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Anonymous Anger Rampant On the Web

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the oh-now-this-too dept.

the4thdimension writes "In a story that may bring out the 'duh' in you, CNN has a story about how anonymous anger is rampant on the Internet. Citing various reasons, it attempts to explain why sites like MyBiggestComplaint and Just Rage exist and why anger via the web seems to be everywhere. Various reasons include: anonymity, lack of rules, and lack of immediate consequences. Whatever the reason, they describe that online anger has resulted in real-life violence and suggest methods for parents and teens to cope with e-aggression and to learn to be aware of it." I can't figure out what makes me angrier: my habit of anonymously trolling web forums, or my video game playing.

4 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. Positive thing by poetmatt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Regardless of how extreme some people respond to some parts of anger, this is a pretty positive thing. I'd rather have someone rant about something online than go out and live out the murder they wished upon someone. /stabbity

  2. Good by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Good. There is a lot to be angry about, and people have been far too sheep-like for far too long.

    Here's a fitting response to this article from the fictional Howard Beale:

    I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

    We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

    We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

    It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

    Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

    I want you to get mad!

    I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

    All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

    You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

    So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

    "I'm as mad as hell,

    and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"

    --
    -1 Uncomfortable Truth
  3. Complaining about being anonymous is ad hominem by doconnor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Complaining about someone being anonymous to discredit them is an ad hominem attack. Hiding their identity doesn't make their argument any worse and revealing it doesn't make it any better.

    Hiding their identity only make people more honest and allows their foolish beliefs to be addressed and discredited, which may not have been possible otherwise.

  4. Road Rage by WorkingDead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The same goes for road rage. You would never run down the hallway at work, while on your cell phone, yelling at all the other people who are not full out sprinting. But you sure would on your way there in the morning.