Public relations-officer for Southern Illinois University College Republicans sends misogynistic hate mail and is forced to resign
Oskar says:
You've posted some feminist stuff before, so I thought you'd like this delightful story from Feminsting.comHere's the email sent by the now-ex-public relations officer for for Southern Illinois University College Republicans:Feministing recently received some really badly written hate mail, something which is not in itself unusual. This time, however, it was sent from a school address, and it turns out that it had come from the public relations officer of the Southern Illinois University College Republicans. That's right: a public relations officer. He's obviously not very good at his job.
In the comments section the secretary of the organization (who seems like a very decent person) came in and apologized profusely, and even made the culprit do the same. He has resigned from his post.
Some people might argue that there's a right to privacy here, but when you send extremely hateful mail over the internet from your school address, and especially when you're a public relations officer, you pretty much give up that right.
The internet is full of real bastards who posts hateful things all the time, and seemingly takes pleasure in hurting people. It's nice to see this one get his comeuppance.
Men are better than women look at the comparison in IQ men are scientifically proven to have a higher IQ by roughly 5 points, or 5% you cannot dispute science sorry and if you want a much better website than your shitty one you might want to go to [redacted]. I think you would gain a lot more knowledge from that website and you might learn about the truth that way you would not be so stupid and ignorant you stupid cunts.Link
Well for someone who has no clue how to use a comma or period, you have to admit the guy spells pretty well....
And why'd they redact the website? I'd love to see what websites idiots like that look to for guidance.
What an asshole.
Perhaps we should punish hate crimes with the death penalty.
I noticed his lack of punctuation too. But what is someone like that doing on a feminist website in the first place? That smacks of a hatemonger spoiling for a fight with someone.
This is why the internet needs Teresas. Seriously, personal attacks don't foster a conversation or even a useful argument. They just make people feel terrible and scare people out of the discussion. It's how the bullies win.
I like to play "Logical Fallacy Bingo" with stuff like this, where you win if you can identify five distinct logical fallacies in a single e-mail or comment. Usually, though, it's just ad hominem after ad hominem. And no matter how silly and artless (ignorant cunts indeed), it hurts if it's directed toward you.
I'm still undecided as to whether I approve of the outing tactic, though. Where do you draw the line between outing someone for a hateful piece of vitriol, and outing them for holding a controversial position? Let's say I sent a similar letter to an anti-gay church. Is it ethical for them to out me as being pro-gay-rights to my Christian boss?
I'm in college and a republican--pretty moderate, but a republican--and recognize that it's assholes like this that gives most republicans a bad name. I think they get caught up with the silly part of politics: hating the opposition, focusing on insignificant parts of fringe ideology, etc. For instance, I went to a group meeting for class and was wearing a vaguely liberal looking shirt (the woot one with the corporate logos saying "BUY" and "Consume"), and the first thing the two College Republicans do is call me a liberal...they went on to spend the rest of the meeting making stupid jokes about hating the environment and children (sarcastically, but still).
On the other hand, many young liberals simply talk about hating Bush and conservatives without having any knowledge of what they're talking about also.
If you use his last three words, you lose all your rights. Plus using an institutional e-mail address. That's Darwinian.
That was pretty bad. It got progressively worse until the last line. I doubt without that last word the reaction would not have been nearly as bad. Overall, this is pretty appalling.
Antinous, what if we can't figure out how to use anonymous email 'cause we're girls?
Does anyone have a digital unredacter?
It doesn't have to be anonymous. Just not your work e-mail.
-SisterY-
I don't see that when you contact someone in a manner where authorship is readily identifiable and you do not have a relationship with the person you are contact that implies confidentiality (Doctor, lawyer, priest, verbal or written agreement that your conversation will be held in confidence) you have any reasonable expectation of confidentiality. If you don't want your words to be public, don't send them to people with your name attached to them.
A lot of trolls turn out to be conservative republicans after further investigation. Does this surprise anyone?
I wonder how his "you can't argue with science" philosophy jibes with the prevailing views Republicans hold on global warming and evolution.
just make him walk around for a month with the text hung around his neck
Takuan, yeah, through the Women's Olympic Weightlifting Team's training facility.
The feed I read cut the title down to "Public relations-officer for Southern Illinois University College Republicans sends misogynistic hat."
