as small as a world and as large as alone

8:00pm April 25, 2014

slashmarks:

cyborgbutterflies:

slashmarks:

Apparently this needs said again.

It is not okay to tell people to kill themselves, no matter what they do.

It isn’t okay because this is basically using someone’s mental illness/trauma against them if they misbehave, if they are mentally ill, and if not, it is using those things as a punishment.

It isn’t okay because it is going to trigger bystanders who are not guilty of anything.

It isn’t okay because if you approve of violent death threats they are going to be used in situations where they are not remotely appropriate. Once you make a tactic socially sanctioned, you do not have control over its use anymore.

It isn’t okay because violent death threats are hardly ever remotely appropriate. All people believe fucked up things, because we live in a society that teaches fucked up things. People are not trash people because they are works in progress.

It isn’t okay because while there are situations where violence is an appropriate response, even the only appropriate response, telling people to kill themselves on the internet is not violence in self defense. In all likelihood it is going to have no effect whatsoever on any target that deserves violence.

It will, however, reinforce the idea that it is okay to use suicide as a punishment.

That’s not okay.

Telling people to kill themselves because they did a messed up, bigoted thing is the same as misgendering trans people for doing messed up, bigoted things, or hurling slurs at people for doing messed up, bigoted things. It’s not acceptable. If you do it, we are not friends. We are not allies. I don’t want you anywhere near me.

The whole post is important but I want to comment on the bit I bolded. If we go easy on shunning things like this, we are actually giving power to those who already have too much of it.

And by “things like this” I mean the whole range of unacceptable responses to any position you dislike. As Scott said once regarding doxxing:

A lot of people would argue that doxxing holds people “accountable” for what they say online. But like most methods of silencing speech, its ability to punish people for saying the wrong things is entirely uncorrelated with whether the thing they said is actually wrong. It distributes power based on who controls the largest mob (hint: popular people) and who has the resources, job security, and physical security necessary to outlast a personal attack (hint: rich people). If you try to hold the Koch Brothers “accountable” for muddying the climate change waters, they will laugh in your face. If you try to hold closeted gay people “accountable” for promoting gay rights, it will be very easy and you will successfully ruin their lives. Do you really want to promote a policy that works this way?

Of course, there are cases unrelated to arguments where doxxing may not be bad (such as exposing people who make serious threats and the like to warn others and inform the authorities), but otherwise it is just a dangerous thing to allow.

This is a good addition.

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