Gamer‘s mob mentality
-- Anon Guest
[AN: offensensitivity warning for toxic masculinity content, simulated violence within the linked video]
No matter what the team sport, Humans will become so invested in their team that hostility becomes part of the identification procedure. -- Excerpt from The Galactic's Guide to Human.
The real trick, the Alliance decided, was to discourage the truly horrible behaviour when it started. Allowing it to persist only resulted in worse examples of more of the same. Humans followed the will of the pack, no matter how eclectic or bizarre that pack might be. Gentle correction and a certain amount of tactical questioning has been most effective.
"I do not understand the humour," said Vrex, in a textbook example of quelling an offensive attempt at humour via confusion. "Can you educate me in the meaning?"
Most Humans, when encountering this query, quickly realise that the joke they told wasn't that much of a joke and had its origins in some prejudice or another. When speaking of teams, it's a little more complicated. "No, see, it's insulting to this player because their prowess in coupling is linked to their prowess at play."
"How?" asked Vrex. When in doubt, ask questions like a child. This will enforce the illusion of innocence and assist the Human in realising that their attempt at humour was only inoffensive to a select few. "Are those not differing skills?"
"Well, they both involve playing with ba--" Human Wilf stopped, and his face reddened. "Ahahaha. I see what you're doing there. You can just tell me I'm being offensive."
"Many Humans act like such announcements are a challenge to act more offensively," said Vrex. "We have found it more effective to be... cunning."
"I apologise on behalf of all dickheads past, present, and future that you had to educate like that," said Human Wilf. "And myself, come to think of it. Sorry about that."
"You were following the will of your other pack," said Vrex, patting the Human's arm reassuringly. "Now you must acclimate to your new pack's ways."
"Uhm. Okay? That's not how we think of it but-- actually that's pretty concise. I'm gonna share that with some of my friends."
The post Wilf put up on the infonets was titled, Guys, they've hacked us!
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / kentoh]
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