Curt Schilling Fights Back Against Daughter’s Twitter Trolls • Hacker News Board

Re: Curt Schilling Fights Back Against Daughter’s Twitter Trolls

#81

Post by aroch » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:01 PM UTC

lizzard wrote: post #61

crazypyro wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Behavior is obviously not right, but is it really harming someone else's rights? I'm having a hard time jumping from sexual innuendos to sexual predators... I think it would be a massive mistake to try to make into a crime. Although many of these tweets clearly cross the line of tastelessness, how many sexual jokes/innuendos are less obvious and more controversial about whether they are tasteless? We don't need to cr…

People making these sorts of statements at work would potentially get into trouble because in some countries we have law against harassment at work and creating a hostile work environment. This situation is more like a bunch of dudes going outside someone's house on the public sidewalk and screaming obscenities. Whether or not it's a direct threat of imminent harm or not, it seems unlikely to end well for the screame…

Except standing outside their house and screaming the contents of the tweets would surely fall closer fulfilling "true threat" doctrine than tweeting from hundreds if not thousands of miles away.

Re: Curt Schilling Fights Back Against Daughter’s Twitter Trolls

#82

Post by SamReidHughes » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:02 PM UTC

runn1ng wrote: post #42

crazypyro wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh give me a break... the most offensive/threatening one that was posted by Kurt on his blog was: "Teach me your knuckleball technique so I can fist your daughter" You really think this is a creditable threat of violence and not someone trying to make a very, very, very poor taste joke? There are very few tweets I would even consider threats, most were just scumbags trying to get some twitter fame by making terrible…

Really? This is OK for you? https://38pitches.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/tweets-10.jpg

Nobody said it was OK. It's dubious to call it a threat.

Re: Curt Schilling Fights Back Against Daughter’s Twitter Trolls

#83

Post by lambda » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:03 PM UTC

nothrabannosir wrote: post #51

A lot of people feel these threats should be taken seriously, and the law should be involved. I don't know what to think of this situation, but I want to ask you a question. Without irony or snark: How do you feel about the threats of violence made by Curt against those people?

As he said in his blog post (https://38pitches.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/the-world-we-live...), he considered the first couple of comments just harmless joking around, and that's what his "threats of violence" were as well.

  I want to date your daughter, I want to take your 
  daughter to prom, I want to hit on your daughter etc., 
  those? Those are guys being dopes and saying what guys 
  say. This stuff? This is so far off the radar it’s 
  pathetic.

It's pretty easy to read his "i have many friends that are in or former special forces....." in the same light; joking around, maybe pushing the boundaries a bit but nothing that's egregious. It's a pretty normal response from a father to someone who's being a bit too forward with his daughter.

Graphic descriptions of rape and violence against a minor are a completely different ballpark.

Should he not have made the "special forces" comment? Maybe. That's what showed people that they could get under his skin by making comments about his daughter, so some people took that and escalated quickly. But I don't think anyone would read that as any actual threat, and the people who escalated and graphically described raping his daughter are fully responsible for their own actions.

Re: Curt Schilling Fights Back Against Daughter’s Twitter Trolls

#84

Post by chris_wot » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:05 PM UTC

bargl wrote: post #48

japhyr wrote: post #20

For a fuller context, and to get a better sense of why people are taking his actions seriously, take a look at the original post Schilling wrote where he explains how ugly it got: https://38pitches.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/the-world-we-live...

Thank you for this link. I just found out about the Theta Xi Member who was doing this. I'm a member and I'll be seeking his full removal from the fraternity. It's not much but it is what I can do.

Good on you. What your member did was beyond vile. I have a young daughter, and I'm appalled there are people out there who would event think these things!

Re: Curt Schilling Fights Back Against Daughter’s Twitter Trolls

#85

Post by vezzy-fnord » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:06 PM UTC

leereeves wrote: post #64

task_queue wrote: post #58

Hey, remember that saying about ignoring the trolls? Forget it, let's double down until some idiot does something really stupid and we have to move.

We've ignored the trolls and they've grown wild in the land of no consequences. As in the physical world, behavior on the Internet must be governed.

Drawing parallels between the physical world and the Internet is bound to be murky.

To begin with, the physical world doesn't have a single standard of ethical or moral behavior, as it varies subtly or greatly by jurisdiction.

