Death Threats

[Kausa]

With the anonymity of the internet, people saying horrible things to others seems to be the new trend.
On sites like twitter and tumblr, people hide behind a fake account or a grey face and tell you they will find you, kill you, or that they hope you kill yourself or get hit by a train.
Its seemingly the norm. Most users will have to deal with hate for no reason.

So have you ever experienced hate or death threats?
Why do you think someone would say something so horrible just because they can? What does this say about their character?

[EvilPinkamina]

Yeah, in PC gaming, death threats are the norm. Cancer, Trains, Snipers, "Having a staff shoved up your ass until you die" (quoted, I couldn't make that up XD), etc. Just gotta deal with it.
Also, they could be holding a persona. A good example would be EG.IdrA, a professional Starcraft II player. He is known for being a BM player, and holds that persona.

[Kausa]

What if that online persona finally shoved someone over the edge to suicide?
Its not worth it in my book, I couldn't live with myself if I knew what I said to someone hurt them bad enough for them to want to take their life.

[EvilPinkamina]

Personally, and I may sound like a dick for saying this, but people that will TAKE THEIR OWN LIFE over what some ANONYMOUS, RANDOM PERSON says are just WAAAAYYYY too sensitive.
People are bad mannered, if anyone is to blame for someone committing suicide, its the person that committed suicide. After all, it was their decision. They have to go through the consequences of their sudden impulse.

Yeah, this post really makes me sound like a dick

[Kausa]

Of course the person sending hate doesn't know if someone is unstable, but they are still partially to blame if they send a person over the edge by saying horrible things.
Yes, in the end its the person who killed themselves fault. But if they were suicidal anyway and were barely hanging on by a thread, and then someone told them "just kill yourself, your worthless". What would stop them?

[Lamby]

People that harm themselves over words are typically emotionally disturbed to begin with; sensitivity has nothing to do with it. If certain people would have some couth and mind their words, these incidents would decrease. A refusal to be a decent person is rarely excusable. The fact we can't control how someone reacts doesn't absolve us from being cruel or asinine. A person being harassed should seek help/report it and people that say hurtful things should be ostracized by their peers or held accountable as much as possible. I just don't understand how anyone could be okay with anything less. It won't go away, but we should resist as much as we can, or at least take it more seriously so that it is frowned upon en masse, considering anonymity is virtually unrestrained.

I'm not saying we should overreact about minor incidents, but outright, perpetual harassment is not cool.

[Jack Augustine]

^ Agreed, Atomic.

I know some friends who were suicidal. Had to have a few friends help me talk them back down... Especially since they were saying that they'd kill themselves.

[SuperCyber15]

I think it is all totally unacceptable.

My brother came home today telling our family about girls in his 5th grade classroom telling other girls to kill themselves because they were annoying and they wanted to be left alone.

People are becoming desensitized to the phrase/term, joking about it, etc. Telling someone to kill themselves or sending harsh death threats is not a joke, it's not something you do for fun, and it's not something to be or that is taken lightly.

Words can harm people just as much as anything else can. Words can diminish a persons sense of self worth, persuade them into doing the wrong thing, etc. Words can do so much more than anyone gives them credit for, and it's a shame how people are using them these days.

[EvilPinkamina]

^It depends on HOW the phrase kill yourself is said.
Me and my friends say it to each other all the time, but since we're not serious, it's ok!
Right?

[Kausa]

No its still not okay.
You don't know if your friend is suffering deep down inside.
Those jokes can build up and destroy them without you even knowing.

[Jack Augustine]

Exactly.

You never know if they actually have something going on in their lives that makes them half-consider killing themselves...

Saying, even in a joking manner, "Go kill yourself" can solidify their wish of suicide.

[SuperCyber15]

No, it's not okay. At all.

It's not okay because people have become desensitized to the phrase, using it as "shut up" or "you're stupid," etc. That phrase has took the lives of many people, and when people use it jokingly, it's almost like they're mocking anyone who's ever been tempted or hurt or took their own life because of it.

The more people become the desensitized to the phrase, the more it will be said, the more suicides will happen, and the less people will care.

It. Is. Not. OK. Under any circumstances, it is not OK. Do not think for one second that it is OK.

[Tobi]

The internet is a dark place, and I can handle these situations calmly, but I have seen people who got death threats from anons, and their address was actually mentioned in it... If that would happen, it would be pretty damn scary. Though I don't think people would easily do that, people like bringing fear into people. The internet is a good place to do so. Sure, mods can ban you here, so we're more safe here. But there are places where you can say whatever you want. People take that opportunity. In real life, you could physically hurt them, which is why those people probably do this through the internet.

