No, there's pretty strong evidence of a direct relationship between online anonymity and digital aggression.

I mean, kinda but not really. Death threats? Yeah, you're a definite asshole. Same with slurs.

But, like, we've all been assholes in real life. And I've certainly been an asshole online, whether it be trolling, saying ez, or "gg...but not you teammate" in rocket league, being an instigator, etc. I'm less likely to troll and be an instigator in real life, and I rarely am. But definitely have been.

I dunno. I don't consider myself an asshole, especially for being an instigator in RL. Even though I have been, and probably will be again, both online and in the real world. It's kinda high-and-mighty to just label people perpetual assholes based on if they're being an asshole online, or if they were an asshole on one occasion.

Like it would be pretty stupid if I thought the OP has a persistent holier-than-thou attitude both on-and-offline based on this one post.

Now that I'm thinking about it, kind of an asshole thing to accuse someone of -- being holier-than-thou. Guess I'm an asshole. lol

Actually I'm fairly charismatic and confident online and on the phone but IRL I'm a nervous wreck so this theory is false ;)

But what if my rape and death threats were just, like a joke? Pft

I think batman was wrong, the joker was right, and realistically it does just take one bad day. Everyone having the capacity for horribleness doesn't really take away from the nobility of people escaping that horribleness, though, or "choosing" not to engage in it. If anything, I would think it'd make that decision more noble.

At the same time, where does that leave the joker? Does it matter whether or not he "chose" to be the joker, or if he was just predisposed to be that way? I dunno, I don't really think so. The core reality remains the same, or else there is no/little coherence to reality, and we live inside of a chaotic hellscape. Which I'm not, you know, fully prepared to deny, but more I think my denialism would probably come from the idea that I need to enforce my own coherence on reality, to simply believe in it regardless of the validity.

Somebody stop me if I sound like I've lost my mind and this is totally off-topic, though.