A Witch-Hunt on Instagram | Hacker News Reader

A Witch-Hunt on Instagram

quillette.com

52 pointsmastazi17 comments

Outrage culture is a cancer.

You can find offense in literally any statement. Try to think of any statement that can't be twisted into offense.

The fact that it can now (thanks to both SJWs and Alt-Right) be weaponized is perhaps only second to the complete archiving of everyone's personal data, as the worst thing about the Internet.

"Boycotts" consist not of refusing to buy something from a company, but systematically harassing every element in a company's supply chain until they just give in and do what you want to stop the drama.

"Witch-hunts" ruin lives and have driven people to suicide.

Some people say, "well you shouldn't say things if you don't want the response", and I think TFA shows a great example of that not being the case at all. You could be (from your perspective) talking or sharing with friends, and offend someone (as established above, this is impossible not to do) and now you are off to the races!

Others claim it is a powerful tool to stop racists and bigots. I would say that a nuclear bomb would also stop racists and bigots, but like this cancer, it will also destroy everyone else in the process.

People should be called out on this shit, even if they are doing it for a noble reason.

It is indeed comical when people object to so-called cultural appropriation, say Japan, when those who are supposed to be appropriated have no objection at all.

What's even funnier is it's often people (who are not British nor their descendants) raising this objection in the English language...

You don't have to humor every opinion, nor rebut them, and it's quite okay to tell people that you don't care about their opinions at all. They can go seethe and sulk somewhere else.

It's also okay to publicly laugh at people who demand the world revolve around them, or insist that you can't wear a certain hat or eat a certain food or travel to a certain place for fun.

Be a little less afraid of opinions.

edit: and maybe a little more vicious in your own defense, lest this all get worse.

Except that in cases like this, the people objecting aren't just "voicing an opinion", they're what amount to keen amateur oppo research/reputation and business destruction operatives.

Read the article, they go straight to how do we destroy this person's sponsors, purchasers, kill their following.

In the end you have two options, give in, or don't -- and if you give in, they may still say "not good enough" or "I don't believe you".

If you negotiate with hostage takers, you encourage hostage taking.

Ignoring it or fighting back probably get better results than a milquetoast apologetic response, but either seems a bit more daring. Particularly when your small business is on the line.

all these witch hunts can be boiled down to the fact that everybody loves drama, it's just entertaining

I'm with you, but I'd probably switch entertaining for 'depressing'.

It's about 90% of the reason I've (largely) stopped using Facebook. Every time I looked at my feed I was being shown some kind of 'drama'. Or if not drama, then a post that poked my own personal beehive so much I'd have the overwhelming urge to step in and say "hang on, what?!" But of course stepping in only perpetuates the drama cycle I hate and I'd end up embroiled in something I didn't want to be a part of, and unhappier for it.

For my own sanity, not scrolling the feed, and only checking in to Facebook for the notifications once every few days seems to have helped immeasurably. And as sad as it is to admit, the FOMO dissipated pretty quickly.

I love the Internet, but the some of the 'social' aspects of it have seemed really ugly for the last few years.

It's not drama that people love, it's a group identity based on perceived injustice, gives one like a thrill of self righteousness. If it was drama, it wouldn't be all about the identity politics we'd be reading some gossip mag to find out who is sleeping with whose ex.

Basicslly a modern version of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(novel) ?

That, and money. If those women got their business hurt, it was because the "knitting community" was buying their stuff somewhere else.

I can picture them all with rocks and knitted beards...

Now look, no one is to stone anyone until I blow this whistle. Even...and I want to make this absolutely clear...even if they do say "White."

When accusations of 'isms become a sport, it's a wonder there's anybody left using their real name online to say anything but the most mundane.

Late-stage socialism: when what creators look like, think and say matters more than their actual creations.

These "late-stage" memes strike me as very optimistic; things could get a lot worse than they are today.

Don't mix identity politics with socialism, it doesn't have a left/right axis. Socialist policies to mitigate economic injustice based on rentier capitalism is a very different argument with a different cross section of support to identity politics/cultural appropriation. It's Bernie supporters vs Hillary.

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