The Internet doesn't really have the same territorial boundaries that are presently vital to the functioning of humans in the physical world, either. Of course there has been some legislation on the matter and many have tried to assert jurisdictional power (famously in file sharing cases), but those are all highly volatile concepts.

Indeed, each site chooses its own specific rules and guidelines. They're globally accessible, ad-hoc jurisdictions in of themselves, in many ways.

Finally, the web application platforms themselves are not entirely blameless. They've created highly gamified, bizarro worlds where people are signaled and conditioned to engage in forced and obnoxious "social" behavior that many would consider totally histrionic and narcissistic if done in the physical world. The need to post every picture, to post every vapid thought in a global public bazaar... most humans simply aren't used to such a thing, and evidently cannot cope with the repercussions of it, either.

Governing behavior on the Internet is doomed to end in an ambiguous mess without enacting ID laws that would subvert its purpose.

Re: Curt Schilling Fights Back Against Daughter’s Twitter Trolls

#86

Post by chris_wot » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:08 PM UTC

jimworm wrote: post #60

Famous people leach fame into others by interacting with them. The easiest way to force someone to interact with you is to hit them somewhere vulnerable. Mr Schilling either wasn't aware of his vulnerability or hoped that it wouldn't be exploited. When it did get exploited, he didn't try to hide it, leaving a gaping wound for even more famewhores to leech fame from him. It worked, because I saw their tweets and I'm n…

This is coming perilously close to victim blaming.

When these horrible tweets are made, there's always a contingent who says that the target should ignore them. You probably should if they are completely anonymous. But if they aren't - have at 'em!

Re: Curt Schilling Fights Back Against Daughter’s Twitter Trolls

#87

Post by chris_wot » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:09 PM UTC

a3n wrote: post #69

cpncrunch wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, if they are actually posting something that is criminal, you can report it to the police and they can very easily track the person down.

If the police bother with it. It helps if you're famous.

Can you take civil action? Or escalate it to someone higher in the police?

Re: Curt Schilling Fights Back Against Daughter’s Twitter Trolls

#88

Post by vezzy-fnord » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:11 PM UTC

minikites wrote: post #80

skj wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure lots of people do this.

So that makes it okay?

I don't know if it's okay, but it is a fact that celebrities and common folk are held to different public standards. This has been true since the days of village gossiping to the present where countless publications exist for the sole purpose of serving as trash rags and yellow tabloids on the private lives of high-profile public figures, going day by day without significant legal troubles.

Re: Curt Schilling Fights Back Against Daughter’s Twitter Trolls

#89

Post by chris_wot » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:12 PM UTC

benihana wrote: post #27

junto wrote: post #2

People who get caught doing this need to be prosecuted, and if convicted, labeled as sexual criminals and placed on a register. Employers should be able to see the kinds of people they are employing or about to employ. As a father myself, this kind of behaviour makes me sick and I cannot understand people who feel they need to defend these kinds of sick comments.

> People who get caught doing this need to be prosecuted, and if convicted, labeled as sexual criminals and placed on a register. Ridiculous. Maybe we should prosecute people who talk about overthrowing the government on twitter with treason - they're threats! And safety is important! These threats on the internet aren't acceptable, but neither is your reaction to them. There is a vast difference between threatening…

Streaking near a playground without knowing of it and threatening to rape someone's daughter are completely different things. Telling anyone that they want their daughter to bleed into their underwear because you raped them is sickening, intimidating and frankly sexual violence.

Since when did this become acceptable?

Re: Curt Schilling Fights Back Against Daughter’s Twitter Trolls

#90

Post by tzakrajs » Sun, Mar 08, 2015, 5:13 PM UTC

reitanqild wrote: post #34

And here folks I guess we have a real case of harassment. I think there is a line to be drawn somewhere between here and pycon (two men talking privately about something that could be understood as offensive). That said I am surprised about two things: * People trying to argue that this should not be punished because everyone would do if they were safe from repercussions. I strongly believe that a big chunk of the au…

The incident at PyCon: Conversation interloper becomes offended on behalf of non-present female children by the contents of a conversation that she was interloping. PyCon staff of course will be sycophantic with upset guests because they hate bad press.

The PyCon incident was a moment of incalculable oversensitivity and probably should just be forgotten when considering the spectrum for which you hope to draw a line on.