4 ms·

That's a fair bit more substantial than the "death threats" that continually float about on both sides of debates like GamerGate and whatever. Very sad that th

by swombat 11y ago

That's a fair bit more substantial than the "death threats" that continually float about on both sides of debates like GamerGate and whatever. Very sad that this happens anywhere in the world. Surprised? Not entirely. This is the local Bangladeshi version of Charlie Hebdo...

ritchiea 11y ago
I find your comment to be thoroughly xenophobic and unwilling to face the reality of the United States. Sure, you aren't likely to literally get attacked by Islamists with machetes in the US. But minimizing the threats of gamergate violence is completely unnecessary and unrealistic. Is it really that difficult to imagine one of the gamergate threats to be from an individual like the UC Santa Barbara shooter or the Aurora Colorado shooter? Don't you think that's the worst fear of the women targeted by gamergate? And frankly, a legitimate fear based on events in the United State over the past 5-10 years? The United States has a huge public violence problem, it just happens to be different from the one in Bangladesh.
- DanielBMarkham 11y ago
  Place A has online death threats where people are literally hacked to death. Place B has online death threats where nobody is injured yet a lot of people get upset. Xenophobia has nothing to do with it. It's a simple observation. Now if you followed up that observation with something like "And its because everybody who isn't in Place B are degenerate lunatics and shouldn't be trusted"? Then that's xenophobia. Get your terms straight. Online free speech is under attack in a lot of ways: government surveillance, social peer pressure, fundamentalist religions, and so forth. I don't think trotting out terms like "racist" or "xenophobe" helps in understanding or coming to terms with the problem.
  - ritchiea 11y ago
    At what point do we know that the persistent death threats are just kids being obnoxious and no one is going to be hurt? At what point would you personally be comfortable if your inbox was being blasted with threats of violence? And the only kind of xenophobia is the explicit, aggressive kind? So would you say the only kind of sexism is the kind where you must explicitly prohibit women from doing certain activities or holding certain roles? And the only kind of racism is the kind that existed in the American south prior to the late 60's?
    - swombat 11y ago
      > At what point do we know that the persistent death threats are just kids being obnoxious and no one is going to be hurt? Well, a partial answer to that may be: you never know whether the death threats are real or not until something like what is happening in Bangladesh happens. But once bloggers actually get hacked to death, you definitely do know, for sure. I don't think anyone would or should feel comfortable getting death threats via any medium. However, I know that I'd feel a lot less comfortable getting the same death threats in Bangladesh than in, say, Sweden, all other things being equal. Also, please stop bringing your bias to this discussion. I understand you're passionately on the "anti-GG" side of this debate. I'm not. I really don't care for either side. I'm sure you can make your points without turning this into yet another pointless threat arguing about "SJWs vs misogynist assholes". Let's not bring this crap to HN.
- swombat 11y ago
  I think it's important to clarify your post with one simple fact: death threats and doxxing have occurred on both sides of the GG "debate" ("debacle" perhaps more accurate). Without that pointed out, you seem extremely biased. I wasn't taking any sides there, just making an observation about the level of violence experienced in Bangladesh vs the US.
  - ritchiea 11y ago
    That's fair. I actually hadn't heard of any death threats or doxxing coming from the pro-feminist side but it certainly wouldn't shock me. There's dark depths and fanaticism everywhere. But it does come off as smug and privileged to laugh off any of those threats. I can't imagine someone threatening my life and me feeling 100% comfortable that they're just doing it to intimidate me.
    - swombat 11y ago
      Milo Yiannopoulos has been fairly public, though blasé, about receiving death threats and even syringes in the post: https://twitter.com/nero/status/506435662481219585 https://twitter.com/nero/status/506435662481219585 https://twitter.com/nero/status/513666683916255232 https://twitter.com/nero/status/513666683916255232 I recall some others were threatened too, though I don't remember exactly. Not exactly worth spending brain cells on, tbh...
GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
In practice, things are a little bit more one-sided. Also: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/07/university-mary-washington-yik-yak_n_7233702.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/07/university-mary-was...

by swombat 11y ago

ritchiea 11y ago

I find your comment to be thoroughly xenophobic and unwilling to face the reality of the United States. Sure, you aren't likely to literally get attacked by Islamists with machetes in the US. But minimizing the threats of gamergate violence is completely unnecessary and unrealistic. Is it really that difficult to imagine one of the gamergate threats to be from an individual like the UC Santa Barbara shooter or the Aurora Colorado shooter? Don't you think that's the worst fear of the women targeted by gamergate? And frankly, a legitimate fear based on events in the United State over the past 5-10 years? The United States has a huge public violence problem, it just happens to be different from the one in Bangladesh.

DanielBMarkham 11y ago
Place A has online death threats where people are literally hacked to death. Place B has online death threats where nobody is injured yet a lot of people get upset. Xenophobia has nothing to do with it. It's a simple observation. Now if you followed up that observation with something like "And its because everybody who isn't in Place B are degenerate lunatics and shouldn't be trusted"? Then that's xenophobia. Get your terms straight. Online free speech is under attack in a lot of ways: government surveillance, social peer pressure, fundamentalist religions, and so forth. I don't think trotting out terms like "racist" or "xenophobe" helps in understanding or coming to terms with the problem.
- ritchiea 11y ago
  At what point do we know that the persistent death threats are just kids being obnoxious and no one is going to be hurt? At what point would you personally be comfortable if your inbox was being blasted with threats of violence? And the only kind of xenophobia is the explicit, aggressive kind? So would you say the only kind of sexism is the kind where you must explicitly prohibit women from doing certain activities or holding certain roles? And the only kind of racism is the kind that existed in the American south prior to the late 60's?
  - swombat 11y ago
    > At what point do we know that the persistent death threats are just kids being obnoxious and no one is going to be hurt? Well, a partial answer to that may be: you never know whether the death threats are real or not until something like what is happening in Bangladesh happens. But once bloggers actually get hacked to death, you definitely do know, for sure. I don't think anyone would or should feel comfortable getting death threats via any medium. However, I know that I'd feel a lot less comfortable getting the same death threats in Bangladesh than in, say, Sweden, all other things being equal. Also, please stop bringing your bias to this discussion. I understand you're passionately on the "anti-GG" side of this debate. I'm not. I really don't care for either side. I'm sure you can make your points without turning this into yet another pointless threat arguing about "SJWs vs misogynist assholes". Let's not bring this crap to HN.
swombat 11y ago
I think it's important to clarify your post with one simple fact: death threats and doxxing have occurred on both sides of the GG "debate" ("debacle" perhaps more accurate). Without that pointed out, you seem extremely biased. I wasn't taking any sides there, just making an observation about the level of violence experienced in Bangladesh vs the US.
- ritchiea 11y ago
  That's fair. I actually hadn't heard of any death threats or doxxing coming from the pro-feminist side but it certainly wouldn't shock me. There's dark depths and fanaticism everywhere. But it does come off as smug and privileged to laugh off any of those threats. I can't imagine someone threatening my life and me feeling 100% comfortable that they're just doing it to intimidate me.
  - swombat 11y ago
    Milo Yiannopoulos has been fairly public, though blasé, about receiving death threats and even syringes in the post: https://twitter.com/nero/status/506435662481219585 https://twitter.com/nero/status/506435662481219585 https://twitter.com/nero/status/513666683916255232 https://twitter.com/nero/status/513666683916255232 I recall some others were threatened too, though I don't remember exactly. Not exactly worth spending brain cells on, tbh...

GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago

In practice, things are a little bit more one-sided. Also: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/07/university-mary-washington-yik-yak_n_7233702.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/07/university-mary-was...