Battlefield Internet 

Amy Wright

The Internet is, quite correctly, seen as the greatest innovation since the discovery the insulin. In recent years however, the nature of that communication has also begun to change. Particularly with the increased popularity of social media. Since 2010, the old order of boring ghettoization, where everyone kept to their own and largely ignored each other, has been slowly destroyed. Opposing sides flooding into the battlefield of open-platform social media to rumble like Greasers with switchblades. It has gotten to the point now that “Tumblr Feminist”, once a punchline, has become social media short-hand for the sort of girl who posts a photo of herself proudly displaying the hand she broke punching someone who said something she did not like.

Youtube, while still having fine comedy vlogs, cat videos, free music (they have cracked down on the movies quite a bit) and original web series, has also become a boxing ring for ideologues of all stripes to get in and beat the tar out of each other. There is the now notorious dust up between Feminists and Anti-Feminists, DOSSing, Doxxing and lawsuits becoming as common as saying “what up”. Several people have been fired, often unjustly in terms of the pesky law, as part of the fallout of this war of attrition, which has seen many groups and individuals openly despise each other, often without actually having “met”. Though Skype and Google Hangouts definitely count as “meeting” no matter what the out-of-touch traditionalist might shout.

The battle-lines are also getting entertainingly blurred. Just like how the White Nationalists Movement of the 1990s started to each itself by the mid-2000s, high-profile leaders like Wolfgang Droege getting gunned down by their own henchmen, the knives have started coming out online. In that cool out-of-the-sleeve way. One of the main examples of this is the Atheist/Skeptic community. The trouble really started with the invention of the now defunct “Atheism+” community. The “plus” refers to the adding of Social Justice ideals to Atheism. Which is roughly akin to trying to add the ideals of peace, order and good government to the philosophy of Anarchism. 

One of the most high-profile and meanest examples being the argument pitting T.J. “The Amazing Atheist” Kirk, who has some rather “pronounced liberal views”, against, Mr. Charming himself, that's why he has so many friends, Devon “Atheism-Is-Unstoppable” Tracey, whom one genuinely hopes is kidding. Though it doesn't seem likely. While it is not entirely clear who started the feud, it has only gotten worse as it has gone on. The atmosphere in the political quarters of YouTube becoming so toxic people are being accused of saying and doing things there is no evidence of them having said or done. As thought the truth actually means anything online.

Not that it really matters. The new media landscape has come to be overrun with what amounts to angry kittens hissing ineffectually at each other. A situation rooted deeply set previously unvented animosity, that has only recently been able to flourish with the development of no-barriers social media outlets.