- Joined
- Jun 22, 2020
- Messages
- 60
Well yeah, I can actually.Can you imagine comparing those posts with directly sending racist messages to someone?
In real life, saying racist (or sexist) things to people directly will get you in trouble, sure. But so would saying such things to a public gallery.
You cannot use the law to arrest the odd random person every now and then for saying something discriminatory on the internet. Much less when the scapegoat is a 12-year old.
There has to be a clear consistency. Otherwise you get people being punished on a whim. And from that you get games springing up around who can most effectively lobby to get individuals punished. Something you're already seeing happen in society over the last few years.
And it's pertinent, as those posts I quoted illustrate, that some of the people who egg this on with most relish - the concept of punishment for real or imagined speech infractions - are perfectly capable of and willing to express their own nasty sides, ironically sometimes in the same breath as urging somebody else gets taken down.
Edit-
Yes, I can see the difference. I can also see the similarity. I'm addressing the wider context, which is relevant to why the police acted in the heavy handed way they did.Can you really not see the difference between posting on a niche public forum, as horrible as some of the comments are, and deciding to directly message someone with racial abuse (not insults by the way)?
What does Zaha's money have to do with anything? If he was a poor black man, would that have somehow made things better?
As for this case particularly, I don't necessarily disagree with the police being involved, but ultimately, there's a job to be done by (if they're worth anything) the parents, and school and local community.
No the money doesn't make much of a difference, but it's not exactly a situation with a straightforward power dynamic between a bully and a cringing victim. It's child-to-adult, operating on entirely different social levels.
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