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Meeting A Troll

traynorseye.com

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Re: Meeting A Troll

#191

Post by Tichy »

philwelch wrote: post #187
Tichy wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think kids should be trained like pets? It seems a lot of people do, they also think they own their kids somehow. Sad... As I said in another comment: personally I hope my kid will end up doing what is right because he believes it the right thing to do, not because of fear of punishment. Not saying that punishment is never necessary (I am not sure). Obviously it works, because people (and animals) can learn fr…

> Do you think kids should be trained like pets? Is there any empirical evidence that operant conditioning doesn't work on humans?

I am pretty sure it works, my question is do you want it for your kids?

Re: Meeting A Troll

#192

Post by InclinedPlane »

bloaf wrote: post #183
engtech wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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…

I think it is highly unlikely that any of his actions would result in any significant jail time. Community service, a fine, and/or some sort of probation are all more likely. I had a childhood friend who got in with a bad crowd in high school. At some point, when he was about 17, he was caught illegally entering a business at night. His parents refused to go pick him up from the police station, so he had to spend the…

A criminal record for a misdemeanor as a minor can be expunged fairly easily.

Re: Meeting A Troll

#193

Post by barking »

infinite8s wrote: post #169
shurane wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Especially since the average male lifespan was around 35 years up until a few millenia ago. Are you saying that most males died before they reached maturity?

AFAIK 'average male lifespan was around 35 years' is based on estimates that includes all males including the relatively large percentage who never survived childhood

Re: Meeting A Troll

#194

Post by philwelch »

Tichy wrote: post #191
philwelch wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you think kids should be trained like pets? Is there any empirical evidence that operant conditioning doesn't work on humans?

I am pretty sure it works, my question is do you want it for your kids?

Operant conditioning isn't actually harmful, as long as you're not operant conditioning your kids into doing harmful things or into not doing important things.

Re: Meeting A Troll

#195

Post by philwelch »

gaius wrote: post #129
beseku wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I think back to the decisions I made as a 17 year old (and an 18, 19, 20 ... year old) I think it is perfectly valid to call a 17 year old a child. At that age I would guess a large proportion can barely cook for themselves, have never lived alone, probably never paid a bill or shopped at supermarkets.

There is a strong case in the modern world for upping the age of maturity to say, 25.

Yes, let's just keep infantilizing and disenfranchising young people for more and more of their lives, that's sure to work.

The main reason teen rebellion and delinquency are issues in the first place is because young people are already held back for too long.

Re: Meeting A Troll

#196

Post by wpietri »

minitrollster wrote: post #64
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…

I don't think the point people are making when they say he should be handed to the authorities is that they'll fix him. The point is that he should answer for his actions. Fixing the darkness or not, the kid DID make death threats and make someone's life miserable by unacceptable and criminal means. Criminals need rehabilitation, but they also need to be taught that their behaviour is unacceptable.

Do you really think that after that long sit-down with his victim he doesn't understand his behavior is unacceptable?

Re: Meeting A Troll

#197

Post by [deleted] »

ary wrote: post #97
wamatt wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I loathe being the guy defending trolls, the level of judgement expressed in this thread is a bit troubling. Labeling this kid a 'pyschopath' might feel nice, but it's rather inaccurate. [1]. Specifically when he saw the damage he'd caused, a very human emotional response of remorse and regret kicked in. We have no reason to believe it's fake, especially given we weren't the one's there, and the author bel…

First, I'm well aware of the definition of psychopathy. Second, psychopathy is not a binary condition. An individual can be on a spectrum of severity, or (as has been noted by people researching the condition) psychopaths can and do mimic the responses to emotion that they see in others but do not feel themselves. Perhaps he is or perhaps he isn't, but without additional action of the part of the OP and the kid's par…

[deleted]

Re: Meeting A Troll

#198

Post by [deleted] »

ary wrote: post #97
wamatt wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I loathe being the guy defending trolls, the level of judgement expressed in this thread is a bit troubling. Labeling this kid a 'pyschopath' might feel nice, but it's rather inaccurate. [1]. Specifically when he saw the damage he'd caused, a very human emotional response of remorse and regret kicked in. We have no reason to believe it's fake, especially given we weren't the one's there, and the author bel…

First, I'm well aware of the definition of psychopathy. Second, psychopathy is not a binary condition. An individual can be on a spectrum of severity, or (as has been noted by people researching the condition) psychopaths can and do mimic the responses to emotion that they see in others but do not feel themselves. Perhaps he is or perhaps he isn't, but without additional action of the part of the OP and the kid's par…

[deleted]

Re: Meeting A Troll

#199

Post by forensic »

tylermenezes wrote: post #42

I'm honestly astonished at how little Twitter seems to care about abuse and spam. I actually wrote an article about this last night ( https://tyler.menez.es/articles/twitters-empathy-problem.htm... ), when - after going through blog posts - I realized the spam problem there hadn't gotten any better since I first wrote about it in 2007 !

Seems like a hard problem to solve.

Re: Meeting A Troll

#200

Post by Jd »

One potentially but as of yet unmentioned aspect is the "game thing" itself. The fact that he refers to this as a "game," indicates that by means of some conspiracy theory site or other, he was more or less interacting with others in competitive harassment.

Take the following potential scenario:

  Impressionable youth joins conspiracy site, finds lots of anti-semitic information. 
  The youths of the forum are encourage to pick a Jew and harass them, recording both their creations (i.e. a plastic container filled with ashes), and the responses of the person they are harassing.
  Within the context of a game this harassment can immediately seem quite harmless. I am actually not thinking much about the person who is on the receiving end of my "prank" anymore, I am simply thinking of the optimal reaction I can get from my "innovative" creation in the harassment sector. 

  Anyways, easy to see how something like this could get out of hand. Very out of hand in this case.
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