Meeting A Troll • Hacker News Board

Re: Meeting A Troll

#151

Post by shurane » Tue, Sep 25, 2012, 1:06 PM UTC

Destroyer661 wrote: post #149

InclinedPlane wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop. Rewind. You are calling a 17 year old person a "child". This is wrong, and perfectly in keeping with the trend of failing to raise children into mature adults. 17 year olds will be able to vote on their next birthday. They can hold jobs, they can drive cars, they can fly planes, they can even serve in the armed forces with their parents' permission. 17 year olds fought in the battle of Iwo Jima. Calling this pe…

17 year olds may be able to do all of those things, however we know that the average male's forebrain doesn't fully develop until much later, as much as 8 years later. Some males aged 25 still have not developed to the point of advanced reasoning. Reasoning like being able to see the consequences and harm done by stunts such as sending threats like this. It's certainly not enough to dismiss this and say "he's 17, he'…

Whoa, can I get a citation for this?

That sounds so weird. This is particularly males? Males with healthy diets and lifestyles, ones with terrible diets and bad lifestyles, or across the board?

Re: Meeting A Troll

#152

Post by kvnn » Tue, Sep 25, 2012, 1:07 PM UTC

enneff wrote: post #89

ary wrote: post #53

It's difficult to read this and not think that a psychopath was let off the hook because he was young. Outing and labeling these kinds of people is important to curbing the amount of future damage they can do. There is bullying, there is harassment, and then there is what the OP experienced. No reasonable, rational individual who is just "acting out" in adolescence takes it to these levels. As much as I feel for the…

What would you recommend for this kid, apart from counseling?

I would remove him from the environment that fostered the behavior. I'm surprised that the OP, the kid's parents, and no one else (I've seen) in this thread has mentioned this.

Re: Meeting A Troll

#153

Post by Tichy » Tue, Sep 25, 2012, 1:21 PM UTC

magobarca wrote: post #35

I have to ask. Why was this young man given the opportunity to escape the law despite committing a hate crime. He threatened murder and rape. Would he have been afforded the privilege of a hand shake rather than hand cuffs if he was... say a member of a outgroup, say for example, an Arab?

I suppose the key aspect here was the parents actually being friends with the victim, not the ethnicity of the stalker.

Re: Meeting A Troll

#154

Post by mike-cardwell » Tue, Sep 25, 2012, 1:24 PM UTC

freework wrote: post #92

Theres something about this story that just doesn't sit right with me. Why would a 17 year old go through so much trouble to harass someone just for the heck of it? The guy had to have done something to the kid. Normal people don't spend hours of their lives to harass a single person for no reason. I call bullshit.

It's called trolling, and it's a well known and written about phenomenon. There doesn't even have to be a reason.

Re: Meeting A Troll

#155

Post by Tichy » Tue, Sep 25, 2012, 1:24 PM UTC

adrianwaj wrote: post #144

AgathaTheWitch wrote: post #38

I would have prosecuted the little shit.

Deliberate and targeted anti-semitism, stalking, death threats that moved offline from a 17 year old who says "thanks for giving me a break dude" and parents who don't want to go to the police themselves? All Leo wants to do is write about it.. I would've either prosecuted or put his name and photo (and all the threats and screenshots he sent) on my blog for 10 years.. that could've been the choice for the parents.

This story is all about empathy...

Re: Meeting A Troll

#156

Post by kvnn » Tue, Sep 25, 2012, 1:35 PM UTC

There is an alarming amount of laziness in the conclusion of this affair. I'm hoping that significant actions were left out of the post.

Who has the kid been talking to online? What else has he been up to? Who else is he harassing? How was he going to escalate the "game"?

It seems that the author wanted a peaceful resolution so badly that he manufactured one falsely.

