Usually when I get a really dumb comment from someone, I look at their profile and the only thing they ever talk about is sports. Not my idea, just an observation.

I recently had a discussion with someone on Instagram, about freedom to and freedom from.

Turned out they are a Nazi cosplayer with multiple uniforms, going to actual Neo-Nazi meetings.

I got a strike on Instagram for mocking a bored ape owner, but the amount of actual Nazi sympathisers on that page is not an issue I guess.

Shitposting aside: there is a valid point on there. Because we can’t see our opposites in any discussion on the internet, we cannot take clues into account we otherwise might have. This leads to far-reaching misinterpretations. Imagine someone with a very weird and overly simplistic political stance they defend with tooth and nail. Now imagine that person to be some activist with a cap with political slogans on it. Okay, and now imagine the person to be not that, but a 15-year-old who just started to grasp the world around them but thinks they have it all figured out (puberty doing puberty things). Your reaction to either of them would be VASTLY different, wouldn’t it. Imagine how many stupid internet fights would never have happened if it was known that one of the participants is a literal child that can’t have a clue what they are talking about yet.

Yet, not knowing that we’ve been arguing with a child for the last hour and a half, we will leave the discussion with the impression that there are grown up people out there thinking childish bullshit. Don’t get me wrong, there are those people, but they are not as frequent as one might guess from the internet.