who are these people that make death threats and how many of them do you think really mean it?

[DudeistBelieve]

I mean it's every time something happens thats remotely controversial.

Person did X thing, getting death threats.

I hear it enough to the point that it's almost cliche.

Most importantly, who the hell does it? What even counts as a death threat? How many of them do you need to get before they can run that headline?

Is it just people being angry and doing the whole "I wish I could hurt you" thing, where if you had the object of the hate tied to a chair and handed them a gun they'd puss out?

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Not sure how many of them actually mean it, but I have received numerous death threats. The guy who raped me when I was a kid threatened to kill me, My ex threatened me repeatedly and then tried to kill me twice and went to jail for it twice, I had a customer pull a knife out and threaten to kill me with it when I was bartending in college, I had a guy threaten to kill me when I was working the ER at Parkland, I had a guy threaten me from an MMORPG I used to play, then he sent me a picture of my street sign and was talking about how he gets off watching the life go out of a girls eyes as he chokes them, so I sent him a picture of my Glock 40 with a gutted target and my 15 round clip with a box of hollow points sitting there and he left me alone, (luckily I found out later he actually went to jail too.) Of course there are the numerous death and rape threats while playing PvP games but those I wasn't overly concerned with as these...

People get killed every day for nonsense, so you never know who is and who is not capable and honestly, it is not worth finding out or being wrong to second guess what is going to happen. If your wrong in this situation, you can pay with your life, so it is better to be safe than sorry and call authorities and make sure you take precautions if something like that happens. I am alive today because my neighbor got stabbed to save me. Some people DO mean it.

 

[JoJo]

I'd wager that 99%+ of online death threats have no intent to actually kill behind them, rather either an expression of anger against the target, an attempt to punish them for a perceived sin, or an attempt to drive them out of a field or industry. That said, even a minute chance that a nut might come after you is going be distressing for many people and just unpleasant in general. I suppose it depends how serious they seem, I still chuckle years later about a threat left on my YouTube channel to, among other things, rape my cat. Jokes on them, I don't even have a cat.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

Not sure how many of them actually mean it, but I have received numerous death threats. The guy who raped me when I was a kid threatened to kill me, My ex threatened me repeatedly and then tried to kill me twice and went to jail for it twice, I had a customer pull a knife out and threaten to kill me with it when I was bartending in college, I had a guy threaten to kill me when I was working the ER at Parkland, I had a guy threaten me from an MMORPG I used to play, then he sent me a picture of my street sign and was talking about how he gets off watching the life go out of a girls eyes as he chokes them, so I sent him a picture of my Glock 40 with a gutted target and my 15 round clip with a box of hollow points sitting there and he left me alone, (luckily I found out later he actually went to jail too.) Of course there are the numerous death and rape threats while playing PvP games but those I wasn't overly concerned with as these...

People get killed every day for nonsense, so you never know who is and who is not capable and honestly, it is not worth finding out or being wrong to second guess what is going to happen. If your wrong in this situation, you can pay with your life, so it is better to be safe than sorry and call authorities and make sure you take precautions if something like that happens. I am alive today because my neighbor got stabbed to save me. Some people DO mean it.

Blimey! What country do you live in? I think I want avoid going there.

As to the question itself, I think the overwhelming majority are just internet blowhards; the problem is the very small minority that aren't, and telling the difference between the two.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever been actually threatened at all. I've been told to quit playing a game, and to kill myself, but I've never had anyone say they'd find me and kill me. If they did, I think I'd laugh (since I live on the opposite side of the world to most of the people I play against).

 

[TakerFoxx]

Death threats bewilder me. Like, unless you're some kind of deranged sociopath and actually plan on backing it up, how unbelievably immature do you have to be to go through the trouble of sending something like that. I mean, sure, I've gotten angry at random people online before. But a death threat...just doesn't make any sense to me. Like, do they actually think the recipient is going to live in fear of some shadowy figure showing up one day to end their life? And given how death threats are now overused to the point of parody these days, do they really expect people to take them seriously?

