IFeelRomanticMaster Nerf Herder 6 points 2 hours ago
Here's the thing ... they'll love this. This is a success story to the 4channers. It's all about the power; there's no greater buzz to them then literally ruining somebody's life. Nothing makes them feel more powerful than being able to screw with others with no consequences.
CaptainAirstripOne 1 point an hour ago*
I feel that the cure for the empathy gap is to read or listen to accounts of other people's lived experiences. It's what works for me, that and getting older/more mature, and I'm very alienated. When I was younger I could've easily become a 4channer (at least if the format wasn't virtually unreadable). All that 'Hitler did nothing wrong' trolling appealed to my former edgelord-y nature.
If that doesn't work, we need to put an end to internet anonymity. Tell their mums! That's the other cure for trolls.
IFeelRomanticMaster Nerf Herder 2 points an hour ago
I feel that the cure for the empathy gap is to read or listen to accounts of other people's lived experiences.
Maybe I'm cynical, but ... I doubt it. Reading about people's suffering at the hands of trolls just makes it better for them. Trolling for them is about being in a position of emotional power: "I can hurt you/cause you to get emotional, but I'm just doing it for the lolz so I have no emotional connection, I have the power over you". The more they can hurt other people, the better it is for them.
CaptainAirstripOne 1 point an hour ago
For me, saying outrageous things (I did it in real life as well as online) was about being funny, not about upsetting people or having power over others. I was once accused of being a troll IRL but it wasn't accurate. I'm not a sadist or a psychopath.
I have read that, for some categories of rapist, it is all about having power over others, and that they do take pleasure in the suffering of their victims. This is also true of griefers in online games.
Whether 4channers are like this, or whether they are just trying to be funny or whether it's bravado to fit in (there is social status to be gained in seeming to be stoic and cool and unaffected), I can't say.