First of all: “its.”
Second of all: Just as BoingBoing is free to post whatever articles they like, you are free to read or not read whatever articles you like. If you feel that the Internet should not be a forum for shaming people for racist behavior, you are free to make a topic of your very own to discuss that.
I think you could only say that if you don’t read this blog. Suspect your last year’s post was the very first time you ever trolled the BBS, and have not looked at the website in between times. It doesn’t feel wrong on BB – shaming those deserving shame is one of the things that they do here.
Sorry, it was pure reflex.
To stay on topic… gosh, I wish this happened more often. The “asshole faces consequences for being an asshole” part, not the random people getting harassed on the street. Ryarwood sounds a little nervous about it, perhaps worried that the slightest mistakes will lead to people being ostracized. Nobody is perfect, but it’s a big gap from accidentally saying something mildly offensive to being an aggressive, bullying asshole taunting someone he’s never met and chasing her around with dogs. Anyone I care to associate with would never find themselves in that role under any conceivable circumstances.
I am critical of some of the fruit cancel culture is bearing but yeah, this piece of shit is so incredibly deserving of what is coming to him. How much more blatantly misogynistic and racist would you need him to be to fit the bill for you?
And in case you haven’t noticed, this kind of thing makes up for a good chunk of BBs content these days so your surprise, or disappointment, seems disingenuous.
First off, there was no excuse for his being a racist. However, I can’t help but wonder if there is any chance that this could have started out by his seeing her leaning against his car, asking to stop doing so and her giving him attitude about it. I wish we all could know how this encounter began and not just what it degraded into. Something must have triggered this guy and I doubt it was just that she was asian or had blue hair. On the other hand, you never know.
BB posting this video had absolutely nothing to do with this gentleman being fired. That was a done deal already.
Us discussing his behavior and its repercussions is not “shaming” him.
Going onto his social media or contacting him or his acquaintances would be “shaming” him. If that happens as a result of this being posted on BB, so be it, but it does not happen here (unless he happens to be a member, which I highly doubt.)
Being a realtor is typically “at will” employment, and image is important. Of course he will get fired for acting like this, he just probably didn’t think he’d get caught because he never got caught before.
I hope this incident follows him around until he learns a lesson about civility. He’s a danger.
Also:
I, too, wonder about the lead up. But I am consistently surprised at the tendency some posters have to always extend the benefit of the doubt to the person acting like a raging, racist asshat in these scenarios, and not to the person being attacked. Like @cannibalpeas mentioned upthread, some people don’t need any trigger. Their story reminded me of a time I was out and some asshole just started snarling a pejorative term at me, louder and louder, for no known reason. Assholes gonna asshole.
Yeah. As a sober for almost 40b years alcoholic, never once in my 6 years of intense drunkeness did I ever sexually assault anyone, call anyone racial epithets, or violently attack anyone. That country star recently outed for saying racist shit while drunk? Pretty sure he’s said the same in private while sober
I’m confused: are you having a hard time with consequences for one’s actions? Do you find yourself saying things like “Boys will be boys”?
This doesn’t start off well…
The victim probably deserved it?
The trigger was likely his blatant racism and more generally, you know, being a dickhead.
The post didn’t end well either.
Why do you assume “something must have triggered him?” Do you know him to be a kind, tolerant and well balanced individual otherwise? My personal experience would suggest he fully expected to be insulated by his whiteness and so face no adverse consequences for his actions against a “less-than.” Maybe he didn’t like her near his car. Maybe he didn’t like her in his neighborhood. Maybe he didn’t like her being. None of that matters. This kind of racist, misogynistic behavior is just not ok, ever, regardless. If we white males faced consequences for behavior of this sort, like we truly never have before, perhaps it would become less frequent, eh?
I disagree. My observation, based on considerable experience of group drinking, is that there are some otherwise truly nice people for whom a certain BAC can trigger inexplicable verbal aggression (not necessarily racist but general assholery). It’s some kind of weird metabolic trigger and I’ve seen it recur in the same individuals enough times to believe that it is a real phenomenon. Sort of a living example of the 4 stages of drunkenness: “Jocose, morose, bellicose and comatose.”
Such individuals do not make good drinking buddies (unless you enjoy getting dragged into bar fights). And their “condition” should not shield them from consequences.
I think you may be misinterpreting the disinhibition effect of alcohol. Some people are nice because they are nice. Some people are nice because they learned that being an asshole made them unpopular and unliked and so control their assholery. If alcohol intoxication weakens that control (disinhibits), they become the asshole that they usually keep under control. Such folks should probably not drink much.
I understand your point, but it doesn’t match my observation. These can be honestly nice people who don’t seem to be struggling with raging inner demons more than any of the rest of us. It’s just that alcohol can take them to a very dark place. And, yeah, they shouldn’t drink but, unfortunately, they often do. It seems to be one facet of a genetic disposition for alcoholism.
Experiences vary, of course, but I am referencing demonstrated effects:
It is still a subject that sparks debate and disagreement, but it seems to be well established that it happens, less so to what degree it happens. IMHO, the whole angry drunk, sad drunk, happy drunk, etc probably reflects underlying states that are normally better controlled. Long way of restating the long held wisdom “In vino veritas”
Dude, nobody died. Although there have been recent interactions just like this one where innocent people have.
Be thankful for small mercies.
Hey, I’m up for that!
I thought Schadenfreude has been a BB staple for a long time… 
Interesting articles that shed some light on the subject but they don’t address the phenomenon that I’m speaking of. The Frontier article focusses on disinhibition related to increasing consumption of alcohol…a very real effect (the drink takes a drink) but not verbal aggression.
Taylor and Francis goes to physical violence. In the individuals I’m thinking of, they rarely, if ever, initiate physical violence. They just keep saying stupid, nasty things and sometimes get sucker punched for it, which then turns into a brawl. They often seem surprised at the response they get.
And, as for the foraging behavior of c. elegans, I struggle to see the relevance. Disinihibition is undeniably real. How it plays out in the real world is complicated.
As to “In vino veritas,” the implication is that alcohol reveals who you truly are. I am more inclined to think that it can expose an unfortunate aspect of your personality that is usually dormant. I can get snarky when my blood sugar is low but that doesn’t mean that I’m actually a snarky person at heart.
Thank goodness for the racist asshole protection society! Without them, people publicly exhibiting their racism might be called racists; a fate worse than death!
I know I am 104 replies late to the topic, but how many people read this headline as ‘is no longer a Redditor’?
