I disagree, I think a lot of people have the desire to be as hurtful as humanly possible and the YouTube community is made up primarily of trolls. Sexism and racism is very common too.

When people make comments like "you're ugly now" and "you look like a dude" I think they are fully aware that these statements are hurtful to the person in the video.

Maybe some of these people are just really stupid and inconsiderate but that's giving them the benefit of the doubt.

I think a big reason so many people on the net are douchebags is because they keep a lot of their anti social sentiments pint up because of how society sees them. On the internet you have anonymity and when you have anonymity you can be as big of a jerk as you want to be. Maybe you've seen this.

http://ramblingfish.com/__oneclick_u.../20040319h.jpg

And this pretty much sums up the internet better than any other picture that google images can provide.

Then stop reading them

Did you come here just to give me advice you know I won't take?

It was worth a shot if I never had to hear you moaning about it for about the 100th time.

Heh, why click on threads about topics you aren't interested in then? I don't think you (or a lot of people) give a darn about anything I like to go on about so my tedious rantings can be avoided with ease.

How do you know I have no interest in it?

Assumption?

I hadn't even thought of making fun of Sharon Blynn's ears! She is a very physically attractive human being, I feel: symmetrical, friendly looking, direct. Bald. ;) And I greatly admire anyone who challenges assumptions and stereotypes about genders.

Heh heh. One can't go wrong with assonance! I was rather pleased with that turn of phrase myself, boo boo, though I sincerely doubt I'm the first to have thought of it.

Assonance. That sure is one word that doesn't sound a thing like what it really is!

I agree. There's nothing wrong with Sharon's ears. What I like about her look is that she has a clean and simple beauty. Not a lot of makeup or jewellery, just an extremely pretty face. And a smooth bald head, although looking at her portfolio, she doesn't look bad with a day or two of stubble either.

New post up on the blog today, although I think boo boo does check regularly.

Great cartoon.

I do agree that there are a lot of trolls just posting crap comments on YouTube, and the racist ones particularly bother me. An audience, and sometimes the security that they hold a majority opinion, does indeed encourage people to show off, and the anonymity does weaken our normal inhibitions. In some ways, I'd even say there's a mob mentality at work in some of these posts.

Some of it is clearly meant to hurt or to stir up trouble. But I do think the people who post some of the most frustrating comments are those who really do think they're making a fair comment. They might be reacting out of fear of something that challenges what they consider normal, or they might genuinely think they're being helpful by offering their criticism, or since the shaving is all in fun and these people can't possibly like it, that teasing is OK. The worst are the ones who sincerely think they're being nice with the "you were so pretty before, why would you do that?" comments. My mother is an old pro at that.

People today have gotten the idea that being entitled to your opinion means you're never wrong, and that there aren't times when maybe it's better to just be nice or even shut up altogether. The internet definitely makes that tendency far worse, with the anonymity and the audience, and with opportunities everywhere to comment on everything. People are invited to comment, they think their opinion always matters, and they really don't think too much about it. They're used to going around giving their opinion on everything. If you challenged some of these people directly, they wouldn't have any idea why you should be upset, and might very well consider you the bad guy and tell you to leave them alone. I've taken on people like this before, and I was the one causing trouble and trying to stifle free speech, even among some of the people who had been posting positive things.

Some are are more rude than others, but I think most of those comments reflect ignorance in their content, and I think most are posted out of ignorance. They just don't get it.