The Internet, while being comprised of people who (obviously) make up the real world, can sometimes seem like a world away. For the most part, daily life in the real world is spent interacting with people for a short time in a pleasant or neutral manner, and then going on your way. But the Internet is a battleground of people looking for a fight and loudly stating their opinions, and here are the people you will meet there.
The Men’s Rights Activists/misogynists
These guys ostensibly want to help to correct some of the wrongs against men – such as courts favouring mothers, fewer resources for single fathers, and pressure to not show emotion. But they very rarely actually talk about these issues or take action. Instead, they mostly talk about how horrible women are.
For example, right now I am on Reddit browsing the subreddit r/theredpill, which is a place for men to talk about those dang females. There’s a comment thread about how all women lie to make themselves look better, one about female baby boomers drinking more because of feminism (or something), and how women all keep a harem of men to tend to them.
These guys aren’t trying to help men with legitimate problems – they just hate women and want to do anything they can to keep them down. They don’t realize that the group who is doing the most to right wrongs against men is feminists – the people that they hate.
Also included in this group: hardcore gamers who get angry at women trying to play, guys who complain about “feminazis,” guys who complain about having to hold the door for women, etc.
SJWs
SJW is short for Social Justice Warrior, that person who mostly frequents Tumblr and identifies as six different things and gets offended at everything. The stereotypical Tumblr user is all about individualism and accepting people no matter what they say. And sometimes they say weird things.
There’s a community on Tumblr called Otherkin. Otherkin believe that they are other species or fictional characters in the body of a human – essentially like trans people, only a lot more “out there.” They actually believe they are -- in spirit, at least -- not human. Usually they identify with animals or mythical creatures and can sometimes be found walking around with fake animal tails and ears.
They insist they should be accepted for who they are and that people who step on their invisible tails are bigots and that it’s discrimination to get fired from their jobs for meowing at customers. They’ll say it’s racist for Shirley Manson to use the word “savagely” in an open letter to Kanye West, that it’s racist to say “spooky” at Halloween, and that you need a trigger warning to quote someone who said a baby was ugly.
To be clear, I am pro-social justice: we need people calling out racism and sexism. But these people find fault with everything and get offended by anything. You can never imply that there are things women can do to stay safer (walk in groups, watch their drinks, learn self-defense) or you’re victim blaming, and you can’t say the words “crazy” or “lame” because both are ableist. Tread very lightly when interacting with them.
Conspiracy theorists
Nowhere have conspiracy theorists had a bigger platform than the Internet. Look at any article about vaccination and there will be people saying that vaccines are heavily promoted by pharmacy companies to make money and that all doctors who recommend them have been bribed or blackmailed into doing so. Look at an article about strange weather phenomena, and there will be someone going on about chemtrails. Article about unseasonably warm weather? Global warming can’t be real.
Luckily they’ve pretty much stuck to their corner of the Internet.
Far right political activists
You should disregard these people if you hear them say the following: mainstream media, sheeple, Liberals/Libs, or “wake up.“ They hate anything that Liberals support, such as abortion, social programs, and Muslims. They swear that Obama is a Muslim from Kenya, that legalizing gay marriage will lead to legalizing inter-species marriage, and that the media is being bribed by the government to push an agenda (if it was, I would be paid a lot more). Far right politicians will also claim that rape isn’t that bad and that men and women are treated totally equally in society.
My best advice for dealing with them: do not engage. You may want to tell them that Obama is an American citizen or that women can actually do science, but there’s no amount of reason that will convince them.
