Gamifying harm

Recently I found a story of Rainer Winkler or Drachenlord. Sadly, I don't know German, so finding information about what happened, and why, was a bit tricky. I was fascinated by it, I wanted to understand how could a person attract so much bad attention? What horrible things could he have done to deserve all of this? And I couldn't find the answer...

I started watching this translated documentary done by "Der Einziche" and translated by "The Only One". It was a well balanced overview of what happened, not biased to any side. And I felt sad. It reminded me of my school years. No, I wasn't bullied, nor was I a bully. More on that later.
For now I wanna further discuss Rainer's situation.

I've watched a third of all episodes done by Der Einziche. And I think what happened here is a tragedy. Drachenlord (or Dragon Lord) has apparently always been a victim of bullying. Being different and, honestly, not very smart, he offered a huge target for bullying. Harshly putting it, he was a perfect Lolcow. Some people may justify the bullying towards him by saying that he deserved it and wanted it, saying that it's his own fault. But isn't this just victim blaming? Think about it for a moment. Where did his behavior come from? If people find it ok to lure him into fake friendships or even relationships, only to betray his trust to hurt him and make fun of his reaction, who wouldn't start doubting even well-intentioned people? Who wouldn't become an asshole? It's hard to say if Rainer's bad traits are a result of his bullying or just who he is. Personally, I think bullying caused or amplified most of them.

This is not a justification of whatever bad actions he had done, but it gives you an insight into his mind and how it could have went differently. Was he given a chance to get better? I'm not sure what kind of institution could have helped him. But bullying is not a solution in a civilized society.

I'm scared by all the comments that to this day support his haters, that stalked and haunted him even after he lost almost everything. There still exist huge groups that after all these years keep making memes about him, even though his internet presence is gone. The amount of harm his haters caused to other people completely unrelated to Reiner is hard to describe. It's a mob behavior. They had fun in the moment. Why stop and think about how bad your actions are, when you're "just having fun"?

I'm surprised it didn't end in his suicide. How could he bear all this hate with no apparent way of escaping it? You may say that he could have easily stopped it, but I want you to imagine yourself in his place. With all the imperfections characteristic to humans...

All of this reminded me of what I had done in my school years with a group of friends. It wasn't related to bullying, but we were still causing harm. We vandalized some of the school's property and found it funny in the moment. And none of us thought about the consequences. No one cared what other people, who fixed all this stuff, who wanted to make the world a better place, felt about it. One day the school administration organized everyone in the hall and announced that they were searching for people who had done it. Right after, being a silly but honest kid, I went to the dean's office with one of the friends and confessed. The guilt afterwards was immeasurable. I kept wondering why had I done that? Why didn't I stop? Why didn't I think that my actions were bad? And I think it's related to me being in a group of friends. If no one stops me, and they are my friends, that must mean that I'm not doing anything bad, right? No. You still need to think with your head. Always.

It was a valuable lesson. One that I remember to this day and still feel guilty about. Even back then I wanted to make the world a better place, but somehow it never crossed my mind that I'm doing the opposite. That I'm having fun at the expense of other's suffering.

Yesterday I re-watched "Mary and Max". It's a good animated movie that has lots of sad and funny moments. It's blunt and very upfront in its storytelling. And it reminds me of how fucked up our world is, just like this story.

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Addendum: I realize that I lack the full view of the story and my judgement of Rainer's character is likely incorrect and thus biased. He certainly is a narcissist and a liar, but I don't consider these traits a justification for actions of others. It's not my intention to portray him as a good character. There are no good characters in this story.
I think the title of this post describes my intentions pretty well: a discussion on mob behavior and a call to be more considerate.

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