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In particular, what I'm saying is that "fighting fire with fire" is a far cry from "taking the high road." In another comment, oskarth posits that she "did eve
by bmelton 15y ago
In particular, what I'm saying is that "fighting fire with fire" is a far cry from "taking the high road."
In another comment, oskarth posits that she "did everything right" by not going to her supervisor, so as to avoid "turning it into drama".
How does this not turn it into drama? Isn't that what supervisors are for? I understand the inclination to avoid being the snitch, but all this does is set her up for equally serious rebukement by management if and when it does get escalated there, and prevents her from having a leg to stand on.
Whether or not it is as offensive as the other, I think we all know that it was intended to be at least as annoying.
What she's effectively done is the digital equivalent to "I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you." while holding her finger one inch from the face of her co-workers. That's fine and dandy, but she doesn't get to respond like a two year old and also expect me to think highly of her actions.
- wpietri 15y agoRight. By calling them both "fire" you're drawing an equivalence between a bot posting sexist jokes and a bot posting feminist quotes. Or more simply, an equivalence between sexist and non-sexist behavior. See the problem?
- bmelton 15y agoHonestly, no. They're both, in and of themselves, wrong. I therefore look down on both parties almost equally. I'm not saying that what she did is any more wrong than the actions that prompted it, however, it certainly isn't right, and that's why I don't consider it appropriate. Regardless of equating it to 'fire', which I certainly didn't intend for anyone to take literally as it is an idiom, I'd think my synopsis at least appropriately defined the situation. She knowingly tried to out-annoy her co-workers to get them to resolve the issue, and expects that to somehow smooth things over? Perhaps it's a stupid thing to be arguing about, but you'll have to forgive me if I save my applause for someone not seeking the most annoying way toward peaceful resolution.
- wpietri 15y agoI'd say that when comparing sexist and non-sexist behavior, only one of them is necessarily wrong. That being the former in case you're missing it. Indeed, by posting feminist quotes rather than something equally but oppositely sexist, I'd say she de-escalated the situation. So she in fact did not take the most annoying way out.
- readymade 15y agoWhat do you think is wrong about writing an IRC bot that responds to "that's what she said" with quotes from famous women? I'm curious. Because the only answers I can imagine are (a) you think writing IRC bots is wrong, (b) you think that displaying quotes from famous women is wrong, or (c) engaging in public discourse that politely and indirectly calls attention to sexist behavior is wrong. I'll wait. I'd really love to hear more of your opinion on this.
- bmelton 15y agoRegardless of what is said out loud, I believe the author's intent was to annoy her tormentors into submission. I do not think that writing IRC bots is wrong (though I would consider them irritating), I do not think quotes from famous women is necessarily wrong (though one could suppose a non-curated list could potentially go awry). I don't have a problem with polite discourse, but I don't think that's what this was. I assume that she was polite when she brought it up before, when she was ignored. Had she stopped there, or gone to a superior, or an HR department, then I believe she would have been in the right. Again, I'm not saying that what she did was offensive. Just that it wasn't the high road. It isn't the right thing to do. She isn't Rosa Parks refusing to sit in the back of the bus, she's just trying to turn their own antics against them. As a prank, I'd applaud it. As a means of peacably resolving an uncomfortable situation, I consider it a failure, at best.
- readymade 15y agoYou've said at least a few times that you think the bot was designed to annoy, but I'm still curious as to what you think was or was intended to be annoying (let alone impolite) about it. Is there a way, in your eyes, that she could have been more polite without saying nothing at all?
- readymade 15y agoWhat makes you think it was intended to be, or is, annoying?