This is so sweet. The channers/gamergaters/MRAs/generic assholes have declared 9 March to be a special day.
What is this all about? They’re upset about serious issues like Milo Yiannopoulos’s missing blue checkmark, and how people sometimes (rarely) bet banned or blocked for harassment, so they’ve decided to go all out repulsive for a day. They have a simple plan.
To participate all you have to do is post the most vile and offensive things you can think of (within federal law), in defense of freedom of speech.
Oh, man, brilliant. That’ll convince the world these worthies must be given a louder voice.
It’s funny but the only example of triggering I’ve ever seen is Milo over his blue checkmark, or any of his fanboys when you mention blue checkmarks around them.
So.
This is going to take place on Twitter and Facebook?
Notoriety fades over time and a reminder becomes necessary. At least I assume that is the reasoning behind this. Lest the world forget about these people and imagine itself to be a better place than it really is. Can’t have that now, can we?
The guy who wrote that post at Age of Shitlords says this about himself:
Mighty high opinion of himself he has.
To participate all you have to do is post the most vile and offensive things you can think of (within federal law), in defense of freedom of speech.
Next, let’s go around lighting fires in defense of the fire department.
Amazing they’re proud of that self-endowed title. At least it’s accurate. So, anyone want to bet twitter won’t do a thing about this, um, event?
It’ll fall on non-listening ears, but I had to leave a comment over there:
@Tony! The Queer Shoop
The atheist experience blog has post on its moderation policy which at the end points to this
http://xkcd.com/1357/
It’s a lovely illustration of some of the points you make about freedom of speech.
Psh, these are the same kind of people that think “no-platforming” is a thing. If not paying loons huge amount of money to peddle bullshit is somehow stifling free speech, what twitter did to Milo must be like the end of days.
I do also think this is funny that it is yet another way that gaters and transphobic feminists converge in behavior – see the reaction to Greer getting “no-platformed” or Brennan being banned from certain LGBT bars.
Maybe I’m a simpleton who read too many Superman comics as a kid, but I’m pretty sure that that knowingly doing harm is they act of the villain, not the hero.
But see, they don’t think they’re doing damage. By their mind, everyone is just looking for a reason to get offended* and needs to get over it.
*Unlike Milo, who is completely within normal bounds for whining over a blue checkmark.
Don’t get your hopes up. These people are too stupid to come up with anything really offensive.
Well said, Tony! I’m kind of glad that I’m neither on Facebook or Twitter as I can just imagine the bigotry which these lovely people will post tomorrow in the name of “free speech”.
@mond #8
The Alt text for that XKCD is also excellent. It includes “defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you’re saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it’s not literally illegal to express”
Unfortunately I don’t have a Facebook account, so I can’t log in overthere. I planned to post this comment:
TheFoolAndtheWorld has less brain cells than an amoebe.
If any of the ::ahem:: “distinguished” members of the manosphere decide to engage in this ridiculous #Triggering event, I imagine Dave Futrelle over at We Hunted the Mammoth will cover their shenanigans.
It pisses me off so badly that these people have taken over free speech.
Free speech is a fucking important right, and they make a joke of it.
(Also, Yay XKCD!)
I got one of those “We notice you’re using an ad blocker” things when I clicked on the link. :D
These people know very well that harassment is in fact a method of silencing people; that is their goal, that is why they keep doing it. Therefor, they also know that when they claim to “defend freedom of speech”, they lie.
To those of their ilk, that means threatening women with rape and murder from behind a wall of anonymity. They think it’s because they’re not held accountable for their words.
So they plan on proving they’re not unrepentant assholes by acting as much like unrepentant assholes as they can?
The words “own goal” spring to mind.
What a hilarious birthday present. I wonder if they knew.
Ha, Just found out Bin Laden’s B-day is the same as my Ex’s…. Figures.
I’ve made my peace with these fuckwits claiming that what they’re doing is free speech. Free speech is important so that, no matter how much power you accrue, at the end of the day you can’t stop a really good argument from being heard. These guys lost that argument. Free speech isn’t a totem or a magic spell that magically defeats tyrants (as America is demonstrating now that many of your countrymen are seriously considering electing one). Free speech means that at least you’ve got a chance of persuasion.
There’s a delicious irony in how the people who bleat loudest about free speech are those who don’t understand why it’s so vital.
Truely unbelievable. A gaggle of overprivileged, whining spleenmuffins make their own special day for posting vile and offensive things on the internet. So how exactly does this differ from every other day?
Happy barfday then, PZ, I guess. I hope you enjoy it.
“Within federal law”
In other words, they’re too cowardly to ACTUALLY push back against regulation of speech. They only want to fight battles with no opposing side, and no chance that they’ll get hurt.
Obce again that time of year when PZ steals my birthday by having his on the same day. Outrageous!
This is adorable. I like how they totally fail to grasp that being #triggered is entirely unrelated to being triggered. The only way they have a chance of getting an overlap is if they make a point of targeting particular people with their “vile and offensive” statements… which is probably not the best way to demonstrate that they are The Good Guys in this war for the epic justices.
