Had an interesting week filled with hate mail. Took a little time to track it back and discovered this:
I joined the 2008 Year of Lace KAL. As part of my attempts to hone social skills, I did some blog hopping of other members, commenting here and there - you know the type of comments: "nice work, cute project, excited about the club, feel guilty about the sum, etc."
One site, I commented in January, never heard anything else from the person, thought nothing of it.
Fast forward to October - the person is imprisoned for psychological and physical child abuse. When the newspaper releases the story, it carries several references to her knitting blog, ravelry profile, etc.
As a result people slam her blog, prior to this she had about 3 comments a post, average for nobody in nowhere, now each post has upward of 75 comments, all hateful, vicious and vilifying. This seems stupid to me. Both adults are in prison, one hardly thinks their reading a blog. At this point commenting on her blog just gives the defense an in to argue violation of privacy, etc etc.
But these supposedly "good, concerned" people didn't stop there, they have been clicking through to commenters profiles and spreading their vicious nastiness around. As though I do background checks, go to bloggers homes, or indeed could pick bloggers out of police lineups. Having survived an abusive childhood, I now find in adulthood, that I am being accused of condoning these actions. Which feels personally violating. Of course, these people don't explain why They didn't step up and stop it. Could it be that they didn't know either?
All of this brings up an interesting case: Legally, if you post it out in the interweb, at what point can it be used against you? Or for your defense? At what point can a commenter be considered "involved"? I see alot of new legal specialities arising.
I resent not only the nasty mail and comments, but the fact that I had to turn off the Anonymous capacity, thereby cutting one of my favourite people off from commenting.
Off the soapbox and back to the knitting.
7 comments:
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Wow, E, this is so strange. What is the deal with people? That is so violating, and they are probably in real life, pretty normal people, they just feel free to attack otehrs from afar/virtually. Very scary.
Sorry that this is happening to you - how terrible! People really suck sometimes...
Uh-oh... I read about this on another of my favorite blogs. I don't think commenting on someone's blog doesn't account for condoning. The fact is no one really knows what goes on behind the front door of any home. How can a blog commenter possibly know what a fellow blogger is truly doing? I like to think that my blog friends are truly good and beautiful people. I believe that to be true, but if someone I have read and commented on is arrested and convicted of a crime, there's no way I could know as a casual blog reader.
Ouch! Can't believe how easily people use the relative anonymity of electronic communication to slam others and say things they would never think of saying to their faces...sorry you got caught up in this.
Some people have way too much time on their hands. A lot of my blog pals have turned off their anonymous comments lately. Too many meanies.
Wow E. I will quote my favorite bumper sticker "Mean people suck!" Being an abusive person is one thing, but the people who are abusive as a result of the abuser is another. Therefore, I feel that the responder is just as bad as the offender. So many people refuse to think for themselves thus enlarging the gang mentality. Sending lots of hugs, remenber you get what you give in this world and tenfold when you leave this world and meet your maker!
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