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Life after an internet mob attack

pasquale.cool

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Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#251

Post by HarryHirsch »

betwixthewires wrote: post #196
HarryHirsch wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

On what money? Good luck as a former dining hall employee (salary < 40 kUSD) against the near-unlimited endowment of Smith College.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#252

Post by cortesoft »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #235
newacct583 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Like it or not, accusers have the right to make accusations. Obviously all the predominantly straight, anti-woke men here are going to sympathize with the guy and other people won't. But at the end of the day, what's the solution demanded here? You shouldn't be able to call someone out for being an asshole? What about the people whose accusations are true?

Just like any false accusation: it has to go to court. The truth is life is a fuckmess right now and there is no instantaneous black/white gratification. And if your success is predicated on a large social-media following, I'm afraid there's nothing you can do when it turns on you. At this point at least. Not to digress, but holy hell: I mean look at the fuckmess social media has created, of disinformation and conspi…

> Just like any false accusation: it has to go to court

What? This makes no sense. There is no crime being alleged here. No one is trying to send this guy to jail, so what would there be to try in court?

Someone said this guy was creepy. Guy says he isn’t creepy and provides some evidence. Everyone is free to look at the situation and make their own judgement.

The idea that we are only allowed to believe things proven in court is asinine.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#253

Post by imgabe »

pjc50 wrote: post #166
WDCDev wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was stunned at how someone with zero evidence and an obvious axe to grind could rally such disdain for someone else with little more than a few unsubstantiated social media posts. I feel that this is due to the weird place victimization occupies in our culture combined with how anti-social social media is. It's extremely easy to issue accusations and threats and have them be read by literally millions of people.…

> strengthening our libel laws This nearly always advantages businesses and the wealthy, especially in false or ambiguous situations, and whistleblowers of all kinds. Litigation is incredibly expensive and slow. Do people really want to spend a house worth and several years on this kind of fight? (This is why the US felt it necessary to pass laws against UK libel judgements being enforced, it was infringing on US sta…

Truth is always an absolute defense to libel. If you can back up what you’re saying, libel isn’t a concern.

And if you can't prove what you're saying is true, then why are you saying it?

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#254

Post by madrox »

I've learned a lot about the internet by reading the history of the wild west. The open frontier where the only rule was what you could do with your own hands. Then comes the frontier towns where the ability to enforce law was difficult at best. When justice feels far away, often we rely on mobs to fill that gap.

This used to happen on a community scale...people would get run out of town. More or less, that's still what's happening, except the city limits are more conceptual. This is what it looks like when the justice system doesn't keep up with society.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#255

Post by cortesoft »

lloydjones wrote: post #98
BeFlatXIII wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Screenshots are trivially easy to fake. Friends don’t have to be character references, just public opinion defense attorneys who play dirty.

I should have caveated my comment with “screenshots that can be proved to be real”

What screenshots can be proven to be real?

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#256

Post by 1shooner »

newacct583 wrote: post #225
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…

Exactly. Like it or not, accusers have the right to make accusations. Obviously all the predominantly straight, anti-woke men here are going to sympathize with the guy and other people won't. But at the end of the day, what's the solution demanded here? You shouldn't be able to call someone out for being an asshole? What about the people whose accusations are true?

> You shouldn't be able to call someone out for being an asshole?

I don't think it's a new concept that 'calling someone out' should have something behind it: evidence, credibility, or at least plausibility. The problem is that regardless of the truth, evidence is not often likely to exist, who is credible on social media has become wildly subjective, and plausibility is easily back-filled with further innuendo.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#257

Post by xbar »

renewiltord wrote: post #218
bhk wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“It is absolutely essential that we believe Jussie Smollett. If we don’t, other people who haven’t been attacked might not have the courage to come forward.” https://newcriterion.com/issues/2019/4/wokes-on-you

That’s a Titania McGrath quote. She’s fictional. A parody.

Clearly. Effective parody exaggerates reality, which she does.

The quote works because it sounds like a large number of similar, genuine ones.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#258

Post by cortesoft »

cousin_it wrote: post #11

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.

How is this a similar situation? No one ever made accusations against Scott Alexander. No one said he did anything wrong.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#259

Post by MispelledToyota »

cortesoft wrote: post #246
Manuel_D wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Burden of proof for what? To charge him with a crime? Sure. But random people are free to make whatever conclusions about him that they want, with as little or as much evidence as they personally require to render their judgement. You don’t get to tell other people how they should form their opinions. It isn’t fair, but there is no other way for the world to work. Everyone has their own criteria for judging people...…

You can tell someone what good criteria are for wines, why not forming opinions? They're not obligated to listen to you, but I don't get saying that you can't advise.

Beyond that though, when our opinions have consequences, we have an obligation to form them carefully when they affect others. Not being able to force someone to behave well doesn't mean there aren't reasonable criteria available for them.

Re: Life after an internet mob attack

#260

Post by Zababa »

SyzygistSix wrote: post #240
Zababa wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an expression of your biais against right-wing people rather than a failure of the author.

No, I find anyone of any political stripe that acts and posts like he does to be reprehensible.

And I'm fine with that. If this was the comment I replied to, my reply would be "Could you elaborate on what you find reprehensible on the way he acts and posts?" to try to understand better what's the issue here, but that's it. I don't find your comment biaised against right-wingers.
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