I wonder what a misogynistic hat is like?
I think it has something about beer written on it
#5 Nivalsj
You've got some hard life lessons ahead of you. I hope you're ready for that.
Cowicide - "A lot of trolls turn out to be conservative republicans"
Some of the personality traits do seem to co-inside with traditional trollish behavior. But I've met liberals who were just as narrow minded in their own ways. I'm liberal and I have trolled and flamebaited in my time. The gals at Feministing can be pretty harsh sometimes too.
Quoting the idiot E-mailer:
"Men are better than women look at the comparison in IQ men are scientifically proven to have a higher IQ by roughly 5 points, or 5% you cannot dispute science...
Have you ever noticed it's always the utterly talentless morons who try to invoke the "men, on average, are better than women at blah blah blah."
If it wasn't for brain-damaged twits like this, men would have an average IQ TEN points higher than women.
...
Did I just say that?
:-P
"you cannot dispute science"
Not only is he misogynistic, he's one of those people who doesn't understand the entire concept of science.
They must have worked very hard to find somebody this inappropriate for the job.
I advocate the death penalty only for people who advocate the death penalty.
O wait
Bigotry + Booze + Email = Win. Forever and ever.
I wonder how his "you can't argue with science" philosophy jibes with the prevailing views Republicans hold on global warming and evolution.
I don't believe that most Republicans are creationist or unscientific. Just the noisy ones. I know lots of Republicans. They're no different from my Democrat friends except for one little thing. They worry more about losing their money. Which is bitterly ironic, since the current administration has stripped almost the whole world of its wealth, now including the homeland.
Since the IQ scale goes from 0 to 200, even his math is wrong (5 pts != 5 percent).
Likely, he's never met anyone in his social circle with an IQ over 100, so he thought that was the upper limit.
Someone HAS to find out what his magical redacted website was. I'm so curious.
Also, he doesn't understand the concept of variance.
Men may very well be, on average, 5 IQ points higher (or lower) than women, but he's definitely a standard deviation or two below either average.
@16 mollymayhem
white and pointy. some versions go down to cover the face entirely.
The guy was drunk. And his boss is a woman. Ex-boss.
Oooh. He has a MySpace page with a picture. You'll have to follow the links yourself. It would feel too much like harassment for me to include the link here.
if I went around kicking every stupid douchebag that really,really needed it in his tiny, tiny nuts; I would be very, very tired.
if I went around kicking every stupid douchebag that really,really needed it in his tiny, tiny nuts;
Just for you, Pickleboy.
truly, truly poetic, thank you
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pom_Poko
I've added that to my queue. The only tanuki that I've seen have been Hachiemon on Inuyasha, who does not have the equipment, and Operetta Tanuki Goten, starring Zhang Ziyi, who definitely doesn't have it.
you'll enjoy the magic scrotums, they are quite amazing. Especially since this is a kid's cartoon. Japan is one of those strange lands where people and critters have genitals.
Impressive! This guy is an idiot when it comes to math, science, grammar, the internet (personal e-mail), basic human decency ("cunts"), and avoiding repetition (...stupid and ignorant you stupid...). That's six varieties of overlapping stupidity, and that's being nice and not counting being a College Republican. Impressive.
I think my favorite part is the bit about 5 IQ points equaling 5%, with "you cannot dispute science sorry" as extra whipped cream on the stupidity pie. There's nothing quite like a moron who uses numbers to stab himself in the face.
sounds like Ron Burgundy...
Ron Burgundy: I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science.
Veronica Corningstone: I will have you know that I have more talent and more intelligence in my little finger than you do in your entire body, sir.
Ron Burgundy: You are a smelly pirate hooker.
All's fair in love and internet, so I'll save people the hunt for his myspace page:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=69783087
Nice to put a face to the rant.
"You can only be as crazy as your mind allows you to be"
Alex.
"Feministing recently received some really badly written hate mail, something which is not in itself unusual."
This annoyed me a little. There is a wel known education gap between boys and girls, and it is still growing. This should be something feminists abhor, instead of parade.
It isn't just the lack of compassion, it's that the lack of compassion is on an issue that should be on the top of any gender studies work.
