Online Bullying (Trying to Make People Unhappy)
Narcissists and bullies behind mice and keyboards, no honesty or fact-checking required
YESTERDAY someone told me that Ruben Schade had been subjected to online abuse again. He consequently removed his article. It happened before. Sites like "Hacker News" send him very toxic messages, it's not a "GNU/Linux" thing.
Weeks ago I noticed that the very same militants who attacked us in a number of ways for a very long time (mostly in IRC) gathered around in "Hacker News" and did the same thing to us (from within "Hacker News"). So one is starting to get a 'feel' for what this social control media generally does or 'breeds'.
Last month I exchanged messages with Schade and offered words of encouragement. I didn't expect that he would say "my mental health can't deal with the abuse" only a few weeks later.
Bullying and abuse online are very serious problems. We often feel like those targeted the most are people who advance the message of Internet freedom, Software Freedom etc. I advised Schade not to bother with social control media, but that would not prevent others doing it over there (ignoring them is a possibility).
Online discourse has become more and more venomous. Some companies (like ByteDance) actively encourage this and make money out of it. TikTok is just one example of many. Here's a new incident/example.
We've long argued that today's social control media rewards bad behaviour. As time goes by it seems more and more true. Switching off is the best option. █