Gwyneth Paltrow On How She Copes With Internet Trolls

Gwyneth Paltrow On How She Copes With Internet Trolls

Conscious uncoupler Gwyneth Paltrow gave a speech about internet trolls at the inaugural Code Conference in California, and as you can probably imagine it was pretty weird and confusing.

The 41-year-old - whose latest capital ventures have been all about the world wide web - discussed the darker side of online and how she deals with nasty comments on forums and social media.

"The Internet is an amazing opportunity, socially," she said. "We have this opportunity to mature and learn, which is the essence of being on Earth - to being the closest person we can be to our actual, real, truest self." Riiiight.

"But the internet also allows us the opportunity to project outward our hatred, our jealousy. It's culturally acceptable to be an anonymous commenter. It's culturally acceptable to say, 'I'm just going to take all of my internal pain and externalise it anonymously'."

Talking about her personal experiences, she added: "It's taken me a long time to get to the point where I can see these things and not take it as a personal affront and a hurt. I see myself as a chalkboard or a whiteboard or a screen, and someone is just putting up their own projection on it.

"It has nothing to do with me. They have an internal object, and they're putting it on me. I kind of look at it as, 'Wow this is an interesting social experiment.' You're talking about a blind stranger having feelings about you. It can only be projection."

But here's where it gets really odd. Apparently - in Paltrow's eyes - being the victim of trollish comments is pretty much like being a war veteran.

"You come across [online comments] about yourself and about your friends, and it's a very dehumanising thing. It's almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanising thing, and then something is defined out of it," she said.

"My hope is, as we get out of it, we'll reach the next level of conscience."

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