I was amused by the Star Wars fake protest hashtag, but not because it's been claimed as a fake hoax from 4chan (or whatever chan). I was amused because people thought it wasn't "real", claiming it was a joke solely because the people who made it said it was a joke. It's a bit ironic though considering the place where these people come from. When I was younger and "edgier" I used to frequent 4chan and /b/ because that's what a lot of people I knew were doing, but I left after I realized it was really an 18 year old's idea of edgy and the jokes weren't worth digging through the layers of creepy porn, bullshit whining, and pedophilia stories. Now, maybe it's changed a lot since those days, but considering what I see still coming out of them, I doubt it. With that, there's the basis that the line between "troll" and "real" is incredibly blurred for the internet, and the chans in particular.
I think "troll" is a shield many in the chan communities hide behind, a way to justify shitty people acting shitty by chuckling hesitantly and going, "No, I'm just joking. I'm not serious." But if you make the same shitty joke often enough, at what point does it stop being the joke and just what you believe? Like how at some point watching Jersey Shore stop being "ironically, to make fun of it" and start being "because I like to watch it". How many threads on those sites are about how much women suck cause they won't fuck em or black people are the worst who are just whiners that wanna kill whitey or the Jews are evil and control the world? At what point does it stop being "all a joke" and start being "this is what we believe"? Considering the numerous times I see people complain about "blackwashing" characters, bitching about women in prominent media roles, or how the white man is the real victim of racism, I gotta say, I don't get what's so "troll" about protests like that.
TL;DR: Just how much of the stuff that comes out of places like 4chan really "troll", how much is shitty people acting shitty because they think of shitty things, and how do you tell the difference?
I think "troll" is a shield many in the chan communities hide behind, a way to justify shitty people acting shitty by chuckling hesitantly and going, "No, I'm just joking. I'm not serious." But if you make the same shitty joke often enough, at what point does it stop being the joke and just what you believe? Like how at some point watching Jersey Shore stop being "ironically, to make fun of it" and start being "because I like to watch it". How many threads on those sites are about how much women suck cause they won't fuck em or black people are the worst who are just whiners that wanna kill whitey or the Jews are evil and control the world? At what point does it stop being "all a joke" and start being "this is what we believe"? Considering the numerous times I see people complain about "blackwashing" characters, bitching about women in prominent media roles, or how the white man is the real victim of racism, I gotta say, I don't get what's so "troll" about protests like that.
TL;DR: Just how much of the stuff that comes out of places like 4chan really "troll", how much is shitty people acting shitty because they think of shitty things, and how do you tell the difference?
