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The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

dallasobserver.com

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Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#181

Post by oskarth »

mcv wrote: post #147

Don't make threats if you don't intend to follow up on them. Also, from his lawyer: "They didn't find pentagrams and candles. He wasn't listening to Judas Priest." WTF does that have to do with anything? Do only Judas Priest fans shoot up kindergartens? Is there something wrong with liking pentagrams and candles? I think that lawyer is the real creep here, and that kind of defense deserves to be ineffective. In any c…

> Don't make threats if you don't intend to follow up on them.

Hello, Thought Police.

It wasn't a threat. It was a series of tasteless jokes.

The consequences aren't even remotely proportional. You know what would be proportional? Someone calling him out for being tasteless, or perhaps even unfriend him, or report the abuse to Facebook so he had to tone it down.

It's scary that people think this kind of "justice" is remotely ok. It's not. This is on par of a witch burning for someone not adapting to social norms.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#182

Post by [deleted] »

mcv wrote: post #147

Don't make threats if you don't intend to follow up on them. Also, from his lawyer: "They didn't find pentagrams and candles. He wasn't listening to Judas Priest." WTF does that have to do with anything? Do only Judas Priest fans shoot up kindergartens? Is there something wrong with liking pentagrams and candles? I think that lawyer is the real creep here, and that kind of defense deserves to be ineffective. In any c…

[deleted]

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#183

Post by ChrisClark »

nebulous1 wrote: post #99

> Carter's comments were part of a duel between dorks, and may have had something to do with a game with strong dork appeal called League of Legends. I actually laughed out loud at this. Is the Dallas Observer a rag or does the word 'dork' seem less ridiculous to people from Texas or the US?

It might be? One of the quotes has a lawyer saying 'bonkers'. I just assumed the language used there is a bit different.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#184

Post by amima »

mcv wrote: post #147

Don't make threats if you don't intend to follow up on them. Also, from his lawyer: "They didn't find pentagrams and candles. He wasn't listening to Judas Priest." WTF does that have to do with anything? Do only Judas Priest fans shoot up kindergartens? Is there something wrong with liking pentagrams and candles? I think that lawyer is the real creep here, and that kind of defense deserves to be ineffective. In any c…

But you should not expect to be put in jail, that's nonsense.

People say "I'm gonna kill you" every day to their friends as the way of saying "I don't like what you just did", does not mean they are violent in any way.

The society where it's OK to go to jail for saying something without being any real threat is not healthy at all. Stupid jokes are non-violent.

In my country there is a death threat law that says that person can be charged in court with a death threat if and only if there is a strong reason to believe that the threat was real. It's not enough to say "I will kill you", you must have had a real conflict or hold a knife to have legal consequences.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#185

Post by jbooth »

mcv wrote: post #147

Don't make threats if you don't intend to follow up on them. Also, from his lawyer: "They didn't find pentagrams and candles. He wasn't listening to Judas Priest." WTF does that have to do with anything? Do only Judas Priest fans shoot up kindergartens? Is there something wrong with liking pentagrams and candles? I think that lawyer is the real creep here, and that kind of defense deserves to be ineffective. In any c…

It's a reference to the daycare satanism hysteria in the 80s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_care_sex_abuse_hysteria

It's not discriminatory against fans of hair metal, just bringing in some period-specific music.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#186

Post by albertop »

mjolk wrote: post #92
Nux wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USA is a lovely country, too bad it's inhabited. ;-)

Shut up. This snide comment isn't even cute. The US is vastly better than many parts of the world and we get a disproportionate amount of attention on our ills because we're an economic powerhouse that does many things. The country is a collection of states that each have their boons and drawbacks. Texas is near (or at) last in public education. Don't make public threats to kill children in a state that might not und…

Actually CA is at the bottom 48 or 49.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#187

Post by jaegerpicker »

pessimizer wrote: post #175
jaegerpicker wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be a complete Ass. The US is a a big place, really big and there are vastly different types of states and situations. Any country in the world has fucked up abuses of power, name where you live and I guarantee that an example exists. Comparing Maine (where I live, which has the lowest crime rate and rate of prisoners per 100,000 in the US) to Texas is like comparing Switzerland to Russia based on the size and p…

You're cherry picking. Maine has half the population of Chicago. More importantly, Texas is 20x the size of Maine, and represents over 8% of the population of the US.

Certainly I'm cherry picking, but that's the point. It's not that Texas is inherently bad but that it's ridiculous to compare all of the US with one broad stroke. Maine and Texas and Chicago are vastly different places and the US shouldn't be painted with broad strokes.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#188

Post by toyg »

tbastos wrote: post #91
toyg wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness, as an EU citizen, I'd say most justice systems the world over are just shit. Sure, the rich and connected will get all sorts of rights and protections, but if you are Mr. Nobody (and worse, you were not born and bred in the specific area where you're being accused) then some sort of abuse is almost guaranteed. Look at the news in places like UK, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Canada: people "spontaneousl…

Sure, there are problems everywhere, but you cannot compare the level of bullshit in the states. Just look at the statistics on Wikipedia, and the many documentaries on YouTube and newspaper articles on it. Yeah if you're poor and vulnerable you're screwed anywhere in the capitalist world. But in the states you're screwed even if you are middle class (absurd bails) and have a good lawyer, because the government is so…

>just because people are more laid back and sane here than in the states.

Are they? I distinctly remember the post-riot reactions in London last summer: people got sentenced to years of imprisonment for posting banter on Facebook and Twitter, with full support from mainstream public opinion. Because we're all cool until you touch private property, and then it's HANG THE THIEF! And if you think that's just Brits being Brits, I can show you the electoral results of people like LePen, Wilders, Haider, and the laws this pressure produced...

Do not make the error of confusing historical development with the essence of man: we might look more laid back and "civilised" because of accidents of history that bestowed us a set of marginally saner laws and a bit more perspective (and recent memory), but underneath we're as brutal as anyone else on the planet.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#189

Post by Fizzadar »

Although he's an idiot for posting such comments, the way the US police and district attorney's have behaved is unbelievable. This guy is clearly innocent but they seem hellbent on getting a prosecution. I see cases such as this much more often on HN recently and it feels as if the entire US justice system is totally fucked up and completely missing the real targets: the criminals.

Re: The Facebook Comment That Ruined a Life

#190

Post by pessimizer »

jaegerpicker wrote: post #187
pessimizer wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're cherry picking. Maine has half the population of Chicago. More importantly, Texas is 20x the size of Maine, and represents over 8% of the population of the US.

Certainly I'm cherry picking, but that's the point. It's not that Texas is inherently bad but that it's ridiculous to compare all of the US with one broad stroke. Maine and Texas and Chicago are vastly different places and the US shouldn't be painted with broad strokes.

Texas is where nearly 1 out of 11 US citizens live, and there's nothing that I see about this case that's unique to Texas. You can narrow your criticism to his house or his bedroom, and exclude Texas from blame too, if it's important to be that reductive.

The unavoidable fact is that what happened in Texas happened in the US. If Texas started segregating lunch counters and water fountains again, it would be legitimate to criticize the US for that, too.

edit: To be more specific, why are you blaming Texas for what happened in Travis County, Texas?

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