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They Sang Along To Ye’s “Heil Hitler,” Now They’re Getting Doxxed, Harassed, And Threatened
It’s happening again.
I remember when the internet was a place for funny cat videos, memes, and the occassional viral sensation like Keyboard Cat, Star Wars kid or that Numa Numa guy.
The World Wide Web used to be a fun, experimental amusement park filled with wonder. Sure, you had to contend with a pedo sexting you in an AOL chatroom once in a while. Or maybe you stumbled across some wretched visual that leaked from Rotten or the Something Awful forums. But for the most part it felt cool and new surfing the net, even with that goddawful scratchy dial-up sound —
Neeer, neert, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da womp, womp, womp, womp, scheeert, scheert, zeeeeeee….
Now? It feels like we’re all stuck on some island penal colony. Our smartphones feel not like liberating remote controllers clicking us toward the future, but like balls and chains tied to our ankles as we tromp through a wasteland.
The net feels tribal, treacherous, and swampy. Sure, off in the distance we see glorious content creators in their mountainside mansions, but we’re mostly Tom Hanks in Castaway talking to our AI volleyball Wilsons now. Lost, alone, adrift, platform siloed, and ready to pounce on and denounce anyone…