I feel so sorry for people who get suicide tendencies from this. I also don't like how people just go ahead and say 'You should be able to handle that, if you can't, get off the internet!' Those people can go **** themselves. Just because other people make a wonderful land a terrible place by hating and threatening with such thing as death, that doesn't mean other people should just deal with it.

[Crash32]

You'd obviously just respawn after you-oh

[Jack Augustine]

Just what we need... a troll in the Death Threats thread.

[Crash32]

in my opinion, if you take online death threats in a video game like the ones in the OP seriously you need to go see some sort of doctor

[Tobi]

A death threat is a death threat.

[Crash32]

there's a difference between
in a game such as TF2 or COD or whatever and having a complete stranger in another country saying "go die"
and having someone you know saying "go die/i will kill you"

the second being very worrying and concerning

[Tobi]

Why would someone you know say it? You clearly hang around with the wrong people.

And 'go die' isn't really a death threat. People in real life say that pretty often too. Saying "I'm going to kill you." is a death threat, whether you say it over a video game, over pages on the internet in general or in real life, it can effect people. And you're being inconsiderate for those people by saying people who get scared from it need a doctor.

Go die is rather a wish. Wishing someone to die, which in that way is usually meant as in, committing suicide, is also not okay. Plain saying 'go die' in a video game is out of rage, sure, but if you get messages from people saying you should die, then that's not okay. But people who play CoD or something like that usually know that it's out of anger, so I guess they won't be effected as much, unless they go describe it and get REALLY serious about killing said person.

[Crash32]

Why would someone you know say it? You clearly hang around with the wrong people.

*facepalm*
i'm pointing out the point of the topic
my friends aren't weird enough to say crap like that
it's you guys with that problem

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

When playing multiplayer in a violent video game, death threats usually imply a desire to inflict bodily harm to an opponent's in-game avatar, not the actual person controlling that avatar, and anyone who interprets it otherwise probably does not have a sound grip on the distinction between fantasy and reality. Not saying I condone such trash talk(in my opinion, trash talk should at least include effort to be witty), but its hard to declare such behaviour as inherently evil. Allow me to draw analogy: imagine a roleplay on here or another forum that involves fighting between that characters being controlled by the players, and one of the player writes that their character gives a death threat to another player's character. Would any reasonable person take the threat as being directed at the player instead of their character?

There is a bit less gray when the death threat comes unprovoked in an online setting where their is no pretense of violence between virtual avatars, and it does not help that writing lacks intonation to distinguish genuine threats from ones made purly in jest.

That said, there are many cases where both the target and the person making the threat need psychological help, the target for not being able to cope with the threat, and the person who made the threat for not understanding how their actions affect others.

As for the original question, I have never been the target of unprovoked hatred on the internet, at least not as an individual. I have recieved some less than civil "rebuttals" for expressing opinions that are less than popular, and I am part of groups who due to one harmless personality quirk are viewed as monsters by certain groups who believe themselves to be standing on the moral highground, but I have never been the direct target of unprovoked hatred.

Also, at the risk of expressing an unpopular opinion, I believe in a person's Right to Death and that extends to all forms of suicide.

[Tobi]

Why would someone you know say it? You clearly hang around with the wrong people.

*facepalm*
i'm pointing out the point of the topic
my friends aren't weird enough to say crap like that
it's you guys with that problem

No. No you weren't. You were talking about video games, which is NOWHERE mentioned in the topic. Internet was mentioned, but that doesn't directly have to relate to video games only, which is mainly screaming at each other because you are a sore loser. This is about death THREATS. People who try to have people kill themselves, or bring fear upon them for no reason at all, and whether you experienced it or think you know the reason for why people do so.

When playing multiplayer in a violent video game, death threats usually imply a desire to inflict bodily harm to an opponent's in-game avatar, not the actual person controlling that avatar, and anyone who interprets it otherwise probably does not have a sound grip on the distinction between fantasy and reality.

It doesn't always. People tend to get mad at you for doing stuff like 'camping' for example, and threaten to kill you. Some people get REALLY into games and actually just want you to die.

Notice how I said 'doesn't always', which doesn't mean I said people always mean the player. Making that clear before people misinterpret that like usually happens to me.

[Bunelody]

It's never okay to tell someone that, whether or not it's a joke. They may be stable but it's still rude and inconsiderate to ell someone that. Suicide is a serious matter and no one seems to take it seriously anymore, it's kind of starting to seem sick. I mean imagine someone told that to your best friend, sibling, or someone you care about and they actually did it. Or what if you jokingly told someone that and they didn't know they were joking? Especially if you tell someone that online. No one can tell if you're joking or not through the internet since you don't hear them saying it and can't hear their tone of voice...

I've had someone on YouTube tell me that but that was like 2 years ago XP

[Aruesso]

don't be a jerk

[Crash32]

^that was about actual school friends telling you that, not angry 10 year olds in CoD