Thread by @ComicPerch

So You Think You’ve Been Targeted By Alt-Right/Liberals/Crazy People Trolls: a thread (and semi-response). #ComicsGate #ComicGate

Have you ever woken up and discovered you have hundreds of notifications out of nowhere on Twitter? That sinking feeling in your stomach is that you're about to deal with a whole lot of nonsense... and all before you had your first coffee. Keep calm, let's get you through this.

First, take a breath. You don't know what you're about to wander into, but ask yourself: do you care? Is any information you're about to see relevant to your life or happiness? Likely not, so remind yourself of this before you engage.

Second, remind yourself that everyone wants to be Dave Chappelle, but most are neither talented or funny. But they are going to attempt to be for attention. They aren't bad people (or Nazis), they are just trying to have fun on the internet. Thus, it isn't about you.

Third, don't over-react. Social media is designed to produce dopamine hits that tend to skew your perspective and reactions. But what is trending this hour is usually gone the next. The only way things keep burning is if YOU engage and feed them.

Finally, don't project. The people "harassing" you are likely normal people sitting on the toilet during a break at work. They are not super criminals. They are not nazis. They are not rapists. They may be jerks, or they may be bored. Strong chance they are SUPER bored.

Painting everyone who comes at you as the second coming of Hitler does absolutely nothing to them. What it does do is activate the part of your brain that senses threats and danger, and stresses you out. A LOT. This is unhealthy for you and doesn't impact your target one bit.

OK. So now the tough part: there are lots of terrible people online. They like to provoke and cause trouble. For the most part though they are easily muted. What feels like a mob of people when you wake up to hundreds of alerts is usually only a few dozen real people. Maybe.

Those few dozen are annoying, and constant harassment is really ugly to deal with. I sympathize. I'm with you. There is no excuse for it. But these people are who they are: you can't change them. But fortunately, social media has a really, really short-term attention span.

Just mute or block people who harass you. Don't create a spectacle out of it. You likely have friends that LOVE gossip. It's tempting to showcase your problem to them. Like a parasite, they will keep it going. Even though they may support you, they keep the problem alive.

Whatever you do, don't amp things up by trying to form your own battle club to "beat" the people bugging you at their own game. This never, ever works. All you will do is erode your own moral high ground, stress yourself out and get very little done beyond feeding Twitter.

If someone is saying something that scares you or is violent, REPORT IT. Don't parade it in front of your friends, don't look for sympathy. Just report it. Then mute or block. But don't waste Twitter's time either. Annoying is different from threatening. Know the difference.

You will also help yourself if you stop yourself over-inflating things. Words like "alt-right", "nazi", "hate mob", etc to describe someone posting a meme of an anime character with a big chest is making a mountain over a mole hill. Don't stress yourself out.

This is the key point: PERSPECTIVE. Yeah, it's better if every interaction you have is a happy one. Bad news: that's not life. Nor will it ever be life. But if you make yourself a victim every time you encounter hardship you will never really live life.

A few dozen people pasting mean jokes at you is not the end of the world for you. It does suck to have this bother your day, but there are many tools for you to remove the annoyance and get on with the life you want to live... unless of course you enjoy chaos.

If you do love chaos... bad news. You're one of those people you are complaining about. So, learn to live and be comfortable with it. And most of all? Try to enjoy comics for a change. At $3.99 a pop you certainly better. #ComicsGate #ComicGate