I spotted this on a long and heated Facebook discussion of free speech and Freeze Peach (and the conflation of attack with disagreement, and the duty to educate people who keep uttering familiar backlash tropes over and over again, and the need or desire to have more interesting and productive discussions as opposed to squandering time educating people in the basics ad infinitum, and other related subjects), and it got my attention.
And so the dance continues. Free speech in regard to government is not the issue, but the ability to discuss all ideas and opinions without censorship, regardless if they make us uncomfortable or particularly disagreeable. I’ve no issue with someone not holding to my opinions or agreeing with whatever facts I put out in any given course of debate. I don’t even necessarily mind being told I can no post on someone’s personal blog. What I do mind is when my points of view are met with personal attacks or being told I deserve to have acid thrown in my face.
Well naturally; who wouldn’t mind being told that?
Wait. What? Has anyone ever told Al Stefanelli he deserves to have acid thrown in his face? Ever? I’ve certainly never heard of it – and it’s not the kind of thing that decent people say. It would be a surprising and non-routine thing to happen. If it did happen, wouldn’t the people who spend all day on Twitter blaming “FTBullies” for everything except the weather have told us all about it at least seven million times? Wouldn’t it be its own hashtag by now? Wouldn’t we all know about it?
I don’t think anyone has ever told Al Stefanelli that. I think he must have remembered that someone said that to someone, and confabulated that into someone saying it to him.
Which is pretty pathetic from my point of view, because you know who the someone is who was told that? I am. I was told that. Not Al Stefanelli; me. I was told it would be an improvement, too.
Interesting, isn’t it? They’ll not only deny that we get any harassment, not only endlessly insist that it’s not harassment it’s just disagreement aka criticism – they’ll even steal the actual harassment and pretend it was done to them.
Update: I was wrong, it did happen to Al Stefanelli. Details on the follow-up post.
I told him the tool for @the_block_bot that got rid of all its fake followers was available for him to use to eradicate his 80-90% of fakes. He didn’t take that too well, but not exactly the same as a threat and personal attack…
Who told Al Stefanelli he deserves to have acid thrown in his face? Perhaps the same fictional person who insisted that merely being white, straight, cis, and male makes him EEEEEEEVIL.
blaming “FTBullies” for everything except the weather
What, you lot didn’t cause the Colorado floods? It wasn’t a nefarious scheme financed by Ed, and executed by PZ with the Weather Control Machine in the secret lab in Morris? (You know: the one he claims is a zebra fish hatchery?)
You non-evil non-bastards.
Hmm, perhaps we can set up a debate between Al “What I do mind is when my points of view are met with personal attacks” Stefanelli and Justin “If you don’t like the abuse you’re getting, get off the Internet” Vacula.
I wouldn’t be all that surprised if some asshat of an #FTBully troll decided to send Stefanelli a message like that, pretending to be someone on “this side” to stir up more shit. I for one cannot imagine why such a person would think that the “other side” would fail to recall that people over here have already spoken out against that kind of abhorrent threat, though…
Now that is rich. All too familiar, though.
Oh Al, do yourself a favor and pull your head out of your ass. It’s so much nicer out here, I promise.
Well, I’d like to give Mr Stefanelli the chance to show who’s been threatening him like this… I don’t hold much hope for a straight answer though.
Does anyone want to place odds on a No Response / Diversion / Actual Evidence ticket?
Actually he did show one. It’s someone I don’t know from Adam, and in the context of that discussion he seemed to be implying it was somebody on Team EverythingBad (i.e., you know, us) – but still, it is an item.
I read his little Storify and thought, “Wait… is he really trying to paint himself as the good guy in this conversation? Because he’s coming off like a trolling asshole.”
Yeah… doesn’t show you “who” from “someone”. More details needed.
So that’s bad now? I thought you were told to pipe down when you were told the same thing?
I think Al’s a jerk. I’m still sorry someone told him he deserved any kind of violence. He does not. Iy’s a horrible thing to say. I wonder, though, what he thinks of the same thing happening with more frequency to the folks he “disagrees” with?