Anyone can go online and write anything they want about people

Hear the lament of Colton Haynes, who spoke not only of his own wounds, but of the sickness of our age: “Anyone can go online and write anything they want about people they don’t even know, and most of the time, that is fueled by hate. The sad part is that people actually believe what they read online.” His words reveal a danger not born of swords or spears, but of shadows and whispers, a danger that spreads unseen through the invisible web of words, striking hearts without ever facing them in the light.

The ancients knew such dangers, though their stage was different. In Athens, slander was a crime, for the city knew that a man’s honor was as precious as his life. A whisper in the marketplace, an accusation shouted in the forum, could ruin a reputation more swiftly than any battle. So too does Haynes point to the modern marketplace—the online world—where whispers become storms, where lies are multiplied, and where the hate of strangers wounds the innocent. The grief is doubled, for not only are such lies spoken, but multitudes believe them, shaping their judgments not from truth, but from shadows.

History too tells of this poison. Consider the fate of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. Long before the guillotine fell, she was undone by pamphlets and rumors, many of them false, yet repeated until believed. The people saw not the woman, but the caricature invented by her enemies. Hatred, once stirred, was fed by words. This is the very warning Haynes gives: when we believe without seeking truth, when we feed upon lies, we lend power to hate and strike down those who may not deserve the blow.

It is sad, he says, and rightly so. For the wound does not remain with the victim alone—it corrodes the community. When falsehoods are believed, trust dies. When hate is fueled by ignorance, love and reason grow weak. What is destroyed is not only reputation, but the very fabric of human fellowship. To believe all that is written without question is to surrender judgment, to cast away the noble duty of discernment.

Yet there is hope, for wisdom offers a shield. Just as the ancients counseled the testing of oracles and the weighing of counsel, so must we weigh the words we see online. Not every message is truth; not every writer is honest. It is the responsibility of each soul not to be swayed by every rumor, but to seek evidence, to seek character, to seek reality. In this discernment lies freedom, and in freedom lies protection from the snares of falsehood.

The lesson for us is clear: do not join in the chorus of scorn, do not lend your belief to every tale that reaches your eyes. Test words as gold is tested in the fire. Ask who speaks, and why. Ask if the message is born of truth or of hate. Speak not with careless cruelty, for your words may wound more deeply than you ever know. And if you are the target of such lies, remember that truth, though slower than rumor, endures when slander crumbles.

Practical action follows: guard your tongue in the digital age. Do not write in anger what you would not dare say in the light of day. Refuse to share what you have not examined. If you read words dripping with hate, resist the impulse to believe or to pass them on. And if you see another maligned unjustly, speak in defense, for silence too is complicity.

Thus, Colton Haynes’s lament becomes not only personal, but prophetic. In the vast realm of the online, where voices are many and truths are few, each of us must become a guardian of discernment. The sad part is that lies are believed; the hopeful part is that truth can still be sought. Let us then be seekers, not swallowers of rumor, and let us choose to speak words that heal rather than words that wound. For though falsehood spreads quickly, truth endures forever.