Trolls look for reasons to hate, but really what they are mad at is the fact they are not included in anything ever.- Dane Cook
That's true, Dane.
When I joined the social media world a bit more than one year ago, I didn't attend a training course of how to deal with mental illness. Maybe that would have been a smart idea.
There are a lot of people out here whose intentions are pretty mad. Now I'm in-between these two options: trying to teach them respect or simply ignoring them.
I chose to follow the middle course!
If you know your values, you're unbeatable!
I'm not a skilled psychologist, however after more than one year dealing with social media users I've somehow become one anyways.
My positive experiences on steemit definitely outweigh the negative ones. However, I'm not planning to simply ignore what's happening around and just paint rainbows on the walls.
I was raised as the oldest one of three kids.
As the sister of two brothers I quickly learned how to take a position and also how to defend it respectfully.
The three of us we were all educated to become strong characters that stand up for what they love but also know how to stop what's not right.
Thanks to my background, today I'm not that type of person who backs down when someone starts to offend her.
I'm a generally friendly and kind person, unless you try to challenge that.
There are a lot of insane characters out here, and I have no intention to tolerate their inappropriate behavior. Due to an obvious lack of creativity, they randomly attack other users trying to discover their weak points, finding pleasure in uncovering other people's vulnerability.
That's disgusting.
And it's absolutely not the way I'm supposed to play here. Just for the records, the paragraph no. 1 of the German constitution says:
Human dignity is untouchable.
To me that applies both in real and virtual environments.
At the age of 6 I kicked a friend out of my house who tried to screw me while playing a board game. My mom had never taught me to specifically behave like that, so she was pretty impressed when the door fell shut. I looked up to her and told her with full power of persuasion:
I don't play with cheaters, mommie!
That was the very first time in my life I had put into practice my own values, and I remember that I was proud of having been so consistent.
Our actions need to be consistent with our value system.
Now dealing with assholes online is a new challenge. The rules are different.
In real life I can look them into the eyes, I know how to discuss and how to argue. Online they can simply hide themselves behind their computers, their false identities, their avatars and their illusory world.
It's a malicious game.
These freaks sit down at your virtual table and start to insult the other guests. You can't kick them out of your decentralized house, so how do you politely ask them to leave without losing face?
Again, to ignore them is not an option to me.
Imagine that someone freaked out at your birthday party attacking one of your friends. Would you just stand there and look away then?
It's definitely easier to act as if nothing happened. But is that what we really want? Are we fine with not acting just to not get our hands dirty?
To be honest, I'd always prefer to be that one friend you can rely on in such situtations, the one who doesn't care to step in whatever it takes.
But we live in a society where looking away has become very popular. However, that's not the world I wanna raise my future kids in.
Maybe we can't change all of these freaks, but we can definitely show them their limits.
Since we won't ever be able to fight the source of all anger - which is supposedly a mental distortion as a result to failure, loss or any other trauma - we need to act at the surface and punish behavioral pattern.
Probably their intentions are not even logical, but that's also not our business.
Haters gonna hate.
In my eyes that a cheap excuse. It's as if you said: 'The guy screws up my party, but that's none of my business.'
Maybe we can't cure them, but providing them with a stage makes it even worse.
Now that this is a decentralized system where everybody enjoys the freedom of speech, we can't count them out and shut down their accounts. We need to be a bit smarter.
Be the person they'd love to be
Live the values they will never be able to accomplish, and set a good example.
These people seek meaning since their lives don't have any. What they hate most is not you but your lifestyle. In secret they wish to be like you, but they're unable to accomplish it on the regular way.
Their own limitations tear them down and envy arises.
In the end our smartest weapon in that game is our own happiness and joy.
That's a logical derivation but still not an excuse.
Nobody has ever the right to treat someone else disrespectfully.
At least that's not gonna happen in my blog. Ever.
Peace out,
Marly -
By the way: I submitted this new entry a couple of hours ago but it wasn't recorded on the blockchain. So I lost the whole article and needed to rewrite it again from my memory. This piece of content took me five hours in total, and I really hope you enjoyed it :-)
💙PS: It's #LoveFriday, my favourite initiative on steemit, hosted by the wonderful 
💙
Thanks for your valuable time!
This blog was launched at the end of July 2016
aiming to provide stories for open-minded
people who enjoy living on the edge of their lives,
stepping out of comfort zones, going on adventure,
doing extreme sports and embracing the new.
Welcome to the too-much-energy-blog!
PS: Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
Original content. Quotes found on jarofquotes.com, pinterest.com and jarofquotes.com.