"Never read the comments"

[gollygee]

How many of us say that, and how often is it true? Never read the comments of any online news story, and why? Because a huge number of them are horribly racist and/or sexist and/or homophobic, depending on the specific story.

This was inspired by a thread about the news story associated with these comments: http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/21/21563495-alabama-pardons-scottsboro-boys-after-82-years#comments

Why are there that huge a number of really really out there racist comments in every single story that involves any person who is not white? Am I living in a bubble and is that level of overt racism the norm, or is there some kind of intentional effort on the part of racist people to hit up every online news comments section there is, or both?

Replace "racist" with "sexist" or "homophobic" if the stories involve women or the LGBT community, because it's the same thing in those articles.

What is up with this?

[tiredtoo]

1. Not sure but

it is my belief that the right wing has hired people to do this.

[Posteritatis]

2. The main reason is that it's still very difficult to punch someone in the face over the Internet. nt

[kimbutgar]

3. Yahoo comments are the worst for a so called mainstream news source

I want to take a shower in real hot water after reading them. They are racist, women hating and evil. Every now and then I venture in and make a comment. Once I must have hit a nerve because some guy tried to hack my account and kept sending me viruses that I had never seen before.

[brer cat]

4. Posting is anonymous.

Some people feel free to say things they would not if they were identified. The others are just a##holes.

[AverageJoe90]

5. Not the norm, but on the other hand, from what I've observed.....

Hardcore bigots have never been the majority in even the South, even at the dawn of the last century, let alone today, but the Internet has, unfortunately, provided a venue for racists and other bigots to vent their hatred all they want; and so many of them can let loose, some less informed and/or pessimistic people couldn't be blamed for wondering if this really *is* the norm, even if it really isn't.

Make no mistake; most of it *is* intentional effort, and much of *that* seems to be at least loosely coordinated, especially with the "Anti-Racist = Anti-White" cock-and-bull coming from the Whitaker "White Rabbit" types in particular.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

6. Yeah. I generally refuse to read comment sections. I wish all comment sections

Could be displayed such that only those with highest net "up" votes are visible as a default ranked by number of net positive votes and then others were only viewable if you expanded or chose a different view.

There are often good comments to be made, but they are overwhelmed by prepubescent trolls.

[Skittles]

7. racists, homophobes, misogynists - they are all cowards who live in fear

they can't live in their dream world (outside of watching Fox News or listening to hate radio) in real life so they act out on the internet

[K.O. Stradivarius]

8. Some of it's genuine.

But, I'm also certain a good portion of it is trolling and people posting racial and inflammatory comments for the sole purpose of getting a rise from the reader.