Huh. I never thought “He’s a troll, so it can’t be defamation” would be a valid defense.
It makes sense as a defense specifically against defamation charges. The wikipedia page on defamation has a section on “mere vulgar abuse” (as a defense against charges of defamation)
Mere vulgar abuse is an insult that is not necessarily defamatory because it is not intended to be taken literally or believed, or likely to cause real damage to a reputation. Vituperative statements made in anger, such as calling someone "an arse" during a drunken argument, would likely be considered mere vulgar abuse and not defamatory.
Twitter - your source for mere vulgar abuse
Man, he must be high.
But what about the fact that James Woods killed a prostitute in 2001 over a crack bong that he inserted rectally? Is it defamatory to bring it up, since it is fact?
“Mere vulgar abuse” seems to cover things like the account’s original tirades against Woods… Like calling him “a ridiculous scum clown-boy”. The tweet in question here (“cocaine addict James Woods still sniffing and spouting.”) seems a bit less clear cut.
I want to know where he got Rand Paul’s hairpiece from. That pic is teh funny.
Yeah, that was Woods’ contention. I’m glad the court slapped him down for it - I don’t think you should be able to take one tweet from a twitter fight and claim it’s an entirely independent entity
Even that one tweet on its own reads more like a slap in the face than a piece of investigative reporting
I don’t think they have, yet.
poor guy can’t see the woods for all the trees he burning
hmmm. . . you are correct. I misread that
Fun fact: supposedly Woods has a genius-level IQ. At least that’s what I heard once on Letterman or Carson.
But obviously being smart doesn’t stop him from acting dumb.
Easy to confuse several broadly similar, overlapping, but different things:
Twitter Lies = defamation = lawsuits
Twitter Threats = harassment = arrests
Twitter Abuse = trolling = banned from Twitter (if you please, Twitter)
Timely - John Scalzi’s piece on people dropping their Mensa cards into a conversation to try to give more weight to their arguments
It is crazy that all of this feedback about culture gets pumped through one company.
I still don’t really understand how this happened.
I’ve seen people do that several times. ALWAYS a surprise, since they always seemed like the least likely MENSA member present. And then, suddenly, a jerk as well.
When my hubby was a kid, he was drafted into Mensa, but he got out because they were all jerks. Years later, he had a co-worker who was in Mensa, and told my sweetie he should get back into it because he had met all 4 of his wives at Mensa meetings (the co-worker, not my one and only, as I’m his one and only)… my love thought better of re-joining after that conversation.
There is probably something about being told you’re super-smart (and the under current of that being you’re the true elite or some such) that pumps up the ego to unmanageable sizes for some.
He should have burnt his card.
Or it was already that big before joining.
Not seen that before. Thanks.
Your Mensa card does not immunize you from being a complete, raging asshole.
QFT.
