The Troll Tax

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jrjones9933
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15 Aug 2017, 6:38 pm

Excellent podcast from Mozilla, https://blog.mozilla.org/internetcitize ... ld-and-web

Quote:

In December 2016, I watched as Lauren Duca, a writer at Teen Vogue, appeared as a guest on the Tucker Carlson Tonight television show to discuss her column, “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America.” After a heated exchange, Tucker Carlson told Duca to “stick to the thigh high boots.” Since that incident, she has endured incessant harassment including death and rape threats.

In our podcast, Duca explains the troll tax for women. Her words really hit home for me.

“For female writers, [being harassed online] means a tax that steals time, steals energy, costs productivity, lessens their ability to compete, to promote themselves, to network. For anybody who in any way presents as a woman online, there is a danger of a mental toll, and sometimes a real world physical threat. What am I told? Get off Twitter. But, are women just not supposed to participate in the public forum? The public forum is happening online, and women cannot just be told to leave it. That’s not a viable option.”

Men certainly experience rape threats online, but they are not guaranteed to experience them if they publish their political opinions. Tucker Carlson is a sexist pig.

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kraftiekortie
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15 Aug 2017, 6:41 pm

Anybody who issues rape threats over the Internet needs to be arrested.

kitesandtrainsandcats
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15 Aug 2017, 6:44 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:

Anybody who issues rape threats over the Internet needs to be arrested.

Amen to that.

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kitesandtrainsandcats
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15 Aug 2017, 6:51 pm

Not being familiar with her I went Googling; one thing I found was,

Quote:

But while Duca is critical of Trump and the “alternative facts” that have become part of the White House administration, she’s also deeply frustrated by the media and online conversation that is hijacked by a “call-out culture” of shaming people at the expense of real change.

She believes political correctness is “out of control” with too many people who would consider themselves “progressive” actually hell bent on holding up change over semantics or using a “screenshot of an unfortunate tweet from 2011” to negate someone’s views.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/lea ... 81c1b0e101

Quote:

“I think I’m incredibly tough and I’m proud of that but I don’t think I should have to be. I worry about how this kind of negative energy is taking a toll on me and also on any woman who is trying to use her voice online,” she said, adding that claims of being “attention seeking” or “overwrought” are also thrown at her constantly.

Despite the backlash, Duca says she’s grateful for positive messages from fans and it seems she couldn’t not be engaged even if she wanted to.

“We have to kind of do away with this idea of politeness,” she said. “I don’t think not talking about politics is an option for anybody who cares about the state of humanity right now.”

Those sound to me like reasonable and accurate observations.
Maybe that's the root of the problem, people really resent her being correct?

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Tom Mueller of SpaceX, in Air and Space, Jan. 2011

jrjones9933
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15 Aug 2017, 7:14 pm

I've linked to excellent Teen Vogue articles on this site. They have cogent political analysis, AND the cutest thigh high boots. I guess Tucker Carlson can't accept the existence of the modern girl.

Trolls come from both parties and all shades of political opinion (the shadier the better). However, the right wing trolls have a higher level of organization. It seems obvious that some people here coordinate their activities elsewhere, and if banned, call in their cohorts from wherever "elsewhere" is. IDK, maybe the comments forum of RT?

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kitesandtrainsandcats
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15 Aug 2017, 7:33 pm

jrjones9933 wrote:

... the existence of the modern girl.

Brings to mind how my expectation of what women can be and can do is/was seriously distorted by my now 77 year old mother.
She was born on an Ozark mountain farm with no electricity or indoor plumbing; graduated college and worked as a dietitian and food service manager; she could rebuild appliances; could fly airplanes; apparently succeeded at raising me, my brother, a couple grandchildren; our house seemed to be one where kids with seriously dysfunctional families came to hang out and escape; Dad was a Navy officer and Mom had no hesitation about occasionally setting Admirals straight as to how real life worked, if the occasion warranted. Same for school administrations. And she was invariably documentably correct. And OMG she can cook the tastiest food!
So, yeah, clearly I learned from my own Mom that women are by definition dumb and incompetent.
NOT :!:

Oh, and there was the time I came home from high school to find her in the family room playing with one of my brother's replica swords - I got the other one and we had a fencing match!

So, yeah, where do people generate their standards for judging, their expectations of, women?
I use the basis of Mom, who was brilliant, pretty, and pretty ballsy.
That was the reference I had right there in front of me for most of my life.

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"There are a thousand things that can happen when you go light a rocket engine, and only one of them is good."
Tom Mueller of SpaceX, in Air and Space, Jan. 2011

Last edited by kitesandtrainsandcats on 15 Aug 2017, 7:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

jrjones9933
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15 Aug 2017, 7:40 pm

WTH is up with all these people snipping the meat from my posts and trying to pick a fight over the gravy?

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EzraS
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16 Aug 2017, 6:52 am

jrjones9933 wrote:

WTH is up with all these people snipping the meat from my posts and trying to pick a fight over the gravy?

Beats me. What I posted applies to verious individuals, such as a guy named optid on Govteen, who used to have go at me fairly often.

(Don't ask me why they let an obviously middle aged man who sounded like a cranky school teacher slash grumpy grandpa post on a teen forum.)

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