I wonder how his "you can't argue with science" philosophy jibes with the prevailing views Republicans hold on global warming and evolution.
He said *YOU* can't argue with science, addressing the liberal feminists. He was trying to use their precious science against them. Conservatives like him, however, can (and do) argue with science all the livelong day.
I'm a regular Feministing reader, and was part of the barrage of Facebook/Myspace messages and emails that made this guy lose his position. I feel good about that. And now whenever future employers Google his name, they're going to find out about this horrible screed he sent. I feel good about that, too.
I would like to say for the record that the other people in that little Republican club were extremely gracious and courteous. They apologized profusely for Alex's behavior, and made him apologize, too (though his apology came off as that of a petulant second-grader, much like the original email he sent).
@37 Thanks, it is nice to put a face to the name.
He is, however, a complete disgrace to the 5 grand worth of Paul Reed Smith and Mesa Boogie his parents bought him. That picture should go on rockandrollconfidential.com's hall of douchebags.
He shouldn't have used the "c" word, obviously, but the rest of the email is about as mild a "screed" as I've read on the 'net.
I here much worse daily in online discussions about the Red Sox.
There are stupid idiots on both sides of the political spectrum.
I've seen "tolerant" liberals in college write some of the most hateful ignorant verbal masturbation I've ever saw.
But I doubt you'll see that on boing boing.
They just make fun of conservatives here. Which of course makes them about as tolerant as the people they hate.
"I wonder how his "you can't argue with science" philosophy jibes with the prevailing views Republicans hold on global warming and evolution."
For one, global warming is being called "Climate Change" now. So stop calling it global warming. It's making us look silly.
Global cooling didn't catch on. Global Warming however did. Until recently when certain scientists started speaking out about how we really don't know what is going on, then it was renamed climate change.
Can't argue "climate change" because after all, it's changing all the time.
"Climate Change" scare is BIG BUSINESS and BIG POLITICS.
Claiming that anyone that doesn't blindly buy into this is somehow ignorant is actually close minded.
For those that seem to have no problem reminding others how open minded they are, those that blindly support "Global " surely don't practice it.
Am I the only person who thought that maybe, just maybe, due to the lack of accountability that email has, this person didn't actually send this message?
(I'm mostly just posting this reaction because no one else has done it.)
Let's see, one "What about the menz?" comment, one "You're just being oversensitive" comment, one "She made it all up" comment....we're working on bingo, here.
(I realize that the "What about the menz?" comment to which I refer, #39, might have been ironic. I apologize if it was. It's really hard to tell, though. My irony meter about this stuff is broken. You would not believe some of the things people say on feminist blogs.)
#6: "If you use his last three words, you lose all your rights."
I'm sorry, but I'm just going to have to call you out on this silly hyperbole. Should we tell Human Rights Watch to make an exception?
You commentors dont no anything about sinec ima sinectist and I kno that brains is can be mesured with a special calipers an one time i had this guys brain an i mesured at an the calipers seaid for an i had this chicks brane and i mesured it an the calipers seat to so sinecs is gthe truth an you cant argue with sinecs.
also cokcs.
#44: 'I've seen "tolerant" liberals in college write some of the most hateful ignorant verbal masturbation I've ever saw.'
Since you're in college, Kevink, ask your Remedial English instructor what's wrong with the above sentence.
Takanu: "just make him walk around for a month with the text hung around his neck"
What'll happen? He'll get nagged to death?
no, but he'll develop a permanent wince reflex.
This invites a good question: how do you rehabilitate someone like that? The ass-kicking of the moment will likely make him worse.
What IS the object here? To make an object lesson? To kill him? To warn others?
This could be a watershed moment in this person's life. Recant and apologize? Actually learn and change? Or go underground and bide his time?
Making too big a thing of this carries real danger.
It can't be ignored since that is dangerous as well.
So far, a forced apology,public humiliation, threat of future limited employability....
How can any good here be amplified?
"Since you're in college, Kevink, ask your Remedial English instructor what's wrong with the above sentence."
I never said I was in college. But thanks for that overly pretentious condescending banter you've decided to add to this discussion.
I suggest before you make any further posts you read this.
http://www.proft.org/tips/conv-terror.html
BTW Left/Right Liberal/Conservative. All the same basically.
