Light On Dark Water

Internet Mobs

There are such things, and they are frightening. Someone mentioned here a while back the case of Justine Sacco, who said something stupid on Twitter, and was ruined for it. You can read the whole story in this New York Times piece, which also includes stories of other people who made the wrong sort of joke in the presence of the wrong sort of person and paid for it with their jobs. Possibly the most striking thing in the piece, though, is that the author is a former participant in such mob actions, and thought them entirely justified when aimed at "powerful institutions and public figures." And it wasn't clear to me whether or not he still sees it that way.

I have to admit that I was slightly shocked that people deliberately stir up these things. I had supposed they were more spontaneous than that. Most disturbing, there are in fact groups who monitor the internet activities of their ideological enemies and attack them at every opportunity. Here is the account of one victim, Robert Oscar Lopez, a bisexual man who "had nothing against gay relationships, but didn’t think same-sex parenting was fair to children." 

The idea that bringing people closer together is a step toward peace always was a bit naive.

Maclin Horton
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6 responses to “Internet Mobs”

  1. Louise

    Internet mobs scare the living daylights out of me.

    Reply
  2. Janet

    It’s kind of like the games at the Colosseum, except cleaner.
    BTW, the screen looks very odd here on the comments page. White and no formatting.
    AMDG

    Reply
  3. Janet

    Now it’s normal.
    AMDG

    Reply
  4. Art Deco

    There was a discussion of this at Crisis some time back. The regulars were noticing that upon any article or commentary touching on the gay issue the comment boxes were flooded with individual participants you seldom saw and it was as if crews were rotated in and out as you would have novel participants alongside some troublesome character you hadn’t seen in weeks. We all kind of chuckled that they must be on retainer at one or another Soros front. I’ve seen this elsewhere. Austin Ruse has offered some commentary and a diagnosis of the argumentative methods of people who fancy themselves tribunes of the homosexual population.

    Reply
  5. Art Deco

    The gay lobby would not present so many problems if they did not have the commanding heights of the legal profession in their breast pocket. Behind every crime in America is a godforsaken lawyer.

    Reply
  6. Mac

    The existence of that sort of organized attack force is one of those things that I can never quite believe people will do until confronted with pretty clear proof. It’s a shock similar to discovering that someone has very consciously and deliberately told a very large and important lie.
    I’m going over old blog posts of mine and found this sentence in one: “I’m extremely tired of lawyers, politicians, and bureaucrats who conceive of the law as a struggle for power by means of the creation and manipulation of rules.”

    Reply

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