Everything Is Autism: Taboo Talk, Impoliteness and Adversarial Discourse on an Anonymous Imageboard

Abstract

Trolling is an antagonistic behaviour that has arisen in computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments. Definitions vary but generally agree that trolling involves interacting with other internet users with some degree of bad faith, such as presenting oneself as a legitimate participant of the interaction, before antagonising the other participant/s. Those who engage in trolling generally report that they do so because they find it amusing, although there is also sometimes a motivation of retribution for some flaw or misdeed. Work on trolling has largely focused on defining trolling and investigating the effect it has on online communities. Very little academic work investigates the language practices of trolls among themselves. A community has arisen of internet users who engage in organised trolling. These people gather in spaces such as anonymous imageboards, a kind of forum which requires no registration to use and where posters are anonymous by default, to discuss and/or plan trolling. Imageboards have a somewhat deserved reputation for very offensive content including taboo language, sexist and racist material and an overall inflammatory atmosphere. In this study I investigate the use of taboo language and the forms and uses of impolite behaviour on a small anonymous imageboard focused around trolling. I analyse my data from a neo-politeness standpoint. My investigation shows that the use of taboo language is acceptable in the community. Behaviour that could be considered highly impolite in many circumstances often goes unremarked upon. In other places, however, these strategies are indeed oriented to as impolite. In some of these situations, the impoliteness appears to be motivated by a coercive intent. In others the impoliteness seems to be largely done for entertainment purposes. Certain formulae for impoliteness also appear to have become conventionalised within this community.