Is this lady’s life going to be ruined for her bigotry?
Have you denounced every stupid thing you said as a teenager? If someone dragged out some quote from the past you’d apologize and move on.
If there’s any evidence that she has persisted in her racist attitudes then by all means break out the pitchforks and hand one to me.
Don’t any of you people remember what it was like being a teenager?
Ruined is a bit strong. Given the opportunity to stay home while reflecting on how to change and grow as a person is better way of putting it, preferably after resigning or being fired in disgrace.
You and octopus make a fine pair of allies here, and that tells everyone else everything they need to know.
But she isn’t being fired from just any job. She was fired from a job as the editor of an extremely progressive on-line publication. Different standards apply.
The idea that a mistake you made in the past can affect your prospects in the future is not new. Ask the minority teen that was busted with a half gram of cocaine in his pocket who’s saddled with a felony conviction on his record. Ask all the schoolteachers that were fired for having children out of wedlock. By the way, the universal response of conservatives to the challenges faced by people like this was “you should’ve had better judgement and exercised personal responsibility, period, full stop.
But now we’re supposed to feel sorry for a woman whose past behavior just disqualified her for one job, (a job with a notoriously capricious employer, even ) that was way better than any job most of us could ever dream of landing?
I think some of you are being too empathetic in your responses. I don’t think “How would I feel if something I said ten years ago was taken out of context and I lost my job because of it?” is an accurate metric for assessing the situation, unless your job is that of editor of a high profile and extremely progressive magazine or spokesperson for a progressive think tank or liberal political candidate.
Different standards apply for different jobs, and people in certain high profile jobs are held to a higher standard. When I was young and committing my youthful indiscretions, I would joke about how what I was doing would disqualify me from ever running for elected office, and I accepted that as a consequence of my behavior,
I don’t think this woman’s tweets should disqualify her from waiting tables or being an executive assistant or selling cars. She can still work, and she can probably still land a job better than any job I’ve ever had. No one is trying to “erase” her. But her tweets are disqualifying ( and IMHO, rightfully so ) if she wants a high profile job as the editor of an extremely socially liberal magazine.
Fuck this conservative whining about cancel culture, and the whining whiners who, when they are not whining, spend their days trying to “cancel” every Republican politician who doesn’t demonstrate sufficient fealty to Donald Trump.
It’s really just about common decency, and the fact that conservatives see decency as a liability. It’s about a strategy of “flooding the zone” with outrage whenever a private company makes a decision that upholds the ideals of a decent and respectful society.
I think we need to continue to demand decency. Conservatives are trying to break the ideal of a polite society, and I think it’s actually the obligation of anyone that cares about such things to use their freedom of association to cut those people off.
We are now on the heels of four years in which Some of The Worst People In The World were constantly told:
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…
They aren’t reading our pamphlets, Asahi. If they ever were (and I think progress was being made), we just lost a century of ground in the last four years.
That’s straight up lunacy. A tweet from a teen or even an adult shouldn’t be an anchor like that.
It does seem to be true that she left the tweets up for 8 years and never apologized for them, until 2019 when they “resurfaced”, as news stories put it.
Does that mean, as the phrasing suggests, that somebody else brought these tweets to light, and the negative publicity about them is what prompted McCammond’s apology?
I am not convinced that if somebody issues an apology for past misconduct only when it comes back to bite them that that should automatically be taken to wipe out the stain on their reputation. But like I said, it’s messy.
Oh now that’s cute. To use NBA parlance, I would have given you a three-pointer for that one, but your toe was on the line, so it’s only 2 points. Try again.
I disagree with octopus on almost everything. I don’t even agree with many of the comments he’s made on this thread even though we just happen to be arguing on the same side of the issue, which is likely for different reasons. I don’t agree with octopus’ predictable reaction to political correctness, but I guess I’m having a predictably negative reaction to the cybermob and the “seek and destroy” mentality of “justice.”
I’m not comfortable with people who are really racist, but I’m comfortable with people being human and we need to recognize the difference. No amount of smug progressive shaming or associating me with people who are not part of the SDMB ‘club’ are going to change my views on this.
FFS, so on that basis, any prospective employer between now and the end of time could throw that in her face
At what point does this really become utterly fucking stupid?
You won’t even be judged by your current actions by the ‘standards’ of the day. Anything that can be dug up said privately or publicly can be used selectively to ruin your life by the ‘standards’ of today or the future. It’s nothing but a tool to exploit for power. The psychopaths who exploit ideological purity as a weapon have no conscience regardless of their uncanny ability to mimic it.
At this point you’re pretty much doing straight self parody.
Can I just add that MLK cribbed this quote from Theodore Parker? Here’s the quote in context:
I do not pretend to understand the moral universe ; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.
This seems a lot more ambiguous about the nature of social change than King’s take. We are guaranteed nothing in this fight.
Yes, it is. When people talk about her leaving them up until caught out, and not apologizing, they’re talking about that first time this happened.
Aaah, yes, I forgot about all those Disney and Condé Nast charnel houses…
Still, it’s dumb.
That’s actually a more stupid rebuttal than anything even octoputz has ever managed. I’d be impressed if I gave a fuck.
Yeah? Well he agrees with you. Feel free to take that as an opportunity for self reflection, or feel free to continue nailing yourself to your “being attacked by the cybermob” cross.
Being racist is being human. We’re a fucked up species. Waving away reprehensible behavior because it’s human behavior is exactly why there’s a straight line between casual racist tweeting and casual racist violence.
Our shitty behavior is a cancer, and it’s not going to just get better. It has to be cut out. Removing racists from positions of public influence and power without violating their due process or natural rights is a really, really good way to start.
Shit, my irony meter somehow exploded and imploded simultaneously.
But woke people do? God, you’re either the biggest fucking moron on the face of the earth, or a real shitty troll.
Why are they mutually exclusive?
Vividly, since it involved some amount of being whipped, teargassed and shot at by racist fascist police.
Didn’t make me say racist things, even then.