So about all that trolling you were planning on doing today …

NEWSFLASH: There are millions of hateful people online right now. Some of them are saying mean things, tossing out dirty names, doing so and then sitting back with a smug sense of satisfaction. Others are out there sending gifs that represent innermost desires, complex theories and thoughts boiled down to 10 words in an Impact font and poorly cropped image. They're the real criminals in all of this. Especially in Texas, a state that just ruled gifs can be considered a deadly weapon.

The ruling stems from an ongoing case against John Rayne Rivello, one dumbass troll who sent a journalist a gif in hopes it would cause him to go into an epileptic seizure. 

Kurt Eichenwald is a public figure, and has been open about his epilepsy on numerous occasions throughout his articles. And as with anyone who has opinions online and gets paid to write them down, he's received plenty of hate mail for his positions. Police claim Rivello, posing as an "Ari Goldstein" — and using the name @jew_goldstein — had nothing better to do on numerous occasions and spent days attacking Eichenwald for those opinions, stating things such as "You deserve a seizure for your post." and "I hope this sends him into a seizure,” after sending the flashy gif.

"Spammed this at [Eichenwald] let's see if he dies," others quoted him as saying.

The move by the court is obviously unprecedented, as it likens the electronic act the same as attacking someone in the street with a knife, gun or bomb. In reality, anything could very well be considered a deadly weapon if used inappropriately — intent is really all that matters. Rivello explicitly sent the gif with intent to do harm and bragged about it like an idiot in the process. Because of that, he has been formally charged with a felony assault with the added hate crime distinction. Ouch. 

The whole trial will play out in the next few months, however it doesn't sound good for RIvello. Good to see a man like Eichenwald getting some sort of closure after enduring what many couldn't be paid enough to sit through on the other hand. 

Somehow this isn't surprising. Jails are being cleaned out because of more sensible weed laws; those cells aren't going to fill themselves. Best to put the trolls where the trolls belong.