The internet is a vast, crazy place. It’s full of wonders and horrors. It offers a wealth of knowledge, as well as an endless stream is lies, scams, and misinformation. You’ll wonderful, disturbing, beautiful, yet perverse place. You can meet all sorts of amazing people online, but you can also encounter some of the weirdest, creepiest individuals on the face of this planet.
The internet is remarkable, yet chaotic is what I’m saying. The same could be said for cars and highways. That’s why you wear seatbelts and make sure your side has airbags. That way, if something does go wrong, you have something in place that can save you.
In that same spirit, I’d like to offer an important bit of advice to anyone who uses a computer and regularly accesses the internet, which is increasing with each passing day mind you. It has to do with security, a topic that has become a lot more relevant in recent years.
It wasn’t that long ago that a single cyberattack shut down a critical pipeline that disrupted fuel supplies for the entire eastern United States. However, I feel like people have already forgotten about that incident and the lessons it had to offer.
There are a lot of things to be said about that attack and why it was successful. However, much of it came back to poor cyber security practices. That included little practices like not logging out of a secure network, using easily-guessed passwords, or using the same password for multiple logins. As more and more of our lives go online, these practices will become increasingly damaging.
I know this because I too have been guilty of doing this. Just recently, I had a few security scares for some email accounts that I still use. I didn’t make a big deal about it at first. Then, I realized just how much sensitive information I had in these accounts and I needed to be more careful.
That’s why I immediately activated two-factor authentication.
That’s also why you should activate it too.
No matter how small or large your presence is online, I cannot recommend utilizing this feature enough. Do it for your email accounts. Do it for your social media accounts. Do it for your online shopping accounts. You don’t have to do it for everything, but if you have the option, definitely take advantage of it.
It’s not that hard to utilize. If you have a cell phone that can receive texts, you can use it. Yes, it is an extra step to log in. You have to both enter a password and a code that’s sent to your cell phone. It’s a bit more tedious, but it assures that, even if someone steals your password, they still can’t log in without your phone. It’s not perfect security, but it makes a big difference.
The security at the Colonial Pipeline facility didn’t utilize it. A majority of companies don’t utilize it on a large scale. There are some legitimate reasons for that, but most people don’t use it because it’s inconvenient. It’s another step on top of having to remember a password. Some people just don’t like that.
I get it, but I also get the risks of being hacked or losing your data. If you have a choice between being slightly more inconvenienced or losing critical data, then the choice should be clear. Endure that little bit of inconvenience. It’ll protect you, your data, your money, your identity, and so much more.
I had a bit of a cyber scare recently and while I was able to fix it before anything happened, I made sure I was more proactive. Trust me. You don’t want to learn the hard way why you should utilize extra layers of security whenever you’re online.
I’ll say it again. If you can activate two-factor authentication for any or all your accounts, do it. You’ll spare yourself plenty of stress and frustration. The internet is still an amazing place, but it can be dangerous. Your password is just a seatbelt. Two-factor authentication is an airbag. Your odds of being safe are much better when you can rely on both.
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Tales From The Comments Section: When Hypocrisy, Lying, And Trolling Converge
Even the most luxurious palace has a septic system that contains its foulest shit. It’s not just a fact of life. It might as well be a law of physics. In the same way the brightest light still casts a shadow, there’s always a dark underbelly to any world we explore.
The internet is no exception. If anything, the internet has more dark underbellies than most and I’m not just referring to porn sites or nefarious Google searches. Those are all plenty disturbing, but if the internet has an overflowing septic tank, it’s the collective comments section of many sites.
They’re not just the comments section to certain news sites.
They’re not just anonymous image boards like 4chan that pride themselves on excess shit-posting.
Even the comments section of mainstream websites like YouTube, Facebook, and Reddit have comments sections that will give your faith in humanity a hefty gut punch. They come in many forms, but they tend to follow the same patterns.