All labels that are put on people so they can take "sides" and feel like they are more superior than the other "side".
I think both sides are wacked. You can't bash the Right, and then take up for the Left or Bash the left, and take up for the right. It's hypocritical. Both sides have their hands just as dirty as the other.
Using political zealousness and "RAH RAH" go team type mentality to deal with the lives of human beings has gotten rather boring and shallow. I'd be all for doing away with the two party system.
It's the wing-nuts and the moon-bats of this planet that is making it suck.
#23: amen.
One might consider that in his world, he's right. I can't imagine any woman who is smarter than he is would date him.
And I'm choosing to believe the redacted website is Anne Coulter's. It makes me laugh.
Folks,
I think that we may be experiencing a minor infestation of trolls. I have asked for an inquest. I would recommend not replying to anyone who uses inflammatory language or trollspeak like 'moonbat' or 'wingnut'.
this'll flush em:
Sometimes its hard to be a woman
Giving all your love to just one man
You'll have bad times
And he'll have good times
Doing things that you don't understand
But if you love him you'll forgive him
Even though he's hard to understand
And if you love him
Oh be proud of him
'Cause after all he's just a man
Stand by your man
Give him two arms to cling to
And something warm to come to
When nights are cold and lonely
Stand by your man
And tell the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man
Stand by your man
And show the world you love him
Keep giving all the love you can
Stand by your man
I can't imagine any woman who is smarter than he is would date him.
He's 24. At that age, many people have not yet transferred their cognitive functions from the pelvic region to the brain.
"Folks,
I think that we may be experiencing a minor infestation of trolls. I have asked for an inquest. I would recommend not replying to anyone who uses inflammatory language or trollspeak like 'moonbat' or 'wingnut'."
Not trolling at all. Usually when those words are used, they are used by one side making fun of the other. I was simply making fun of the EXTREMES of both sides. They are usually the ones the ruin it for the rest of us.
Besides that, more inflammatory words have been used in this thread before I and nothing was said by you, or anyone else.
I find what you did to be a bit more trollish than I. I at least had a valid point.
trollin', trollin', trollin'
trollin', trollin', trollin'
trollin', trollin', trollin'
trollin', trollin', trollin'
Troll On!
trollin', trollin', trollin'
Though the post is swollen
Keep them flames a rollin'
Troll On!
Code Red and Cheetoos
fuel my libido
Wishin' my mom was by my side.
All the things I'm missin',
Outside of mom's basement,
Are waiting at the end of the line.
Troll 'em on, flame 'em out
Flame 'em out, troll 'em on
Troll 'em on, flame 'em out
Troll On!
Scam 'em out, reel 'em in
Reel 'em in, scam 'em out
Scam 'em out, reel 'em in
Troll On!
Keep flamein', flamein', flamein'
Though they're disapprovin'
Keep those flames a go-in
Troll on!
Don't try to understand 'em
Just flamebait and scam 'em
Soon we'll be living high and wide.
My hearts caculatin'
My true love will be waitin',
At an airport stall a waitin'
Wide stance!
Now I'm going to be singing that for a week. What was your quote from a week or two ago about troll turds?
I still enjoy a good troll now and again. But there are ground rules:
1) Spell and punctuate correctly. You don't want to just look like an idiot wingnut and be (rightfully) dismissed as such.
2) Use foul language sparingly. Same reason as #1.
3) Strive for at least internal logical consistency. Don't leave claims unsupported (even if it's just anecdotal support), etc. Composition 101.
The point of a good trolling post is to not be an ass, as I see it. It's to upset people. It's to shock them. You don't have to totally believe what you are saying; you just have to make a contrarian case that is strong enough to expose the knee-jerkers in the crowd (when they can't defend their beliefs when challenged) and let the real thinkers rise to the top and either concede parts of your diatribe or utterly destroy it with superior writing and/or logic. Either way, sanity and rationality and honesty win the day.
To be honest, I don't really consider such posts as "trolls," but many disagree. I just think that, when arguing with strangers, there's no reason to cop to playing devil's advocate. We just do that face-to-face to preserve friendships with people we have to see again and again.
This guy, however, is not that kind of troll. He's just a moron. I've known a lot of moronic College Republicans. Okay, almost all of them. But out in the wild, I know a lot of really smart Republicans. I may disagree with them, but at least they have their facts straight.
