what a load of fucking horseshit
by Odiumjunkie (926074)

>Recently there has been a sharp increase in the amount of abusive language on the New Scientist website.

Oh, how very fucking _interesting_! Sounds just like the kind of impartial, thoughtful introduction that heralds a fucking well-balanced scientific curio doesn't it? It's on an intellectual par with Schrödinger postulating about quantum mechanics because his damned cat wouldn't stop shitting on the carpet. Bra-fucking-vo.

>My pet theory about why people behave so rudely is that online commenting is treated, by most people, like a pub conversation

Oh yeah? Well _my_ pet theory is that you're fucking retarded. What's your local pub? The "make up spurious claims & expect people to be interested in them"?

>After being described a few weeks ago as "a self-lobotomised liberal who can't face the facts", I decided to look into the psychology of online behaviour a bit further.

You don't need a shitting psychology decree to know that's called fucking rampart narcissism, you self-interested jackass.

>Psychologically, we are "distant" from the person we're talking to and less focused on our own identity. As a result we're more prone to aggressive behaviour, he says.

Well that's fucking retarded, all I can think about when reading your mastabatory drivel is how awesome I am in comparison.

>Another factor influencing online communication, according to Epley, is simply the risk of miscommunication involved with text-based messages, which are inherently more ambiguous.

Nothing ambiguous about how much of a shit-eating moron you are, you must be a master of textual precision.

>Another obvious factor is that, if you insult someone online, it's unlikely you'll face any physical retaliation for it.

Look at brave Mr. New-Scientist-Blogger! People won't insult him in _real_ _life_ because if they do, he fucks their shit up for them! If he invents a way to stab people in the face over the internet, I'm in real fucking trouble.

>I'm not sure what we can do to minimise miscommunication and abuse online. But being aware that we're not as good at communication online as we'd like to think seems like a good start. I know I often have to restrain myself from joining in.

Didn't fucking restrain yourself hard enough did you? Didn't fucking restrain yourself hard enough, or I wouldn't be reading this peice of vomit you call an article.