Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for January 30, 2022

Those people have the courage smartphone anonymity.

Webidiots.

I don’t see anybody correcting you when you were right in the first place.

“Dear Diary: Today, six people mistook me for Donald Trump.”

I’m smarter than I look. But then, I’d pretty much have to be.

Didn’t people used to talk like that all the time before the advent of the Internet?

And that’s why I don’t use Facebook or Instagram or Twitter.

This is a bit like Ricky Gervais’ Invention of Lying.

I’m with you, Pig.

Saddly accurate!

We live in a country where people will berate perfect strangers for wearing face masks, so trolls aren’t all just on the internet.

Most of what these people are saying, thinking, commenting probably applies pretty well to the person they see in the mirror.

Here in Texas, we are polite. Open carry might have something to do with it.

Sort of like talking behind ones back, remember you never know who you’re talking to, or about!

Well, that’s why it called the internuts.

The Spectrum is widening.

It’s so much easier to insult someone when the insulter is anonymous. I would hope most humanity wouldn’t say this to people’s faces… but I doubt it.

Trolls that are in charge are called in conTroll.

Comments and social media are a great boost for the awful people to let off steam they are not tolerated to let off in real life. And in the better kinds of social media it is a great place for ignoring them by muting or blocking them.

Only trouble is they get used to it and do it in real life, too, and then even more skillful than they did untrained.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Pastis just lifted these off FB and built a strip around them. Possibly directed at him, which he certainly doesn’t deserve, but that’s kinda the point. You also see people would never face off someone in person – do it with their big mega-vehicle on the road.

What do you mean “If”? Come to my family gatherings.

Thank goodness we never encounter any trolls on GoComics, eh?

Words are just as powerful as actions. They can follow you everywhere. Whether it’s in real life or online.

Reminds me of the replies liberals leave: “You’re unintelligent; You’re too stupid to debate; You have the mind of a salamander; You have poor grammar; You’re what is wrong with this country.” If you don’t agree with their self-interest, their narrow view, they tell you how “intelligent” they are by using insults.

Ha ha ha! He he he! Ho ho ho! Liberals: ha ha ha!

Hey dem/libs, how about leave an example of your “intelligence” below, ha ha ha!

They’ve got their keyboard to hide behind….but it doesn’t stop the verbal abuse, a lot of people endure in real life!

“Internet beer muscles”……beer now optional.

This is the sad honest truth

Someone was mean to Pastis online once and he never got over it.

Pig is getting off pretty lightly. i generally get worse said to my face and can’t reprint what’s said about me online

The Internet removed the need to be known and so get unfiltered comments. Says the man using a pseudonym.

Smart Pig. Sad world……

Thank you for trying to be a voice of sanity Pastis.

Amen

There has to be room for the idiots. Otherwise we nice people would have nothing to compare ourselves to.

People who talk like that on the internet are absolute cowards and don’t have the guts to say things like that in person.

The ugly side of human nature, enabled by social media. I suspect that people who won’t say this to your face are still thinking it more often in the 21st century.

This is sad. What happened to the old adage “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”?

Serious suggestion. If you only post to the attention of actual friends you get nothing but praise, or maybe at least no comment.

Shouldn’t he be in a barn somewhere with a sow Makin Bacon?

Poor Pig! I love you!

If that day was really a thing, the crime rate would go up immeasurably with so many people getting punched in the face.

This was eye-opening. All of a sudden I feel deeply embarrassed.

The common theme? I’m better than you. (Low self esteem).

Welcome to “reasoned debate.”

It’s much easier to insult, demean, and belittle people when you’re not actually with them. It’s cowardly, of course, but easier.

A few months after I was introduced to YouTube, I had a dream, that I was in a huge bar, filled with people arguing at the top of their lungs….as I tried to wind my way through the crowd, I realized they were all commentators from YouTube. True story.

Everyone was like talking like that when I was born

More and more I’m liking Stephan Pastis.

The stupid 7-11 pizza ad on gocomics mobile cancels out all other functions. I can’t go to archives to get good funny croc stuff from the past when this strip was funny.

Poor Pig. I love you!

Make one conservative comment on any GoComics editorial comic….. and stand back. Yikes!

Have you been reading our posts, Stephan?

Ironically, the people that are most vocal and complain about others not loving every group or person on the planet are the same ones who act like that.

because no one can punch you on-line!

They’re all referring to the Former Guy.

Don’t listen to them, Pig! They are all a bunch of idiots.

Makes me think of that Jim Carrey movie, Liar Liar, where he is unable to tell a lie for awhile. What would it be like if people found themselves stuck using the same language as their last nasty internet comment for EVERYthing they said the next day? Might get mighty quiet. “Good morning, honey, you filthy rat. Hey, what the h…?”

Anonymity breeds trollery.

Such is the internet.

User, beware….

This is funny, but true and really, really sad.

Anonymity spawns the weirdest kind of imaginary bravery.

Why, along with completely inane and stupid posts, I lasted two months on (anti) social media