Born in 1982, Chandler was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at an early age and was bullied throughout his childhood. But the Internet had become ubiquitous by the time Chandler reached adulthood, allowing him to interact with others, share his hobbies, and escape the social difficulties of everyday life. He created a website to share his webcomics and a YouTube account to share his opinions and experiences. For eight years, the Internet provided Chandler with a sense of identity, agency, and purpose. But in 2007, one of Chandler’s drawings was posted to 4chan, sparking a wave of trolling that directly targeted Chandler and forever changed his life. Trolls quickly expanded their efforts to other mediums, creating a discussion forum, a viral meme, a parody YouTube account, and an extensive wiki page with over 15 million views. Deeming themselves “Chrisologists,” Chandler’s trolls constitute their own digital subculture with shared values, practices, and language. An analysis of Chrisology reveals the nature of Internet trolls, but it also reveals existing attitudes toward mental disabilities. Because their actions are so pervasive, Chrisologists and similar trolls have the potential to shape thought; they may encourage these existing attitudes and exacerbate misunderstandings of people with mental disabilities.
While the actions of Chrisologists are alarming, they are not uncommon in 2015. Chrisology is only a small subculture of 4chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica (ED). These sites serve as general meeting grounds for trolls across the Internet, allowing them to share opinions, report findings, and appreciate each other’s trolling endeavors. The cultures of 4chan and ED provide a deeper understanding of the subcultures that emerged from them; they shed new light onto the content, participants, and motives of Chrisology.
According to 4chan’s own statistics, the vast majority of its users are young, college-educated men with an interest in Japanese culture, video games, comics, and technology—interests not all that different from Chandler’s. Users can post images anonymously without making an account or picking a username. The site is split into various boards, each with its own specific content and guidelines. Within the boards, discussions are organized into threads, which expire after a certain amount of time. 4chan’s anonymity allows users to post virtually anything they want without the threat of accountability; its ephemerality encourages cyberbullying because the objects of hurtful comments are unlikely to view these posts during the short time they are available.
The limited lifespan of 4chan posts inspires users to push their creations to different platforms where content does not expire. Chrisologists immediately moved their joke to ED a satirical website that hosts “not safe for work” wiki pages and forums. Unlike 4chan, which hosts a wide range of topics, ED is a site specifically for subversive humor and trolling culture. The site documents Internet culture, trolling efforts, and memes. Technology journalist Julian Dibbell described ED as the site where “you will discover an elaborate trolling culture: Flamingly racist and misogynist content lurks throughout, all of it calculated to offend” (Dibbell).
Users’ determination to offend others is exemplified by one of ED’s most popular sitelinks: a wiki article titled “Offended” reads “Were you offended by what you just saw? Please scroll slowly to the bottom of this page and we will be happy to rectify your situation.” The top of the page shows endearing photos of baby animals, but as users scroll down they are affronted with vulgar images of genitalia, animated displays of suicide, and twisted depictions of human tragedies such as the Holocaust. Exceptionally offensive ED pages feature a hyperlink that redirects users to “Offended” if they have been upset by the wiki article; the notice is accompanied by an animation that flashes between images of a Swastika, the Star of David, and the emblem of the Ku Klux Klan.
While the morals of ED users are questionable at best, their efforts to offend others are not solely driven by prejudice or hatred of minorities. The site’s slogan “In lulz we trust” speaks to the motives of its users. By satirizing encyclopedia topics and current events, users generate entertainment for themselves and their fellow trolls. ED’s offensive brand of humor ostracizes the majority of the population that finds this content disrespectful and insulting. Those who actively refuse to be offended by ED become insiders to the site’s culture; they are “in” on a joke that others do not appreciate. In this sense, ED users constitute a digital community with a shared ideology.
It is not surprising that ED users mock mental disabilities in their attempt to offend others “for the lulz.” An ED article on Asperger’s Syndrome reads "Ass Burgers is an attempt by Dr. Hans Asperger to worm his way into the history books by labeling people who are simply psychopaths with a new (fake) mental illness…Like all mental illness there is absolutely no physical evidence that it actually exists.” This approach toward mental disability reflects the beliefs of Chrisologists. Chandler’s page on ED includes condescending warnings that read, “Be nice. As an autistic, this person is more sensitive/offendable” and “This person has Assburgers Syndrome, so you can’t say anything bad!” While Chrisologists recognize that Chandler has been diagnosed with autism, they insist that his unusual behavior—the behavior they ridicule—is not a result of mental disability. This belief has dangerous implications because it characterizes people with disabilities as malicious, inappropriate, and self-important—not as a result of mental illness, but due to a flawed personality and disregard for others.
