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Twitter, morons etc

Tony L

Tony L

Administrator
Anyone able to explain to me what on earth is happening on Twitter of late? I've just heard on the news that history professor / TV presenter Mary Beard has recieved of all things a 'bomb threat' (link). There also seems to be people receiving "threats of rape" for supporting having a picture of Jane Austen on the new £10 note. I'm sorry, but WTF? Who are these idiots and what are they trying to achieve? I can't believe someone like Mary Beard would ever receive a death threat for anything - I've watched many of her TV programs and she comes across as a decent, articulate and clearly very knowledgable historian, which is exactly what's required for the programs she presents, It strikes me as a truly crazy world where such folk are attacked.

PS I'm still very much a beginner with Twitter, I created a pfm account years ago though it's all but dormant (I just wanted to grab the name really). Recently we've created an account for älter (my new pop band) and that's working a lot better as one of the others in the band is Twitter-literate and driving it a bit (please feel free to follow us or whatever you do!).
 
I really dont know. I suppose its a lack of accountability and some very sad, bitter and angry people out there. Some are just mentally ill and some may be having an immature, attention seeking, twisted laugh that goes way too far.

I mean look at the comments on the Youtube Spanish train crash. It turns into quotes like "Good I hope they suffered" and "Kill all (insert ethnic/ religious groups here)"

Theres so much hate and anger on youtube. I dont use twitter but imagine its pretty similar in terms of comments. Is this what human beings are really all about? Maybe it just reflects true human nature.

Its just crazy and there has got to be some recourse with bans, accounts closed and serious punishment. How do you police that effectively though?
 
The victims are mainly women, but also include gay men. The perpetrators are overwhelmingly male. The reason? For the laffs.

I understand why inadequates would do this and think that a few punitive measures and a lot of education would deal with this.

Nothing would redeem someone educated and intelligent, for instance, like Toby Young, except public ridicule, which is what Stella Creasey dished out to him last week.

Debs (who is dismayed at this kind of thing still happening 40 years after she thought it would stop)
 
It seems to me that Twitter is akin to a lavatory wall in a public convenience, but the shit smeared on the wall can be traced back to the artist.

Electronic gossip is going to be around for a long time, so better set some strong ground rules or no rules at all.
 
Threatening to rape or violence is extremely serious and the police have to be notified from the off. There are inadequate personalities lurking in every corner of the Internet who should be made to carry the consequences of their actions. The examples talked about above require prison sentences.
 
See recent arrest and charge of Ruth Patterson DUP and former deputy Mayor of Belfast for her twitter posts!
 
Why a debate about a woman appearing on a banknote raised so much steam baffled me too.
Not exactly controversial compared to religion or football.
 
TheDecameron said:
Threatening to rape or violence is extremely serious and the police have to be notified from the off. There are inadequate personalities lurking in every corner of the Internet who should be made to carry the consequences of their actions. The examples talked about above require prison sentences.
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I agree. I'm sure there are laws in place for the case of harassing phone calls and threatening letters and they could be applied equally to twitter (the name of which suddenly seems very appropriate).
 
It strikes me as closely linked to a general trend towards not taking responsibility for your actions. Risk and consequence tends to sharpen instincts in terms of behaviour and these don't tend to be reinforced from an early stage.

Similarly I'm not sure that our government is keeping up with rapidly changing times. Whether that be regulating commercial activity (city and corporation tax etc) or recognising the impact of social media etc. I've never read the terms and conditions of my apple software contracts but I'm sure there's stuff going on there that is probably going to be misused at some point.
 
I think it's rather telling that a threat to tell his mum on him had him scurrying round kissing arse and backtracking at warp speed.

What a hero.
 
There will always be tedious, ignorant, and highly offensive cowards that want to snipe and threaten others, and there are now more ways than ever to do it with an audience. It's just so boring.

The more you tell these idiots how moronic they are the more they feel rewarded. It's the "jackass" syndrome.
 
Tony L said:
Anyone able to explain to me what on earth is happening on Twitter of late?
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Imo the twitter abuse recipients were already in the meeja's current focus, so this has received much coverage than otherwise likely.
Twitter has had such problems while I've been a member (4yrs), amongst other issues because it's easy to create an effectively anonymous account.
However these are examples of disturbingly extreme misogyny.

Are the lil' fish who previously asserted sexism in the UK to be history preparing their retractions?
 
Jonathan

I nearly agree - slowly things improve most of the time, but that's inc' 40 years ago.
However imo a good idea to try and reverse backwards steps, & speed up these improvements where possible.

John
 
I agree that the gender pay gap is narrowing (10% in UK, 15% in EU) but it still exists. The restriction and removal of employment rights will disproportionately affect women as they make up most of the part-time and low paid workforce.

Debs
 
And some of the Twitter and Facebook users go on to do jury service :eek: John Bercow must know the feeling too.
 
Jonathan Ribee said:
I have a very low opinion of the human race. I have a low opinion of my fellow man - UK and worldwide. I think everyone lives in a ridiculous fantasy world where they make up things that get them through the day - especially many things about how they are better than others. That breeds sexism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny, religious fundamentalism, fanaticism - anything and everything that can be used to differentiate and hate.

Until everyone can become Guardian reading women's hour listeners who are currently undergoing gender realignment surgery after a long and committed homosexual relationship with a Muslim.... ...people are probably on the whole going to be a bit shit.

I think that is different from having a society rife with institutional racism, sexism etc. Women don't get paid less and have every profession open to them. Any discrimination by or within any workplace will mean massive penalties for the companies and individuals at fault. Convicted rapists go to prison.

Individual people are still (for the most part) flawed, broken and stupid and quite often willing to yell hurtful comment - even if they don't really mean them. But just because they are hurt inside themselves. Twitter is just 1,000,000 drunken pub conversations. It reflects that people are shit.

Slowly things improve. At least the laws and institutions reflect how things should be. So there is a chance our society can develop further. 40 years ago this was not the case.
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Now if only you can show how your people are shit theory explains they are more likely to be shit to you if you are a woman, or a member of a minority then you might be onto something.
 
Some people will be nasty, if there are no repercussions. Intending only harm: they settle on Twitter much as flies settle on dog sh*t.

For many of them, those few characters represent the outer limits of eloquence. They empty their tiny minds into the space allowed and leave everyone else to wonder what became of basic education, never mind social progress.

If challenged, they will redouble their efforts to insult and injure. Sometimes they claim the right to free speech, but only as a one way flow of invective. They will pick on people who cannot or will not defend themselves in the style of abuse that comes their way. So for the abuser it is easy pickings.

There will always be people who do this sort of thing. Sad.
 
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