I also like how they’ve mentioned that it’s between international women’s day (moar liek international watch Richard Herring correct silly boys on the twitter who ask about why there’s no international men’s day, amirite?!) and Bin Laden’s birthday, as if there’s any connection between the two. So someone terrible was born two days after another day. So what? I was born on the exact same day(!!!) that Galileo was convicted of heresy… so what? (Also the first manned space flight. Fuck yeah! That totally tells you things about me! No. Stop that. Put your eyebrows down!)
Happy birthday, enjoy the bargleworks!
@27: Just what I was thinking, altered story. If they really wanted to protect or expand free speech they’d say “say something that challenges federal (or state or local) law” and back that statement up with a promise to support anyone arrested for doing so through the legal process. Now that might actually be of some benefit to the cause of free speech. Instead, they choose to attack the vulnerable and not challenge power. Typical freeze peach supporters.
=8)-DX
Tell me about it! Does it to me every year, too!!!!
Happy birthday PZ and =8)-DX!
How will anybody notice the difference?
Their sense of entitlement is too big and egos are too fragile. The dudebro asshats’ free speech is under attack about as much as Christmas is under attack. Talk about professional victims.
Happy birthday, PZ & =8)-DX.
Oh goddamn it, I just realized, is the pointed choice of a date between women’s day and bin laden’s birthday another one of those “feminism and islam are the same” things again?
I don’t know why this made me think of an old Flanders and Swann song:
“Ma’s out, Pa’s out, Let’s talk rude!
“Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.
“Dance round the garden in the nude,
“Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.
“Let’s write rude words all down our street,
“Stick out our tongues at the people we meet,
“Let’s have an intellectual treat for
“Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers.”
Unless we need an excuse to oppress Islamic people, either internally or externally, at which point Islam is terrible for women and anti-feminist and surely all feminists are on the side of bombing and banning head scarfs, right?
This is my favourite one… https://twitter.com/silentrunning12/status/707572483629559809
That history lesson was so quick it somehow missed the Civil Rights era and Nixon’s Southern Strategy. It also ignores which party is full of people who want to repeal the 14th.
Oh, all those quote marks are because for some reason the tag wouldn’t work for the whole thing.
@Tabby Lavalamp
Sooo… I’m neither an American, nor a historian, but wasn’t the 15th’s amendment ratified some time in the late 1800s? I find it odd that there’s a ~120+ year gap in there.
“Our party’s pretty progressive for a century ago!”
Don’t be silly, absolutely nothing of any significance happened in US politics between 1870 and 2010. NOTHING!
Also, pay no attention to the 19th Amendment. The 15th gave the right to vote to everybody, I tell you!
Athyren @29
Well, based on past practices, targetting an individual and deliberately triggering them with “vile and offensive” statements is seen by some as the way to be The Good Guys. And, as with most authoritarian ideas (and yes, the harrassment that survivors, real survivors, have been subjected to is a way to silence them, to deny their ability to affect the body politic, to drive them out of the public sphere, is, most definitely, an authoritarian tactic — lots of voices which may disagree? democracy; lots of voices which all agree? authority), limiting the voice of those they have decided are the enemy is a good way to win. So to them, I think, silencing people who disagree, does make them The Good Guys.
Odd, though. They claim they are protesting for free speech, and yet they are ignoring the historic and legal underpinnings of the idea. They are actually arguing that freedom of speech means that anyone must give them a platform to say (write) whatever the fuck they want. When a blogger bans someone, they are not the government stifling free speech, they are a private entity saying, “Stop pissing on my carpet.”
Sorry. Soapboxing there.
Happy Birthday opposablethumbs, PZ and =8)-DX!!
+++
So, #TheTriggering is basically the Twitter equivalent of loudly and intentionally farting in an elevator: You know it’S wrong, you know it greatly annoys people but they can stop you from farting when you’re dead.
The funny thing is: “#TheTriggering” might be the most obvious trigger warning ever…
@42
And meeeee. And I am even a year older than PZ. So my birthday is 1/60 th more valuable (aged?)
59/60 ths of a poopyhead? (A poopyheac ?)
I just found out. Today was National Poopday in the Netherlands. Fitting.
Happy birthday PZ and =8)-DX and opposablethumbs and empty!
Sorry if I missed anyone.
to repeat: Happy birthday PZ and =8)-DX and opposablethumbs and empty!
How many visitors does this joint have today, and how big of a coincidence is this? Two in a group is the normal “birthday problem” but can anyone do the math for four?
Hi empty, happy birthday! You join an illustrious coterie all right :-) (well, PZ is definitely illustrious, =8)-DX has appropriate luminosity and me, I am sneaking onto the calendarian coat-tails while nobody’s looking :-) )
Happy birthday PZ and =8)-DX and opposablethumbs and empty and Juliette Binoche!
The 9th didn’t seem any different from any other day on the Internet.