Solmyr Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 An article I read today made me think about the subject of public shaming in our day and age. We've touched on the subject before in the threads about social justice, gamergate and perhaps many others, but the subject was always contextualized by the topic at hand. Although it was primarily used against famous or at the very least well-recognized persons, public shaming on the internet is slowly evolving into a tool used against ordinary people with otherwise unremarkable lives. One sinister aspect of the entire process is that once you get the ball rolling there's no stopping it or controlling the direction and damage it does. We've witnessed many cases where public shaming escalated into doxxing and death threats, simply because part of the online community thought it was an appropriate addition. But even without threats, it almost always impacts the life of the individual in a material way - loss of job, career setback, loss of friends, inability to reintegrate in society, etc. When reckoning is called, one must ask the question - did the punishment fit the crime? Were we, as a society, dispensing justice or were we instead indulging our more primal and selfish desires of asserting our moral superiority and being commended for it by the faceless crown? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crixus Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Public shaming is something you can't stop in the current environment. People losing jobs and having such stuff impact their personal lives seems to be taking matters too far, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DemiNymph Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 We even have had people run out of the country for making rude comments. The consequences for being an asshole is quite large. There are many other cases, but this is quite high profile. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/anton-casey-fired-and-flees-singapore-in-economy-class-over-poor-people-comments-9088199.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crixus Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Wow. This Casey person sounds like a complete prick. Ugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Thursday Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 A conceptually similar story, if not quite as internet-focused: Woman commits suicide after being caught on camera shoplifting ST Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solmyr Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Compared to your stories, those in the article I linked seem even mild. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raskolnikov Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Probably tangential and not even comparable, but someone I really care about gave me permission to publicly shame them to my heart's content, "if it helps you get over what transpired between us. I deserve all the shit I'll get." I'm not that kind of person though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch-MaesterPhilip Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I'm glad some of these people doing the shaming get taken down themselves eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crixus Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Yeah. Rather ironic. NO ONE IS SAFE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solmyr Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 I'm glad some of these people doing the shaming get taken down themselves eventually. I'm not. Fighting fire with fire is not going to solve the problem. It just creates more victims - albeit it some more deserving than others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch-MaesterPhilip Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 I'm not. Fighting fire with fire is not going to solve the problem. It just creates more victims - albeit it some more deserving than others.It makes me no better than them but some of these people deserve it more than the people who lose their jobs. It is like the Reign of Terror only worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DemiNymph Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 There were also cases where the wrongdoer is identified wrongly. Within hours, another person's name, address and all personal details went viral and a witch hunt commenced against the innocent person using these wrong info. In the end nothing was achieved except creating an innocent victim. Those who initially spread the wrong info gleefully just kept quiet after the innocent party came out and clarified that it is not him in the picture/video. And of course those netizens won't blame themselves for making mistakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mish Windage Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Like most everything else it's not a blanket one size fits all thing. Some SHOULD be publicly shamed, some should be handled differently. Blanket policy is only good for the "Planners" (organizations, administrations, etc...), not for the individuals. "The Public" is disappointing though in their willingness to "lynch mob" and other actions they perform based on hate or fear instead of building a person back up through love. Just as troubling to me are some plea deals with gag orders. That's how some sickos stay in a position to damage others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry of the Lawn Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't gamergate that whole death threats and abuse thing that started from a jealous boyfriend? Actually it's about integrity in gaming journalism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry of the Lawn Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Right, thanks. Don't know what I was thinking of then... Sorry it was a bad joke. You're right, that is what started grundlegate, but afterwards they just kept insisting it was about integrity in gaming journalism. eta; or ethics in gaming journalism. google it and you'll see what i mean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyenon15 Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Scarlet Tweets are totally awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sj4iy Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 I think too many people use social media in inappropriate situations. I recently read about a manager who fired his new employee via twitter after someone alerted him to a tweet she made about the job. Using it to shame people or get 'internet justice' is wrong. However, there's really little that anyone can do about it, other than be careful what they say or do on the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyenon15 Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Luckily What is shameful today will be supercool tomorrowExhibit A: Celebrity Sex Tapes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pod The Impaler Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Opportunistic hysteria knows no bounds, and the internet is able to propagate rumours (or worse) at the speed of light. Some people love to get in a shit-fit about all kinds of things. Usually they are some sort of phony professionals, phony experts, or just plain trolls with nothing to do in life but get worked up about non-problems in solidarity with their mythical communities. One minute, it's the Gamergate backlash-backlash, the next it is ISIS. Common thread ? Individualism gone mad. "YOU ALL BETTER THINK WHAT WE TELL YOU IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM... NO,WE'RE NOT HYPOCRITES. IT'S ONLY OUR OWN FREEDOM WE GAVE A DAMN ABOUT. FUCK YOURS." Other common thread: People have apparently lost the ability to tell the difference between a trivial matters and important ones, especially as it relates to being insulted. What do you expect from in a complaints-based society where there's an actual free-market incentive to being officially offended: add it all up and being offended is a trillion dollar industry. There some some people who make a whole career out of being utter assholes, without 1 molecule of shame about it, and woe be to those who dare call them out on it. Eventually, their assholery bumps up against someone else's, and you get some egomaniac turf war where the rest of the internet get to be their hapless footsoldiers, thrown into some Somme-like online meat grinder. This is not to say real injustices do not take place - some things are worthy of action - some people really are assholes deserving of being shamed. Yet, for every one of these, there's also another instance where some lynch mob forms which cannot tell the difference between real and unreal. You can say anything, true or false or just opinion, but the real measure is how much people are willing to invest in getting offended. We'd love to say our leaders should "do something" to clamp down on this hair-trigger idiocy, but if you look at their behavior, they are the worst ones. They have written the instruction manual on how to be dishonest, manipulative, and ready to fight crusades over trivial nonsense, for longer than any of our lifetimes. We are ruled by troll-kings and queens and it is mostly our own fault for rewarding them at the ballot box. The punchline? When we ask for laws against harassment or cyber-bullying, they're the one's who write & enforce it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DireWolfSpirit Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 It has crossed my mind that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg in what maybecome a huge social disruption.Perhaps in coming decades everything that people thought was privatewill become public consumption.All your google history, your medical records,online ID's , financial info., porn sites,emails, tweets, etal.Anything and everything you've ever done online made transparent and available for public consumption.I wouldn't bet against this eventually happening.Nothing is sacred in the hands of extremist or anarchist with an axe to grind.In fact i'm always amazed that people actually seem surprized at eachlatest/ greatest hack of this or that. It's just getting started (hacking/ tearing down firewalls) and isnowhere near critical mass YET....imho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.