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
Yep Mespo, what gets me are the ones who make some crazy declaration and then refuse to provide links to cites to back up their assertions, or tell you to go disprove them with cites. Lazy, or what?
Yeah, Lot’s of small business owners now. Lot’s of icky non Democrats. And, boy do I miss those govt. officials. No blog isn’t improved by the ideas of bureaucrats.
Bettykath, lol. I used to tell my kids there were chicken beaks and feet in hot dogs, so they would eat healthier protein.
Mespo, yes, the intellectual level has declined.
bettykath wrote: “… the intellectual level has declined.”
You must have an odd understanding of intellectual level. Perhaps you just like those in authority parroting your own belief system. Before it was the attitude of, “believe me, I am in authority here, I am a guest blogger, I am a lawyer… followed by a bunch of denigrating name calling.” When the request was made for civil discourse and avoiding ad hominem argumentation and flaming remarks, the response was that I should leave the blog if I can’t handle the heat. Now the blog is much more focused on ideas and concepts, and much more scholarly research. I have learned far more on this blog since January. Commentators like Olly, Paul, Karen, Darren, Byron, Nick, etc. have motivated me to study more.
Mespo, thanks for backing up Annie’s assertion. I agree with her that the overall tone of the commentary has declined. Some of the new voices, with whom I frequently disagree, are civil. Some are not,especially he-who-thinks-he-is-boss
Annie:
Not so much the tone (which was always boisterous) IMHO, but the quality of the thought has eroded. We used to have many lawyers, government officials and scholars in on the debate who actually spent time fact-checking what they were writing about. Now … not so much… it’s all from the hip or a rehash of talking points. Plus you actually learned something new even from those with whom you disagreed. Well things change. Maybe they’ll get better.
Annie, thanks for Abbot and Costello. This skit reminds me of an interaction with some nephews. They were very picky eaters. I can’t remember if it was hot dogs or baloney that they wouldn’t eat but when I got them to consider the baloney before it was sliced as a large hot dog or a hot dog as a mini-baloney log their menu increased.
No doubt Mespo. I enjoy reading Flowers for Socrates. Their voices here on RIL were powerful and are missed more than ever. When I see what has transpired here @ RIL, it just makes me sick. Some can say it has improved all they want, but the truth is the tone of the commentariat has declined despite the civility rules.
Annie, mespo and Chuck – I think it is in exceeding poor taste to come here when JT is away to flog Gene’s blog. I have read his blog. He is not all that. He is okay, but he is clearly a legend in his own mind. Actually, I have always suspected that he was behind the trolls who came after me when I joined this blog. You know anything about that? You guys seem to have a lot of inside info.
Lot’s of substantive comments here, southern barrister. Try it sometime.
Superbly. I think there must be double digit comments some days. Too bad about TonyC. He learned who’s the boss. LOL!!
Annie:
Me too. Those folks all did great work and still do. I enjoy their columns which mesh nicely as magazines to the day-in, day-out news articles JT writes on the weekdays. You get more in-depth and personal analysis which gives meat to some of the more complex stories. Gene Howington’s series on propaganda is must-reading as are Mike’s insights into psychology and sociology. Elaine is just a joy and a beautiful spirit. Must be why FlowersforSocrates.com is doing so well.
Thanks for the illustrative comment, nick.
Mespo, my hope is for the future. I miss the intelligent, thoughtful, well researched articles from weekends past.
Pogo, Loved Keaton, Chaplin was just OK for me.
Not a big Chaplin fan, but humor is very personal. There maybe three pieces of Chaplin that I like. However, there is nothing of Keaton that I dislike. Fatty Arbuckle is another great. It is harder to get his films, but worth it.
Laurel and Hardy are great. My personal favorite is them trying to get the piano up the stairs.
Well, The Whine party has been reconvened. I think a nice Cheez Whiz for this muscatel.
Nick – thank you for saying that. I get so tired of some people whining. Man up or woman up and soldier on. Live within the rules as best you can or move on. I am sure Gene would love to have you 24/7.
Annie:\
And again just for the record, the once (and I hope future) GBs helped write the civility rule as did I.
Thank you Mespo. I didn’t think I was misrepresenting the situation, glad to know my instincts were correct, sad that it had to come to that though. What a great loss for RIL.