The notion that trolls can attack Chandler and make offensive remarks, but that Chandler himself should be ridiculed for his unusual behavior, creates a double standard against people with mental disabilities. It encourages individuals, usually children and adolescents, to view mental disability as a personality defect rather than a medical condition, especially when their peers have high-functioning mental disabilities. A 2012 study by the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found that children with autism disorders are bullied nearly five times as often as their typically developing peers. The study also found that the highest functioning children in the study (a group comparable to Chandler in terms of placement on the autism spectrum) were at greatest risk of being bullied. Their social awkwardness was more obvious because they interacted more with mainstream peers, making their actual disabilities less visible and their conditions harder for their peers to understand. Children with autism who could speak well, for example, were three times more likely to be bullied than those whose conversational ability was limited or absent (Szalavitz).
By augmenting misunderstandings of high-functioning mental disabilities, Chrisology encourages individuals—usually children and adolescents—to view people with mental disabilities as nothing more than the butt of a long-running joke. In their attempt to get maximum lulz out of Chandler’s life, Chrisologists have stripped their victim of his identity; just about every comprehensive event in Chandler’s life has been reduced and transformed into an object of Chrisology. This artifactualization is embodied by CWCki—an ED-esque wiki with over 200 distinct authors, 1,400 articles, and 1.5 million views. In addition to providing Chandler updates (“23 April - Chris posts 2 Mario Kart on Miiverse”) and specific articles (“June 2013 Facebook Posts,” “Chris’s Education”), the CWCki has created a widely accepted timeline of Chandler’s life. This timeline organizes Chanlder’s according to “sagas”—a term Chrisologists use to describe “on-going trolling efforts or other similar series of events that produce considerable drama over a period of time.” By defining Chandler’s life through his experiences with trolls (rather than his graduation from community college, for instance) Chrisology suggests that people like Chandler deserve to be bullied because their lives are void of any meaningful events. This undermining of mental disability lowers the bar for more subtle efforts against peers, including those who are not mentally disabled. It exacerbates society’s understanding of “otherness” and encourages bullying toward any individual who is perceived as submissive, insecure, physically weak, or rejected by social groups.
These consequences should not be understood as the direct result of individual trolling efforts. The real threat lies in society’s understanding of Chrisology for what it undeniably is: a culture. But Internet users often fail to recognize Chrisology and other trolling groups as cultures of discrimination—they only see the communal lulz, the shared ideologies, and the sense of belonging that comes with subculture membership, and they may try to achieve these effects through similar means. While they may join Internet groups like Chrisology, it is likely that their association between trolling and community is more latent. Instead, these users (usually adolescents) may join a group of peers who target others online, in school, or across the two mediums. Group bullying is especially harmful not only to the victim, but to society’s tradition of discrimination, because it encourages participation, normalizes behavior, and perpetuates a culture of othering.
Individuals may still contribute to bullying culture if they do not directly participate. Chrisitina Salmivalli is a psychologist and anti-bullying advocate who has recognized bullying as a group phenomenon. She suggests that bullying is partly motivated by a pursuit of a powerful position in the peer group, and that demonstrations of power need witnesses. Silent witnesses often reinforce the behaviors of the bully, who interprets lack of intervention as a sign of approval. Salmivalli argues that the best way to combat bullying is through bystanders because they are easier to influence than the bullies themselves. In 2015, Salmivalli’s definition of bullying can be expanded to trolling and cyberbulling; her use of the term “bystander” can be understood as anyone who observes trolling as an outsider. While these digital bystanders might recognize trolls as harmful, they still observe trolling as a source of amusement. Similar to the school bully, Internet trolls are encouraged by bystanders—a like, comment, or view goes a long way in encouraging a troll, who derives his power from recognition and response.
But the bystander is more than a supporter of the troll. His understanding, and appreciation of trolling shapes his perception of those who are different, which affects how he interacts with others. For instance, the digital bystander is more likely to serve as a silent bystander in the physical world, refusing to intervene and support the victim when bullying occurs. In the case of Chrisology, the bystander may begin to view autism and Asperger’s Syndrome as fabricated labels given to people who behave unusually. He is more likely to believe that individuals should be judged solely for their actions with no consideration of their circumstances. He may even bully people with mental disabilities or those he perceives as “other,” taking advantage of their weaknesses and viewing their lives as nothing more than a source of humor.
Trolling will always exist within a free and open Internet. An analysis of Chrisology illustrates how difficult it may be to change the attitudes of these trolls. To repress Chrisology, one must target an entire culture. But this dangerous culture represents more than the trolls themselves; anyone who indirectly participates or shares ideologies with Chrisologists proliferates the harmful ideas is represents. The best way to curb the consequences of Chrsiologists and other trolling cultures is to target the bystander. If individuals understand the consequences of trolling they are less likely to accept it.