If you think this is funny you are an idiot
The blogosphere is passionately debating Kathy Sierra’s death threats and misogynous bashing at the defunct meankids.org.
Kathy is mourning the loss of her normal self.
I have cancelled all speaking engagements.
I am afraid to leave my yard.
I will never feel the same. I will never be the same.
Some have decided they won’t talk about it, because nothing makes a troll happier than fame. Others have written beautiful and touching posts about it.
I will never forget the descriptions of how me and my friends were to be raped. And Kathy will never forget the descriptions of how she was to be harmed. That’s what it means to be terrorized. How can we live in a community that permits that? How can we allow spaces like that to foster under the guise of “free speech”? We have a responsibility, a moral responsibility, to help generate spaces that breed tolerance, to speak out in support of those around us, and to bite our tongues rather than spit hatred when we’re frustrated.
The web debates who is to blame. Of course the people who wrote the threats and posted the pictures are to blame. And yet, those who created the space for hate and violence, those who set up the chemistry experiment that got explosive—people who are considered smart and accomplished because they understand social dynamics on the web—should think hard about what happened and about the human consequences (even indirect) of their actions.
Hurting people is way too easy, and there is nothing remarkable about it. It’s just sad and despicable. [If you are curious about meankids.org, you can still find cached pages on Google. But I warn you, you'll be disappointed: it's really boring reading.]
If you think about it, Kathy Sierra has been harassed because of who she is, what she says and writes. Wake up! This is not funny: this is dangerous. It attacks and destroys the very essence of the freedom of speech you are hiding behind. If you think this is a funny, innocent game you are an idiot.
UPDATE: Read few more blogs. Some “balanced” people write: sure, being threatened and insulted is not nice, but it comes with the territory and we need to preserve freedom of speech on the web. Besides, you cannot be responsible of what people write on your blog.
I say: this is true and bullshit at the same time. Freedom of speech is essential, but viciously attacking somebody for what they write—or worse, who they are—is a limitation of their freedom of speech. The more I think about it, the more I agree with danah boyd: this is an issue of social responsibility.
There are people and there are principles: I’ve always distrusted those who put principles above people. “Sorry, Kathy, but you are less important than freedom of speech. Your feelings, your life, even your right to express yourself, is less important than this abstract idea. Get over it.” You know in your heart that if this is true, we have failed.
Should Kathy have refrained from naming names? Perhaps. For one, it would have saved her some grief. Some of the people she mentioned by name seem to be very weakly connected, if at all, with the site. So, we are back to the beginning: we may not have the legal responsibility to be respectful to others, but we do have the social responsibility to think about the consequences that our words and actions have on other people.
4/2/07 Update: Kathy Sierra and Chris Locke write a “coordinated statement” in preparation of their CNN interview.
What happens in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas
I’ve just arrived in the city of “Lost Wages” (Southwest airline humor) for the IA Summit. I’ve been here only one hour and I already love it!
Pure wild entertainment without the annoying burden of culture and history. Visit Paris without having to go to the Louvre! Visit Rome without the interminable Vatican Museums!
I know that Andrew, Richard, Patrick, and Jared are here. Perhaps Eddie is here. New Yorkers? Everybody? Let me know if you are here too.
This sucks
Getting back to reading blogs, after months of neglect, and I find out that my friend Derek has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. This sucks big time. Aren’t bloggers immune to all diseases and bad luck?
I really wish you the best, Derek. You are such an awesome person.
A window
More on Jeff Wall
Back to Moma this afternoon to see Jeff Wall with Husband for the second time. A kid was sitting on the floor of the museum, drawing an helicopter.
A few more thoughts on Jeff Wall.
His photos are interesting because they are full of clues. They promise to solve a mystery or to reveal a secret. You know that there is a story there, even if you cannot quite tell what the story is. But you can unravel one detail at the time, and learn something new with each new clue discovered, without ever been certain that you know the entire (or true) story.
In modern art sometimes the process that creates the art piece is more important than the art piece itself. Husband and I saw a 1972 video of artist Paul McCarthy painting with a big bucket of white paint and using his body as a brush. The painting, if it survives, it’s just as a vestige of the artistic process, from which we are excluded.
In Jeff Wall’s photographs, instead, the process of creation is hidden, irrelevant (although probably painstaking and elaborate). What counts is the final product and, even more, the process of interpretation that connects the viewers—us—with the photograph. Art happens here and now, not in the artist’s studio 30 years ago.
Our Irish Fairytale of New York
Yesterday it was St. Patrick day and we fully enjoyed it. In the morning we crossed a white Central Park to go to the St. Patrick’s day parade on 5th avenue.
I was impressed by the high number of black and asian Irish parade participants.
It was cold and windy, and after 5 hours marching in the streets was not that pleasant any longer.
I especially enjoyed the girls of a catholic school who, in a skillful high-lift leg move, proudly showed their Vatican yellow underwears.
In the evening, we couldn’t miss the Pogues’ concert at the Roseland Ballroom. So many people, so much beer and drunk jumping, sticky hardwood floors, and Shane MacGowan singing from a wheel chair. What’s not to love about Ireland?
Cool Readings
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