency and there's no instances of people driving teenaged girls to suicide on myspace with their cruel comments. Frankly, I think that kind of behavior should be punishable by law.

I know it's difficult to monitor and I know that free speech is an issue here. But consider most other publications (the Internet is, after all, a kind of publication)--they're subject to regulations concerning honesty, libel, etc...and the internet, which is actually more widely circulated more easily--is not. It seems kind of hypocritical. But that's just me.

Assuming that the government is powerless against Internet, that means the responsibility falls to its users to act like actual human beings to each other. I realize that not everyone on the Internet is bound by the moral standards of their religion, but I also believe that ALL human beings have the right to be treated with love, regardless of the "religion" of their persecutors.

What should we do? If you see a malicious comment anywhere, report it if possible. If it's not possible but the comment is subject to ratings, give it a bad rating. I couldn't tell you if trying to respond to the attacker is a good idea--I suspect that it is not--but at least give the persecuted some encouragement (maybe via a message if not a comment). And perhaps most importantly, ALWAYS restrain to urge to stray into the territory of "trolling" or "flaming", and encourage those you know to do the same.

They say that love conquers all.

Are we ready to back that up?