Him being a complete tool doesn’t constitute an “erosion between public and private communication”. The grand majority of people who’ve got a least two neurons huddling in the dark realize that whatever you publish on the Internet amounts to plastering it on a billboard in front of your house. Exponentially so if you publish it under your real name, and on Facebook of all places. It’s the whole point of the site, for crying out loud !
Actually, it has nothing to do with his being a complete tool. It takes time for a society to absorb new technologies, and one of the consequences of the internet is that a lot of people don’t get what is private and what is public, like Tiger Woods’s text messages, and e-mail messages of horsey sex, or posts on a service like Facebook. Indeed, in the first few days and weeks or months of use, people might be extra-careful about what they say, but they very quickly get used to the idea that they are really talking to their own friends and start to drop their guards.
It’s not an easy lesson to learn that being online is not private, and not least because people are often by themselves when they do it and usually only get feedback from their intended audience. And Facebook is one of the services that tends to lull you into that state of comfort.
I don’t buy his apology. Yeah, a guy who fights youth suicide had a sit-down with him, but people don’t change their opinions, especially bigoted ones, over the course of two days. I’m betting as soon as he got off the camera, he was thinking, “Thanks god I’m done talk to that fag Anderson Cooper!”
He said something like, “I don’t want people to paint me as a monster that I’m not.” No, hon. You painted YOURSELF that way. An inarticulate “I’m sorry” does not wipe away that image.
But he does gets points for resigning, even if it’s possible that someone did force his hand.
By the way, AC. When are you going to come out and join the “It gets better” movement, instead of just reporting on it and saying how troubling the bullying is?
I’m betting he’s just sorry that he was roasted for it and that’s all. To hell with him.
I don’t know.
What he said was utterly unacceptable. Inexcusable. He should suffer public condemnation for it and be made to feel remorse and shame.
Yet.
I’ve read stories of neo-Nazis, agents of Apartheid, and other haters, who, when confronted by those they hated and offered forgiveness, let go of their hate and became genuinely humane. I doubt it happens every time. Or every other time. Or even one out of ten times. But however often it happens, it’s more often than if we rebuff them. It’s more likely than if we turn them into figures of ridicule and torment.
If I had the chance to speak with Mr. McCance, I’d say:
“What you’re feeling right now? That twisting pain of being singled out and mocked, persecuted, and hated? That’s how those kids felt every day of their lives. That’s what those words you used did to them and to others like them. No one should have to feel like that. You have a choice. You don’t have to become perfect. You don’t have to conquer all your fears and prejudices. You do have to face that you can choose to cause others that kind of pain, or you can choose not to cause others that kind of pain. What’s your choice?”
Thus spake George Takei. (Another “it gets better” video, but way better than most.)
A friend showed me that last night. I am determined to make it my new ringtone. 
Amazing how elegant “douchebag” can sound.
I’ve caused several such epiphanies on several people, so IME they’re perfectly likely. If you figure out what specific detail about the offending situation or person is offensive, and you point out that it is not applicable, and the person actually listens, they do change and do change that radically and that fasy. Examples include pointing out what are the exact requirements and benefits of Spanish civil marriages under current law (as opposed to under previous laws, or to RCC marriages) and then asking “ok, so what do you see in that set of rules which would be affected or need changing by letting gays enter such an arrangement? Do you see any reason why two same-gender people who are already sharing their lives should not be allowed to get the paperwork on it?” or asking “did you choose to be straight? No? ‘They’ had as much choice in the matter as you do.” It’s possible that McCance’s spouting led to someone giving him just one such zing.
I just snorted in a very unattractive manner