You know all the stories: the lawyer who threatened to call Immigration on restaurant employees for speaking Spanish. The woman who called the cops on a little African American girl for selling water. The other woman who called the cops on an African American family for BBQing the wrong place. The woman who hassled black kids at a pool for Swimming While Black. All have been publicly shamed, most (all?) have lost their jobs - or at least lost business.
But is this the right thing to do?
I’m not trying to excuse the behavior of any of these people. But here’s the thing: there are two sides to every story, and viral videos don’t always show both sides. Now, I’m not saying the other side is always right - often times it isn’t. But sometimes, maybe it is. Sure, #PermitPatty called the fuzz (or only pretended to call the fuzz) on the little girl selling water without a permit - but she (Permit Patty) claims that the girl had been yelling at passerby all afternoon and generally being a nuisance. Maybe in Oakland, BBQing had been forbidden in that particular spot for fire hazards or some similarly-good reason.
I have done things that I’m not proud of, but I haven’t done them in such a way that my misdeeds were exposed to millions of people and subsequently cost me my job.
So what’s your take on publicly-shaming people on the internet for offensive behavior?
I think it is making someone guilty without benefit of any judicial process. How easy it would be to claim some did such and such or exaggerate what they did, and ruin their lives?
Jon Ronson’s book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, is a really interesting exploration of this issue. Public shaming has ruined peoples’ lives, and sometimes for seemingly minor infractions.
I admit, I am much less comfortable with these incidents after reading that book.
They should be publicly shamed. Fuck those people. Anyone moronic enough to call the cops on a little girl selling lemonade deserves to be publicly shamed.
Is it right? I don’t know. You certainly have the right, I think, to take videos and post them on the internet. And a company can fire you for anything for any reason in most states.
However, I do think it’s going to contribute to a “look the other way” society. Or at least a society where people’s go-to is not confrontation but straight to police intervention. You’re not going to get a cellphone camera whipped out on you if you call the police privately.
Whatever law, ordinance, or rule that prohibits whatever stink arises from enforcement, should be abolished if reporting it is going to ruin somebody’s life. If selling water without a permit is fine, then get rid of the permit requirement.
Of course, you’ll have to deal with whatever results permits were enacted in the first place. Most rules had a reasoning behind them when enacted.
I might feel differently if any of these people had been less overt. But if you’re going to behave badly on a public street, proud of your obnoxious self, I don’t have much sympathy for that.
Right, but the fallout is not always limited to that person. Remember the idiot that dressed as a Boston Marathon victim on Halloween? People published her parents and best friends addresses and were calling and threatening to burning their house down.
For as long as there have been people and language, there has been gossip over that shocking thing Soandso did. Anyone who has ever lived in a small town or attended an insular church can attest this is still the case currently. People always WILL gossip, and people who prefer not to be gossiped about either amend their behavior accordingly or get real good at covering their tracks. The fact that gossip can now spread further and faster than ever before is inevitable, and one of the side effects is that slightly deviant or shocking behavior that is not in itself harmful to anyone gets no legs and gets the gossiper roundly mocked, which helps them amend their behavior too. What’s left over is genuinely antisocial, gross, shocking, disgusting and unacceptable behavior to the majority of society and is, therefore, a perfectly valid target. Don’t like being called out for being a garbage human? Better stop being so garbage or get better at camouflage. Same as it’s been for millenia. The only thing that really needs changed is we need to get better at identifying and doxing the malignant doxers. They’re being garbage humans too.
It’s a dangerous tool, and you have to be careful. But it’s also a very useful tool when used correctly.
I also refuse to both of these the same: the people who use speech (including shaming) and those who do illegal things like death threats or harassment. I will accept responsibility for the speech, since I gave them the info they need to speak. I absolutely will not take responsibility of those who commit those acts of violence. That is the true hecklers video, where the fear of violence prevents speech.
That said, we do need to be careful to have our information correct, and not to overreact. If I’m part of the people unleashing the storm against someone who doesn’t deserve it, and something bad happens due to the speech, then I am responsible. It is a powerful tool, so Uncle Ben’s philosophy applies.
I am definitely against those who try to act like it should be removed, that social approbation should no longer exist, usually hiding it as “freedom of speech” when they are actually restricting speech.
And that actually makes it worse. At least if she was actually calling the cops, it could be possible she really thought there was a problem. But faking a call means it was all about using fear of the police as a weapon.
Her social approbation is appropriate. Any death threats or harassment aren’t, but the bad publicity and ruin to her reputation is perfectly valid.
Remember the South Park episode where Stan’s dad Randy gets the word wrong on Wheel of Fortune and becomes Ngger guy? Well once you’re ngger guy, you’re always N*gger guy.