5 ms·
> Telling people to just ignore it is equivalent to telling them that their injuries don't matter and you're not interested enough to help No, it's equivalent
by forgottenpass 10y ago
> Telling people to just ignore it is equivalent to telling them that their injuries don't matter and you're not interested enough to help
No, it's equivalent to giving them a toolset to make many attempts at injuring them unsuccessful.
I'll be the first to admit that "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" is a porous filter. But removing it because it's not perfect only makes people more vulnerable. Rather than finding a way to address things that make it through that first-pass filter, now the new solution has to fix everything at once. (As we've seen, you've already established that partial fixes are unacceptable.) Good luck finding a solution.
> Telling people to just ignore [...] is an implicit endorsement of the idea that aggressively trolling other people is basically acceptable.
Telling someone that life involves exposure to things they might not like and they're going to have to find ways to deal with it, is in no way an endorsement of those things. All it is, is not coddling.
- bshanks 10y agoYes, one should help the targets of bullies to be resilient. In addition to that, one should make it clear that bullying is unacceptable. And, perhaps, depending on the forum and the degree of confidence that you have the whole story, one should take action against the bullies.
- anigbrowl 10y agoPointing to the existence of unpleasant things in life is very different from just shrugging them off. If you're really concerned, do something about changing the behavior of the antagonist instead of worrying that you might be 'coddling' the victims.
- forgottenpass 10y agoIf you're really concerned, do something about changing the behavior of the antagonist Once you suggest a mitigation strategy that doesn't have laughably bad cost/benefit in comparison to teaching coping mechanisms, I'm all ears. Until then: stop telling me to "do something." I can't figure out how to fix the world for you, rise to the occasion yourself. If you do find it, it'll be easy to convince me to join.
- anigbrowl 10y agoIt's not my job to do all your thinking for you. It's yours to figure out what the best strategy is to uphold the morals you claim to support. But here's some suggestions to get you started. If you see someone trolling and hurting another person online, get involved in the conversation and attack the troll. If you see someone behaving like a nazi, remonstrate with them and if they won't stop, punch them. If you see someone trying to commit rape or murder, fight them and kill them if they won't surrender.
- cookiecaper 10y agoMost places do have rules designed to remove trolls. Like everything else in life, a balance is needed; focusing solely on either end of the interaction is not productive. Both sides need to be addressed. If aggressive trolling is occurring, the trolls should be punished appropriately, but in the meantime, the intended targets should do what they can to prevent escalation.
- anigbrowl 10y agoYeah but the targets already know that advice. It's like telling a rape victim 'stay away from creepy men.' That's not helpful advice in most cases, and it's doubly annoying when the advice-giver isn't obviously making any effort to confront the bad actors, but handwaving about the existence of rules or laws. It's not enough to just put a rule in place, bad actors need to be confronted and attacked for the bad behavior they engage in.