3 ms·

Being harassed/doxed is different than being cancelled It is important to disambiguate the two

bostonsre 5y ago
That line seems blurry to me. How do you define both and where is the line? I'm not sure that many angry emotional twitter users contemplate any line, I would assume most just think "I strongly disagree with that person's opinion or actions and I must punish them". I think most people would agree that harassment and doxing are bad, but I also think that most people would think that doing bad things to "bad" people is sometimes ok. Mobs of emotional people are not paragons of morality, bad actions by a few quickly spread and the morality of the mob normalizes to that new worse level.
Mirioron 5y ago
The difference being that in one case they harass you directly and in the other they harass your employer, family, and any future employers?
- agogdog 5y ago
  Unorganized individuals from twitter contacting your employer isn't harassment. If it is the implications would be scary the other way around: would you punish someone who pointed out a problem that happened to become popular on a social network?
  - cgriswald 5y ago
    That's not how cancelling works, except maybe in the case of celebrities. When you are canceled, no one calls and has a polite chat with your employer. They call and threaten your employer with arson. They find where you live and vandalize your home. It's harassment. It's illegal.
    - agogdog 5y ago
      That's not what "cancelling" is. That's actual harassment and as you noted it's illegal, and people can and do face criminal charges for it. Cancelling in the way it's being used colloquially is equivilant to "consequences." The vast majority of it takes the form of social media denouncement, boycott attempts, and phone calls stating displeasure with the situation. The small % of threats and violence are generally the strawman used to denounce the entire concept (which again, is simply the call for someone to face the consequences of their actions)... and generally aren't what people who are inciting someone's "cancellation" are calling for. If what you're saying was true, there'd be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people being charged with harassment and criminal threat as a result of "cancel culture"... and there's no evidence of that happening, it's a few outliers just like anything else.

That line seems blurry to me. How do you define both and where is the line? I'm not sure that many angry emotional twitter users contemplate any line, I would assume most just think "I strongly disagree with that person's opinion or actions and I must punish them". I think most people would agree that harassment and doxing are bad, but I also think that most people would think that doing bad things to "bad" people is sometimes ok. Mobs of emotional people are not paragons of morality, bad actions by a few quickly spread and the morality of the mob normalizes to that new worse level.

Mirioron 5y ago

The difference being that in one case they harass you directly and in the other they harass your employer, family, and any future employers?

agogdog 5y ago
Unorganized individuals from twitter contacting your employer isn't harassment. If it is the implications would be scary the other way around: would you punish someone who pointed out a problem that happened to become popular on a social network?
- cgriswald 5y ago
  That's not how cancelling works, except maybe in the case of celebrities. When you are canceled, no one calls and has a polite chat with your employer. They call and threaten your employer with arson. They find where you live and vandalize your home. It's harassment. It's illegal.
  - agogdog 5y ago
    That's not what "cancelling" is. That's actual harassment and as you noted it's illegal, and people can and do face criminal charges for it. Cancelling in the way it's being used colloquially is equivilant to "consequences." The vast majority of it takes the form of social media denouncement, boycott attempts, and phone calls stating displeasure with the situation. The small % of threats and violence are generally the strawman used to denounce the entire concept (which again, is simply the call for someone to face the consequences of their actions)... and generally aren't what people who are inciting someone's "cancellation" are calling for. If what you're saying was true, there'd be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people being charged with harassment and criminal threat as a result of "cancel culture"... and there's no evidence of that happening, it's a few outliers just like anything else.