It’s kind of sweet that she bothered to delete it.
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I’ll buy you the Coke, you buy me the cheeseburger.
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Witch hunts are not acceptable.
"I don’t get how someone could delight in some other persons misfortune. "
Clearly. But that’s not because you’re so much more mature than Rob, it’s because you genuinely don’t understand why Justine Sacco’s behavior is reprehensible. You don’t care about racism, you just care about being nice.
You protest “tearing people down” as though negativity itself is de-facto inappropriate.
When you make this argument, you value pleasant conversation over frank debate. You value social peace above social justice.
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can i sum that up as “burn the witch”?
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I agree. This is like an angry mob.
But seriously why do you expect more from a site with a mcdonalds ad and a goddamn gift guide plastered all over the front page.
11 most outrageous cavity searches. 9 ways the NSA is screwing you. 7 steampunk bathrooms you won’t believe.
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actually did laugh out loud.
Suggested reading: http://www.popehat.com/2013/09/10/speech-and-consequences/ from the not dissimilar case of Pax Dickinson
The foundation of “witch hunt” rhetoric is the notion that some free speech (say, Pax’s) is acceptable, and other free speech (say, the speech of people criticizing and ridiculing Pax and his employer) is not. You can try to find a coherent or principled way to reconcile that, but you will fail. Pax Dickinson is not stupid. He tweeted provocative things, which have a natural and probable tendency to cause social consequences, seeking the social consequences he wanted: the admiration of the like-minded, the anger of people he could laugh at, and general attention. Yet, oddly, he and his supporters seem to think that some social consequences (approval, admiration, small-scale disagreement they can laugh at) are legitimate and other social consequences (large-scale/organized criticism and ridicule) are not. [emphasis added]
and @KenatPopehat in the comments of that same thread
My criticism of witch hunt is not just that it holds different speech to different consequences. It’s also that it’s a dishonest rhetorical attempt to equate criticism with violence or government suppression, thus falsely equating it with official censorship. [emphasis added]
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Her twitter account has been deleted and her employer has removed her from their contact page.
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You sure can. In fact, driving trollies pro tip: you can sum up any criticism against you with that same line, and then you won’t have to consider or respond to anything! Good time saver.
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Thanks for the update. Also, I saw that she had deleted the tweet before the whole account was deleted.
You value social peace above social justice.
What an amazing sentence! Thank you! This hearkens back to the Duck Dynasty post, wherein at least one person was trying to tell me to stop “hating” on the Duck Dynasty asshole because why can’t I just stop hatin’ on the haters, let the bigots speak, be quiet, and most importantly, BE NICER to those bigots?! GOLLY!
Same thing here. These two should meet up and have a beer. They’d totally dig each other.
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You are right. Witch hunts tend to include violence and state support. And equating a woman being fired from a PR job for not being very good ad PR is probably cheaping the term in a big way.
However, I could argue the fifth estate has taken a role in condemning this woman without a trial. And that the effects while not violent, will be financially damaging. Her career could very well be ruined.
So I’d say witch hunt, isn’t necessarily very far from the mark. While she may not have been physically tarred at a stake by a mob, her reputation certainly has been.
Regardless of the choice of terminology, tarring a random person on the internet to promote a topic ( poorly I might add ) is still pretty much horrific. It shows a complete lack of empathy. It’s a sociopathic use of another person as an inanimate tool. And that’s a very disagreeable prospect.
When wielding the gavel in the court of public opinion, all the world begins to look like nails, and your gavel a hammer.
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Speaking out against racist, hateful tweets is a witch hunt, now? Most of us are just laughing at her lack of class and inability to keep her offensive opinions and “jokes” to herself. And, to me, it all seems quite purposeful, as if she enjoys the attention that comes from such negative tweets.
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A “witch hunt” typically has at least some aspect of going after a person for something they did not do. Calling somebody out on something horrible that they actually really did do doesn’t really fall into that.
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What exactly is supposed to be the acceptable response to perfectly legal but highly offensive statements if not public shaming?
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Um. She didn’t commit a felony. She made a PUBLIC tweet. A racist PUBLIC tweet. While being employed as PR DIRECTOR. Her tweet is in black and white and there’s nothing to put on trial.
She is a PR Director! She should know better than anyone that what she puts in a PUBLIC FORUM is going to be judged by the public, including the company she represents!
Her career could very well be ruined.
Yeah, well, maybe this PR DIRECTOR should have thought about that before putting such an offensive tweet (and not the first, remember!) on such a public forum.
MAYBE if this were her first offensive tweet, but it’s not. She’s clearly got a problem.
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I think the difference in reactions here is some people empathize with the angry mob, and some with the racist tweeter.
I think it sucks she tweeted that.
I think its horrifying that its international news.
Google Twitter search reports 152,000 hits on the use of the “n” word. In case you think its literary criticism of Mark Twain’s Huck Finn… I’ll include a link. Its sure to offend you. Don’t click this… you may not recover. http://bit.ly/1bhdVE1
Its the arbitrary and fickle nature of public attention… this could be any one of us. Yes you don’t say racist things… but accidentally or merely unfortunately be singled out for something like this in the age of no privacy. Lose your job, ruin your life, and then be forgotten 12 hours later.
Maybe she’ll get a Tosh.o web redemption.
She’s not the most racist person on twitter… thats not the most offensive thing said. Shes just a viral hit. This is our entertainment. She’s Joe the Plumber…
I’m annoyed Boing Boing is feeding into this… privacy advocates that they claim to be.
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Yeah, but she’s a PR Director, and I think this is very, very important. She should know better.
Not that this should be national news. I agree.
But I do wonder how she got her job in the first place, because this is not how a PR Director should be representing the company that employs them.
Also, how do privacy concerns come into play when you’re making public tweets on a public forum while having a very public job?
PUBLIC posts aren’t private and anyone with half a brain should know that. Privacy is, indeed, important, but she IN NO WAY wanted those tweets to be private. If you were able to look at her history, it’s REALLY evident that she enjoys the attention garnered from such “edgy” commentary.
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I don’t think its important. I think its trivia. Ironic trivia.
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