Opinion
N the Red
29
Satirical to sadistic
Online trolling communities encourage bigotry, violence Ben McHenry mchenben000@hsestudents.org
M
emes and trolling are now some of the primary forms of online entertainment, seen in the cryptically named account “@FUNNYMEMES” boasting over 8 million Instagram followers. However, despite the increasing mainstream appeal of meme pages, the internet also shelters a far more sinister sense of humor: one based around idoli ing violent fictional characters, spewing hateful rhetoric and even committing violent acts. Some of this hatred can be traced back to Poe’s Law. Created in 2005, Poe’s Law was born out of a comment from Christian Forums user Nathan Poe. In a debate about creationism, one user typed to another, “Good thing you included the winky. Otherwise people might think you are serious.” Poe responded to this comment, saying “Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won’t mistake for the genuine article.” Poe’s Law means that anything that is not incredibly explicit in its sarcasm will be taken as serious by at least one person, and this has commonly been seen on sites such as Reddit. The subreddit /r/GamersRiseUp is currently in the midst of its own Poe’s Law dilemma. The focus of /r/GamersRiseUp is satirizing and mocking the sexist and racist trope of a gamer, which shares similarities with an involuntary celibate. It is centered around the idea that they are unable to fi nd co panionship simply due to their genetic disposition and that anger is typically expressed as hatred towards o en, en ho fi nd co panionship and other minorities. At this subreddit’s inception, they adopted DC supervillain Joker as their mascot, as he represents some misconstrued idea of taking revenge against societal oppressors. This started out docile, as most of the posts were
clearly satirical. However, as the sub has grown, now with over 230,000 members, the line between genuine jokes and actual hostility has increasingly blurred. The front page of /r/ GamersRiseUp does not explicitly state that it is sarcasm, and the sidebar of the sub containing the rules is very satirical. As a result of the lack of clear satire, comments and posts that actually do indicate hatred towards minority groups have become increasingly popular. While it may still be a joke to much of the sub, the rising number of users who do actually feel a sense of validation is certainly a cause for concern. This trolling has even spilled over into real life. At a screening of “Joker” in Paris on Oct. , a an stood up during the fi l and shouted “Allahu Akbar,” an Arabic saying associated with Islamic terrorism. This luckily did not cause any physical harm, but events such as the April 2018 Toronto van attack, which was inspired by involuntary celibate culture, have. onfronting this proble can be difficult, as eeding through a ass of okes to fi nd those who are not joking is unlikely to yield any change. The solution to this problem also does not lie in pointing fi ngers, as only a s all nu ber of these trollers that fi nd credence in these destructive beliefs. Rather, it lies in acknowledgement. Online communities centered around satire need to acknowledge that there may be users among them who do genuinely share these beliefs. The response to these users should not be to call them out, as this is more likely to reinforce their beliefs, according to a joint study by Stanford University and University of California Berkeley. However, with a non-confrontational solution focused on communicating, those who are spreading hate can be helped. And satirical jokes can be relegated to being no more than the form of entertainment they were intended to be.
Graphic by Ben McHenry.
