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How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life

nytimes.com

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Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life

#91

Post by ForHackernews »

potatolicious wrote: post #86
toothbrush wrote: post #33

"The woman who took the photograph, Adria Richards, soon felt the wrath of the crowd herself. The man responsible for the dongle joke had posted about losing his job on Hacker News, an online forum popular with developers. This led to a backlash from the other end of the political spectrum. So-called men’s rights activists and anonymous trolls bombarded Richards with death threats on Twitter and Facebook." Wow, this…

HN isn't completely made up of MRA types, but if you've been noticing there are a lot of them here (along with your more typical "SJWs out to get us" types). HN is in general no longer held with the same regard it was a couple of years ago. Note the number of progressive, well-respected regulars who've left this place behind. There are other avenues to discuss tech and tech issues without ancaps, MRAs, and anti-SJW c…

> There are other avenues to discuss tech and tech issues without ancaps, MRAs, and anti-SJW crusaders trying to internet-fight you at every turn.

Please tell me where? I've noticed the same irritating trends here. At this rate, I might just go back to Slashdot.

Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life

#93

Post by taylorwc »

theorique wrote: post #87
taylorwc wrote: post #62

I think they article would more aptly have been titled, "How One Thoughtless Public Expression of Justine Sacco's Lack of Judgment and Racism Had Consequences." Really hard to feel sympathy for her.

How about, "one ironic joke, and then a long flight where she could not communicate that she was being ironic, cost Justine Sacco a lot". She wasn't being racist, she was lampooning American insularity. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn't get that it was a joke, and/or didn't get the joke, and she paid the price.

Even if one were to give her the benefit of the doubt on whether or not her tweets express racist sentiment, there's still a stupendous lack of judgment on her part. She's saying things publicly, associated with her name. Anyone who expresses something in that fashion should be fully prepared to deal with backlash. She should have the right to express her views, even if they are unpopular--and she should be willing to handle the consequences.

Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life

#94

Post by jonifico »

I actually thought it was funny. If you get offended by a thing that's so over the top it just can't be taken seriously, you sir are an absolute moron. Hate how people are just looking to get excuses to get offended and show off their 'righteousness' at the expense of other people.

Point is: It's a joke. Learn the difference.

Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life

#95

Post by Amezarak »

spikexxx wrote: post #67
mc32 wrote: post #26

Two things: Don't be too clever. People trip over themselves to feel offended. Two, you really don't have freedom of speech when you can get mugged by being obnoxious online. Not being malicious -just obnoxious. Yes all the tweets quoted in the article were obnoxious and leveraged stereotypes but I don't think people should be flogged for being like that. I remember all the obnoxious Polish jokes growing up. They wer…

Over-reaction or not, freedom of speech does not guarantee a receptive audience.

> Over-reaction or not, freedom of speech does not guarantee a receptive audience.

That's so. But if society frequently inflicts severe extralegal punishment for unpopular speech, then you don't really have free speech. You just have First Amendment rights. They aren't the same thing.

As a thought experiment, imagine Person X said something deemed offensive and society responded in a uniform manner - by constant public humiliation, refusing to do business with them, refusing to even speak to them, etc. All this is well within our legal rights (with maybe some exceptions) but life for such a person would be very difficult, if not impossible - they'd probably end up starving in the streets. That's not a very free society even if there are no legal consequences whatsoever for any speech.

I think it's very important to affirm that even if someone says something offensive that the response should be measured.

Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life

#97

Post by barik »

mootothemax wrote: post #12

As dislikable as the tweet's content is, it's truly frightening how quickly an incredibly large pitchforks-and-torches mob can come to life via the internet.

I think what's more frightening to me is how non-systematic this sort of thing is. There appears to be no rhyme or reason to who wins the "doxing lottery". I was looking at my own Facebook and Twitter feeds and realized that I (and maybe most of us, unless we live a pristine life) could just as easily have been Justine Sacco.

We could argue that people shouldn't make posts like these, but in doing so, we ignore our own humanity. We're not robots. Humor is an essential cognitive mechanism for building neural structures so that we can understand the world around us. It helps us to recognize and make sense of subjects that otherwise would be too emotionally difficult to face head-on. This is part of the reason I think that faux news shows like the Colbert Report have been so successful. By denying this sort of expression, we are essentially denying an important cognitive tool for understanding.

Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life

#98

Post by ll123 »

Regardless of your political orientation, you should think twice before cheerleading mob justice. If you think mob justice is good and if you think "freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences" then you're just saying unpopular speech is always bad and wrong. Once the mob turns against your political beliefs then one day you might be the one getting attacked and fired.

Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life

#99

Post by ripdog »

paganel wrote: post #80
karangoeluw wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Offending people who might have lost a close family member to AIDS you mean?

There's no use in trying to explain. I'm being downvoted to hell for trying to explain why racist jokes are not ok, with replies like "this is just an off-color joke" or "do you know what racism means?" . I'm pretty dissapointed in this community, been here for lots of years and thought that generally speaking people in here would be more open-minded. But the minute you start to explain why making jokes about one's r…

It's a weird, weird world when "open minded" means "likes to participate in mob justice".

And if you understand the tweet, you'd understand the she was making fun of ditzy white girls who naively assume that white people can't get AIDS. It's a caricature of racism, not racism itself.

Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life

#100

Post by ghaff »

jstalin wrote: post #22

If I say something stupid to a group of friends, usually they'll tell me it's stupid or I said something wrong, and everyone moves on. If I say something stupid on twitter, it's literally archived forever. Another reason I'm glad I've disconnected from all social media. I'll keep my stupid, non-politically correct jokes in my own head.

There is this idea of self-censorship before you post something public--which Twitter is. That said, I'm not unhappy that there was no Twitter when I was a young twenty-something. I have no doubt I would have posted things that I'm glad I didn't have the opportunity to.
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