#the fact people in their 20s and 30s still dont understand this fucking baffles me

[coratorium]

apparently some of you need this reminder: if someone is talking about how they've been getting harassed, and you open the replies on the post and see further harassment, do not respond to it

this should be basic internet common sense at this point. responding to someone who is being malicious: 1) reminds them that their existing posts have not been punished, encouraging them to escalate 2) shows that they are successfully upsetting people or at least getting their attention, which is their goal 3) calls more attention to their post from other users, resulting in more people seeing the harassment, which is also a win for them 4) shows that you are an easy mark and can probably be provoked further because you don't have the common sense to not respond 5) potentially allows them to frame YOU as the one doing the harassment, getting you in trouble instead of them

it doesnt matter how cool you think your comeback sounds. responding to malicious and hateful comments actively makes the situation worse for everyone you think you are standing up for. the correct course of action is just to block and report them without saying anything. getting the last word in against a troll is not a "win". they "win" by getting the argument to happen at all, and the longer it continues, the more they get out of it. you are making the problem worse.

#the fact people in their 20s and 30s still dont understand this fucking baffles me #how have you been on the internet this long and you still get baited by this shit #you could substitute 'troll' for 'bigot' or 'harasser' or whatever other more nuanced term you prefer. anybody causing problems on purpose. #it's all more or less the same. you should not be talking to anyone who walks into a comments section trying to pick a fight.