Kolya on 19/11/2012 at 00:59
The blog (
http://hellothereracists.tumblr.com/) calls out racists by their tweets and facebook messages, with full names, location, school or employer. Most of the remarks aim at Obama and most of the authors are teenagers. This public shaming might ruin their chances in future employer's background checks, and it has already led to some layoffs according to reports.
I'm all for calling out racists and I hope they suffer some consequence for this shit they published themselves after all. But it won't be over after that, even if some of them truly regret the stupid things they once said.
I'm not sure if the author of that blog has fully thought this through. Or if any one of us is really prepared and always aware of the potential persistence of what we write online.
Yakoob on 19/11/2012 at 01:26
I've never had an issue with online privacy because I abide by a simple rule: if you dont want the internet to know, don't flipping put it on the internet. Simple as that.
That being said, this blog and similar ventures are pretty bad idea simply because
a) things can be easily taken out-of-context
b) things can be mis-interpreted
c) people change over time, but internet knee-jerk-reactioninsts pay no heed to timestamps
when you combine all 3 you can quickly realize the vast potential for abuse and serious ramifications.
Example: some people freaked out when online videos popped of Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking pot like 20 years back in his youth. So? we all did questionable things in our youth...
Example #2: a (
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19842704) US Senate candidate was deemed 'unfit' because she played WoW and had some twitter quotes about liking her rogue and backstabbing people. There's a whole (
http://www.colleensworld.com/) bullshit website dedicated to that.
EDIT: Relevant:
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Azaran on 19/11/2012 at 03:22
Quote Posted by Kolya
But it won't be over after that, even if some of them truly regret the stupid things they once said.
They'll only regret it because they got caught. In any case, I think this is a great idea and I hope more of these websites pop up to expose these people.
catbarf on 19/11/2012 at 04:16
How long until satire is taken as serious, a compromised account posts things the author never intended, or a namesake is targeted mistakenly? I can see so many ways this could go wrong and harm someone who is otherwise innocent.
demagogue on 19/11/2012 at 04:21
Yes the potential for abuse is really high. I sometimes worry more about the damage done by the self-appointed humourless do-gooding culture police of the world than actual racists, who are positively correlated to low IQ so I imagine cannot be much of a serious threat to begin with. And sarcasm doesn't translate in text for a lot of people that don't get Internet. And there are always people that don't get Internet. This is Computer Mediated Communication 101 stuff.
Not to mention the old saw about the line between private & public. At the end of the day people want to vegetate and say all sorts of stupid shit without thinking about it. People go to their jobs to be responsible & upstanding and feed their kids and all that. I wouldn't defend anyone. But if someone is doing good work, and they aren't racist at work, they give all customers equal respect, then I wouldn't trust a single data point in some back corner of someone's entire life (esp without knowing the full context) to suddenly trump that mountain of data points they already have.
Edit: It depends on what kind of data point we're talking about too. Is it like an off color joke, or is it like viciously attacking an actual person & making their life hell?
Azaran on 19/11/2012 at 04:24
Quote Posted by catbarf
How long until satire is taken as serious, a compromised account posts things the author never intended, or a namesake is targeted mistakenly? I can see so many ways this could go wrong and harm someone who is otherwise innocent.
Yeah, that's the only thing I don't like about it, they could always target the wrong person.
Tocky on 19/11/2012 at 04:56
I would feel better about this if most of the posts being outed weren't 15 year old high school students angry about the election. One of them was being harangued for saying "all you blackies only want Obama bec he is black. Learn some shit. Than decide who you want. Not by color." While that is misinformed and sour grapes the term blackies is of dubious status as racist.
Young people do stupid shit. They are young and learning. They should not be stigmatized for life because of one stupid comment. This genius with this site is no hero. If he wants to go after adults he can go after the young republicans and their racist comments on election night at Ole Miss. By college one should know better.
Hell, I've been called racist for saying violent rap was neanderthal chest thumping. Really it is juvenile chest thumping but that was the term I used at the time never thinking some idiot would perceive it as racist. Dumbass knee jerkers abound. I don't think branding kids is the right thing to do even if they have made a poor choice in handing over the branding iron. If kids is the best this guy can come up with he may as well quit. There are plenty adult racist bastards who aren't just mad about an election. This guy must not even be trying.
june gloom on 19/11/2012 at 05:27
Quote Posted by Kolya
I'm not sure if the author of that blog has fully thought this through.
You're not familiar with tumblr, are you? The author likely does not care, or just as likely feels it appropriate punishment. In the tumblr social justice culture, no crime is too small, no punishment is too great -- you once said the N word in your school parking lot after class when you were 14 and dumb and trying to be edgy? FUCK YOU, YOU HORRIBLE RACIST. YOUR LIFE IS RUINED HA HA HA HA WHO'S LAUGHING NOW YOU AWFUL WHITE BOY
Vasquez on 19/11/2012 at 05:38
There are so many easily identifiable people - politicians, officials, spokespeople - shaming themselves and their groups publicly (some even proudly), shouldn't be a big effort to concentrate on those only.
Picking random nobodies from the internet and publishing their [assumed] names and pictures can go wrong in too many ways.
Peanuckle on 19/11/2012 at 07:01
I think one of the problems is that people fall back to "racist" too easily.
There's a difference to saying "those freakin' darkies!" and actually believing that black people are subhuman. But everyone loves to be the good guy, and racism is such an easy target, all you have to do is jump on the slightest slip of the tongue and someone's life is ruined forever.
My parents always taught me that if someone was using hurtful language, to ignore them. Not to publicize their actions and get them ostracized. Words only have so much power as we give them.
