Idiots in the internet. 9 July 2009

Let’s face it, the internet has allowed people to connect globally regardless of distance and time. You can meet people of different colours, culture and language. Of all the people that you can meet behind the veils of the computer monitors, there are the dreaded idiot, the ones I call the “fire starters” for their tendency to start flame war no matter what.

Browsing through the university forum as usual today, I came upon a thread on dissatisfaction in life. So I posted some statements that are rational and constructive. No harm done, life’s peaceful until that point. The thread starter replied quickly, much to my surprise. What I read next is something you would hear from an idiot. Even people with learning disability aren’t ought to be called idiots, because they never disrespect others! But this person, claiming to be an accounting student started finding faults, twisting words and flamed me for posting some intelligent sentences?! Guess this guy has really lots of dissatisfaction in life. I just rolled my eyes because I’ve met some these idiots once in a while.

Then I posted a reply with lots of “please” and other polite words. No, I don’t want to be like the person who disrespects. An eye for eye and the world goes blind. It would fun though to see how these idiots fare in parliamentary style debate. How nice is it to see them speaking unintelligible in front of the crowd. Back to topic, not surprisingly the idiot replied back almost immediately after my latest message. This time he sounded like a sore loser, reverting to more personal attacks against me. I feel really satisfied at this point. No use counter attacking as anyone can see that the idiot has lost.

When you’re in a public forum long enough, you’ll learn how to handle these idiots. Usually they’ll start a flame war then retreat to obscurity, never to be heard from again. I guess these people learn that the digital space doesn’t appreciate them as much as in real life. There are still certain rules to obey in the internet.

I do admit that I acted like an idiot sometimes, but only when someone went overboard with unintelligent and false statements to begin with. All of these conflicts ended nicely. I apologized and everyone’s happy. As a moderator had told me, emotional is what makes us human. But it is the ability to control emotion and admission to mistakes that makes us civilised!

Thus I end this post with the Vulcan motto, “Live long and prosper.”