Public Internet shaming

[Gator]

Personally, I'm not a fan of this. The topic du jour, it seems, is a girl that dressed up as a Boston Marathon bombing victim. Sorry I don't have a link, but I'm sure you can find it via the Google machine. Was this a horrible idea with no compassion? Of course. Nobody is doubting that. But it was one dumb decision.

Now the Internet monsters have tracked her down, contacted her employees and I read somewhere death threats have been lodged. Yeah, not cool. People have the right to be offended by something they see on the Internet, but what gives them the right to contact his person and lodge a death threat, or attempt to get them fired from their job?

I always felt bad for that girl who was caught giving the bird at Arlington National Cemetery. Dumb, dumb mistake, but she was a kid. Plain and simple. We've all done some pretty dumb **** over the years, and while I'm certainly glad I didn't grow up in this day and age, the punishment for that girl never fit the crime. She did nothing illegal, but still got fired because of the pressure of the Internet monster. Same with this girl, who has done nothing illegal. Poor taste isn't illegal. And if being an asshole was against the law, I know many who would be serving life sentences.

The majority of the commenters talk about this girl in the costume and how karma will get her eventually. Those people -- and those calling for her head on a stick -- may want to watch out for karma themselves. If something doesn't impact me personally, I just let it slide right off my back. No need to spend time out of my day to deal with every asshole I cross paths with.

Thoughts?

 

[MisterCreosote]

There's never been a shortage of people who want to get all up in everyone else's business.

The Internet is just the most efficient avenue for them to do so.

 

[Dick Whitman]

First off, read this novel:

 

[Dick Whitman]

Second off, I hate it. I guess I'm as bad as anyone, because I linked to the funeral selfies material the other day on here. But it's gotten really out of hand. In particular, you can't tell if something's tongue-in-cheek or not. For example, at Christmas-time, someone inevitably links to teen-agers' Tweets complaining in an over-the-top fashion about their Christmas presents. I'm convinced that the vast, vast majority of them are completely joking by posting things like, "**** you, Dad. #NoIPhone." People also went wild when one of the three **** bags in the Oklahoma jogger murder had a Tweet that said something like, "90 percent of white people are disgusting," which he could have very likely posted to joke with his white friends.

So, I guess, at bottom, what I get most perturbed about is adult shaming of teen-age Tweeters that they probably misunderstand/misinterpret to begin with.

 

[LongTimeListener]

There is not a week that goes by without me thanking God that I finished high school and college before the Internet.

I thank God, and I'm not even religious.

 

[imjustagirl]

Whitman, are you on Eggers' payroll?

 

[poindexter]

I don't mind the shaming - reposting of dumb stuff people do.

I do mind getting up all in their biznuss - posting home addresses, phone numbers, and contacting employers.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Whitman, are you on Eggers' payroll?

I know, I know. But a central critique within that book is relevant here, the notion that nobody should ever be able to keep anything secret, ever.

Don't worry. I'm moving onto fellating Tom Perrotta here soon, having read his mind-blowing new collection of short stories.

For now, I'm heading over to the Baseball Postseason thread to post something about "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius."

 

[imjustagirl]

Whitman, are you on Eggers' payroll?

I know, I know. But a central critique within that book is relevant here, the notion that nobody should ever be able to keep anything secret, ever.

Don't worry. I'm moving onto fellating Tom Perrotta here soon, having read his mind-blowing new collection of short stories.

For now, I'm heading over to the Baseball Postseason thread to post something about "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius."

Everyone loves the classics.

 

[MisterCreosote]

There is not a week that goes by without me thanking God that I finished high school and college before the Internet.

I thank God, and I'm not even religious.

It kind of makes you wonder who will lead this country in 25 years when no one will be able to survive the presidential vetting process.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I don't mind the shaming - reposting of dumb stuff people do.

I do mind getting up all in their biznuss - posting home addresses, phone numbers, and contacting employers.

People love to get people fired. I don't get it.

Every time I'd ever write something as a columnist that got the lunatic fringe stirring, they went from 0 (disagreeing with it) to 60 (proposing a petition to get me fired) in about two posts.

 

[Dick Whitman]

There is not a week that goes by without me thanking God that I finished high school and college before the Internet.