Seriously, what kind of person actually takes the time to write something out like that and send it to another human being? Even if you would never do such a thing, just trying to make someone believe that you would kinda disqualifies you as a decent person. I don't get it, I really don't.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Not sure how many of them actually mean it, but I have received numerous death threats. The guy who raped me when I was a kid threatened to kill me, My ex threatened me repeatedly and then tried to kill me twice and went to jail for it twice, I had a customer pull a knife out and threaten to kill me with it when I was bartending in college, I had a guy threaten to kill me when I was working the ER at Parkland, I had a guy threaten me from an MMORPG I used to play, then he sent me a picture of my street sign and was talking about how he gets off watching the life go out of a girls eyes as he chokes them, so I sent him a picture of my Glock 40 with a gutted target and my 15 round clip with a box of hollow points sitting there and he left me alone, (luckily I found out later he actually went to jail too.) Of course there are the numerous death and rape threats while playing PvP games but those I wasn't overly concerned with as these...

People get killed every day for nonsense, so you never know who is and who is not capable and honestly, it is not worth finding out or being wrong to second guess what is going to happen. If your wrong in this situation, you can pay with your life, so it is better to be safe than sorry and call authorities and make sure you take precautions if something like that happens. I am alive today because my neighbor got stabbed to save me. Some people DO mean it.

Blimey! What country do you live in? I think I want avoid going there.

As to the question itself, I think the overwhelming majority are just internet blowhards; the problem is the very small minority that aren't, and telling the difference between the two.

Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever been actually threatened at all. I've been told to quit playing a game, and to kill myself, but I've never had anyone say they'd find me and kill me. If they did, I think I'd laugh (since I live on the opposite side of the world to most of the people I play against).

United states, avoid the wealthiest areas.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

Most of them are just jackasses and probably 99% of them are too cowardly to actually go through with it. The problem is it takes that 1 person to kill you.

/

... You know I didn't expect this topic to be sunshine and rainbows but damn, also

I had a guy threaten me from an MMORPG I used to play, then he sent me a picture of my street sign and was talking about how he gets off watching the life go out of a girls eyes as he chokes them, so I sent him a picture of my Glock 40 with a gutted target and my 15 round clip with a box of hollow points sitting there and he left me alone, (luckily I found out later he actually went to jail too.)

I will just say you're a badass.

Seriously, what kind of person actually takes the time to write something out like that and send it to another human being? Even if you would never do such a thing, just trying to make someone believe that you would kinda disqualifies you as a decent person. I don't get it, I really don't.

Spoiler: That simple

 

[Thaluikhain]

Death threats bewilder me. Like, unless you're some kind of deranged sociopath and actually plan on backing it up, how unbelievably immature do you have to be to go through the trouble of sending something like that. I mean, sure, I've gotten angry at random people online before. But a death threat...just doesn't make any sense to me. Like, do they actually think the recipient is going to live in fear of some shadowy figure showing up one day to end their life? And given how death threats are now overused to the point of parody these days, do they really expect people to take them seriously?

Seriously, what kind of person actually takes the time to write something out like that and send it to another human being? Even if you would never do such a thing, just trying to make someone believe that you would kinda disqualifies you as a decent person. I don't get it, I really don't.

There are plenty of people that rather fail at decency. Just look at the obvious, extreme examples, imagine if Nazi Germany was on twitter. Personally I'd suspect that much of it is aimed at groups, or individuals for being members of groups, rather than due to personal grievances.

IMHO, the scary thing is that many of those failing at decency only do so occasionally, and would seem reasonable at other times. Almost any time someone doesn't something really hateful they've got friends backing them up as a good person, because that person never did anything hateful to them.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Is it just people being angry and doing the whole "I wish I could hurt you" thing, where if you had the object of the hate tied to a chair and handed them a gun they'd puss out?

Yes, that's exactly it.

I'm sure there's a handful that are serious, violent psychopaths, but 99,99% are simply throwing a giant, impotent fit.

