4 ms·

Why does it seem like "death threats" are more common these days? Or are they just taken more seriously? I ofc wouldn't be advocating to _not_ take them serio

by robswc 3y ago

Why does it seem like "death threats" are more common these days? Or are they just taken more seriously? I ofc wouldn't be advocating to _not_ take them seriously but I don't understand if people are just getting crazier or people are taking them more seriously? Ironically, I feel like there used to be more back in the day but nobody treated them seriously. If they're credible, by all means safety is at stake and close up shop.

mcpackieh 3y ago
The internet is a big place and it's easy to leave anonymous comments. If you want to find a death threat against you, it's easy to find one or create one if none can be found. Why would you want to? So you can point to it and say that you're a victim and even suggest that all of your critics are somehow culpable for that threat (any heated criticism of you is "stochastic terrorism" that will inspire some nutjob to come after you!)
- robswc 3y ago
  I have been thinking about this a lot... it sucks because its very hard to prove. I will say, they always seem to come right in time for when sympathy is needed most... but that is all speculation. I don't doubt the number of crazy people with the means and motivation to send a death threat is greater than 0. I just wonder how credible on the credible scale this is.
muststopmyths 3y ago
In the past you had to call the landline and risk getting *69ed, or use a payphone or something. Now, you can just sit at home in your underwear and tweet out a death threat. I think they were probably taken as seriously before, it's just that the ease of making threats (empty or not) is different now.
- robswc 3y ago
  That's fair. I just have memories of being on forums and interacting with those people you knew where unhinged. They had the protection of anonymity... but I think you have a great point that even then, you had to have at least a bit of technical know how to join a forum. Not so with twitter, so the barrier to entry is much lower.
CommieBobDole 3y ago
It's the same problem as with forum trolls and the like - the more people know you exist and can communicate with you, the more likely one of them is unhinged enough to threaten to kill you over some non-murder-worthy thing.
- robswc 3y ago
  That's the thing. Just by participating in internet forums, all the way up until around 2010s(?), it wouldn't be uncommon to see comments like "I'm going to go over there and kill you" between two people trying to be edgier than the person they were arguing with. It always gave me an uneasy feeling but I never treated it too seriously. I don't at all doubt there are people that stupid/crazy. Jw if there are more credible crazies these days or have we changed how we react to them.
  - mcpackieh 3y ago
    In 90s America (and perhaps elsewhere as well), "I'll kill you for that!" was a fairly common expression of mild displeasure, obvious hyperbole neither intended nor received as an earnest threat. In "IRL" this changed sometime between Columbine and 9/11 when people got super serious about such things, but I think that culture persisted online for several more years. Online was in some sense unreal, so hyperbolic death threats were obviously hyperbolic and were received as such. But as online has become "real life" for more and more people, hyperbolic death threats have been de-normalized online as well. Now it's mostly relegated to out of the way niches, like gamer chatrooms, but echoes of it still reverberate around the web anywhere people can comment anonymously.
fullshark 3y ago
The costs of communication have never been smaller
Ekaros 3y ago
Also I think there is aspect that coming out and saying you got death threats sells. Everyone has to be sympathetic about it. Or they will be attacked. They might even be taken less seriously. As more correct approach is only to contact authorities and let them verify them or take needed action.
TheFreim 3y ago
It's a convenient way to appear like a victim. The vast majority of "death threats" aren't serious, when you work at a large enough scale you will always be able to find a "death threat" to use as a justification.

by robswc 3y ago

mcpackieh 3y ago

The internet is a big place and it's easy to leave anonymous comments. If you want to find a death threat against you, it's easy to find one or create one if none can be found. Why would you want to? So you can point to it and say that you're a victim and even suggest that all of your critics are somehow culpable for that threat (any heated criticism of you is "stochastic terrorism" that will inspire some nutjob to come after you!)

robswc 3y ago
I have been thinking about this a lot... it sucks because its very hard to prove. I will say, they always seem to come right in time for when sympathy is needed most... but that is all speculation. I don't doubt the number of crazy people with the means and motivation to send a death threat is greater than 0. I just wonder how credible on the credible scale this is.

muststopmyths 3y ago

In the past you had to call the landline and risk getting *69ed, or use a payphone or something. Now, you can just sit at home in your underwear and tweet out a death threat. I think they were probably taken as seriously before, it's just that the ease of making threats (empty or not) is different now.

robswc 3y ago
That's fair. I just have memories of being on forums and interacting with those people you knew where unhinged. They had the protection of anonymity... but I think you have a great point that even then, you had to have at least a bit of technical know how to join a forum. Not so with twitter, so the barrier to entry is much lower.

CommieBobDole 3y ago

It's the same problem as with forum trolls and the like - the more people know you exist and can communicate with you, the more likely one of them is unhinged enough to threaten to kill you over some non-murder-worthy thing.

robswc 3y ago
That's the thing. Just by participating in internet forums, all the way up until around 2010s(?), it wouldn't be uncommon to see comments like "I'm going to go over there and kill you" between two people trying to be edgier than the person they were arguing with. It always gave me an uneasy feeling but I never treated it too seriously. I don't at all doubt there are people that stupid/crazy. Jw if there are more credible crazies these days or have we changed how we react to them.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  In 90s America (and perhaps elsewhere as well), "I'll kill you for that!" was a fairly common expression of mild displeasure, obvious hyperbole neither intended nor received as an earnest threat. In "IRL" this changed sometime between Columbine and 9/11 when people got super serious about such things, but I think that culture persisted online for several more years. Online was in some sense unreal, so hyperbolic death threats were obviously hyperbolic and were received as such. But as online has become "real life" for more and more people, hyperbolic death threats have been de-normalized online as well. Now it's mostly relegated to out of the way niches, like gamer chatrooms, but echoes of it still reverberate around the web anywhere people can comment anonymously.

fullshark 3y ago

The costs of communication have never been smaller

Ekaros 3y ago

Also I think there is aspect that coming out and saying you got death threats sells. Everyone has to be sympathetic about it. Or they will be attacked. They might even be taken less seriously. As more correct approach is only to contact authorities and let them verify them or take needed action.

TheFreim 3y ago

It's a convenient way to appear like a victim. The vast majority of "death threats" aren't serious, when you work at a large enough scale you will always be able to find a "death threat" to use as a justification.