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11/21/2013 7:30:12 PM
12
Do people's online views reflection how they really think?
Just a little psychological quandary. Right now on Waypoint I'm discussing the Elites and how they should be viewed within the context of the Halo Universe with other people. One guy advocates killing them all, I argue for diplomacy and a possible alliance. Yet, something odd about his way of thinking bothers me. When I told him that there were Elites who respected humans and some even began to sympathize with their situation, he wrote it off as shitty writing and that it made literally no sense that any Elite could possibly have doubts about what they are doing.
Later on, he justified his mindset by defending and even seemingly encouraging the mass murder of civilians in Germany and Japan in WWII to "teach them a lesson" and make them know we will go to extremes to stop them. Nevermind this is war crime and crimes against humanity level stuff. Ironically, he concluded that killing female and children Elites was fine because they were just future warrior creators and didn't matter if they died. Kinda reminds me of the logic people advocating the genocide or removal of a certain group of people use to justify their beliefs.
To me, its a bit scary even though we are arguing about fictional aliens, but to go that far to defend views about fictional aliens surprises me.
So what do you guys think, are the views that people share online when cloaked by anonymity really reflect their true thought process?
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2 Replies*cracks knuckles* *arm falls off* crap. Anyways, yes and no! A nice specific answer for you. People lose the majority of their inhibition when communication online (Common knowledge) so the darker aspects of their mind are allowed to come to the foreground. This has the effect of over exaggerating their beliefs since the ones they hold themselves are generally repressed to fit in with the rest of society. Take myself for example, I would happily and brutally murder someone for animal cruelty. Would I say that in public? No since it would get me taken into hospital most likely. But online I can be as graphic as I choose to be in describing the ways in which someone would die for skinning a dog. So, to take it to your example I think that the person you are talking with most likely [i]does[/i] believe that fear/civilian massacres are an effective way to control a population and to punish them for wrongdoing. But at the same time, like I said that the darker aspects make themselves bigger because they are usually repressed in your mind he probably wouldn't agree with genocide in the real world however it wouldn't be a far fetched situation to see them as a soldier 'following orders' and emptying an MP40 into a crowd of jews in the warsaw ghetto. People online can either adopt a persona, which complicates things or they are able to express themselves freely via anonymity. Any questions will be happily received and if you want me to clarify/expand on something then just say.
