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Life after an internet mob attack

pasquale.cool

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Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#191

Post by zxzax »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #25

The most disturbing and insidious sentiment of online mobs is claiming that the targets are "just being held accountable". Or that such people are just experiencing "consequences". I really can't express just how cold and bloodthirsty such statements seem to be. It's the perfect combination of justifying vicious behavior while also absolving themselves of responsibility.

So how could responsibility be ensured? Make a social media site where people can't criticize each other at all? Require all posts to go through third party fact checkers?

To put it another way: If, in your opinion, twitter users are not subject to accountability based on the chaotic randomness of public opinion, then who are they being held accountable to? Who even determines what a "consequence" is in that scenario, or what the threshold for that bloodthirsty behavior is? Honest questions here, I really don't know what the solution is.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#192

Post by prezjordan »

camillomiller wrote: post #102

Had me for a while, then unfortunately lost me at the quote of Scott Adams. Adams is EXACTLY who I think anyone should avoid quoting at all costs, when you’re rightfully criticizing the Internet Morality Hordes. If you wanna know why, just scroll his Twitter timeline.

+1. Unfortunately saw that and couldn’t help but the think the author was also warm to Adams’s “red pill” content.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#193

Post by bmmayer1 »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #163

I wouldn't call OP's post "receipts", but rather "his curated receipts." What makes more sense? Some dude has been creepy and only showed the positive side in his defense, or three random unrelated women -- who he claims only ever had lovely, adoring exchanges with him -- decided to destroy his life for no apparent reason. I mean, the former case has a precedent for happening almost habitually in the past, you'd have…

My question is, why is this any of your (or my) business? Why do we feel it necessary to involve ourselves in a situation we have neither the context nor the authority to have an opinion?

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#194

Post by 908B64B197 »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #29

From the linked Notion "Receipts" page: > I've struggled to understand why so many people have piled on to these absurd accusations without facts. I watched a similar situation play out in real time. A friend had to fire an employee who wasn't submitting work or even responding to communications. The employe retaliated by using their moderately large social media presence to disparage my friend and her company. Stran…

To be completely honest, the whole thing reads like high school drama completely blown out of proportion.

> I've struggled to understand why so many people have piled on to these absurd accusations without facts.

The same thing happened with RMS. All they could get against him were anonymous blog posts and someone vandalizing the door of his office.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#195

Post by pstuart »

notacoward wrote: post #108
camillomiller wrote: post #102

Had me for a while, then unfortunately lost me at the quote of Scott Adams. Adams is EXACTLY who I think anyone should avoid quoting at all costs, when you’re rightfully criticizing the Internet Morality Hordes. If you wanna know why, just scroll his Twitter timeline.

I've lost as much respect for Scott Adams as anyone, so I'd agree that quoting him is ill advised, but the underlying sentiment is not wrong. Mobs do cause harm, not least because they make redemption harder than it already is. In a way, treating a Scott Adams quote as an automatic disqualifier is only making the OP's point.

The quote presents as self-deprecation but reads as a non-apology (at least to me, and I too must confess having lost respect for Adams as well).

Edit: for fun I checked out Adam's twitter posts -- and have no respect left at all.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#196

Post by betwixthewires »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #162
betwixthewires wrote: post #119

1) be pseudonymous. People in my real life don't need to know what I do on the internet. Not like I'm doing anything untoward, but I am candidly discussing things with random strangers, including things some might view as beyond discussion, and you don't want some crusade against you for that. Your real life and your internet life don't need to overlap, and 99% of people get no benefit from them overlapping. 2) never…

6 is a bit difficult in the US, where access to the legal system requires money. Remember Smith College, where several employees lost their livelihood after a privileged kid set her Twitter army on them. Good luck to them in court, but they won't have it.

Well, it is important to do anyway, even if the only people that come out on top financially are the lawyers. People that want to destroy your life baselessly will only be deterred if they know it will destroy them as well.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#197

Post by Manuel_D »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #183
honkdaddy wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's an example[1], from his blog post, about the interaction one of these women defined as "creepy". If this is the bar for unacceptable discourse between men and women, without being a mind-reader, I'm not really sure how one is ever supposed to win. [1] https://www.notion.so/image/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazo...

That's his receipt. Not hers. Is that really 100% of the interactions they've had? You seem to be pretty confident there's only his side of the story.

Then she should share receipt of the alleged creepy messages. The burden of proof is on the accuser, not the accused.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#198

Post by bigbillheck »

bobsmooth wrote: post #176
SavantIdiot wrote: post #163

I wouldn't call OP's post "receipts", but rather "his curated receipts." What makes more sense? Some dude has been creepy and only showed the positive side in his defense, or three random unrelated women -- who he claims only ever had lovely, adoring exchanges with him -- decided to destroy his life for no apparent reason. I mean, the former case has a precedent for happening almost habitually in the past, you'd have…

Remember what happened to ProJared?

Isn't he the dude who cheated on his wife and solicited nudes from fans?

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#199

Post by zxzax »

throwkeep wrote: post #65
BitwiseFool wrote: post #25

The most disturbing and insidious sentiment of online mobs is claiming that the targets are "just being held accountable". Or that such people are just experiencing "consequences". I really can't express just how cold and bloodthirsty such statements seem to be. It's the perfect combination of justifying vicious behavior while also absolving themselves of responsibility.

Well said. And notice how the refrain changed. For years it was complete denial with "cancel culture doesn't exist". Now the response is, "it's just consequence culture".

Just to be clear, is it "cancel culture" or "consequence culture" when the legal system puts people in jail, or practices capital punishment? Or are those considered something different entirely? If so, why?

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#200

Post by Anthony-G »

> There’s irony to a progressive, fluid culture, dishing outrage in black and white. They’re against incarceration, but enthused to rip people apart, with no due process.

A few years ago, I read Jon Ronson’s book, “So You've Been Publicly Shamed” which examined online mobs (I don’t think the term “cancel culture” had yet entered public discourse). He started off with the belief that social media was a force for good, allowing the powerless to band together and “fight the power” but then saw how it spiralled out of control to become a more toxic phenomenon and hurt ordinary people. In one of the earlier chapters, he explores the history of shaming (a method of societal punishment that goes back a long way). He pointed out that progressives and liberals influenced by Enlightenment values came to view incarceration as a much more humane form of punishment than the stocks and similar public shamings.

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