[jerf]

"They aren't, nobody get's physically damaged by a weapon."

Err, I know what you tried to say there... but you're still wrong, because "physically" hurt is not the only relevant type of hurt.

You are not a robot. You are an emotional being, and you can be emotionally hurt by things that perhaps wouldn't hurt Spock but do hurt you. Your threshold may be much higher than many other people's. As it happens, mine is too.

But that doesn't make us "right", or better, and it doesn't mean that people don't get really hurt on the Internet when thrust into a world their brain is quite literally not prepared for. If anything, we are the freaks of nature.

Also note I didn't even limit it to insults... just perfectly normal social interaction can be quite draining. The realm of "negative feedback" is far richer than just "insults". Just receiving 4000 emails on a topic is an astonishing experience that I have but put my toe in the water of, and have little desire to experience the full blast.