trolling.

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Trolling sickens me.

I do not for the life of me understand how people can extract pleasure from causing people pain. I do not understand how bullying with 'lol jks' tacked on the end is somehow acceptable. I do not understand why it is somehow okay to upset and humiliate and degrade people just to get a few cheap laughs. And I definitely do not understand how it is the victim's 'fault' for 'letting it get to him'.

Trolling is making derogatory, provocative or otherwise offensive comments, either in person or in the cybersphere, in order to extract amusement out of the reaction. When somebody confronts the troll for being inappropriate, they simply avoid all responsibility by claiming that they are 'trolling' and that people are 'idiots to take them seriously'.

No.

First of all, trolling is not sarcasm. They are not comments made in good humour, but are designed to be perceived as serious, and therefore seriously offensive. Any negative reaction to these comments are not corrected but encouraged so that the person at the receiving end gets more and more upset, to the amusement of the troll. They often target controversial issues, such as women's rights or gay marriage, or things close to people like relationships, deaths, divorce, etc. Many comments are blatantly sexist, racist, homophobic or otherwise discriminatory towards particular social groups. And then at the peak the victim is made to feel the fool for 'buying into it'.

I am ashamed that some of my so-called 'friends' have sunk down to this kind of idiocy. I thought they knew better. I thought they knew how easy it is to hurt people. I thought they knew how to behave like decent fucking human beings.

Trolling isn't a joke. It is someone's real thoughts and opinions and attitudes - as bigoted as they can be - thinly veiled behind crude humour. Becaues these opinions are fast becoming socially unacceptable this is the only way these people can outlet them without retribution.

Why is this acceptable? It is not acceptable for me to say 'Normal healthy human beings: 1, Gay fags: 0', joke or not. A joke does not excuse deliberate attempts to hurt people. A joke does not exempt offence from apology. In no context is it okay to say 'annoying little stupid twat cunt fucker' and 'shitty little gook'.

It's not okay to say 'I didn't mean it', 'it's your fault' and 'you should be tougher'. When someone is being deliberately attacked it is a natural response to feel provoked and upset - natural, not weak. I am so sick of people saying that it's up to people who are victimized by violence, bullying and discrimination to deal with it. No. It's not my job to ignore things that are so obviously wrong, to turn a blind eye to behaviour that is so obviously inappropriate. It's not okay, it's not unstoppable and it's not inevitable. We have to try before we give up. I have been bullied all my life and that's the part that's not okay - the fact that I cried in toilets when people stuck pins in my arm and told me that I'd lost my virginity to a tampon isn't the worst part of the story, so stop pretending like it is. If you say something with the intent to insult and someone is rightly insulted, it's your fault, not theirs.

Accepting these kinds of comments under the guise of 'trolling' is accepting these attitudes in a society that should be moving on from these medieval opinions. Accepting these kinds of things is accepting that it's okay for people to willingly and intentionally hurt other people. I have been bullied all my life and it hurts me beyond belief when my facebook wall is vandalized with shit like this when I'm just trying to stand up for what's right. It hurts me beyond belief that other people have to deal with this shit. And you know what? Some people can't. I have depression. It's not all that uncommon. We all know someone who's taken their own life, and I believe it's shit like this that leads to people going to those dark places. I cannot believe that so soon after coming back from a funeral we're at it again. How long before we have to go to the cemetery again? I'm not being melodramatic. Trolling is more often than not xenophobia and bigotry, and at worst a hate crime. And the statistics all prove that these 'silly little jokes' can have a devastating effect on the wrong people at the wrong time.

I've become very disillusioned and disappointed with my peers of late. I thought we were family. Everyone tells me that everyone gets along, but it's not true. Every day I'm made to feel like I'm not worthy of my best friend. A few days ago somebody I trusted completely thought it was okay to blab my secrets to anyone and everyone and I've yet to receive an apology. A few days ago I said something in support of the LGBTI community on my facebook page and everyone thought it was okay to accuse me of being gay and insult me for being a woman, a feminist, an immigrant and anything else they could think up. Every day on facebook and on the internet, even to my face, I'm faced with 'trolls' thinking it's okay to wind people up and watch them unravel. The worst part about trolling is that people think it's okay, when anyone with half a brain can see that it's not, and anyone with half a brain can see how much it hurts people. How much it hurts me.