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How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock.

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Re: How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock.

#31

Post by kenjackson »

Semiapies wrote: post #19

I think we're overestimating the "anonymous internet snark" aspect of this phenomenon. Back before most people lived in large cities and could be anonymous, this sort of thing still happened. People got reputations, and they rarely lived down embarrassing things that became public knowledge. Is it really worse for some random person thousands of miles away to laugh at a mugshot and a story (someone who could meet you…

It is worse when its something embarrassing (rather than criminal). Like the lady who fell in the fountain. Now every employer, boyfriend, colleague will know about this. It's no longer anyone in your small circle in your hometown, but anyone with an internet connection.

Re: How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock.

#32

Post by Fargren »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #17

> Yes, Neil is a real person with real feelings. AND 30 THINGS HE ATTEMPTED TO SMUGGLE INTO JAIL INSIDE HIS ASS. There's the proper sense of shame you should feel when considering whether to mock someone or not, and then there's communal shame that should make us think twice before doing something morally, ethnically and criminally questionable. Perhaps the next guy who considers doing something like this will rememb…

It's the work of the justice system to punish people who commit crimes, not the job of anonymous people in the internet. Public mocking an humilliation is cruel and unusual punishment.

Re: How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock.

#33

Post by pavel_lishin »

Fargren wrote: post #32
pavel_lishin wrote: post #17

> Yes, Neil is a real person with real feelings. AND 30 THINGS HE ATTEMPTED TO SMUGGLE INTO JAIL INSIDE HIS ASS. There's the proper sense of shame you should feel when considering whether to mock someone or not, and then there's communal shame that should make us think twice before doing something morally, ethnically and criminally questionable. Perhaps the next guy who considers doing something like this will rememb…

It's the work of the justice system to punish people who commit crimes, not the job of anonymous people in the internet. Public mocking an humilliation is cruel and unusual punishment.

I think that it's much less cruel than being placed into confinement with other criminals, a lot of who may actually be a threat to you and society.

Also, I'm just being a pedant now, but the "cruel and unusual" clause only applies to punishment meted out by government - same way that you can't claim that your parents violated your First Amendment rights by sending you to your room for calling your sister a fatty fatty fat fat at dinner, or whatnot.

Re: How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock.

#34

Post by JoachimSchipper »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #29
JoachimSchipper wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you feel that smuggling some relatively harmless stuff into prison is so bad that the entire internet has to shame him? It's not like he was smuggling in two knifes and an automatic rifle...

Well, leaving aside any personal issues on whether it's a good idea to use drugs while in jail, it's still a tremendously dumb idea - as illustrated by the fact that not only did he have to fill his rectum with a variety of uncomfortable objects (a whole syringe? kudos, but ouch) but also got caught and presumably caught extra time for it as well. I'd imagine that the public shaming will discourage him and others fro…

Yes, it's pretty dumb, but is this really the most shame-worthy thing?

Re: How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock.

#35

Post by marcusbooster »

alex_c wrote: post #26

To be fair, if one of my friends fell into a water fountain while texting, I would probably never let them live it down.

Which is fine in private, but I would hope that you—as a true friend—would also defend them against unwarranted personal attacks from strangers.

Re: How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock.

#36

Post by Fargren »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #33
Fargren wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the work of the justice system to punish people who commit crimes, not the job of anonymous people in the internet. Public mocking an humilliation is cruel and unusual punishment.

I think that it's much less cruel than being placed into confinement with other criminals, a lot of who may actually be a threat to you and society. Also, I'm just being a pedant now, but the "cruel and unusual" clause only applies to punishment meted out by government - same way that you can't claim that your parents violated your First Amendment rights by sending you to your room for calling your sister a fatty fat…

Well, the thing is, I'm more ok with the government giving punishment than I am with with the general public doing the same. At least in theory, they are supossed to give a punishment that is fit for the crime. And while it's true that it's not unconstitutional to be cruel, it's still, well, cruel.