We all have bad thoughts regarding people we hate, or that we feel have wronged us, but we tend to keep that to ourselves. It seems these people feel the need to write them down and send it to the ones in question.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Not sure how many of them actually mean it, but I have received numerous death threats. The guy who raped me when I was a kid threatened to kill me, My ex threatened me repeatedly and then tried to kill me twice and went to jail for it twice, I had a customer pull a knife out and threaten to kill me with it when I was bartending in college, I had a guy threaten to kill me when I was working the ER at Parkland, I had a guy threaten me from an MMORPG I used to play, then he sent me a picture of my street sign and was talking about how he gets off watching the life go out of a girls eyes as he chokes them, so I sent him a picture of my Glock 40 with a gutted target and my 15 round clip with a box of hollow points sitting there and he left me alone, (luckily I found out later he actually went to jail too.) Of course there are the numerous death and rape threats while playing PvP games but those I wasn't overly concerned with as these...

People get killed every day for nonsense, so you never know who is and who is not capable and honestly, it is not worth finding out or being wrong to second guess what is going to happen. If your wrong in this situation, you can pay with your life, so it is better to be safe than sorry and call authorities and make sure you take precautions if something like that happens. I am alive today because my neighbor got stabbed to save me. Some people DO mean it.

Well fuck me this thread went from 0 to 100 pretty fast.


There you have it folks, the answer to the question is enough people that it poses a problem.

 

[Jux]

I'd be treating every one as serious. Assuming we're just talking about online here, while the probability of someone actually trying to carry it out is very low compared to the number of threats that get made, the potential cost if someone does decide to try, and you aren't prepared, is well, your life.

That aside, the sooner everyone starts taking them seriously, with actual legal consequences, the sooner that shit will become less frequent. Society has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to things like cyber bullying laws, hate speech and online stalking.

 

[Saltyk]

Who are they? Assholes.

Are they serious? I'd be willing to bet that 99.9% of them are not. It's just an easy way to rile people up and to attempt to silence people.

What's easier? Writing up a big paper to debunk or condemn someone or saying "I'll kill you"? What is more likely to get a reaction from the target?

Answer those questions and you'll pretty much understand 95% of online abuse people receive.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Not sure how many of them actually mean it, but I have received numerous death threats. The guy who raped me when I was a kid threatened to kill me, My ex threatened me repeatedly and then tried to kill me twice and went to jail for it twice, I had a customer pull a knife out and threaten to kill me with it when I was bartending in college, I had a guy threaten to kill me when I was working the ER at Parkland, I had a guy threaten me from an MMORPG I used to play, then he sent me a picture of my street sign and was talking about how he gets off watching the life go out of a girls eyes as he chokes them, so I sent him a picture of my Glock 40 with a gutted target and my 15 round clip with a box of hollow points sitting there and he left me alone, (luckily I found out later he actually went to jail too.) Of course there are the numerous death and rape threats while playing PvP games but those I wasn't overly concerned with as these...

People get killed every day for nonsense, so you never know who is and who is not capable and honestly, it is not worth finding out or being wrong to second guess what is going to happen. If your wrong in this situation, you can pay with your life, so it is better to be safe than sorry and call authorities and make sure you take precautions if something like that happens. I am alive today because my neighbor got stabbed to save me. Some people DO mean it.

I know you didnt share for this reason, but I'm really sorry that happened to you.

 

[Vanilla ISIS]

Have you ever played CoD online?
I did that for maybe 2-3 days total and the amount of death and rape threats (and I'm a guy) was in the double digits.
They don't mean anything.

If you know the person who's threatening you or someone is threatening you to your face, that's different.
Online anonymous threats?
I don't care, I've been threatened online thousands of times and nothing ever happened.
It's just white noise and you should treat it as such.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Everyone keeps saying 99% have no intent to actually go through with the act, and while that may be true has there been a single example of a gaming critic/Youtube celebrity/games journalism person actually getting murdered by someone who sent them a death threat?

Like it seems like 99% don't mean it, and 100% never do it.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Is it just people being angry and doing the whole "I wish I could hurt you" thing, where if you had the object of the hate tied to a chair and handed them a gun they'd puss out?

