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Comment by motohagiography | Hacker News Reader

A pervasive lack of backbone among individuals in institutions is key to this. The shunning and shaming tactics used by online mobs are a very particular form of human aggression. Speculating on a correlating factor among the people in these institutions who seem so consistently vulnerable to it may be itself, problematic, but it's as though the organizations are missing anyone with the instinct to challenge or deflect hysterical twitter mobbings, and where we are now is a result of that absence of resistance at all.

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The most memorable example of "lack of backbone" for myself was Evergreen State College president, George Bridges.

There was a large protest in 2017. The administration met to discuss the situation. Students prevented the administrators from leaving the meeting room unless they had an escort to ensure the administrators came to a resolution.

The president mentioned his need to use the restroom to one of the protest leaders. The student responded, "Hold it."[0] He finally went to the restroom a couple of minutes later, but he was escorted by some of the protesting students.[1]

[0] https://youtu.be/Msfsp5Ofz4g?t=290

[1] https://youtu.be/Msfsp5Ofz4g?t=455

If a person physically prevented me from going to the restroom, I'd press kidnapping charges.

It's not gonna work. Those who organise this activity have enough influence to convince AG to ignore your case.

I'd politely ask the person holding me prisoner for his name, and if he doesn't step aside I'll inform him that I'll be charging him with kidnapping. Regardless of what the AG does.

After all, what do you think will happen to you if you hold someone prisoner?

>I'd politely ask the person holding me prisoner for his name

"no"

>and if he doesn't step aside I'll inform him that I'll be charging him with kidnapping

You, as an individual can't charge people criminally. Civil suit is an option, but I suspect you won't get much in the way of financial compensation from a broke college student.

>After all, what do you think will happen to you if you hold someone prisoner?

Infliction of violence? Even if the AG doesn't make your life a nightmare, the optics might be bad enough that you'll lose your job.

> You, as an individual can't charge people criminally.

I can press charges. Violently holding people prisoner is a felony. It's not a joke.

> I suspect you won't get much in the way of financial compensation from a broke college student.

It'll be enough to matter to him. Future wages can be garnished.

> you'll lose your job

I don't want a job where I'm required to be a milquetoast.

Individuals cannot press charges, only a prosecutor vested with the authority of the state may file charges. This is an extremely common misconception largely generated from popular media. Individuals can report a crime to the police, cooperate with prosecutors, and sue privately.

https://www.thsh.com/criminal-justice-insider/as-seen-on-tv-...

>It'll be enough to matter to him. Future wages can be garnished.

civil judgements can be discharged via bankruptcy.

>I don't want a job where I'm required to be a milquetoast.

Isn't that the problem? There will always be someone who is willing to be a milquetoast, hence why institutions are caving to the slightest pressure from twitter mobs.

Bankruptcy isn't a joke, either.

Besides, my goal is not to destroy the person. It's to make it costly for him to commit crimes against me.

>It's to make it costly for him to commit crimes against me.

That only works if he doesn't think the cost is worth it. If you've already gone through the trouble of planning/executing this, I doubt one of the hostages telling you about the potential financial consequences is going to make you change your mind.

> That only works if he doesn't think the cost is worth it.

He'll be finding it out, then.

> I don't want a job [...]

Is what your last sentence essentially says. Every organisation you might work for will care about how things look and how what you do reflects on it.

No job can require me to submit to being assaulted.

Nobody was talking about assault.

Holding people prisoner is assault. Battery happens when you actually hit people.

You may call them kidnappers for blocking a door in a public space, they'll accuse you of assault and file a lawsuit too (and unlike you, they'll have many buddies witnesses). The judge will dismiss both suits and tell you to not waste the court's time.

They'll be on video because I'll have my phone out and recording.

Lack of evidence is not the issue. A more fruitful line of questioning is starting with "What function do courts server and for whom?"

At that point, somebody should get pissed on.

It's shocking, really. The blood-and-guts types are a dying breed, unfortunately.

> “A pervasive lack of backbone among individuals in institutions is key to this.”

the raison d'être of most organizations, particularly bureaucracies, is to hide decisions behind a shield of indirection, to deflect individual responsibility elsewhere, which selects for and conditions the spineless. that those folks, when the spotlight shines on them, will cave, is thoroughly unsurprising.

> The shunning and shaming tactics used by online mobs are a very particular form of human aggression.

I just realise how similar the Twitter mob and 4chan harassment mobs are. They are basically 2 sides of the same coin. Even using the similar tactics like digging up dirt and more or less organise the same way, as impromptu mobs that just organically form.

Basically modern lynch mobs who never have to face the consequences of their actions protect by semi-anonymity, their numbers, and often their distance from their victims.

The only way to stop mobs is to reveal each individual in it and hold them accountable. How can we organize to unmask and reveal the individuals of these mobs? I bet we would find some of these accounts are the Russian accounts specifically built to divide Americans.

Do 4chan mobs get universities to cancel events and speakers and successfully pressurise companies to fire people ?

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