Re: How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock.

#37

Post by JoeAltmaier »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #29
JoachimSchipper wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you feel that smuggling some relatively harmless stuff into prison is so bad that the entire internet has to shame him? It's not like he was smuggling in two knifes and an automatic rifle...

Well, leaving aside any personal issues on whether it's a good idea to use drugs while in jail, it's still a tremendously dumb idea - as illustrated by the fact that not only did he have to fill his rectum with a variety of uncomfortable objects (a whole syringe? kudos, but ouch) but also got caught and presumably caught extra time for it as well. I'd imagine that the public shaming will discourage him and others fro…

No, I believe from his bio that he does Not in fact learn to avoid self-harmful acts. That's why he's a tragic figure, instead of for instance an evil one.

Re: How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock.

#38

Post by kstenerud »

Never saw this before today, but it hardly seems funny. That's how people smuggle contraband in prison.

The sad truth is that either you have wealth with which to get what you want from other people, or you swallow your pride and smuggle stuff in via your rectum. It's not funny; it's a sad commentary on the demeaning prison life.

Re: How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock.

#39

Post by epochwolf »

m0nastic wrote: post #10
danik wrote: post #9

> Most of us are Internet bullies now, some of us more active than others. Yeah right. Most people I know aren't, and most people I discuss with online aren't either. I'd say the reality is that the blog author belongs to a minority of people acting like bullies and now he tries to defend his behaviour by saying 'everyone else does it'.

It would appear that you hang around on a different internet than I do. I'm envious. The internet I frequent is populated by people who love to forward stories around, post links to Facebook (with comments like "I can't believe how stupid this guys is", and do the same on Twitter. Web sites which showcase said stories, and maybe if they're very lucky, mainstream news will cover them as well. I pay about $80/month for…

> It would appear that you hang around on a different internet than I do. I'm envious.

It's all who you associate with. I've seen my share of bullying online and done some of my own that I deeply regret.

During my first year on the internet as in interactive participant I was exclusively surrounded by furries[1]. After that I ended up programming bots[2] for deviantArt's chat network. That ended after being I was banned for discovering and exploiting security holes. (my bad, I haven't done that since)

Since, I moved on to help moderate an art website[3]. That didn't work out because there wasn't well defined rules for moderators. I still have great respect for the current admins. I left moderating on good terms. Then I moved on to hanging out on irc with system administrators, iOS developers (I'm a rails guy), a ruby on rails community, and a chatroom of former usenet users that are at least 40 years older than I am and are published authors. I'm working on building my own art website[4] so who knows who I'll end up being around next.

After being banned from deviantArt, I've made it a point to not tolerate douche-baggery in any form in myself or others. Most of the communities I hang out with now encourage respect. If you want to change, there are hard decisions to make. I was lucky and a deviantArt administrator made the decision for me.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry_fandom

[2]: http://botdom.com/wiki/Dante

[3]: http://epochwolf.storm-artists.net/

[4]: http://epochwolf.com/tag/singleforestcom

Re: How my childhood friend became an Internet laughingstock.

#40

Post by Semiapies »

kenjackson wrote: post #31
Semiapies wrote: post #19

I think we're overestimating the "anonymous internet snark" aspect of this phenomenon. Back before most people lived in large cities and could be anonymous, this sort of thing still happened. People got reputations, and they rarely lived down embarrassing things that became public knowledge. Is it really worse for some random person thousands of miles away to laugh at a mugshot and a story (someone who could meet you…

It is worse when its something embarrassing (rather than criminal). Like the lady who fell in the fountain. Now every employer, boyfriend, colleague will know about this. It's no longer anyone in your small circle in your hometown, but anyone with an internet connection.

I think you overestimate the lifespan of these things. When we're inundated with a dozen new public humiliation memes a day, people just won't remember.

Who looks to see whether some person you've met is the subject of embarassing YouTube videos?

Do you really think you'd recognize the Star Wars Kid if you passed him on the street?

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