This is call-out culture at work. There is no room for error, no tolerance for people who do not agree with you 110%. To make any mistake or disagree with The Group is cause for expulsion and lynching.
How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
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Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
#272As a german i have to ask: Why do people get fired over things like this? Are american worker employee protection laws so weak that there is no recourse whatsoever for them?
yes, American worker protection laws are incredibly weak. Most employment in America is "at will" meaning you can be fired for any reason at any time, and similarly can quit for any reason at any time.
Very few things count as legally protected classes. Its generally limited to race, religion, and gender. Even then the fired worker would have to prove that they were fired because of their membership in a protected class and not for some different reason. This means, at minimum, a lawsuit and I'm sure you can imagine how lopsided lawsuits between well funded corporations and your average private citizen are.
Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
#273This is the reality of social media. If you offend the wrong person, you will most likely get fired from your job and or get unwanted attention in other parts of your life..all for just expressing an opinion. It's essentially online bullying by people that want to silence you for having an opinion that is different than their own. The ex-Mozilla CEO knows this well. An online bullying campaign was launched against hi…
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Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is deceptive to characterize an online lynch mob as not a "receptive audience". Read the article again... some of the lynch mobs weren't even factually correct about what they mobilized for. The attempt to implicitly pull in the "well, they sorta deserved it defense" fails on the grounds that you're leaving the determination of who deserved it up to a mob . Hi, I'm one of your friendly neighborhood HN libertarians…
It is deceptive to characterize angry comments posted online as a "lynch mob".
It's hyperbole, as the victim doesn't actually die. But there are certainly similarities.
They were able to get Sacco fired. They were able to mobilize someone to take her picture right after her plane landed. And she had to leave Cape Town because "no one could guarantee her safety". So, it could have easily escalated into a real lynch mob.
How about people getting "swatted" by internet vigilantes?
So the "not dying" part is about the only significant difference I can see in some of these more extreme cases, and, God help me, I wouldn't be overly shocked if someone actually does end up dead from an "internet shaming" some day.
Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
Replace "offend the wrong person" with "do something really f*cking stupid" - which is what she did - and the outcome seems fair. No one deserves to be bullied or harassed but consequences need to exist to actions.
Fair? Do you really think so? If so you terrify me. I've done plenty of really f*cking stupid things in my time. I'm very thankful most of them were offline or pre-internet.
You're terrified by the idea that someone should be fired for gross unprofessionalism?
To repeat: she did not deserve ANY bullying or harassment whatsoever.
Did you experience consequences of the stupid actions you've taken?
Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
#2761) It's an offensive tweet. Whether you intend something to be offensive or not doesn't make it any less offensive. 2) It's very easy to pass off casual racism as a joke or a misunderstanding of the medium after it blows up in your face.
> It's an offensive tweet. It was offensive to you . It also wasn't offensive to some other people. Offensiveness isn't an objective property; the fact that something offended you doesn't make it "an offensive thing".
And segregation wasn't offensive to most southern whites. Your counter argument is silly because you could use it to argue that nothing is offensive.
Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
#277This is the reality of social media. If you offend the wrong person, you will most likely get fired from your job and or get unwanted attention in other parts of your life..all for just expressing an opinion. It's essentially online bullying by people that want to silence you for having an opinion that is different than their own. The ex-Mozilla CEO knows this well. An online bullying campaign was launched against hi…
Which is why you keep different online identities that don't point to each other. So you can say the stupid jokes on your "sgt.lonelyheart97" twitter while posting on your prim&proper official account once or twice a year. Someone who really wants to will probably be able to connect the dots after enough digging... somehow. But at that point it's someone with vendetta against you specifically.
Or just go and post on 4chan anonymously.
Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
#278I think that public shaming can be laid directly at the feet of Social Justice. It would be great if people who want to make things better for minorities chose a different tactic - private communication rather than public ostracism.
> I think that public shaming can be laid directly at the feet of Social Justice.
I'm not entirely sure of what "Social Justice" means in the US, or how can such a thing be negative, but it seems to me that it's about enforcing social norms. If the social clock was set back a few decades earlier, you would get the same pitchfork mob if you tweeted something in favour of homosexuality. Just look at what happened to Adria Richards.
My personal theory is that people like to see blood flowing. We don't get our bread and circus any more, pogroms and lynchings have gone out of fashion, but we still have the Internet to get our kicks.
Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The ex-Mozilla CEO knows this well. An online bullying campaign was launched against him and he was forced to quit. Hahahahahahaha no. Eich paid money to political campaigns to ensure that some of his own employees and fellow citizens would not have basic human rights. Then, he refused to apologize for it and dodged the question when asked if he would do it again. That's not "expressing an opinion," that's nearly s…
Just curious why this is getting downvoted. Are people actually buying the whole "Eich is a victim because as a white multimillionaire he lost his job because he cared deeply about taking away the rights of others"...?
It's because they are going overboard... I stopped reading when I saw the word "sociopathic".
Re: How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
#280I 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.
> 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.
I gather many youtube commenters have a Twitter account and an attitude.