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The author and her family received death threats over this. She briefly left the US for her own safety, and was harassed and bullied “to the brink of suicide.”

The author and her family received death threats over this. She briefly left the US for her own safety, and was harassed and bullied “to the brink of suicide.” Flippant dismissal of the Internet hate mob is all well and good until it comes for you. The Metro employee faced no disciplinary action. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/dc-metro-writer-tweet-eating-train-book-sue-publisher https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/dc-met...

dguaraglia 6y ago
I fail to see how the author's plight at the hands of the internet mob makes the situation less nuanced. Flippant dismissal of facts isn't going to help things get better either.
- filmgirlcw 6y ago
  This. For the record, I’m not saying she should have been harassed. I’m not even arguing she should have lost work or had her book distributor who didn’t have a contract with her say they didn’t want to distribute her book. I find the outcome fitting given the circumstances, but I’m not rallying for that outcome. What I am arguing is that framing her as a victim of cancel ignores a much bigger part of the story and as dguaragalia says, dismissing the facts and eschewing the nuance for optimum outrage is extremely unhelpful.
  - dguaraglia 6y ago
    Thanks for formulating this in much more understandable terms than my comment!
- jariel 6y ago
  No, this is upside down. The entire point of the situation is that the nuances are not hugely relevant in the big picture. Moreover, the nuances are never catered to in cancel culture anyhow. Nothing remotely significant happened in this situation that should have involved anything other than maybe some stern retorts on the medium she started on i.e. Twitter. The commenter thinking that 'this was a good outcome' gives us a great example of the vindictive pettiness and overreaction of cancel culture. You don't lose your job and livelihood for a possibly distasteful public remark, probably taken out of context. It's actually a pretty great example of the stupidity of cancel culture.
  - dguaraglia 6y ago
    > Nothing remotely significant happened in this situation that should have involved anything other than maybe some stern retorts on the medium she started on i.e. Twitter. Somehow you miss the other side of this: her interaction on her train ride didn't deserve to be more significant than the average unpleasant experienced 10 times a week by anyone living in a city. She actively tried to make it bigger, then it got blown out of proportion by people like her, who blow shit out of proportion. Maybe we should all start taking responsibility for our actions, instead of screaming 'cancel culture' whenever they catch up to us.
    - jariel 6y ago
      Yes, except that an apology was all that was necessary. Claims of racism in the national press are ridiculous.
krok 6y ago
I don't want to dismiss what she experienced and how upsetting it must have been, but "she received death threats" covers a lot of ground. Apparently lots of people make internet death threats all the time. Every single case like this mentions death threats. I don't think these death threats are in general credible. Clearly at least some of them are made by people who just join in with and escalate online arguments for amusement. I assume at least some of them are made by people hoping to 'discredit the other side'.

dguaraglia 6y ago

I fail to see how the author's plight at the hands of the internet mob makes the situation less nuanced. Flippant dismissal of facts isn't going to help things get better either.

filmgirlcw 6y ago
This. For the record, I’m not saying she should have been harassed. I’m not even arguing she should have lost work or had her book distributor who didn’t have a contract with her say they didn’t want to distribute her book. I find the outcome fitting given the circumstances, but I’m not rallying for that outcome. What I am arguing is that framing her as a victim of cancel ignores a much bigger part of the story and as dguaragalia says, dismissing the facts and eschewing the nuance for optimum outrage is extremely unhelpful.
- dguaraglia 6y ago
  Thanks for formulating this in much more understandable terms than my comment!
jariel 6y ago
No, this is upside down. The entire point of the situation is that the nuances are not hugely relevant in the big picture. Moreover, the nuances are never catered to in cancel culture anyhow. Nothing remotely significant happened in this situation that should have involved anything other than maybe some stern retorts on the medium she started on i.e. Twitter. The commenter thinking that 'this was a good outcome' gives us a great example of the vindictive pettiness and overreaction of cancel culture. You don't lose your job and livelihood for a possibly distasteful public remark, probably taken out of context. It's actually a pretty great example of the stupidity of cancel culture.
- dguaraglia 6y ago
  > Nothing remotely significant happened in this situation that should have involved anything other than maybe some stern retorts on the medium she started on i.e. Twitter. Somehow you miss the other side of this: her interaction on her train ride didn't deserve to be more significant than the average unpleasant experienced 10 times a week by anyone living in a city. She actively tried to make it bigger, then it got blown out of proportion by people like her, who blow shit out of proportion. Maybe we should all start taking responsibility for our actions, instead of screaming 'cancel culture' whenever they catch up to us.
  - jariel 6y ago
    Yes, except that an apology was all that was necessary. Claims of racism in the national press are ridiculous.

krok 6y ago

I don't want to dismiss what she experienced and how upsetting it must have been, but "she received death threats" covers a lot of ground. Apparently lots of people make internet death threats all the time. Every single case like this mentions death threats. I don't think these death threats are in general credible. Clearly at least some of them are made by people who just join in with and escalate online arguments for amusement. I assume at least some of them are made by people hoping to 'discredit the other side'.