Earlier quoted context omitted.
What consequence does my choosing to believe either side in this story have? Now, if I (or someone else) harass the guy over the accusation, then that is a problem (and there should be consequences), but belief is personal.
What do you call a mob of people piling on someone and causing them to lose friends, opportunities and a healthy state-of-mind? A belief system? You're free to believe whatever you want, but if you are wrong and they didn't do it, someone was just publicly executed for the wrong reasons. You're also free to not care about any of that, but some people want to be cautious not to pile on without evidence. Are you really…
Life after an internet mob attack
311–320 of 480 posts
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#312I 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…
> EDIT: Watching the points on this comment swing from negative to positive in the span of minutes is telling. Please follow the site guidelines. You broke the second-last one: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html . (Btw, it's not "telling" of anything but that the topic is divisive, which we all know already.)
I think this post covers a lot of what is happening - https://savingjournalism.substack.com/p/vcbrags-pasquale-mit...
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#313He experienced an internet mob. But by calling out the people who made that happen in his "receipts" post, couldn't he be inadvertently sicing a mob on them?
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#314When these attacks take on a racial or gender-focused hue, I think they end up having a terribly ironic effect: further isolating the group they sought to protect (e.g., POC, women, etc). That is, they win the battle, but lose the war. Each of these stories reinforces in my mind to not associate with those that are higher on the oppression totem pole. I know it is not their fault, and I feel bad for doing so, but the…
Yes - and it's driving people further into tribes where the only way they feel "safe" is in and around their own "kind". This isn't civilization, but a regression and if it goes on for a few more generations it could be very damaging to our social fabric. I just hope it's a weird early-21st century "intellectual" movement that eventually dies out.
It's just a change in who the targets are.
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#315I 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…
> Unfortunately, if some guy walks up to a woman at an event and acts creepy, this demands that a woman record every moment of her life in case she has to defend herself if she calls him out... We're throwing away "innocent until proven guilty" with this. I'm sure you agree how dangerous that can be. Though, as you point out, recording every moment is not feasibly or desirable. Do you have any ideas on how we could s…
And me, as an outsider on the internet, has no business trying to pick a side or work out who should be punished. That's the job of the legal system.
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you call a mob of people piling on someone and causing them to lose friends, opportunities and a healthy state-of-mind? A belief system? You're free to believe whatever you want, but if you are wrong and they didn't do it, someone was just publicly executed for the wrong reasons. You're also free to not care about any of that, but some people want to be cautious not to pile on without evidence. Are you really…
"...publicly executed..."?
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#317I 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…
Seems he dated two of them? I guess we all know who ended the relationship now. (hint: not them!)
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#318Not today. Now you can't insult anyone without a woke mob coming to cancel you, wringing hands and wagging fingers on the same arm. The woke bullies are worse than ill-intented jokesters.
I can't wait for the pendulum to swing back the other way.
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#319Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Burden of proof for what? For me to believe their accusations. It's not just something that exists in the courts, it's a principle that many (most?) people adhere to in their lives. If you have one co-worker who accuses the other of stealing their phone, would you punish the accused without first asking how they know they stole it or looking at camera footage of the time of the alleged theft? It's not illegal for y…
Punishment or firing is different than believing or not believing. I agree you should have a higher burden of proof before doing those things. But you are free to believe whatever you want. Personally, I don’t hold a belief either way about this person. I neither believe or disbelieve them.
As it stands, he's provided receipts and the other side hasn't, so for me any reasonable person believes the person with the receipts.
And sure, we can't force people to form opinions in one way or another, but we absolutely can (and arguably should) criticize people who form their opinions in a way that is best modeled after a lynch mob, in the exact same way I would react to a... real life lynch mob.
Re: Life after an internet mob attack
#320[flagged]
Guilt should not be related to associations or political beliefs. This is a genuinely dangerous comment. Reserve your judgment for when you’re called for the jury.
It's not as bad as if this dude used a vaguely-relevant quote from, say, a serial killer, or a general convicted of massive war crimes, but it sure does make me squint at his arguments a bit harder and wonder how much he's leaving out, intentionally or because he never noticed it in the first place.