Failure of the 'Comments' Experiment

Here is a problem in need of a solution.  I will be forthright.  I don’t have one. 

I read news stories on line.  I do so primarily because I want the news, the facts, the real story.  But the facts are not all that I find.  Following most on line news stories are comments.  And there is where I find the problem.

The idea of allowing the public to post comments to news stories was a great idea.  The idea was to empower ordinary people, to give the public a voice and a venue to discuss the news.  The goal was to involve people in the news story, perhaps to gain some new perspectives, or at least to build some understanding – or even a sense of camaraderie - among the readers.  What could be wrong with that? 

Nothing except the baser side of human nature.

The fact is, comments following any given news stories are overwhelmingly negative, hateful, and spiteful.  The conversations on any given comment board are much more angry and rude than anything in ordinary life.   Something about coupling anonymity with a large audience attracts the most vile among us, and encourages rudeness that would not be tolerated in another setting. 

The worst among them are called “trolls.”  They are the ones who bait others with offensive remarks, practicing intolerance and accusing everyone else of having ulterior motives for any given comment. 

Trolls launch into ideological rants, or simply bully journalists, or the persons in the news story, or anyone else who does not endorse their angry opinion.  Trolls are always anti-something.  Their goal is not to dialogue, not to understand anyone else.  Their goal is to express disgust and tear down.  Their goal is to force their angry opinions onto others by any means possible.  Their goal is to alleviate their own sense of inadequacy by spewing their inner rage out onto the rest of us.

Trolls do not play by the rules the rest of us take for granted.  They ridicule, demean, and insult with no apparent guilt.  Trolls have no conscience to keep them from hurting others indiscriminately.  Trolls are never constrained by facts.  They actually seem to find joy in making up outrageous lies to provoke other people.

Trolls are constantly off-topic, returning again and again to rant about their own pet subjects.  They tend to be extremists - ridiculously Marxist or anti-American in some cases, unbelievably xenophobic or fascist in others.  They are not bothered by the fact that their statements are usually indefensible, because they are not really concerned with truth - only with their own proclamations. 

It must be said that the angry atheist anti-religion trolls are the most pervasive and vile.  The anti-religion trolls make outlandish statements such as claiming religion is the reason for all wars, or that religious people (especially Christian people) are either manipulative liars who prey upon others for profit, or weak-minded simpletons.  They intentionally offend persons of belief by referring to the Supreme Being as a “fairy” or an “imaginary friend.”  They call the most saintly and honorable among us liars or perverts or warmongers or con artists or deluded or any other pejorative term they think will be hurtful to the strangers they hate.  Ironically, one of the most common slanders against the religious by the angry atheists on line is that they are intolerant.  And the anti-religion trolls do not only appear following news stories that involve religion.  They can inject their spite into any unrelated story with ease.  There is no escaping their hatred on line. 

[Disclaimer:  There are atheists who are not trolls.  Evidence:  A post by a decent and respectful atheist, Alom Shaha, on the UK Guardian science blog, in which he states, “Fanatical atheism can be as ugly as religious fanaticism.”  Unfortunately, most atheists on the comments boards are not as reasonable as Mr. Shaha.] 

Trolls produce two principal effects upon the other participants in the on line dialogue.  For other trolls, they provide validation for a predetermined extremist point of view.  This is true whether the other trolls are being emotionally validated for an outrageous opinion with which they agree, or whether they are preparing to scream back in rage of their own at one who dares to contradict their own opinion.  The other principal effect, upon people of kindness and moderation, who respect others and think rationally, is discouragement. 

Is it time to give up on the experiment?  It has become an exercise in hate-speech. 

What should we do?  Give up on commenting altogether?  That doesn’t seem right.  Freedom of speech is something we cherish in the United States.  To remove an existing forum seems wrong.

Could we employ more and stricter moderators, to cull off-topic or obviously hateful comments?  Censorship, I guess.  Not strictly illegal, but also not very democratic in spirit.  It might backfire by providing trolls with an aura of oppressed victimhood.  It is also possible that the tyranny of political correctness might take control of the discussion. 

The status quo is unacceptable.  The remedies are not much better.  But in the absence of a self-disciplined or respectful populace, I suppose there are no other real choices. 

That, friends - the absence of self-discipline and respect for one another - is the heart of the matter.  Sad, isn’t it?

One Revolutionary Idea -

with thanks to Mark Brown at www.journeyintotheword.com.

If you have other ideas, please share them.  Here at Gryphem we maintain an island of respect in a sea of slander, and we are looking for a solution.

Gryphem