Annie, mespo and Chuck – what I see is a hankering for the ‘good ole days’ and I was not here then, so I don’t know what happened or what went down. But I have a feeling there was a power play and there were winners and losers. The losers left and the winners stayed. On at least one occasion each Mike and Gene have been on here to complain about the way JT is running things. Now, the only way that happens is if someone(s) are going to Gene’s blog and complaining, so they are coming over here to show JT how to run his blog. Personally, since they left, I really do not think it is any of their business how this blog is run.
Davidm2575:
“Annie wrote: “Sadly those excellent weekend bloggers all left because of one person, who could that person be?”
Be honest now. They left because they disagreed with the civility rule. They wanted to be uncivil in their dialogue to anyone they think deserved it.”
**********************
To set the record straight from someone who was there, Annie is right and you’re not.
mespo wrote: “To set the record straight from someone who was there, Annie is right and you’re not.”
I was here too, Mark. Your memory must not be working very well.
How do you explain this comment by Mike Spindell?
“However, it has come to pass that there is a fundamental difference in approach between Jonathan and myself about certain blog rules.”
Mike said that on the very day that the civility rule was posted.
I could go back and pull up all kinds of posts by Gene Howington defending his perpetual use of ad hominem argumentation to say that calling me names was fine as long as the abusive comment is true.
Do you even remember whose post brought this difference in blog philosophy to a head?
You are so wrong, Mark, and what is most wrong is that you abuse your position of authority to mislead those who rely upon authority to decide what they will believe. Rather than shooting from the hip, you should try to document what actually happened. That is what I have done, so follow my example if you like.
Pogo, “The they should get off the Democrat plantation. They sold their birthright for a mess of pottage.
They got welfare and Obamaphones in exchange for their votes, and were left with fatherless homes, generational poverty, thug culture, and crime as lifestyle……………………..”
Your bigotry is showing. African-Americans were held as slaves for generations. When they were emancipated they were promised 40 acres and a mule. What they got was zilch. They were allowed to join the military right after the Civil War in one of four Black-only regiments, under white command, but allowed to serve only west of the Mississippi fighting Indians. How’s that for irony, one oppressed group getting some freedom so they can oppress another group.
Fast forward to WWII. As the Army integrated, Black soldiers were relegated to support functions and not allowed to fight. The new Buffalo Soldiers served in Italy (under white command) and more than held their own against the Germans who held the high ground. Strangely, it took decades for their contributions to be recognized. Further, the GI bill that allowed returning GIs to go to college and get mortgages were withheld from the Black soldiers, the mortgages through red-lining (thank Mittens dad for that), red-lining that is still practiced in some areas. Education and land ownership are essential elements of creating economic independence. This was withheld.
I’m sure you’ve heard that Black children could only go to the inferior Black-only schools and were prohibited from attending the better appointed white-only schools. Even now, a majority of inner-city schools are a majority of minority students and are underfunded.
There are many, many examples of how white people have gotten theirs while Black people have been relegated to the spoils. The systemic exclusion of African-Americans to those things that would help them move from poverty is the real problem.
The civil rights movement of the 60s resulted in significant changes, but the KKK that would hang Black in the nearest tree for no reason other than the color of his skin, has traded its white robes and hoods for blue or SWAT black.
bettykath – you are aware of the number of Medals of Honor the Buffalo Soldiers earned here in Arizona and other places in the West?
Did you know that “Black’ Jack Pershing is actually ‘Nigger’ Jack Pershing because he led a Buffalo Soldier regiment and spoke highly of them.
Did you know that when the Civil War first started Union officers where giving black slaves back to the Confederates and finally one of the generals decided that they were war booty and were to be kept. Although abused by the Union army.
After LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 he lamented to Sen. Eastland on a phone conversation that the Democratic Party would lose the South to the Republicans. This is on tape, made by Johnson and published. LBJ was correct. Lee Atwater from SC outlined the Southern Strategy for the RepubliCons. Google: Lee Atwater and The Southern Strategy. The party which used to be known as the Party of Lincoln is now the party of bigot, bigot, bo bigot.
BarkinDog – that is because all those bigoted Democrats from the South switched parties and registered Republican. You realize that don’t you? The only party to have a KKK Kleagle as a member of the Senate is the Democrats.