[OnlineGladiator]

Nobody is unaware of the externalities of the prank, you are just the only one who cares. The reason you make the world a worse place is by lecturing people about things nobody cares about but you, insisting it's the only thing that matters and the world is going to shit because nobody shares your values - meanwhile the world is carrying on just fine by ignoring you. You don't recognize you're actually taking an incredibly arrogant stance by more or less trying to force your values on others, even if you think you're sticking up for people. You also reek of needing to express your moral superiority to others, not recognizing that other people have different morals than you. The reason I don't like you is because you insist you're right even when everyone is telling you you're wrong, and then have the gall to act superior to everyone who you haven't even understood. You want to suck the joy out of something just because you don't like it, even if everyone else does.

You can have the last word if you want. I'm done.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

My values? You mean having empathy for people you don't know? Yes, I'd say that people not sharing that is indeed why the world is going to shit.

Though of course most people do share it, probably even you. It is a mystery to me why you seem to be saying that no one should care at all about the people negatively affected by this. An argument for the funnieness of it, or the art of it, outweighing that would be understandable, but you don't even go there, it's just apparently not even worth consideration and I'm a bad person for considering it.

I am not trying to force my values on anyone. I am making no call to action whatsoever. The things these people did were already illegal. All I'm doing is defending the idea that yes, indeed, the people who did this have cause to be embarrassed by it. It would seem that you do not agree and do not think anyone should feel embarrassed. Why this disagreement between us is a source of so much vitriol from you I do not understand if, as you say, you truly do not care.

[_blu]

You are actually the one who strikes me as cold and lacking empathy here, because you don't understand that no one got hurt in any serious manner. You also talk about things that are obvious (why they aren't said), like the sheer joy of the prank.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

The reason I continue to argue this point is that I can't seem to grasp the mindset of people who think there's no shame in fucking with people they don't know. Like, how do you square that? Do you like getting fucked with by people you don't know? Is it made better if they thought it was funny?

[criddell]

Does any of that change if you stop thinking about it as a prank and instead consider it as performance art? With art, provocation isn't shameful, it's often a goal.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

Typically art is not directed at unsuspecting bystanders and rarely breaks laws that carry potential prison sentences[0]. Even so, I would say that artist understand that they are fucking with people, but they believe that the value of their expression outweighs it. Weather I agree or not would be irrelevant, because they would either explain it as such (artists usually take credit for their work, unlike the Headroom prankster), or decide they were wrong and be embarrassed by it. The latter is offered as an explanation for why no one has come forward and I defend that possibility against naysayers who, for some reason, seem to believe there is no possibility of embarrassment.

[0] notable Banksy works come to mind as counter examples, and I would not not say that they were being a bit of an asshole. Sometimes you may need to be an asshole to make your point though.