There is a sad story out of London that is a commentary on the mutating influence of anonymity on the Internet. Brenda Leyland killed herself after being confronted about her online abuse of the parents of the missing girl Madeleine McCann. Sky News tracked her down as the troll responsible for thousands of hate filled messages to Kate and Gerry McCann, whose three-year-old daughter went missing in Portugal in 2007.
What is interesting is that she faced a criminal investigation. We have previously discussed the worrisome trend in England in criminalizing different forms of speech. While Leyland (writing as @Sweepyface) was vicious, the 63-year-old was also engaged in what appears to be free speech. She is an online bully — something that we all have had to deal with on blogs as a constant reality. Some people find anonymity intoxicating — unleashing the most vile and hateful sides of personalities. It is truly chilling to think that some many people actively repress such impulses until they find a vehicle to attack others without accountability. However, I have serious concerns over the criminalization of speech.
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has made clear that social media could be a criminal offence if they contain “credible threats of violence” or target an individual in a way that “may constitute harassment or stalking”. It is the harassment element that can be highly ambiguous. The prosecutors have said that “Grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or false” messages can be a crime if a “public interest” case. That creates a huge chilling effect on a wide range of speech that some might see as offensive or untrue. As one of the greatest vehicles for free speech in the history of humanity, these prosecutions threaten to curtail a significant resource for free speech.
The article below cites a study by Canadian researchers that concluded that “Both trolls and sadists feel sadistic glee at the distress of others. Sadists just want to have fun… and the Internet is their playground!”
The glee turned to a nightmare for Leyland when her true identity was revealed.
Source: Yahoo
Pogo Hears a Who, “The ongoing protests in Ferguson reflect impotence, envy, stupidity, mob rule, thug culture, and their communist cheerleaders hoping for a revolution.”
I can’t tell you how strongly I disagree with your “analysis”. I recommend that you read up on the civil rights protests of the 60s. What’s happening in St. Louis is comparable. The African American community is tired of being treated as second class citizens. These protests are being led by young Black men who have been used as targets and punching bags for the cops and supported by their elders. It’s time for change.
bettykath – so, a young man shots at a cop in Fergeson and gets shot in return and he is a punching bag? Do I understand you correctly?
Paul, oh I see I spoke too soon about your integrity. Oh well live and learn.
Annie – I am sure it will not come as a shock, but I do not care what you think of my integrity or my hair style. Actually, I am here to blog with others, not make friends. This is intellectual stimulation (with some commentators) and staves off boredom with others. As long as Jonathan does not ban me, I am a happy camper.
Paul,
Paul,
Huh? Did I ever say anything about your hairstyle? I don’t know a thing about your hair, nor do I think it’s important when I address you here on any given subject. LOL! I’m glad you’re happy, I hope you remain happy all the days of your life, now here’s a hug and a cookie to make you even happier. 🙂
Annie – you keep offering cookies which would not be unwelcomed, however, nothing ever appears. As for the dog, he may have herder genes and will herd anything in a group. He is probably never going to ‘learn’ his lesson. He may end up herding the geese and they will end up liking it. 🙂
Keven, if only that were so, but there are those here who use their real names and that doesn’t stop them from telling ‘stories’ pulled out of their imaginations, about other commenters here.
Pogo Hears a Who, ” Leszek Kolakowski’s essay “What is Socialism?” it as a state:
“in which a person who has not committed any crime sits at home waiting for the police, in which there are more spies than nurses and more people in prisons than in hospitals, in which one is forced to resort to lies…in which a person who does not think at all lives better — and blah, blah, blah…..”
I guess this is the definition being used by those who say that the President is a socialist. Those of us who find that accusation laughable have a different view of socialism and the President doesn’t come close.
Why not find a happy middle ground? The problem seems to be the anonymity, but criminalizing speech is always going to be problematic. So why not just publish the names of people who make offensive comments? If we all had to stand up next to what we said we’d all be a lot more civil and thoughtful. So take out the threat of criminal prosecution, but include the threat of public shaming for truly hateful comments. Seems like a less onerous, and just as effective, means of curtailing this conduct.
Kevin – I made the mistake, and I do mean mistake, of pushing for someone to out themselves from the anonymity of this site. Jonathan dumped on me from a great height. 🙂 It was a lesson learned. 😉
on 1, October 14, 2014 at 3:06 pmPogo Hears a Who
The ongoing protests in Ferguson reflect impotence, envy, stupidity, mob rule, thug culture, and their communist cheerleaders hoping for a revolution.
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Pogo, I’m not your nurse, don’t boss me around. 😉
So what did I misstate? I don’t want to join the ranks of those here who regularly mischaracterized someone’s comments.
“I do however find it interesting that you see no injustice in…”
Why you find interesting something I never said is rather odd.
There are things I’ve never said about boll weevils, Count Chocula, midget baseball players, and the rain in Spain.
