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The first inking I had that the world was a cruel, judgmental place was back when I was 16.

The internet and blogging culture was slowly taking off at that time, and I was very active in a local forum – known as SearchSG back then. (It no longer exists today.)

I can’t recall the original topic of the thread I was participating in. But suddenly someone brought up the topic of fat people. The conversation soon got heavily toxic with one user eventually declaring that “seeing fat kids stuffing their mouths made him sick”.

I called him out on it, saying that that was mean and we shouldn’t be going around fat-shaming (doubt such a term existed back then, so I probably just described the behavior) because they are still human beings.

It was just a matter of minutes before I got shot down, with the user declaring that because it was an open forum and it’s a free world so he could say whatever he wanted. I tried again to point out how we shouldn’t be speaking badly about fat people. Back then, the possibility of some oversized people having medical problems that prevented them from losing weight hadn’t occured to me so I didn’t use that as a point. My argument was entirely based on how “this is wrong, this is not nice, and we shouldn’t be doing this”.

Again, it fell on death ears and the conversation grew even more toxic. Eventually, someone referred to oversized people as “lazy fat fucks” and I lost it. I remember getting so angry that I was practically bawling my eyes out in real life. My mum was trying her darnest best to calm me down but it just wasn’t working. I was just too worked up.

Why are people like that?

Why do people like to judge other people?

How can people get so nasty to people who haven’t offended them?

How can people just diss others so openly online?

I remember mum asking. “Did they say anything nasty about you?”

And I was like “no, but they were speaking very nastily about fat people.”

I’m pretty sure her reaction at that time was “?!?!”

And this was in 2003. There was no Facebook. No Twitter. No Instagram. No viral social media networks. But here was a public forum with some viewership (community was small) and already, there were people flinging shit around.

Fast forward to today – there was a recent case of a BMW driver disputing his bill because he only wanted 10 bucks worth of fuel but he was given a full tank. It could have been miscommunication. Could it be intentional as some speculate? It could go either way but neither you nor I are in any position to judge. It’s between him and the petrol station.

Somehow word got out. Internet vigilantes sprang into action. His workplace, home address, NRIC number, family photos and other personal information were dug out, published and disemminated by these “online justice seekers”.

Is all this even necessary?

Oh wait, to quote a certain forum user, “it’s a free world so he could say whatever he wanted”.

Muck-raking.

Just because they can.

Is the power of connectivity and exposure gained from the internet slowly turning human beings into assholes?