Online Vitriol Is Low Level Poison, It Will Kill You Eventually

#BeKind

It's a simple act, takes very little energy to perform, but a whole stack of courage and grown-upness to do.

Being a cunt it so much easier.

Being a dick takes no thinking.

Being a tit is being in neutral gear.

Being kind is remarkably rare, and yet everyone thinks they can do it at the drop of a meme.

Try it, right now, be kind ... no, seriously, I'll wait ... if it's so easy to do, "I could do that whenever I wanted" ... try it, right now ... this post will be here when you come back ...

Go on, be kind.

I hope you were kind. But I don't think you were, right then, you didn't actually actively do anything did you?

"FUCK YOU MIKE! Telling me what to do, go fuck yourself, fucking gonna leave a comment and tell you what I think about being kind, I could be kind whenever I want, not fucking for you to tell me what to do, you sick fucking bastard, bet you're in love with Cindy Arrdern, that shit for brains witch."

Let loose, go on. Or, be kind, right now, be kind to someone. Hard eh, takes courage and rawness of heart to do it. I know, it's scary.

The other way is, I'll admit, simpler. To go with your inner anger flow, to let loose, to projectile vomit your words out onto someone. If that 'someone' is a someone you sort of know but don't really (local politician, a celebrity, sportsperson etc) you've got the perfect recipient of your inner feelings. You've also found the perfect person to be kind to, but that's just coincidence, prolly.

CUNT! YOU, YOU'RE A FUCKING CUNT AND SHOULD BE HUNG!

I don't know how people in the public eye can, day in and day out, deal with it. Being kind is so rare, far too hard that shouting at them with pain is too common.

Being inside the eye of the storm, especially online, is never a headline about being kind, there's never a storm of being lovely. 

A case study into the abuse, harassment, and violence faced by a first-term city councillor in Aotearoa's fourth largest city

Louise Hutt, Feb 06, 2024

When I first ran for Hamilton City Council, I earnestly thought it was a 50-50 chance no one would care. We’re told all the time, right? No one cares about local government. Yet, within 24 hours of tweeting that I was going to be running, it had been retweeted by Patrick Gower, Jesse Mulligan, Marama Davidson, and Chlöe Swarbrick, and I had raised $1,000 from my website donation button alone. Within a month, I had been mentioned on New Zealand political podcasts, I had been interviewed on live primetime TV with The Project, and been invited to speak at the School Strike for Climate march in Kirikiriroa.

That publicity was more than I could have ever dreamt - but with it came immediate harassment. In that first initial reaction to my campaign, trolls targeting Marama Davidson were calling me a cunt in my mentions. I later shared this anecdote at a candidate event when asked about the challenges of running, and at least two members of the public told the organisers I should have been removed from the stage for using offensive language - this was the first moment I realised how complicit people were in this behaviour. When a prolific supporter of a right-wing political party and known Twitter troll tried to harass me online but found I had blocked them (a long time before), they started asking their followers if anyone knew me and if they could access my account.

As Louise Hutt shares her story all I can think is how low energy the person is that flapped this onto the Council table:

I’ve been shouted at in briefing sessions by a male councillor in front of senior staff and other councillors, the Youtube live stream has caught a male councillor sneering “is she going to cry” before I debated, and I have even been asked if I was “smart enough” to know how to use the dishwasher when in the tearoom with a male councillor.

Shouting, it's the least courageous and manly approach to words.

Ok, you've now dug your toes in, you're definitely not going to do something that you think is weak, easy, and pathetic. And yet, still, you haven't been able to do it.

"You're just a weak twat Mike, it's why you haven't ... something ... become a strong leader."

Still the same challenge all you have go is, Be kind, do something kind ... this post will still be here ...

You know, don't even be kind in real life, be kind online.

Let's turn it around a little, you're probably not gonna show a sliver of kindness whilst reading this but you could be a tad selfish. You, the online troll, are going to suffer as well:

Online trolling can have negative consequences for both the person trolling and the people they target: 

 

Trolls can risk their future

People who troll online can lose their jobs, be excluded from school, or even go to jail. 

[..]

Some factors that may contribute to trolling include:

• Anonymity: Trolls may feel more powerful and less cautious when they post anonymously. 
• Self-esteem: People with lower self-esteem may be more likely to troll. 
• Mood: Trolls may be more likely to post negatively at certain times of day or on certain days of the week.

I can't imagine long term planning enters those online spreading vitriol, be they in the pay of some nebulous entity, getting kicks for themselves, or just being boys (it's almost always boys). However the research is starting to show that being a bully/troll has massive negative effects on these doing it. It's killing them, the vitriol becomes a poison within and, over time, kills them - suicide being the main ways.

Being kind is too hard for them.
Spreading vitriol is very easy for them.
Vitriol will, eventually, kill them.

I feel for them, like watching cancer eat itself.