I am taking a break from publishing chapters from my book to write about something that has been bugging me ever since I connected to the Internet, back in 1996 (yes, I am old, deal with it). Anti-Israelis online.

Today was a sad day for the Israeli nation. Today we buried one of the best people to live and work in this country - Israel's 9th president, Shimon Peres. He died at the age of 93, and worked for peace and prosperity of all people living on this land for as long as he physically could. And then some.

But I am not here to write a eulogy. President Obama said it better than I ever could, having known Shimon personally. I am here to talk about hate.

(Illustration via Pixabay)

Rest in Peace / Burn in Hell

I didn't plan to watch the funeral procession or listen to the eulogies from world leaders and family members. It's depressing not only because Israel lost a great man, but also because there are the comments, filled to the brink with all-caps hate and verbal poison. But as I scrolled through my Facebook feed, I noticed many of my friends tuned into the Washington Post video stream from the event. So I looked.

Here are just some of the comments in the thread beside the video feed, to give you a general idea:

There are plenty more, I just got nauseous from going over them. But here's what I find interesting - people have lost not only their humanity, but their shame.

Not Just YouTube

One of the reasons YouTube comments have such a reputation for being mean, racist, sexist and generally awful is that they can be made anonymously. So many people assumed that it's WHY people allow themselves to display so much hatred - it's venting. No one knows it's you, so it's easier. This is also true for twitter, when one can create an anonymous handle quite easily.

What worries me most, is that in the comments above, the people didn't even try to conceal their identity. Bomb threats and hatred were spewed in such quantities, some American commenters noted the CIA would have a field day collecting the profiles of Muslim extremists on Facebook. And this stumps me.

How can people have so little shame, not to mention common sense?

Unlike others, I don't expect Facebook or Twitter to police this hate. I expect people to police themselves and be human beings, like I try to. But too often people fail me.

Israeli Pride / Shame

Introducing myself as Israeli, in most places on the web, is an invitation for hate. Online games, forum discussions and even random chat rooms are filled with people just waiting to tell me how much of a child murderer I am and how I need to be raped and killed because I am a filthy Jew. And it doesn't matter if I agree or disagree with the policies of the Israeli government regarding Palestinians or any other topic. I am automatically a target for endless hate speech simply for being a Jew living in Israel.

I found myself avoiding telling people where I am from. Not because I am ashamed of it, but because I simply rather avoid the experience and rain of verbal manure that gets thrown at me many a time. And this just makes me feel weird. I might not be all nationalistic by nature, but do I need to go around feeling shame on behalf of the government of my country? Should anyone?

Trolls and Hate and Steemit

One of the things I love about Steemit is how kind, polite and friendly the community is compared to other social media sites and just generally the Internet in 2016. It reminds me of online communities in the 90s, but in a good way. I hope it doesn't change as the community grows.

I came online at a young age, just 13 when I first met people on the other side of the world in chats and newsgroups. Perhaps too young to deal with the issues I was faced with (among others - child pornography - which was much too prevalent back then). Now I have to deal with different issues, and filter out hate rather than offensive content I came across in my many days on the web.

I could just be nostalgic (and old), but I think the Internet has turned into a much more hostile place in the past 2 decades. Probably because it's no longer reserved to tech-savvy nerds. Maybe that is what makes Steemit special?

None of This is My Fault!

It is truly beyond me why people decide to attack individuals based on race or religion. I am weird that way. But why accuse me of the Occupation of Palestine when I don't even own a home in this country, just rent one? Where is the logic there? How is any of is *MY* fault? And how does attacking every Jew you meet online going to get you anything in life?

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If you've read this far - thank you! Your comments are welcome, as long as they are civil and don't just make me sink further into despair with the human race.

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