They’re degrading, insulting, whiny, vulgar, immature, and just plain wrong on multiple levels. I’m not calling for them to be censored or banned, outside the kind of comments that incite violence in the real world. I’m just pointing out that this is the ugly side of the internet and we can’t deny its stench.
I say that as someone who has spent many hours, much of them wasted, in comments sections and message boards over the years. Even during the early days of the internet, complete with dial up and AOL keyword searches, I’ve seen this ugliness firsthand. I also don’t deny that there are times when I’ve contributed to it. That’s something I genuinely regret.
While all toxic comments are different, they often employ similar rhetoric. It really hasn’t changed much from the AOL days. Just the other day, I made the mistake of browsing the comments of a YouTube video. I saw the same whiny, angry ranting that I saw on old message boards in 1999.
The topics may change. The verbiage may differ. Even the arguments made, if there are any, tend to be fairly similar. I could single out plenty of ugly comments I’ve encountered. However, I want to highlight one that I’ve seen a lot more of lately, especially among fans of superhero comics, Star Wars, and Star Trek.
They usually go like this.
It’s a sweeping, generalized statement. It’s usually said out of a mix of hate, resentment, and tribalism. Ironically, it’s often Star Wars fans who say stuff like this when talking about characters like Rey. It’s ironic because Obi-Wan Kanobi himself once said, “only a Sith deals in absolutes.”
It doesn’t help that these kinds of absolutes are total bullshit encased in wishful thinking that’s built entirely around head-canon. Certain fans want to believe that everyone agrees with them and those who don’t aren’t “true” fans.
It’s basically the old “no true Scotsman” fallacy, but this one is laced with a mix of lies and hypocrisy. That’s because it’s demonstrably provable that these kinds of sweeping statements are wrong.
Not everyone hates Rey, Captain Marvel, or whoever else is the object of resentment at the moment. For one, Captain Marvel’s movie raked in $1 billion at the box office. Clearly, more than a few people liked her.
The same can be said for Rey. You can go onto Amazon and readily find merchandise featuring her. She may not be on the same level as Luke Skywalker, but that’s not a reasonable bar for a character who has only recently entered the franchise.
I can also attest that Rey has plenty of fans. It’s not just that I’m one of them. I’ve been to comic book conventions. I’ve seen women, young girls, and even a few men dress up as Rey. I’ve seen even more dress up as Captain Marvel. She clearly has plenty of fans.
That makes the whole idea that “nobody likes this character” or “everyone hates this character” demonstrably false. Those who say it aren’t just lying trolls. They’re hypocrites.
Now, I’ve made the mistake of arguing with these people before. I can safely conclude that it’s not a productive use of my time. These people will never be dissuaded. They still want to live in their head-canon where everyone hates exactly who they hate and anyone who thinks otherwise is just part of an evil conspiracy out to get them.
It’s a dangerous, toxic mentality that extends beyond fandoms and into politics. We saw just how bad it could get on January 6th during the Capitol riots. I’m not saying angry Star Wars fans are that bad, but the mentality is the same and it’s just as dangerous.
Again, I freely admit I’ve posted my share of dumb comments. I’ve said dumb things before, as well. Everyone has. We’re only human. We’re not perfect and never will be. I believe in free speech strongly and I understand that this is a byproduct of that. I’m willing to accept that.
I’m also willing to use that same freedom to point out the idiocy and hypocrisy of those kinds of comments. They’re not just a useless waste of bandwidth. They’re a symptom of a much larger problem. For now, the best thing to do is ignore these people and let them live in their fanciful head-canon. It may not fix the problem, but it’ll keep it from getting worse.
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Tagged as 4chan, angry trolls, Brie Larson, Captain Marvel, comic books, comments, Gina Carano, human nature, human psychology, hypocrisy, internet, internet subculture, Pop Culture, popular culture, psychology, rants, Reddit, Rey, Star Trek, Star Wars, superhero comics, trolls, YouTube, YouTube Comments, YouTube Comments Section