The internet is not necessarily a good thing

originally posted by: BrianFlanders

2. That said, occasionally I see posts that are genuinely disturbing. If I think someone's right on the edge of doing something crazy it does bother me a lot. I mean, most of us on this forum have our own pet conspiracy theories but I hope most of us are still civilized and sane.

I do think we have a responsibility to advocate non-violence above all else.

I absolutely agree.
I started a discussion not too long ago after I saw someone posting YouTube videos and saying they could hear voices telling them to do things, and how these videos were "attacking" them.

Clearly, this poster was suffering from a psychological problem.

I started a thread in the relevant place suggesting that it would be good if ATS at least had a link to mental health resources.

You know what happened? A mod responded with "NO".

The other issue is "self radicalization". This is absolutely real, and we see it happening in various places on line. It's not a manufactured thing, it's a genuine problem.

A person has a notion about something, they read that others believe the same thing, then they watch YouTube videos about it (also created by those same people who all believe the same thing), and ultimately it reinforces the nonsense even when there is no real evidence for any of it.

Just look at the whole 9/11 conspiracy, there are plenty of people who seem to believe the conspiracy just because so many others believe it, and just because they've watched so many videos repeating the same nonsense. It doesn't matter if everything they read about their theory ten years ago has been debunked a thousand times since, they'll completely ignore that and stick to what they believe. Ironically they'll do this while calling YOU brainwashed and closed minded, unable to see that this is exactly the behaviour they themselves are exhibiting.

There's really nothing more we can do as individuals other than try to bring common sense where it's needed. If someone still chooses to act out, then it becomes a legal problem and it needs to be dealt with. That's never the responsibility of anyone else though, unless they willfully and knowingly encouraged that person to act out.