Perhaps you’d also find those interesting as well, and similarly construct entire arguments for me about them.
If you could have that on my desk by 5, that’d be great.
That’s the only reason I give you the time of day Paul. 😉
I thought it was quite brave and showed your independent streak when you declined to join the recent ‘conspiracy’ of a few individuals here. We discussed this a couple of days ago, if you recall. Your integrity shot up a few notches in my estimation when I heard you declined to join that little ‘plot’ some here were brewing, lol.
Pogo, opinions are like noses, everyone has one. I do however find it interesting that you see no injustice in the way the killing of the young black man was handled, or the overreaction of the police force in the way they brought out their weapons of war on American citizens. I suppose you saw the Occupy protestors in the same light. Nothing wrong with militarizing our nation’s police forces?
Annie – since the Occupy people were illegally seizing territory, raping, killing and stealing, I have no problem with using weapons of war. I am not sure I have a problem with napalm. 😉
Trigger words!
I’d forgotten those.
How did we end up back in Victorian times, where some women are delicate flowers who cannot bear the world as it is, and must be carried from room to room like so many Elizabeth Barrett Brownings?
The ongoing protests in Ferguson reflect impotence, envy, stupidity, mob rule, thug culture, and their communist cheerleaders hoping for a revolution.
Pogo – my personal new favorite is ‘trigger word(s)’ that people need to be protected from.
The civility rule went up the same day:
http://jonathanturley.org/2014/01/04/posting-of-the-civility-rule/#more-74181
Jill
I do not disagree with you in that bullying and other tactics to try to silence people should be confronted and the tactics stopped. Trolling a thread and diverting the conversations is also a form of bullying in a way. I also agree that in some cases these individuals are paid shills or are activists in and of themselves. Some people are just unable to control themselves, I suppose. Some people are actively bad and enjoy (as in the topic of this post) harming others.
Acknowledging the past is one thing. Obsessing about it is entirely another.
It is this constant scab picking and navel gazing into the past that is tedious, boring and annoying, as well as distracting to the purpose of this blog. It is also disrespectful of the host, the writing contributors and those who wish to have meaningful discussions.
You are not going to solve anything by obsessing over who did what to whom and about people who are no longer even here. This constant juvenile whining about who gets treated better than who and that so and so is a big ole meanie and wah wah wah it is so unfair!!!!! (in my best three year old toddler voice). . This weird paranoia and persecution complex that some people seem to have where every word written must be about THEM.
It is unfathomable to me that adults would act this way.
Sadder still are the self-righteous who luxuriate in the role of martyr for their ‘truth’. Has there been one convert who miraculously saw the “light” during these exercises in futility? Most of the sadomasochistic banter that poses as debate is nothing more than juvenile score keeping and scratching old wounds.
How can one codify a substantive legal difference between bullying and sharp disagreement?
The left is trying to silence people by using the words “safe,” “uncomfortable” and “hate speech,” trump cards meant to quash all debate.
By such measures, anyone can be accused of bullying.
The ongoing protests in Ferguson reflects this feeling of unequal justice, eventually people will protest.
DBQ, I truly disagree with you here and I explained why earlier. It is necessary to confront bullying and talk about its consequences. Otherwise, we are engaged in saying something like, we’re going to look forward, not backward (at least when it’s our friends).
It is important to realize that bullying silences dissent. It did me and it did silence others. Bullying always acts to silence others. In order to stop this from happening again, the past must be acknowledged.
What you may not know about by which has been documented is that the govt. uses its paid bullies to silence dissent. You can read them in many newspapers’ columns. You can read about them in Cass Sustein’s idea to have govt. toadies infiltrate blogs and shut out dissent.
I believe many ordinary people do not realize they are being led into two minutes of hate by this govt. I do not think people understand that we are being turned against each other by being taught to hate and silence those who disagree with us.
One way to understand what is happening now is to pay attention to what happened in the past.
“We tortured some folks”-wow, now that’s over! Except it’s not over until those who tortured are held to account for their past and present crimes. It is certainly not over for those who were tortured. There are many things that can be learned from the past and the consequences of bullying is something important to know.
Jill,
ShakingMyHead upstream, seems to have the exact thoughts I do about bullying on this blog. She comes much closer to naming the individual than I do. Most here know exactly who this person is and naming that person would serve no purpose, and would probably be deleted. We’ve all had this discussion before, several times, in fact. I’m sorry you had negative experiences with any weekend bloggers and I wasn’t here at the time, so I have no knowledge of it. Bullying is a despicable act.
Annie – why are you going on and on about this person? You have been on about this for days. You are almost OCD in your obsession to almost name names, or name.
And in Pogo’s defense, you do mischaracterize others comments regularly. You have mischaracterized mine on more than one occasion.
He still has 3 days left. So, we should honor that and not go titty tatty.