Has anyone else noticed when reading comments on other blogs that people are more racist when they are anonymous?

People will say almost anything when they think they’re anonymous. The noise they make is actually quite deafening at times. The only thing that Youtube comments influence me to do is to close them down so I can’t see them. Then again, some of the people are saying things just to be inflammatory, also known as trolls. All in all I don’t ascribe a lot of meaning or value to such anonymous comments.

I try not to let people’s racist/prejudice views bother me, but when people argue back and forth as if their cyber skirmish matters…But then again I guess I’m just being a hypocrite if I let their comments bother me.

People can be more disgusting in all ways when they hide behind anonymity. I am glad that is not true on Fluther.

Definitely. On sights like YouTube, it seems like 100% trolls. The thing I notice the most isn’t actually racism or homophobia or misogyny (although I do notice a buttload of that); no, the thing I notice the most is that people see life as a “one size fits all” sorta thing – and that size should be their size. It’s often the opinions that are more like “no one could ever not love The Godfather” that make me tilt my head and go “huh?”.

This has been known to sociologists and social psychologists for many decades. Just think of “pillars of the community” who were active in the KKK such as the late Robert Byrd.

Yes, when one is anoymous, what’s to fear when you speak your mind?

Yes, mainly the trolls. Just like the comment section in my local newspaper its the same thing for these same people would never write a letter to the newspaper editor with their name signed (which is required in this newspaper). These same people can call in and make anonymous comments however.

I have been more shocked by the degree of racism spewing forth from the non-anonymous ones! HS!

I think it is probably true that you get more racist comments from anonymous speakers. But this is what happens when pressure is placed on (some) people to suppress their comments, and there is definitely social and political pressure to not say certain things in the open. Imagine if people did not feel that pressure. They would speak in the open, you would know who they were, and you could debate them in the open. It would be healthier for everyone and in the long term less dangerous. You can be sure that when an unpopular point of view gets pushed into the underground, it does not disappear. It simply begins to mutate into something that none of us really understand and then it returns as a true problem instead of an awkward moment.

Or maybe it is that people are more anonymous, when they are racist.

like @josie said.