Gabe BellWho you are is who you are
HildegardeThere is a distinction between real life and online. Psudonimously posting under a screen name is very different from making real life statements as yourself.
If you chose to be yourself online that is your choice. You can be someone else on the internet. You can choose to be an asshole on ocasion, that’s kind of the entire premise of trolling.
There is no ghost inside you, simultaneously piloting the same meat suit you are, who suddenly takes control sometimes.
It’s you. You said those things. You may have been drunk, you may have been anonymous, but you still said them. If you’re willing to go on a racist tirade online, you’re willing to go on a racist tirade. If you’re going to make death threats anonymously, you’re going to make death threats.
Statements remain true without qualifying where, or how. Because you still did a thing, regardless.
An actor literally says the lines they say, but they are playing a character, those words are not their own. Acting, improv, playing pretend, roleplay, there are plenty of ways for healthy adults to take a role and be a person other than themselves.
Online interactions can do the same thing. Some people choose to be someone else on the internet and that is fine.
The screenshotted comment is from audreyii-fic, someone who chose to represent herself by what is (presumably) her own name. That perspective is very different from the sort of person who would choose to be someone else online.
Be an actor, sure, but an actor isn’t ‘being someone else’ - they’re acting - they’re **pretending ** to be someone else. It is different.
agent_flounderIt is different mainly because everyone knows it if they’re in the play or watching it.
zaphIf you’re in a role play forum and you role play as an asshole, you are correct. If you are on the internet, for example Twitter, and you act like an asshole, it’s because you’re an asshole. Hope that clears up the difference between context.
No. The person choosing to “act” like a dick on the Internet is making the choice to be a dick. They don’t just happen to be a dick in their roleplay or whatever - they’re making that choice.
And it’s not some pretend space where their words and actions don’t count. Being a dick in a multiplayer video game is being a dick to a real person. Being a dick on a forum about a game or show you don’t like is being a dick to real people who play and make those things. You don’t get to copout and say “it’s just a character” when it’s affecting real people. That is your impact on the world. Take some damn responsibility for it.
Also, Audrey II is from Little Shop of Horrors. Check it out if you haven’t. It’s a good flick.
You had to know while you were typing that how full of shit that response is, right? On some level, cognitively, you know you’re grasping at straws here.
An actor literally says the lines they say, but they are playing a character,
Yeah and everyone knows it’s a play. With actors and an audience. Kinda different.
Despite what Shakespeare said, online isn’t a play. Neither is RL. You can still put on a facade or a persona. But in either case it you treat people like shit, you’re an asshole.