Both parties have gone way downhill (or maybe we're just sophisticated enough to notice). The shit we argue about these days is ridiculous. There's room for social and economic conservatism, and there's room for social and economic liberalism. Democracy is supposed to let people find a balance among those four poles. But we don't even talk about those things anymore. We talk about flag burning and weather. Poli-tainment. (Retch.)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Trolling_drawing.jpg/800px-Trolling_drawing.jpg
I find that I can irritate people quite effectively without ever having to say things that I don't truly believe. It's a gift.
I think he just plain got drunk and out of control, and typed what he was thinking and feeling right then. Probably got rejected by some woman who noticed he was a dork, a drunk, and a Republican, and wrote this as soon as he got home from the bar.
Gently. And with love.
Preferably man-love. With restraints.
Shock the Monkey.
Beautiful, NOEN! Much better than the original 'Rawhide.'
however, it is a job for women.
I'm guessing that BoingBoing did the redaction,
so as not to give publicity to the website he mentions.
does it matter?
If you follow the link, it's redacted there.
Per the "outing": I don't think that sending something from a work e-mail eliminates all rights of confidentiality, myself. Nor does being an asshole. Putting something into a public forum (say, this comments section) with your name on it? Yeah, then it's public all the way.
"... it's assholes like this that gives most republicans a bad name."
Um, no offense, Nivalsj, but it's the Republican philosophy that gives Republicans a bad name. It's not about personalities, it's about policy. We dislike your policy.
"BTW Left/Right Liberal/Conservative. All the same basically."
Wow. There's some insightful commentary. It really made me think. What it made me think was: has this person ever read a newspaper or seen a news broadcast?
"I think both sides are wacked."
I know you're not an elitist college graduate or anything, Kevink, but it's "wack," not "wacked." Or does knowing slang make me an elitist?
"But thanks for that overly pretentious condescending banter you've decided to add to this discussion."
Now it's pretentious and condescending to be able to speak English at a fifth grade level? Condescending to whom? Fourth graders?
"Wow. There's some insightful commentary. It really made me think. What it made me think was: has this person ever read a newspaper or seen a news broadcast?"
Yes I have. I've been around long enough to notice that the extremes of both sides, while they may believe in different things, they act the same. They are the very people they hate.
"You know that man you hate? You look like him every day!"
Idiots indeed rule.
I was watching a special on Lewis Black last night. He hit it on the nail. Anyone that looks up to Bush OR Clinton has low standards.
They both were liars, and they both didn't take responsibilities for their actions. This isn't a troll. This is just the honest truth. I am not taking sides here.
"I know you're not an elitist college graduate or anything, Kevink, but it's "wack," not "wacked." Or does knowing slang make me an elitist?"
Actually if you knew slang, you would know that there is no "proper" form of it. That it changes daily. Different localizations too if you will. Both "wack" and "wacked" are used. Not that it matters. You just took what I said, ignored the statement and attacked some silly inane part of it that has no bearing on the discussion. And you did it in a pretentiously condescending way.
THAT is trolling.
"Now it's pretentious and condescending to be able to speak English at a fifth grade level? Condescending to whom? Fourth graders?"
No, not at all. It is however trollish and in the realm of conversational terrorism when we aren't speaking about grammar and all you do is attack someone for it.
You didn't read the link I gave you did you? You'd have saw what you attempted to do was trollish.
And you are still being a troll. Simply because you don't like what I have to say.
Must have hit pretty close to the mark.
BTW I wanna quote SISTER above
"This is why the internet needs Teresas. Seriously, personal attacks don't foster a conversation or even a useful argument. They just make people feel terrible and scare people out of the discussion. It's how the bullies win."
Basically what NickD and Noen are doing.
I find it funny how others can see "trolling" in other people, but can't see it in themselves...
Takuan,
I've had dealings with hate zombies like this guy. It always leaves me wondering, what the heck would I do, if I had the power to do anything? Punish? Rehabilitate?
Mostly, what I'd like to do is warn others that this guy is a toxic and potentially dangerous jerk. So I keep coming back to Neal Stephenson's forehead tattoos.
That leaves the challenge of coming up with an informative diagnosis that is concise enough to fit on a face, and that allows others to read it from a minimum of a ten-foot pole's length away.
