Witch hunts
May. 31st, 2007 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoOK, I think I'm cooled off enough to write about the stupidity of SixApart's behavior without blowing a gasket. If you don't want to hear it, skip over this.
This incident was nothing less than a witch hunt. Witch hunts NEVER reflect well on those who perpetrate them. They are ALWAYS judged badly when viewed from a historical perspective. It is made that much worse when the inspiration for the hunt was the accusations of an obvious lunatic fringe group that is dedicated to hating EVERYONE who is different from themselves. Not just possible or potential pedophiles, but everyone. Like gays, blacks, immigrants, women, non-Christians, ethnic minorities, and, no doubt, anyone who doesn't vote straight right wing candidates.
As with witch hunts everywhere and in every century, the utterly innocent were dragged into the pit along with the guilty or possibly guilty, merely because of association, vague resemblances, or semantic misinterpretation. SixApart acted like fools and assholes. There's no other way to put this, folks. They followed the hue and cry raised by a shill, and like a wild mob, started the lynch party rather than due process and fair evaluation.
You cannot condemn people for taking an interest in, discussing, or being curious about anything. I don't care what it is. Will you put the author of a murder mystery in jail? Yes, murder is illegal in our society. Will you put everyone who likes to read murder mysteries in jail as well? What if the author writes a novel in which the murderer gets away with the crime? What about a suspense novel in which an unpunished rape takes place? Furthermore, you can't assume, as SixApart did, that everyone who writes about or discusses murder is a murderer.
Whether it is 14th century Spain, 17th century England or Massachusetts, or 20th century Germany, the witch hunt is always, inevitably, and irrevocably wrong. It incriminates and punishes the innocent, and is manipulated to the personal glory and power of the perpetrator. Joseph McCarthy was just as wrong as Adolf Hitler, and Franklin Roosevelt committed equal atrocity when he allowed the Japanese Internment. The Bush administration is engaged in secret persecution and probably torture of innocent or only vaguely guilty people right now, simply because they speak the wrong language, are of the wrong religion, and happened to be in the wrong place at a bad time. SixApart is no better than these great criminals of past human history, and their apologies and promise to do better have no more value than those offered in the past by such people.
In a society that is supposedly dedicated to freedom of speech, religion, race, and culture, we seem still to be extremely narrow minded and quick to jump to potentially wrong conclusions. Worse yet, unlike chat rooms and other more notorious internet venues, LiveJournal is hardly a suitable forum for a genuine pedophile to use in attracting and injuring the innocent. Believe me, people who are up to such acts know how to choose their methods much more effectively than that.
Who will you go after next, SixApart? Homosexuals? Communists? Drug users? Illegal immigrants? Furries? Anyone who speaks a disparaging word about the current administration in Washington?
Frankly, this is an incident that calls for more than just empty words of apology. Those who decided to take this unilateral action and overreacted so extremely should resign their positions in the organization. It would be ludicrous, except that they are messing with people's lives and reputations here, and appointing themselves as a secret inquisition without appeal.
This incident was nothing less than a witch hunt. Witch hunts NEVER reflect well on those who perpetrate them. They are ALWAYS judged badly when viewed from a historical perspective. It is made that much worse when the inspiration for the hunt was the accusations of an obvious lunatic fringe group that is dedicated to hating EVERYONE who is different from themselves. Not just possible or potential pedophiles, but everyone. Like gays, blacks, immigrants, women, non-Christians, ethnic minorities, and, no doubt, anyone who doesn't vote straight right wing candidates.
As with witch hunts everywhere and in every century, the utterly innocent were dragged into the pit along with the guilty or possibly guilty, merely because of association, vague resemblances, or semantic misinterpretation. SixApart acted like fools and assholes. There's no other way to put this, folks. They followed the hue and cry raised by a shill, and like a wild mob, started the lynch party rather than due process and fair evaluation.
You cannot condemn people for taking an interest in, discussing, or being curious about anything. I don't care what it is. Will you put the author of a murder mystery in jail? Yes, murder is illegal in our society. Will you put everyone who likes to read murder mysteries in jail as well? What if the author writes a novel in which the murderer gets away with the crime? What about a suspense novel in which an unpunished rape takes place? Furthermore, you can't assume, as SixApart did, that everyone who writes about or discusses murder is a murderer.
Whether it is 14th century Spain, 17th century England or Massachusetts, or 20th century Germany, the witch hunt is always, inevitably, and irrevocably wrong. It incriminates and punishes the innocent, and is manipulated to the personal glory and power of the perpetrator. Joseph McCarthy was just as wrong as Adolf Hitler, and Franklin Roosevelt committed equal atrocity when he allowed the Japanese Internment. The Bush administration is engaged in secret persecution and probably torture of innocent or only vaguely guilty people right now, simply because they speak the wrong language, are of the wrong religion, and happened to be in the wrong place at a bad time. SixApart is no better than these great criminals of past human history, and their apologies and promise to do better have no more value than those offered in the past by such people.
In a society that is supposedly dedicated to freedom of speech, religion, race, and culture, we seem still to be extremely narrow minded and quick to jump to potentially wrong conclusions. Worse yet, unlike chat rooms and other more notorious internet venues, LiveJournal is hardly a suitable forum for a genuine pedophile to use in attracting and injuring the innocent. Believe me, people who are up to such acts know how to choose their methods much more effectively than that.
Who will you go after next, SixApart? Homosexuals? Communists? Drug users? Illegal immigrants? Furries? Anyone who speaks a disparaging word about the current administration in Washington?
Frankly, this is an incident that calls for more than just empty words of apology. Those who decided to take this unilateral action and overreacted so extremely should resign their positions in the organization. It would be ludicrous, except that they are messing with people's lives and reputations here, and appointing themselves as a secret inquisition without appeal.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-06-01 03:19 pm (UTC)There's no doubt somebody blew it. Big time. Resignations would be nice, but I doubt we'll see much of that. I'd join a class-action suit, but I'm not about to launch one. Besides which, I'm not even sure any lawyer would take on a class-action suit on these grounds. This particular morality card still carries too much weight in our society.
I don't know who started this or why. To me, it doesn't matter. SixApart's response should have been measured and considered beforehand, and they should have acted with restraint, not abandon. Instead, they were totally foolish. It's disappointing in the extreme, but I'm not sure how we can make that clear to SA and LJ administration. Which I dislike, because I much prefer making my grievances heard. Loudly.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-01 04:38 pm (UTC)There needs to be a much better definition of a process. One that allows for evaluation and appeal, and does not permit LJ or SixApart to simply "disappear" people at will without comment or explanation, or hold them incommunicado without due process. The same rights should apply online as in real life. It appears that SixApart went totally apeshit on this thing and wildly suspended journals that contained nothing relevant to the accusations. Furthermore, in restoring some suspended journals, they have made threats against the users, telling them they must remain silent about what happened to them and why, or they will be suspended again. That is so much like the Bush administration that it stinks to high heaven.