No. The person choosing to "act" like a dick on the Internet is making the choice to be a dick. They don't just happen to be a dick in their roleplay or whatever - they're making that choice.

And it's not some pretend space where their words and actions don't count. Being a dick in a multiplayer video game is being a dick to a real person. Being a dick on a forum about a game or show you don't like is being a dick to real people who play and make those things. You don't get to copout and say "it's just a character" when it's affecting real people. That is your impact on the world. Take some damn responsibility for it.

Also, Audrey II is from Little Shop of Horrors. Check it out if you haven't. It's a good flick.

An actor literally says the lines they say, but they are playing a character,

Yeah and everyone knows it's a play. With actors and an audience. Kinda different.

Despite what Shakespeare said, online isn't a play. Neither is RL. You can still put on a facade or a persona. But in either case it you treat people like shit, you're an asshole.

If you're in a role play forum and you role play as an asshole, you are correct. If you are on the internet, for example Twitter, and you act like an asshole, it's because you're an asshole. Hope that clears up the difference between context.

Be an actor, sure, but an actor isn't 'being someone else' - they're acting - they're **pretending ** to be someone else. It is different.

You had to know while you were typing that how full of shit that response is, right? On some level, cognitively, you know you're grasping at straws here.