Once upon a time, before the Facebooks and Twitters and Reddits and MySpaces, there was Usenet. And on Usenet, flaming and trolling was an art form. It wasn’t just a bunch of angry, shocking, monkeys on keyboards. Trolls were subtle. Flames were eloquent and surgically precise.
Then in the early 90s, they opened the internet up to the general public, and it became Amateur Hour. Newcomers, with no knowledge of the existing culture, nor the patience to observe and absorb it, saw these writings and mistook them for Righteous Anger. And they got it into their heads that the Way Of The Net was to spout off whatever idiotic thought that crossed your mind, because that person will never be able to get back at me and Free Speech, Murica!
