Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
I was referring to this:
Otherwise sorry if that's not what you meant.
I don't know but as a fairly anonymous white male it's not a problem I often face. Those that do face it however are pretty vocal about how horrible an experience it is. There will be many negative experiences in life I'll never be a position to relate to and in those cases it's sensible to listen to those who are at the receiving end and believe them that it's a harrowing way to live.
A good example would be to read the accounts of female game developers or journalists at the receiving end of Gamergate. People invading their social media accounts, e-mails, phone numbers to hurl abuse and threats at them: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/0...nal-spotlight/
Or what happened to Leslie Jones for daring to be a women in a Ghostbusters movie: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cul...f-leslie-jones
When these people are targeted they can't escape it. |
It is what I meant there - in respect of people calling eachother rather unpleasant names etc.
That's not how I see all hate crime however and as I stated above, clearly some forms of this abuse, even verbal/written are far more serious and sinister than others and some does become 'real' as opposed to ethereal.
All the more reason for inhabitors of the social media world to be a lot more responsible what personal and identifying information they present to all and sundry I'd have thought. If I went out every day without shutting/locking my doors I don't think I'd get a lot of sympathy if I was burgled. If I broadcast all sorts of personal information to the world, I might expect a similar lack of sympathy if I wound up getting stalked or threatened by a nutter who knows where I live or work. The world shouldn't be like that but it is sadly and we all know it don't we, so why are so many people so blase about what they put online and why are they surprised when the haters appear and get very nasty indeed?
I'd like to know what percentage of really nasty threats (e.g. murder, rape etc.) made on the internet turn out to be credible and/or carried through. A miniscule proportion I'd wager in which case whilst they're certainly unwarranted and highly unpleasant, we might wish to worry more about the far bigger risks of the real world like crossing the road, getting mugged, etc.
Of course media personalities etc. can't hide their lives so for them I'd agree that they're probably more susceptible to serious abuse, less able to protect their personal information and more likely to feel personally threatened when under attack from trolls for example.