There's a huge difference between saying "I hate blahblah.com, it
sucks, and the people who make blahblah.com are weird ass losers and
yuk yuk for what they do" and saying "the people who make
blahblah.com should die" (and now I'm going to describe how + make
pictures displaying my violent fantasies.) I just don't get Schlomo
how you start defending the first in reaction to a movement to
publicly condemn the second. It makes me think you just have no idea
what some people go through.
I to have been in work-related danger -- the place I worked at and
the people I worked with, we were getting death threats on the phone
("jokes" that were also straight-up death threats left on the
answering machine). Our phones were mostly likely tapped (fbi /
nsa?). We got harassing phone calls on our work phone non-stop for
days at a time. Then they'd start on our home phones. People were
followed in their cars. We came to work to fine shit shmeered on our
windows and a sliced up bra hanging over our parking spaces. We
called the bomb squad one day for a suspicious package that came in
the mail (and turned out to be fine, but just the experience of
knowing we were a target for the kind of people who do send mail
bombs, and that we needed to be on the lookout, and then one day we
did need to call the bomb squad to come in with their trucks and
robots and x-ray machines and dogs -- that was a hard thing itself.)
And this went on for several years. YEARS people. Like four or five.
I can I tell you, it looked and felt nothing like the movies.
It's really not fun.
How can anyone have sympathy for what Josh Wolf is going through, and
think what happened to Josh Kinsberg was unjust and wrong -- and then
think what's happening to Kathy Sierra can be defended as "just part
of what the internet is about" / "the internet needs spaces like
this"? I can only notice that it's two men and one woman. (and is it
really just that?)
This kind of violence is accepted as part of what will be the natural
result of a free internet where someone can "have an unfiltered voice
to discuss what is eating them up inside in regards to [their]
passions"?? When you say "the internet needs spaces like this. I even
kinda believe that the public internet was BUILT on spaces like
this" ??? Are you meaning the internet needs spaces where people can
make violent threats? you should go read some constitutional law
about how the Courts have worked out the line between freedom of
expression and prevention of violence. It's not a new issue. And
while I don't have time to write out the whole story to educate you
-- I can say what Kathy Sierra said: THIS IS NOT ABOUT FREEDOM OF
EXPRESSION.
Perhaps being this "accepting" of acts of intense violence is
something many men can do easily, taking their own safety for
granted, and believing violence is natural and a normal part of
society. Not all men think this -- as many are victims of violence
and injustice, and feel in their gut (and the memory of their body)
just how 'not funny' this is. For those of you who haven't
experienced violence firsthand, be grateful, and then realize maybe
you could learn something new, by listening to people share what
they've been through and how terrifying and eroding it is. Somehow
everyone understood in their gut on 9/11/01 that real world planes
crashing into buildings is nothing like a Hollywood thriller. Getting
threatening email and having websites come after your personal safety
is nothing to be taken lightly either.
alrighty
my dinner is starting to burn and that's not good either
Jen
Jen Simmons
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://jensimmons.com
http://milkweedmediadesign.com
267-235-6967
