OK, It's Introspection Time. Are MOLers Sadistic Psychopaths?

OK, it's introspection time. Are MOLers sadistic psychopaths?

"...habitual Internet commenting is strongly correlated with hateful personality pathologies."

Political discourse has always had a shadowy component, all the way back to Thomas Paine’s pamphleteering in favor of American independence. But nothing has empowered casual vitriol in the Internet age like the pressure on news organizations to publish any and all anonymous feedback. This has scaled up our ability to express political hate with astonishing efficiency.

Before you dismiss this as harmless chatter, consider a 2014 article in the academic journal Personality and Individual Differences, titled “Trolls Just Want to Have Fun.” Three Canadian psychologists found that habitual Internet commenting is strongly correlated with hateful personality pathologies. The total amount of time spent posting comments online correlated positively with sadism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism. And this held especially true for those who relished “trolling,” the anonymous posting of negative and destructive comments. The 5 percent of participants who listed trolling as their favorite activity earned the highest scores on those unsavory psychological measures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/opinion/the-thrill-of-political-hating.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

it's clear to me that some are masochists

That would be the Met fan thread, yes? ;-)

Train_of_Thought said:
That would be the Met fan thread, yes? ;-)

Those are people whose masochism is something completely apart from MOL.

I would say something but I'm too nice.

A case study was posted a few minutes ago.

Pyschopath or sociopath?

tjohn said:
Pyschopath or sociopath?

Yes.

mrincredible said:

tjohn said:
Pyschopath or sociopath?

Yes.

+1

I'm kinda torn between feeling that "posting is therapeutic" and "posting/reading just gets me more wound up about how awful the national GOP really is."

I thought all we did was laugh at anyone else who doesn't know how to express themselves .... *emoticon*

There is joy and there is sharing both in our sorrow and our triumphs. We're ok.

Of course this is soapbox.

GL2, maybe it is time to let the next generation figure out the GOP? At my age I honestly can't be bothered with their nonsense any longer. Bless their hearts.

dup

I MISS EYESPY!!!

-s.

There's a lot of craziness on MOL right now, but it's good to see MOL coming back to life.

oneofthegirls said:
Of course this is soapbox.
GL2, maybe it is time to let the next generation figure out the GOP? At my age I honestly can't be bothered with their nonsense any longer. Bless their hearts. :

I have great faith in the millennials. It's that cohort who grew up under RWR, which I taught throughout the 80's, that's troubling. Millennials are the kids who volunteer; who march for civil rights and the 99%; who accept all people for who they are. Their efforts are doubly commendable when we think of the political sewer in which they grew up. Maybe the current GOP is what they needed to become politically aware and active.

joanne said:
I thought all we did was laugh at anyone else who doesn't know how to express themselves .... *emoticon*

Anyone ... doesn't ... themselves.

*tee hee*

You mean like that? ;-)

Dave, over here that's an acceptable use of unnumbered multi-gendered language. English doesn't have a gender-neutral case that pertains to people, only to things, so when one speaks of mixed groups of people one runs the risk of sounding exceedingly posh and up-oneself. To avoid that, modern use of colloquial English allows for blurring of number agreement and case, especially in less formal communications, to enhance understanding and minimise class confusions. When pedants insist on ancient and hoary rules of grammar that are often inexpertly applied, they fail to acknowledge how language evolves.

joanne said:
one runs the risk of sounding exceedingly posh and up-oneself

I'll rephrase then:

*tut tut*

(You know me, joanne. When it comes to grammar, all in good fun.)

Yeah, and this is Soapbox, after all.