When reason, logic and dialogue fail, reach for the chainsaw or the machine gun or insults. Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Jacob Zuma’s talisman was his uMshini Wami, Julius Malema likes to fire a gun (allegedly a toy) at rallies, and Elon Musk’s symbolic weapon of choice is a chainsaw.
Not that long ago, as traditional newspapers began slowly seeping online, readers were offered the exhilarating possibility of immediate interaction and dialogue with journalists and others about issues of the day.
BI (before the internet) readers had to write a letter to the editor and, if your thoughts were deemed interesting enough, it would be published – usually in a highly edited form, space being limited.
In other words, it was mostly a media monologue and you really needed to be motivated and highly invested to pick up a pen and paper, write a letter, place it in an envelope, buy and then lick a stamp and place it all in a postbox near you with the vague hope it would be published.
Like a loony on a street corner
The anonymity that online platforming offers has unlocked in many (later to become known as trolls) an atavistic desire to rampage through polite society like a twisted battalion of the wounded and the slighted, slashing and burning along the superhighway.
It was colleague Rebecca Davis who remarked back then that the comments section served as the real-life equivalent of a total stranger with a bag on his head (the overwhelming majority of online bullies are men) hurling insults and waving a knife on a street corner or parking lot. Threats, mostly aimed at women in the media, included the use of a carving knife to serve our breasts for lunch, rape, torture and other violent, misogynist fantasies.
Over time, it became abundantly clear that social media algorithms have a favourite addiction: negativity and aggression. Like a whale that needs 16 metric tonnes of krill a day, trolls die without discord, chaos and conflict.
Removing anonymous postings sent the cowards scuttling back into the shadows where they migrated to the dark web to rant, rave, plot, plan and scheme the downfall of the world as we know it.
Jumping realms
The unprecedented display of bullying that recently unfolded at the White House during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to US President Donald Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, was a global first.
Yet it was the perfect example of what online bullying behaviour transported to real life looks like. Trump, saviour of the white world, manifested all that is repulsive about that culture and the Big Tech bros, such as Musk, who exclusively control it.
With the young leader of a country deeply traumatised by war, Trump and Vance acted as proxies for the bully they admire from afar, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is at war with Ukraine.
Vance, with his Johnny Depp-lite eye make-up, and Trump, with his red tie trailing genetically modified McDonald’s sesame seeds from the White House carpet – these butcher boys set a trap and, with palpable glee and live-streamed to the world, set upon Zelensky like reactive dogs sniffing blood.
Putin’s brand of bullying is more sophisticated, understated and “European”, should we say. He leads his kleptocratic oligarchy with dreams of empire, an inscrutable assassin grinning like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland.
Trump, with his penchant for gold-plated toilets and pussy grabbing, has always treated others like uncouth, bone-wielding neanderthals. Ask those who have been tossed under the bus and taken the fall for the ultimate con man of the US.
Ask those who have done business with the hamburger CEO on the “eighth wonder of the world”, the Atlantic City Trump, Taj Mahal casino, Trump Shuttle, Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Bibles, Trump sneakers and Trump crypto.
Manners maketh the human
We teach children to say thank you and please in the real world when they are little because, although they may not yet know how to feel gratitude, it is an early socialisation in the creation of a society that seeks kindness and connection.
Face-to-face interaction requires us to make a connection with a multidimensional individual. Body language, facial expressions, gait, eye contact and hand movements all contribute to communication.
On the internet and social media, you can let rip from the safety of your keyboard or avatar and find a like-minded community with virtual pitchforks, which will pump up and acknowledge your rage and hatred.
The only way to stop the online bullies in real life is face to face with dignity and courage. That is the example we need right now. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
