Coupla things here I didn't wanna say in the newsletter itself:
1) I really hate name-checking Isabel Fall, as if she's anything like me I suspect they'd be a lot happier if everyone just forgot she'd ever existed. That said, the incident is enough of an ur-example that I felt I had to mention them - but I tried very much to veer away from a discussion of them ASAP.
2) Some older gay people refused to vote for Hillary because she hadn't stood with them when it counted. That, I understand. But a lot of the people I'm discussing re: Hillary weren't even of voting age when all that went down.
3) Anyone who goes "It's just the Internet! Just ignore them!" should realize that a) not everybody can shrug off criticism so easily, and b) "It's just the Internet" really fucks up queer and neurospicy people who, largely, have found their friends not in real life, but through the Internet. Having your support circle turn against you overnight is psychologically devastating - and if you don't understand how that could send someone into emergency therapy, I would encourage you to shut the hell up and just know that it's bad even though "It's just the Internet."
4) And an essay that could be a whole essay in and of itself: If you have a community where nothing will be forgiven, some people will be drawn to communities where everything is forgiven.
I watched folks of meterfilter go from praising and criticizing the helicopter story in ordinary ways to deciding that the author was Bad. At least they had the decency to realize they were wrong.
What happened to Justine Sacco shows that the rot was in place very early, if not from the beginning. I recommend Joh Ronson's _So You've Been Publicly Shamed_. He was in that first twitter mob, and he's very clear that the motivation was the thrill of the hunt, not any desire to make anything better.
Point 3 in your comment: It's not just the internet, not only because most people don't handle a deluge of insults well, but also because internet mobs take it to the real world by threatening people's jobs.
Coupla things here I didn't wanna say in the newsletter itself:
1) I really hate name-checking Isabel Fall, as if she's anything like me I suspect they'd be a lot happier if everyone just forgot she'd ever existed. That said, the incident is enough of an ur-example that I felt I had to mention them - but I tried very much to veer away from a discussion of them ASAP.
2) Some older gay people refused to vote for Hillary because she hadn't stood with them when it counted. That, I understand. But a lot of the people I'm discussing re: Hillary weren't even of voting age when all that went down.
3) Anyone who goes "It's just the Internet! Just ignore them!" should realize that a) not everybody can shrug off criticism so easily, and b) "It's just the Internet" really fucks up queer and neurospicy people who, largely, have found their friends not in real life, but through the Internet. Having your support circle turn against you overnight is psychologically devastating - and if you don't understand how that could send someone into emergency therapy, I would encourage you to shut the hell up and just know that it's bad even though "It's just the Internet."
4) And an essay that could be a whole essay in and of itself: If you have a community where nothing will be forgiven, some people will be drawn to communities where everything is forgiven.
I watched folks of meterfilter go from praising and criticizing the helicopter story in ordinary ways to deciding that the author was Bad. At least they had the decency to realize they were wrong.
What happened to Justine Sacco shows that the rot was in place very early, if not from the beginning. I recommend Joh Ronson's _So You've Been Publicly Shamed_. He was in that first twitter mob, and he's very clear that the motivation was the thrill of the hunt, not any desire to make anything better.
Point 3 in your comment: It's not just the internet, not only because most people don't handle a deluge of insults well, but also because internet mobs take it to the real world by threatening people's jobs.
This is a thought-provoking essay. Not always comfortable, but definitely thought-provoking. And you're not wrong about Internet Fundamentalism.