Horrible people

[Locut0s]

No I didn't just crawl out from under a rock but still as I talk on other forums I'm continually surprised at the number of simply dub human horrible people out there. On one thread someone wanted to get a guy to shut up so he posted a link to a picture. The pictures showed a battered women, black eye etc, and in large letters, "This Bitch didn't know when to shut up, Do you?!". Why the fu!k to people think there are any circumstances under which it would be OK to post that, let alone think it's funny. You know what almost every single person took it as a light hearted joke.

Another instances someone posted an article about a group of illegal immigrants beating an MIT group of students at a robot engineering contest. I know illegal immigration is probably a touchy issue here but some of the comments there really disgusted me. One person's reply was that they should be round up and shot in the head. Another person said they routinely work with Mexicans and have never found them to be smart and he thinks the article is fake, because in his opinion this is to clever a job to be the work of Mexicans. While there were some dissenting voices most seemed to just brush these comments of.

Here's the link to the second thread if you're at all interested in perusing the comments, and the MIT article is linked there too.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=38&threadid=1556445

[patrice]

1. There are many people on this board who are here to cause

division, i.e. divide and conquor.

Or they've got power issues and don't play well with others. Ridicule and un-necessary criticism are common.

Actually, though I $upport this board, I don't find it particularly friendly. Just like high school sometimes, strong hierarchical cliques. People follow each other around from forum to forum and respond to their buddies and not much to anyone else.

[Wapsie B]

6. Yes there definitely is a subculture here,

complete with cliques, sex, romance, affairs and more. I'm not privy to any of it but I know it exists. I don't have a particular gripe with anyone but I realize there are professional disruptors here as well as people who just love to stir the pot.

[Locut0s]

11. True I have met a few cold responses on DU but my OP was not about DU..

I find that by and large people here are much kinder than your average forum goer. The worst that I have encountered has been a few cold dismissals, which in some ways I guess is worse than a rude rebuke. But I have not seen, and in fact it can not exist here, the type of free and open expressions of hate and racism that pervades so many other boards.

[WinterStorm]

15. "I couldn't agree more"

Some of them have been around for a long time.

[SmokingJacket]

2. The internet allows people to expose their worst selves.

Out in the physical world, people tend to keep this crap to themselves, because they'd be publically shamed or even beaten up.

Frankly, I prefer moderated boards, where people are required to act like decent human beings.

[WinterStorm]

16. "They probably have been beaten up"

:rofl:

[demnan]

3. A lot of ignorant white people hate Hispanics

I don't know why, I always found them to be good hard-working neighbors. Most of their kids are polite and well spoken too. I lived for 9 years in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. Of course you always have a few bad eggs in a rental community, but for the most part I really enjoyed my neighbors and got along with them well.

The only thing that kills you is when you come home from work and smell all the yummy food smells coming from their apartments. You want to knock on their doors and ask for some.

[patrice]

10. Self-fulfilling prophecies reinforce the separations in both directions.

Home-style Spanish/Tex-Mex/Mexican cooking is the BEST!!!

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

4. The sheer impersonality of the internet has amplified the rudness...

that exists in our society. Hiding behind miles of wire behind a computer screen makes it so damn easy to be rude and tell someone to "shut up" when you don't have to see them face-to-face.

Also, two decades of right-wing talk radio, screaming at callers and issuing thinly veiled threats to liberals over the raido doesn't help, either. (Yeah, I am blaming right-wing talk radio for the escalation of rudeness in our society.)

[redqueen]

5. I think you're placing the blame where it belongs.

It seems like they made it socially acceptable to be openly hateful about whatever you were ignorant about.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

7. Thank you.

I have to agree with Al Franken about when the tone started to change. It was 1983, and Richard Mellon (who names their child "Mellon"?) Scafie told a reporter something that I won't repeat here.
But I have to completely agree with him. That was the first time I've heard of a political figure using that kind of language in public, and without reserve or apology. It was all downhere from there.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. I agree about the timing

It was in the early 1980s that I began seeing really hostile, crude bumperstickers on cars: "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do own the whole damn road" or "My kid beat up your honor student," "Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out," or "Bosses are like diapers: full of shit and all over your ass," just to name a few that I can recall off hand.

It was around the same time that I began seeing people who were hostile in public for no reason, as if they were having obnoxiousness contests, like people eating and drinking in public squares or parks and clearly making a point of not disposing of their trash properly but leaving it on the ground, or spitting on the sidewalk, sometimes trying to aim at people's feet.

The Reagan administration made it okay to be stupid, as Studs Terkel said, but the Reaganites also made it okay to be rude, hateful, and obnoxious.

[hfojvt]

20. Mellon is probably his mother's maiden name

Is Scaife really a political figure or more like a David Koch? (of course, David was on a Libertarian ticket)

[Locut0s]

9. Nicely said.

[Wapsie B]

18. But I thought the Clenis

was responsible for the moral decay in our society. :evilgrin:

[_TJ_]

8. The world is full of asshats

At least here, if you attack someone personally or post something
gratuitously offensive the mods will smack you down.

[Melynn]

12. A lot of people are brave when they are on the Internet and anonymous

The same people are probably little cowards in real life. The wife beating pictures are way over the line as are the racist comments. My suggestion is don't patronize those boards. I won't.

[Locut0s]

14. I wouldn't patronize them except for the fact that..

there are some, like Anantech, which have truly large open diverse communities. Anandtech's demographic makeup is tilted heavily toward Indian and Chinese posters and I like the diverse community that creates. At the same time however there are a number, a lot actually, of assholes who just seem to have free reign. Partly because a few of the moderators are assholes themselves. So what you find is an interesting mixture of intelligent well rounded people from all walks of life, from both the left and right, intermixed with a subculture of racism fear and hate. The political leanings of the boards there is decidedly right, extremely in certain cases, but there are also some refreshingly open minded left wing posters too. I also very much enjoy, when I can enjoy it at least, talking in a board dedicated to technology and computer hardware. I wish DU had a more technically inclined atmosphere.

[Melynn]

17. Well, if you enjoy so be it.

Then that's fine. I'm surprised they have mods on that board, though. I think any responsible mod would pull pictures of a beaten wife. Maybe I'm just used to the grown up mods on this forum.

Did you know that there are groups on this forum that are dedicated to tech issues?

[patrice]

19. Link please?