So's we all can keep our distance.
In honor of Alex Kochno and his new future as unemployable douche extraordinaire, may I propose a new internet term?
Kochno:
(v) to unwittingly out your own vile character on the internet; to accidentally yet irreversibly smear your own reputation through trolling
(n) one who has Kochnoed themselves
Dear Pipenta:
It all comes down to resources. A rich society should be able to salvage every salvageable member.
Is America in this case, rich enough? Is this person worth saving? Intrinsically and in social efficiency? Is giving up on him morally equivalent to letting the weak die? Whose fault is he? His parents? His teachers? Those around him?
Most here,including me, seem ready to let him slip under the waves. Or does everyone just hope he gets it together by himself before we really do have to kill him? I suspect if I talked to him personally, I would throw up my hands after an hour or two. That is prejudiced, but true. Ostracism isn't really a true solution - safer more immediately perhaps, but not addressing root causes.
It's a conundrum.
#39 - lollerkeet -
There is a wel known education gap between boys and girls, and it is still growing. This should be something feminists abhor, instead of parade.
Could you possibly explain that? The writers at feministing frequently talk about education. How is printing hate mail parading a gender gap in education? Are you saying that men are less educated than women, and they should be ashamed of making fun of this guy, despite his sending hate mail?
That's what it sounded like, but really, it's not very clear what point you're trying to make.
Poor, poor misunderstood Kevink!
Trolls usually do exactly what you've done: enter a discussion in an obnoxious way, scorning the participants, and then complain and act outraged when people give them pushback.
You got the response you deserved.
Amen.
I was once this guy. The problem with people like this is that they lack the self-awareness and self-assurance to be able to see themselves in remotely reasonable ways.
It gets worse when two completely unrelated things get confused; in this case: Republican policy, and how obnoxious some Republicans are. They have nothing to do with each other, and their association just reflects confirmation bias on the part of the people doing the illegitimate associating. We saw a report here on BB a while back about a Democrat ripping atheists. No one said a word about this being "typical Democrat behaviour" despite the long history of close association between a particular type of evangelical Christianity and one wing of the Democratic party.
Religion is a disease that knows no party in America, but it's fun for a doctrinaire lefty to paint the right with a nice broad brush. It's so much easier than being part of a reality-based community.
People would rather depersonalize this guy and throw him into a box that they have marked out to contain people it's ok to hate. As soon as you find yourself thinking, "This guy deserves what he's getting" you know you've left the path of rational discourse and have entered a twisty maze of prejudices, all alike.
No one deserves to be this guy. He's sad, crippled, and miserable. And he's probably so lacking in self-awareness that he doesn't even know.
repubs, demos, libs, consies,
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
No one deserves to be this guy. He's sad, crippled, and miserable. And he's probably so lacking in self-awareness that he doesn't even know.
So, how would you like to go about rehabilitating him? Or shall we just let him continue unmolested until he gets his shit together in a decade or two? Which is a polite way of saying "Would you be so generous if he had e-mailed your mother or wife or daughter out of the blue and called her a stupid cunt?" I'm all for compassion, but the offender needs to stop offending first.
figures a fucking Brit said that
Pretty sure a misogynistic hat is the Sorting Hat's German grandfather who he doesn't like to talk about much.
OK, so how do we get him to shut up and listen long enough to stop offending?
@87
ziz was callink a "picklehaube", ja?
http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/uniforms3/steel-helmet.gif
#77 KevinK my brother, there is a lot of distance between calling someone an "ignorant, stupid cunt" and what Noen and NickD were saying to you up there.
That said, it IS hard to agree where to draw the line between verbal acts that deserve retaliation, and ones that don't. Legally, there are very few remedies for harm from mean verbal statements, unless they're threats of imminent harm (assault or stalking), or statements that are are untrue AND can be shown to have damaged someone's reputation (defamation). People hurt each other's feelings every day. You're legally allowed to hurt people's feelings. You just have to take the social consequences for your statements - which could include losing your job, in some cases. It seems that the opportunities for speech have increased powerfully as a result of the Internet, but the consequences for making unpopular speech have gotten more severe, too. I can't say I'm on board with the trend toward taking one bigoted, mean statement somebody makes, and turning that person into a whipping boy for the whole Internet. It might feel like justice, but I'm not sure it is. There are thousands of people who deserve our wrath more than this guy (rapists? murderers?).
