If/when any of my friends get attacked by the mob, I hope I'll have the courage to stand by them publicly. A good recent test was the doxing of Scott Alexander. I signed the open letter against it with my real name and was happily surprised to see the names of many people I know. We should have more of these small but visible acts of resistance that let like-minded people find you.
Life after an internet mob attack
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Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#12https://www.obsessivefacts.com/blog/2020-07-10-we-are-not-pr... I found this compelling as a response to the idea of cancel culture. It's kind of interesting, but I think if anybody wanted to cancel me, they'd have a hard time. I have almost no twitter/facebook presence, no linkedin at all, most of my close friends and family don't give a shit about what a bunch of Twitter randos think, and I work at a small enough c…
Cosby was (rightfully) cancelled with no presence whatsoever. Burying your head in the sand won't help you.
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#13The problem is previously we didn't listen to victims, and allowed them to be silenced. Now the pendulum has swung the other way, and we are listening unconditionally, but (occasionally) bad actors are taking advantage of our good intentions. How do we find balance?
This is essentially why civilization has legal systems and courts. Unfortunately, legal systems and courts don't scale to internet (global) scale. You'll be "dead," metaphorically speaking, of an internet mob attack before your lawyer even calls you back.
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#14[deleted]
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#15A relevant TED Talk I always think of when reading about these stories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAIP6fI0NAI Which makes me think: who are these people with enough time of their hands to be morality warriors on internet? Also who are these _friends_ who jumps on conclusion without allowing for a defense? I shouldn't be difficult, in this digitalized world, to provide solid proof of wrongdoing. I may not be the…
> ... some of these people seems like absolute sociopaths.
Maybe shy sociopaths? They wouldn't be a sociopath face-to-face, but give them the disconnect of being behind a screen, and the sociopathy comes out.
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#16The best solution here is to completely disconnect from social media or (at most) have an incredibly sanitized presence. Unless your job or livelihood revolves around needing to engage with a random internet audience (i.e. you're an influencer, entertainer, etc.) stay away from having a public persona on Twitter/Facebook/etc. The only community I interact with candidly tends to be this one. I don't post on Twitter, F…
I don't see how that would have helped OP. He wasn't called out for things he said or did on social media, barring a few people who piled on over extremely "sanitized" exchanges. I think your "best solution" aligns well with what the OP appeared to be doing, and he still burned. It's important to note that just because the mob forms on social media doesn't mean its consequences are limited to social media.
> I think your "best solution" aligns well with what the OP appeared to be doing, and he still burned.
OP has a huge Twitter presence (600k+ followers), and I guess my point is when you have that kind of presence you open yourself up to being a "pseudo-public" person. Sometimes, you need to do this (if you're a politician, for example). But usually you don't.
People will get more riled up when the person they're crucifying is famous - clout-chasing is a real thing. Although you (sadly) sometimes have exceptions to this rule, so you're right that it's not a complete solution.
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#17If/when any of my friends get attacked by the mob, I hope I'll have the courage to stand by them publicly. A good recent test was the doxing of Scott Alexander. I signed the open letter against it with my real name and was happily surprised to see the names of many people I know. We should have more of these small but visible acts of resistance that let like-minded people find you.
The Scott Alexander controversy isn't analogous at all. That was entirely due to his public writing, not alleged private interactions between him and others.
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#18The problem is previously we didn't listen to victims, and allowed them to be silenced. Now the pendulum has swung the other way, and we are listening unconditionally, but (occasionally) bad actors are taking advantage of our good intentions. How do we find balance?
Reasserting and making active commitments to 'justice for /all/'.
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#19https://www.obsessivefacts.com/blog/2020-07-10-we-are-not-pr... I found this compelling as a response to the idea of cancel culture. It's kind of interesting, but I think if anybody wanted to cancel me, they'd have a hard time. I have almost no twitter/facebook presence, no linkedin at all, most of my close friends and family don't give a shit about what a bunch of Twitter randos think, and I work at a small enough c…
Cosby was (rightfully) cancelled with no presence whatsoever. Burying your head in the sand won't help you.
I don't know if that's a super relevant comparison, given that he was a celebrity with a decades-long career in the public eye.
What other random born-in-1937 person without a social media account would receive that level of interest or attention?
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#20I see this trending on TikTok with the 'Karen' thing but often you have no idea what was actually said or done, just a mob. I honestly think the Social Media Gods need to move beyond these memes because it's more witch-hunt than anything at this point.