Basically I'd like to limit this rant to my discussion of talking to jerks online, because otherwise it'd just be a giant whine about how mean people suck. (And they do, but that's beside the point.) What I've found is that online, they are a whole different breed of jerk.

Some people are jerks online because they feel they don't have to answer for it. You can't see their faces. You can't report them to their parents or the principal or the freaking cops. Supposedly, you can't even make them answer for their actions, because if you don't know their names and you can't make them look bad in front of their friends, it's just the same as if they're not doing anything wrong whatsoever. After all, if no one saw you piss on the toilet seat, you didn't do it, right? Of course! And that's why people do it, because something twisted and idiotic inside them makes them feel giddy when they ruin someone else's day and don't get any sort of punishment whatsoever.

I of course think this sort of vindictive, immature person probably suffers the worst punishment just by having to BE THEMSELVES all the time, but I for one would like to see online assholes get theirs. I would like them to realize that the people they're putting down, harassing, and abusing are not just screennames; they're real people. People like me.

I'm not bent out of shape over it because I'm actually hurt by whatever idiotic thing they say. What pisses me off is that they think it's perfectly okay to DO this sort of thing, and their smugness when they think they aren't accountable for their actions. So, in the spirit of dealing back to them the consequences of exactly that which they are exploiting, I have made use of our text-based interaction and shown their idiocy to the world.

That's right . . . they may think that being faceless and hiding behind a screenname protects them, since it's all just typing. But since it IS typing, by its very nature it can be saved and displayed as I see fit. And somehow this seems an appropriate way of making them answer for their sins, sort of. I think knowing their conversation is displayed in a GALLERY OF JERKS would make the whole thing seem a little more real to them. Don't you think?