[ChrisMarshallNY]

I have found that there are people who just want to watch the world burn. There are many reasons, but, at its most basic, hurt people hurt people.

That's something I like to keep in mind, when I'm reacting to someone being ... less than friendly ... By reacting badly, I then make it all right for them to justify doing it again, to someone else. I've found that I can defend myself, without becoming a foaming-at-the-mouth maniac. We can enforce our boundaries with water pistols, most of the time. We don't need nukes.

Everything is connected. This chap may be naive, but he's actually trying to set good connections in motion. I applaud that.

[walls]

I feel like a lot of people desperately want to make some kind of impact on the world. Something that causes some number of people to acknowledge their existence (or the effects of it).

It takes real effort to do that in a positive way with a society built around surfacing negativity.

[heavyset_go]

I think we need to recognize that there are people who genuinely get off on hurting others, and it really isn't any more interesting than that.

[pksebben]

I dunno, that reads a little too simple to me. People aren't magical black boxes of mysterious drives and unfathomable causes, they're components of a larger system and reflections of their environment.

Speaking as a reformed 'teen who wanted to watch the world burn', for some it isn't simple omnidirectional malice, but rather a deep and confusing sense that the world is out to get you (spoiler; in some ways it absolutely is) and an instinct to throw a haymaker just so you feel you didn't go down without a fight.

Once this kind of person begins investigating the causes of their discontent - I myself have come to the conclusion that outdated institutions and capitalism are prime suspects - you can do quite a bit more to focus down that energy on the deserving. If you're young and/or dumb enough to not know the difference between the mynoise guy and 'the system' it's almost a forgivable mistake.

That said, from a practical standpoint, yes. Some people just kinda suck real bad. The why isn't always going to get you closer to a cure.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

Most folks find that it’s a lot easier to tear down, than build up.

I’ve always really enjoyed building up, but it’s definitely not the easiest path.

I have managed to make a couple of mid-sized splashes, but many folks have no idea that I was behind them, which is fine with me.

[teddyh]

“One wants to be loved, in lack thereof admired, in lack thereof feared, in lack thereof loathed and despised. One wants to instill some sort of emotion in people. The soul trembles before emptiness and desires contact at any price.”

— From Doctor Glas (1905) by Hjalmar Söderberg

[sircastor]

> I have found that there are people who just want to watch the world burn. There are many reasons, but, at its most basic, hurt people hurt people.

I'm not sure that it's even malicious. I think many hackers look at a website or a service as a game to play. They aren't thinking so far as the person that this action affects, just as far as "I wonder if I could get all the data off that site?" or something similar. And on top of that, some view the rate-limiting as a challenge.

I think it's the same thing that drives the excessive snark or cruelty in comments. They don't think of the person on the other end as a person, they think of them as an endpoint.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

You are correct about the way we dehumanize others on the Internet, but I think hackers have changed, quite a bit, since War Games.

Hacking, these days, isn’t just for the lulz. Hackers have a purpose, and that’s usually monetary or military (sometimes both).

Hacking crews, these days, run professional organizations that would make a lot of SV C-Suiters green with envy.