You know what I like about Twitter? Everyone lets it all hang out. It’s humanity without the filters, where people say precisely what’s on their minds without trying to second-guess whether it might offend someone. And it reveals the ugly truth: a lot of people actually are world-class assholes.
Take the announcement that Harriet Tubman will be honored on the $20 bill. As expected, some people on Twitter are raging over it. Cynics, rejoice: the ugliness of humanity is on naked display in one easily accessible place. I mean, look at this:
Self-hating cuckservative @Doug_Bandow wants white Jackson removed from $20 and replaced by ugly dindu Tubman. What a faggot.
— End Cultural Marxism (@genophilia) April 20, 2016
That’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t normally see outside of Twitter, or a Ku Klux Klan rally, or Thanksgiving with your relatives, or some such similar venue outside the bounds of civilized society.
Here’s another example. I am not a sports fan, but even I have heard of Curt Schilling, but not because of baseball — it’s because he’s an astonishingly ignorant jerk on Twitter. He’s a creationist, he’s a homophobe, he’s simply a disgraceful human being. Without Twitter, though, people might still think of him as a guy who was really skilled at playing with a ball and stick. But no, he happily exposed the rotting, maggot-filled black pudding that constitutes his brain to everyone, and now ESPN has fired him. ESPN has never been at all coherent on their policies on these things — they suspend contributors over far more trivial offenses than Curt Schilling routinely committed — but he made some sneering transphobic comment about bathrooms that finally was enough, and the just plain fired him. About time.
So he wasn’t humane enough for a sports network, but you’ll be pleased to know that he still has his Twitter account, where he’s currently representing Christianity and weeping over his martyrdom. Twitter has no expectations of decorum or intelligence.
Only reason I know who the heck Curt Schilling is is because of the 38 Studios fiasco.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/38_Studios
On Schilling’s twitter feed, from Easter Sunday, 2016.
Apparently, they don’t teach arithmetic in ball-throwing school, either.
Yikes. What a role-model for youth.
It’s an interesting phenomenon really. Certainly the anonymity of the internet leads to rampant fucknuttery as stated by GIFT, but for some reason even non-anonymous communications over the internet seem to remove people’s shit filter. Perhaps something about making the communication less personal, since it can be made without being face-to-face. Kinda like how it’s easier to demonize LGBTs when you don’t actually know any of them personally. Face-to-face communication requires more empathy. Electronic communication removes the empathy requirements, promoting more unfiltered ideas spewing forth.
In addition to the obvious arithmetical issues, the “on this day” claim is problematic, given the way that Easter Sunday moves around…
Christ got crucified very early this year
My theory is that you can’t see your audience wince when you tweet. At least not until it’s too late.
yet they all claim to
One thinkg about Twatter is that it seems like an easy way to achieve a worldwide fame. To do so one must say the most outrageous things in the most utrageous way possible to attract all the clicks, eh?
The Verge has a lengthy article on the muddled progress of moderation at various companies: The secret rules of the Internet. Reading it reminded me of how soul-destroying a job that must be, and made me despair for humanity.
A pleasant surprise after the Keith Law incident.
Curt Schilling is a complete jackwagon on all platforms, but it’s Facebook more than Twitter he needs to be kept away from. Mostly I’m glad that I don’t need to try to get #FireCurtSchilling trending; I should have known he’d do it all on his own.
Damn it, M. L. @1! I really like the Kingdoms of Amalur game! Now I know of this connection… Crap.
But is Schilling a Hall of Fame quality pitcher? Plenty of them are, or were, assholes.
Anime avatars: First sign that you can safely ignore someone’s opinion.
@11 cjcolucci — well it’s widely known that Smoltzie got in with fewer career wins and Schilling did not because people can’t stand him. Admittedly, Smoltz went on to become a fantastic reliever after his Tommy John surgery, but Schill had some legendary World Series performances. Is the slap worse than not giving Williams the MVP in ’47, when he won the Triple Crown? No, not even close — 214 wins would never have made it in a generation ago. But we may never see a 300-win pitcher again, and now 10 or 12 20-win seasons is the new yardstick. So everyone seems rather delighted that Schill is getting the old freeze-out for being such a jerk. Even Bostonians were down on him after the bloody sock win in 2004, when he just couldn’t shut up about bashing Kerry and woofing “Vote For Bush” three times per interview. In freakin’ Boston, where he wouldn’t have had to buy another drink for the rest of his life if he’d just shut the fuck up.
Oh, BTW, you made me look up “dindu”. Kinda wish I hadn’t.
Yeah, that one is relatively new (though the sentiment behind it is not), coined in the last few years by the denizens of 4chan. At least that’s the first references I ever saw. It’s possible that it’s older and was simply brought out of obscurity by 4chan. Either way, that alone tells you all you need to know about the word without even looking up the definition.
Calling someone “self-hating” it’s such a tell of the xenophobes…
these people are so f’n tedious it is unbelievable. I am glad I have arranged my life in such a way so as to seldom come into contact with any of them any more myself. reading that kind of crap or hearing on TV coming from some politician is bad enough.
uncle frogy
That last twit, “prowhitesunite”, in the Raw Story article has an interesting avatar. While not an anime character, Ukrainian attorney Natalia Poklonskaya is popular with some Internet denizens. Maybe they were happy in 2014 to see a real-life attractive young woman in a uniform. But never mind that she is working for the Russians in their occupation of Crimea.
Regarding Natalia Poklonskaya, I think her pro-Russian actions are part of her popularity. The Alt-Right loves Putin.
Please, don’t insult black pudding with a comparison like that. It deserves better.
I saw this story a few days ago. It made me glad that I keep my social media presence to a minimum.
I also go by the rule : Never say anything online that you wouldn’t say to them in person.