Takuan, I appreciate your thoughtful consideration of this guy's situation at #80. I would say that, at minimum, he deserves as much compassion as we'd give our own embarrassing, sexist, bigoted relative. (Does everybody else have one of these? I certainly do.)
no,I have none like that. I ate them all.
Sometimes cannibalism is the only compassionate option.
PR boy doesn't look particularly meaty and delicious. Would it be okay to use him to satisfy other appetites?
bridge?
http://www.stomptokyo.com/img-m2/irma-c.jpg
I think that would be very compassionate of you, Antinuous.
http://di1.shopping.com/images/pi/b9/ca/fa/41117724-177x150-0-0.jpg
J: Then hearken to my words and answer them!
Describe to me Marsellus Wallace!
B: What?
JULES presses his knife to BRETT's throat
J: Speak 'What' again! Thou cur, cry 'What' again!
I dare thee utter 'What' again but once!
I dare thee twice and spit upon thy name!
Now, paint for me a portraiture in words,
If thou hast any in thy head but 'What',
Of Marsellus Wallace!
B: He is dark.
J: Aye, and what more?
B: His head is shaven bald.
J: Has he the semblance of a harlot?
B: What?
JULES strikes and BRETT cries out
J: Has he the semblance of a harlot?
B: Nay!
J: Then why didst thou attempt to bed him thus?
B: I did not!
J: Aye, thou didst! O, aye, thou didst!
Thou hoped to rape him like a chattel whore,
And sooth, Lord Wallace is displeased to bed
With anyone but she to whom he wed.
good eve Antinous, Sister Dulcinea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RABrrrleB8o
Hey Takuan-san. Have we solved all the Internet's problems yet?
Actually my name is this: http://www.myfonts.com/character.php?id=1EF6
and it's pronounced EEeeeeeEEEE? like you just heard something really surprising and you're confirming it in rather theatrical tones of bafflement.
I went to SIU, and I can't say I'm surprised the College Republicans did this. In recent years, they went from be a relatively normal college political club to being filled with whack jobs. The recently brought David Horowitz on campus, ironically, to talk about the lack of conservatives on campus. And it seems like there as another recent publicized "faux pas" by that crew.
They're embarrassing us Salukis.
SisterY:
I'm also uncomfortable with the whole thing. There's the idea of respecting the privacy of individuals, including people like this guy, and then there is the "whipping post" aspect. The guy has suffered the consequences of his actions. We should leave him in peace now.
"#77 KevinK my brother, there is a lot of distance between calling someone an "ignorant, stupid cunt" and what Noen and NickD were saying to you up there."
Thank you for that. But you know, someone who accuses people of "conversational terrorism"(!!) at the drop of a hat should not be expected to make fine distinctions like that... so I fear your gentle rebuke will fall on deaf ears.
Takuan, Antinous: I'm not being generous, and I was not meaning to suggest this guy be given a Consequence Free Card. He's already been dumped from his position and required to apologize, although as others have noted his apology wasn't exactly heart-felt. The consequences of this action will be with him for a long time, and rightly so. I wasn't clear about it, so let me be: the direct actions taken by the people involved seem to me entirely appropriate.
But people here gleefully posting here with things like, "There's nothing quite like a moron who uses numbers to stab himself in the face" seem to me likely to stimulate exactly the kind of reactionary hostility that this guy is already full of. We're responding in a way that feeds his issues and preys on his weaknesses, and doesn't exactly show humanity at its best on our side either.
Ostracism without hate is probably the best response to people like him. It gives him nothing but a vacuum to push against.
And trust me, if he e-mailed something like that to my mother, sister or ex-wife, it wouldn't be me he'd have to worry about.
But a vacuum only offers introspection. What if he was never given the tools in the first place?
In cyberspace, publication followed by ostracism seems to me a good idea for someone like this. In meatspace the context is different, and there may be people who care enough about this guy to give him some guidance. He sure isn't going to find anything of value in the righteous anger of a bunch of hostile strangers.
The 'Net offers us the opportunity to publicly shame people who behave badly