Re: Meeting A Troll

#157

Post by engtech » Tue, Sep 25, 2012, 1:54 PM UTC

InclinedPlane wrote: post #121

yelsgib wrote: post #57

For those of you who claim that the right thing in this situation would be to turn the child over to the authorities - what exactly do you think the authorities are going to do to make this situation better? The child obviously has some darkness that he needs to work through - to work through darkness he needs the support of a loving community. I find it very sad and disturbing that some commenters (who I assume are…

Stop. Rewind. You are calling a 17 year old person a "child". This is wrong, and perfectly in keeping with the trend of failing to raise children into mature adults. 17 year olds will be able to vote on their next birthday. They can hold jobs, they can drive cars, they can fly planes, they can even serve in the armed forces with their parents' permission. 17 year olds fought in the battle of Iwo Jima. Calling this pe…

The 17 yo might not be a child, but he is immature. His actions were not the actions of a mature individual.

Knowing the 17 yo, and knowing his family means the article author was able to make a judgement call about how seriously he takes the threats against his family and himself now that the veil of anonymity is revealed.

If he was still worried about the threats being enacted after the 17 yo was reveal then I'm sure he would have involved authorities.

Actions have consequences, and while I agree that what the 17 yo did needs to have consequences, by invoking the authorities the author could change this from an act that has a definite conclusion to something that is ongoing (if only on his conscience) when he hears stories about this kid's life 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

To let go of retribution and have a dark part of your life concluded and move on is sometimes a better outcome than having to drag something out to get justice.

Re: Meeting A Troll

#158

Post by adrianwaj » Tue, Sep 25, 2012, 1:59 PM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #155

adrianwaj wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deliberate and targeted anti-semitism, stalking, death threats that moved offline from a 17 year old who says "thanks for giving me a break dude" and parents who don't want to go to the police themselves? All Leo wants to do is write about it.. I would've either prosecuted or put his name and photo (and all the threats and screenshots he sent) on my blog for 10 years.. that could've been the choice for the parents.

This story is all about empathy...

No it's about pacifism.

Re: Meeting A Troll

#159

Post by engtech » Tue, Sep 25, 2012, 2:02 PM UTC

InclinedPlane wrote: post #130

anonymous wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because he's 17 doesn't mean he has grown up. He obviously hasn't and treating him like a grown-up and expecting him to take responsibility when he obviously hasn't reached that part of his mental development would be very detrimental. That's why the article writer made sure to impress upon his parents that the boy needs counselling - to work through and correct whatever mental/behavioural issues he has. That ar…

If it would be detrimental to him to "grow up" then will it not be detrimental to society to put him out in a world where he could do harm to others? Especially given that he already has a history of doing exactly that? If the premise here is that this man-child is too immature to take on the responsibilities of adult society (such as the right to own firearms, the right to drive automobiles, the right to drink alcoh…

"then should he not be kept away from society and denied the ability to hurt others?"

How long do you think he should be kept away from society?

His actions don't justify a life sentence or the death penalty, so he's going to be part of society at some point.

Is taking him out of society going to make him a better person? No.

The best way to rehabilitate someone is for them to have something to lose.

If this 17yo had a wife/child of his own then it is far less likely that he would have done this harassment.

Re: Meeting A Troll

#160

Post by karategeek6 » Tue, Sep 25, 2012, 2:03 PM UTC

muhuk wrote: post #67

zainny wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And your implication that a "loving community" can wave a magic wand and make this sick adult better is equally incorrect. I would suggest in fact that some of the signs this troubled individual would behave in this manner were probably already apparent to his parents, but they chose to dismiss it because no parent really believes their own child can be capable of such horrible behaviour. This is a person that needs…

I would probably do the same thing, I would probably not report the child of my friend to authorities. But looking at this as a third person; I think he got away too easily. He did something evil, he got caught and what are the consequences? A slap on the wrist.

There seems to be an implicit assumption in your statement that either the only meaningful type of consequence comes from the authorities or that the parents will not enact any type of consequence themselves. Considering the reaction of the parents, I think it is quite likely that they will/did provide consequences more severe than a slap on the wrist.