I thank God, and I'm not even religious.

It kind of makes you wonder who will lead this country in 25 years when no one will be able to survive the presidential vetting process.

Yep, some sort of reckoning will have to occur. I think it has, to a degree, in some ways. Remember what a huge deal it was that Gary Hart had an extramarital affair? Remember what a huge deal it was that Bill Clinton tried pot in college?

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

There is not a week that goes by without me thanking God that I finished high school and college before the Internet.

I thank God, and I'm not even religious.

A-freaking-men. And any parent that doesn't drill these lessons into their children is doing them a great disservice.

I come down somewhere in the middle (other than the death threats - that is horrifically bad - and I think contacting the employer is a pretty ****ty thing to do), but for the sake of discussion, I'll take the other side.

If you don't want your beyond-good-taste actions to come back to haunt you, there's one way to guarantee that doesn't happen. Don't do it. I guess there's a second way, in not letting it be recorded and put on the Internet. But because this young lady decided she had to have the funniest, most edgy Halloween costume in the world and make sure all her friends knew about it and saw it, she's paying the price. That's on her.

Just like the Arlington National Cemetary woman (who was far from a kid) needed to have the most hilarious "hobby" in the world, of taking photos of herself disobeying signs wherever she went, and making sure the world saw them. When it came back to bite her, it's her fault and no one else's.

No, poor taste isn't illegal. But if you do something in poor taste, make sure everyone sees it and knows about it, then I think you lose the right to cry foul if/when your employer sees it and decides they don't want someone like that on their payroll. Actions have consequences.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Yeah, the inexact science behind something going "viral" should be a huge red flag to just STFU and keep most things to yourself.

 

[Gator]

Yeah, the inexact science behind something going "viral" should be a huge red flag to just STFU and keep most things to yourself.

Obviously this is true. But dis people warn you against the dumb **** you did when you were younger? And did you do it anyway? It just seems there are no longer teachable moments. Just people who want to make others suffer for things that really don't concern them.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Absolutely. But the huge difference is those people who want to make others suffer were none the wiser about it because it wasn't broadcast to the world.

The people who DID know the **** I did shamed me plenty, believe me.

 

[Gator]

Absolutely. But the huge difference is those people who want to make others suffer were none the wiser about it because it wasn't broadcast to the world.

The people who DID know the **** I did shamed me plenty, believe me.

But they also knew you firsthand, knew if this was in line with your personality, or just a really bad decision. The Internet makes it possible for people who have no idea who you are to have great control of your life. That's obviously the scary part.

And another point: Although I'm not one to judge people who are unemployed or under-educated, but I can't help but shake my head at those types of people who comment about this particular person when they really should only be concerned with bettering their own situation. Learn how to string at least two sentences together without a grammatical error, or the use of words like "U" "Ur" and "Shud."

If people would only concern themselves with their own day-to-day issues, this country would run a lot more smoothly.

 

[Bradley Guire]

I don't mind the shaming - reposting of dumb stuff people do.

I do mind getting up all in their biznuss - posting home addresses, phone numbers, and contacting employers.

People love to get people fired. I don't get it.

Every time I'd ever write something as a columnist that got the lunatic fringe stirring, they went from 0 (disagreeing with it) to 60 (proposing a petition to get me fired) in about two posts.

Getting someone fired is the best way to get back at someone who did something you didn't like because you can accomplish it without repercussions. You can't kick the **** out of someone or kill them for doing something that offended you. You could get caught, go to jail, gasp, or lose your job!

So, how else can you hurt people you don't like? Get 'em fired. Doesn't matter if whatever the offending party did to offend didn't personally affect you. Get 'em fired. Because it doesn't end there. Once someone gets fired, they'll never work again! Bwahahahahaha! That'll teach 'em.

 

[RickStain]

As I've posited before, it's just *fun* to be a **** to people, and the internet provides us with a never-ending stream of people for whom we can feel justified in being a **** to.

It's like finding a loophole around all that brain-washing they did to you when you were a toddler in the name of socially acceptable behavior.

 

[wicked]

As I've posited before, it's just *fun* to be a **** to people, and the internet provides us with a never-ending stream of people for whom we can feel justified in being a **** to.

It's "fun" to be a **** to people when there are no repercussions to your behavior.