Greg Kinman, a popular YouTuber known as Hickok45, delivered a message this week to content creators, bloggers, and people who use social media platforms about the reality of online trolls and cancel culture.
Known as a ‘Guntuber’, somebody who posts videos about guns, gun culture, gun reviews, and information related to the firearms industry, Kinman’s videos are watched by tens of millions of people annually.
This week, he addressed hateful, derogatory, threatening, and bigoted comments on his channel. In doing so, he exposed the truth about the vocal minority, internet trolls, how they really don’t matter, and why you shouldn’t let them bother you either.
“A small group of people, like fervent, energized individuals on the internet—active, whatever word you want to use—a small group of really active people on the internet, can seem much bigger than that group of people,” he said. “That sentiment, that philosophy, that opinion can seem way bigger than it really is, and I think that’s an important point to remember. Because when you think about it—and I remind people of that—like looking at comments on videos, for example—well, first of all, if you have a video with a couple of hundred thousand views or a million views or whatever, it is, let’s say you’ve got, I don’t know, 10 or 20 really negative comments or something or obscene comments or bigoted comments, well, how many people watched that video and didn’t leave a comment?”
The reality is these people are attention seekers. They typically use their hateful and obscene comments on the internet to fill a void in their own lives. Kinman advises that as a content creator, you should simply ignore those people because they represent such a small portion of your viewing audience.
What usually happens with online trolls is that they try to solicit a reaction from either the content creator or the commenters and fans. If they get a reaction, they are fueled to continue. When they don’t get a reaction, they move on to their next victim.
Mental health issues in America have been on the rise since COVID-19’s lockdowns. America is now dealing with a mental health crisis.
According to a report in JAMA Health Forum, 38% more people are in mental health care since the onset of the pandemic than before.
An unprecedented White House report from earlier last year begins, “Our nation is facing a mental health crisis among people of all ages, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made these problems worse.”
Those people you worry about attacking you online are probably in that category. Although Kinman did not reference the causes of hateful and hurtful comments by online trolls, he did deliver a dose of reality.
They don’t matter. They’re not shocking anyone anymore. They’re not scaring anyone anymore.
“Well, most, like the vast majority. And then of the people who actually left the comment, how many of them were something like that, like a really small percentage, you know?” he added. “And when you think about that, because everybody’s pretty much anonymous, and that brings out the worst in people sometimes, so really it’s not as big a problem as it appears to be, you know? And I think that people have gotten over this thing of just trying to use shock value, you know, by leaving a comment. Pretty much, there’s still people, young people especially or new people—I don’t know who new people would be, through the internet—but people have realized it, it’s not shocking.”