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Comment by mc32 | Hacker News Reader

I dunno about you, but most people don’t react to insults with physical injury, though in extreme cases that does happen.

Not that baseless insults should be encouraged.

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most people don’t react to insults with physical injury

I'm not quite so sure about that. Most people don't hurl insults face-to-face. If people acted like their twitter personalities IRL, I would expect to see a massive uptick in fistfights.

It depends on what you consider “insult”.

From taking public transit, waiting in bus stops and walking through blue collar neighborhoods most insults are either ignored or get another insult in return.

Maybe we hang out in different circles, but I've never heard the level of insults IRL that I have read on Twitter. I have a feeling the large majority of those doing the insulting would be terrified to say those things to someones face because they know a physical altercation would end up being the common response.

HN User mc32 is being overly general in characterizing working class people. Lower working class people aren't out insulting each other and using expletives any more than "white collar" people. I live in both worlds, and that's just a stereotype with no basis in reality. In fact, I'd say that the average tech type speaks in a far more base fashion than most of the garbage men I know. (Certainly more base than any of the waitresses or cashiers I know.)

IRL, gobs of people are out insulting each other neither in the lower classes, nor in the upper classes. Yes, it happens MUCH more on a place like Twitter, but not at all IRL.

I’ve seen higher incidence of insults at working class bus stops, bus lines and workplaces. Sometimes it’s vagrants, sometimes it’s just people about their business who get fed up with something. On Caltrain I see fewer incidents than on the VTA or MUNI. I’ve taken them all. I’ve worked in working class neighborhoods and worked with them too. They tease each other a lot, sometimes they go over the line and then some get worked up, etc. They might throw epithets as a means of retaliation against perceived slights (as minor as asking to get by (passage)).

Now, I do hear indirect insults in white collar circles where they insult other people not present (for example berating working classes for the choices in life they make) but we’re not talking about indirect insults. We’re talking the ones where there is the potential for direct retaliation.

mc32 didn't say that working class people are constantly insulting each other, he described how they would likely react to insults.

Ok. Let’s put forth some baselines. In real life most people don’t grievously insult each other (discount passive aggressiveness, microagressions, bravado, boasting and other ultralight insults) Most people on Twitter don’t insult each other. A low percentage of people do in both cases. Does Twitter facilitate and provide a more lubricated vehicle for insult? Possibly?

> Most people on Twitter don’t insult each other. A low percentage of people do in both cases. Does Twitter facilitate and provide a more lubricated vehicle for insult? Possibly?

Possibly? Absolutely. The foundation of Twitter is the retweet. Without it, there is no sharing, and stuff can't 'go viral'. Most people don't insult each other, but they sure do like and retweet insults, false facts and other negative stuff ruining online communities.

Retweeting is the ultimate cop-out, because you didn't have the guts to say those things, but had no issue having it show up on your feed and those of your followers. You were just "sharing".

I think I get what you're saying. I've seen people call others "fat fucks" (heard that one yesterday) and shit like that in person in public, which is fairly extreme by face-to-face standards but very tame by twitter standards. I've never seen somebody accuse somebody else face-to-face of being a cannibalistic child rapist, but I've seen that on twitter! I think that's the kind of insult that would stand a decent chance of starting a physical altercation.

>Most people don't hurl insults face-to-face.

I think you're wrong. I think most people do hurl insults face-to-face. They just don't do it often. Most people, especially of the working class, can very easily get into these kinds of spats in the real world.

From what I've seen, at least in the sports arena, most of the physical fights start off with verbal insults. That could also be because sports already has an element of Us vs Them built into it. However, the speed with which things escalate from verbal insults is quite amazing.

That's like foreplay in those situations, the verbal abuse is as much about working the offender up - and sizing up their opposition - as it is about actually abusing anyone.

But even in those situations primed for antagonism fistfights and other are the exception. Ignorance and retorts are the most common reaction.

Sports arenas -- at least in the U.S. and several other Western countries -- also serve alcohol, which aids in escalating such situations.

Yes, but in person insults are less likely to happen because of the _implication_ of violence.

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