Yes, that's exactly it.

I'm sure there's a handful that are serious, violent psychopaths, but 99,99% are simply throwing a giant, impotent fit.

We all have bad thoughts regarding people we hate, or that we feel have wronged us, but we tend to keep that to ourselves. It seems these people feel the need to write them down and send it to the ones in question.

I mean I operate under what I call, Nicks 1st Law Of Lazyness in that any action taken is done under the consideration of how much effort is required compared to the final result.

That rapist in Stanford that got off with 6 months in county? I wouldn't be against taking him to Suplex City.

But the actual tracking him down for that... no. Too lazy. Hell I'd even be too lazy to hunt down his social media, and if anyone even gave me the link... eh,

I mean a person like that what could I possible say or do that would in anyway be a proper punishment for what he did, ya know? True justice doesn't exist and all that. Just gotta hope Karma settles him out.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Everyone keeps saying 99% have no intent to actually go through with the act, and while that may be true has there been a single example of a gaming critic/Youtube celebrity/games journalism person actually getting murdered by someone who sent them a death threat?

Like it seems like 99% don't mean it, and 100% never do it.

Well, I mean if one of those terrorist groups tweet me? Or Anonymous the hacktivist group?

Then I shit myself. They don't fuck around.

some jackoff with an anime avatar? Not so much.

 

[Thatguyky]

On a side note, I don't think I have anyone near my friend group that's claimed to have given out a death threat. The people that do it must be few and far in between, also a tad loopy.

On the other hand, I have had someone give me a death threat. Of course, it was over the web, and after doing so the individual blocked me before I could even get in a chuckling response! I'd have to agree with most people in this thread and say the vast majority are just "talking out their ass". However, even if they are, it's a worrying feeling, especially here in the States. I feel like a crazy person can or is around every corner at times.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Everyone keeps saying 99% have no intent to actually go through with the act, and while that may be true has there been a single example of a gaming critic/Youtube celebrity/games journalism person actually getting murdered by someone who sent them a death threat?

Like it seems like 99% don't mean it, and 100% never do it.

Well, I mean if one of those terrorist groups tweet me? Or Anonymous the hacktivist group?

Then I shit myself. They don't fuck around.

some jackoff with an anime avatar? Not so much.

Even IF anon put out a hit on me, I wouldn't take it too seriously. It's Anon. The shitlords of 2005. They ARE the guys with Anime Avatars, just at night after mom and dad have gone to bed. Their biggest accomplishment was making a punch of black dudes with afros and suits in a Hotel sim no one played. There are very very very very very very very few old 'For the Overmind/Lulz/Horde' Channers left who A. actually consider going through with Anon's orders, B. have the capabilities of committing a murder and C. develop and execute said plan, if in fact there were any such Jason Bourne style hackers to begin with.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Everyone keeps saying 99% have no intent to actually go through with the act, and while that may be true has there been a single example of a gaming critic/Youtube celebrity/games journalism person actually getting murdered by someone who sent them a death threat?

Like it seems like 99% don't mean it, and 100% never do it.

Well, I mean if one of those terrorist groups tweet me? Or Anonymous the hacktivist group?

Then I shit myself. They don't fuck around.

some jackoff with an anime avatar? Not so much.

Even IF anon put out a hit on me, I wouldn't take it too seriously. It's Anon. The shitlords of 2005. They ARE the guys with Anime Avatars, just at night after mom and dad have gone to bed. Their biggest accomplishment was making a punch of black dudes with afros and suits in a Hotel sim no one played. There are very very very very very very very few old 'For the Overmind/Lulz/Horde' Channers left who A. actually consider going through with Anon's orders, B. have the capabilities of committing a murder and C. develop and execute said plan, if in fact there were any such Jason Bourne style hackers to begin with.

I mean I'm sure they could get into someone's bank account. Maybe not kill anyone, but they could make someone's life very difficult... and since I pratically live on the internet I'd really rather not lose my social media accounts, my website, etc.