The Court of Public Opinion · 1:57am Sep 1st, 2019
You know, lately I've been seeing a lot of this.
It's everywhere nowadays. Facebook, Twitter, the lot. It starts off simple, with someone being accused of something whether it being a pedophile, a rapist, or something equally serious. While yes, some of these accusations are justified, we have big people in every industry affected. We've had Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Johnny Depp, Vic Mignonia. Some have settled things in court cases, others have not. People are honestly losing their livelihoods over this.
It's gone to show something, the #MeToo movement is... flawed. Whatever punch it may have when it started off with Bill Cosby, it's lost and quite justifiably so. You got GamerGate, which as you know ended in a suicide, the creator of Night in the Woods killing himself. And the response, as one Twitter post put it?
The cancel culture response to Alec Holowaka's suicide today after being MeToo'd by Zoë Quinn: Tell his sister "I hope he suffered" & "his suicide is not our fault."
Oh yes. And we are familiar with KickVic, him losing his jobs at Rooster Teeth and Funimation. This is serious people, the kind of people in #MeToo are the kind in the Dark Ages who would be burning people at the stake for being witches.
This is a frighteningly accurate photo of what is going on today, and with computers, you can hide behind a screen name and possibly never get found out. Humankind has made many advancements, yes, but this is what it's also been reduced to. And it shames me.
Now, if you think someone's done something to you somewhere at like a con or hotel or wherever go and report it to the police. Don't go on Trial by Twitter, and please, be aware that it's not just you who's being affected anymore. God above...
Y'know, there was a time where people thought instant electronic communication would bring about world peace. I still remember that one song from The Brave Little Toaster To The Rescue hyping it up as the greatest thing ever. "If only we could know what the other person was thinking, there would be no misunderstandings", they said.
But all that really happened is that we've proven once and for all just how downright evil we can be if we don't keep a handle on ourselves.
We're not basically good. It's a struggle to resist temptations, to do the right thing, to sacrifice your own wants and desires for the greater good, be it for your own wellbeing or for the wellbeing of others. We definitely have the potential to do great good, but just as much to do great evil. And that's coming from a guy who generally tries to focus on the good in life.
Intelligence and technology doesn't breed wisdom. All it does is give us more toys to play with.
5114442
Do remember one key thing, the people who scream the loudest, make the most noise, get in yoir face the most.
These people are more often then not the minority because the calm and rational majority do not scream and shout, theu behave....well...like people.
These groups onlh represent at best a few 1000 people oit of millions if not billions of people you dont hear about because they are not screaming and raving.
The faster communication has made it so we more easily see these people and unfortunately since they scream the loudest, they can get listened too while everyone else is standing back confused and dumbfounded at whats happening.
Now i will admit, i am speaking from personal experience of dealinf with totally random people and found most people will treat you with kindness then not.
Heck altruism is still one of the most desirable trait in people from other people. There have always been terrible people and there always will be terrible people but there are more good people in this world then bad.
They are just silent because they don't often have a reason to draw attention to themselves.
If World War III does happen, it will not be from a peace deal gone wrong, it will not be from an act of terror. It will be from burning someone at the stake through social media. That's honestly how this world feels at times.
I don't use social media period. And I still know/hear more about these things than I want to.
Yes, we Humans have the potential, (Sometimes even the will to.) to do bad things. But I personally feel that a certain quote from a certain Skyrim character puts a nice little (Teny tiny) charry on top.
“What is better? to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort ?”
Paarthurnax~
Thank you bring this up I have following the KV situation it made me hate dubs you know something I enjoyed before. but it’s not fair to blame it everyone. This whole thing is just aweful. I can’t say I’m 💯 percent innocent of that I was one people who made fun of ProJared when that whole thing come out. Now I feel bad when it turned out to be false.
Vanity and pride are the most wanted things in the current year. We need to look back and get over ourselves and Speard kindness and humility
Lord knows I have had it with all these harpies and their lies.
Thank you for having the guts to say this. I mentioned concerns about the #MeToo to my student union once and effectively got chased out of the meeting to the tune of 'misogynyst woman-hater'.
I resigned from the union a few hours later.
You're pretty right to compare this mess to a witch hunt, cause it actually is. This is how it use to be, people would accuse other people to settle grudges, legally steal their possessions or bolster their social status. Nothing has changed, only the method.
This is far from a first time and I don't understand why nothing is being done to prevent it at all. I seriously think that people who goes through the route of the "court of public opinion" should be heavily fined, even if the accusation is revealed to be true. This is mostly why the judicial system was establish for.
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Exactly. The other general point to remember is that "lots of people being nice" isn't a newsworthy event, so if anything the bad behaviour of a few thoroughly rotten apples gets distorted even more by sensation-seeking media until it looms largest in public thought.
The sad part is that it definitely looks like many of the times the accusers are often guilty of what they are throwing accusations about.
Plus that whole KickVic thing may end up costing Funanimation big time, apparently the people in Japan who hold the Dragonball rights are not happy with how many of the voice actors have been acting and they could yank or not renew the rights. Plus it looks like they have been knowingly using falsified or misidentified items to attack Vic. That is way so many people should follow the Graham rule. It just protects everyone.
I agree the problem is likened to such things as witch-hunts but I wouldn't say humankind has 'stooped to it'.
Every era has its social panics and fear responses. In the Middle-Ages, it was witches, in the 50s, it was Communists, in the modern day, it's pedophiles and sexual predators. It starts with the proper cases but the more that show up, the blurrier the lines become.
While the ones with genuine injuries or concerns should never be overlooked, some people are just paranoid whilst others are looking for someone to victimise so they can feel like their bullying tendencies can be safely stoked on someone people will say deserved it.
This does not, by any measure, mean these sorts of accusations shouldn't be taken seriously but in any case, posting them on Twitter and igniting an online storm is not in any way professional.
Yes, my advice is to go to the police and straighten things out professionally.