Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith
John asks, "They're not rapists - where's the line here?"
The line is that we didn't put the offenders in jail for being rapists. They lost their jobs because it would be so hard to work with someone who made these continuous pro-rape comments.
"There seems to be very little room for nuance."
The guy wants her dad to, "Teach me your knuckleball technique so I can shove my fist in your daughter." That's some nuance. It's tough to judge such subtlety...
"A thought-crime concept?" Once you say your thought to someone, it's no longer just a thought - especially when you typed it out and then hit SEND. (Then did it again and again.)
You mentioned, "Maybe the solution is to not be an asshole on the Internet."
Maybe...
Can you imagine?
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I can imagine, sure. I know that personally whenever I think about sexually abusing someone I'm able to restrain myself to not tweet it out to the whole world, but maybe I've just got really good self control?
We're all guilty of being assholey on the internet sometimes to varying degrees, but you and me, we're good people and we hope that if someone reads or hears us say something shocking they'll won't take it entirely seriously and will judge us as three dimensional people rather than as a 140 character sentence. I have a private group on whatsapp where some friends and I send the most heinous shit to each other, if that was ever made public we'd all be fired. We don't mean a word of it (I hope) but we're really just playing games with words, saying something horrific in the pursuit of a laugh. Does that same logic apply to the people tweeting at Schilling? Could they perhaps not really mean it but instead are taking part in this seemingly new pastime of wankers sending out half hearted rape threats since that seems to be an epidemic on Twitter these days.
I'm not trying to defend these people at all, I think they and their kind (like the Gamergate idiots) are making the internet a worse place and I wish they didn't exist. But they do, and we as a community need to learn how to deal with them in an appropriate manner. The psychology of the people writing this stuff is baffling to me and I don't doubt for a second that these people are utter cunts. But is being a cunt reason enough to be unemployable for a long time? Maybe being a cunt + not knowing when to shut your mouth and keep your cunty opinions to yourself is the key here? But again, is this worth ACTUALLY ruining their lives over?
This is why I'm conflicted, I recognise that punitive action is necessary but I wonder what form that could or should take.
Also you say "
"A thought-crime concept?" Once you say your thought to someone, it's no longer just a thought - especially when you typed it out and then hit SEND. (Then did it again and again.) " - I think yes, it's still a thought - it's a concept, an image that you've implanted in someone's head through language. There's nothing physical involved in this, the threats are empty and you've only said two dozen words to someone. And as well, when someone is fired for online-misconduct there's no due process here, they're tried and convicted almost immediately through volume of public opinion. I think it's a bit much, really.