John Oliver condemns online harassment, the Internet responds predictably
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  John Oliver condemns online harassment, the Internet responds predictably
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Author Topic: John Oliver condemns online harassment, the Internet responds predictably  (Read 2232 times)
The Mikado
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« on: June 24, 2015, 02:40:54 PM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuNIwYsz7PI

First off, this video has the worst like-dislike ratio of any Oliver video I checked, and I checked the more popular videos. With 1.9 million views in two days, this segment has been heavily viewed. Because Oliver chose to play about a ten second clip of some controversial people (Anita Sarkeesian and Brianna Wu), his video has been flooded with comments about how that was a terrible decision and what terrible people those two ladies are...proving his point. Certain segments of the population seems crazily determined to establish some sort of "bitch had it coming" justification for the crazy stuff that's happened to Sarkeesian and that alone is a good example of why John Oliver's segment is as important as it is.

In a civil society, a person should be free to express their opinions without threat of bodily harm or death. If you disagree with someone, criticizing that person or even organizing a boycott of that person are acceptable responses. Trying to chase people off the Internet and hunt them down in their ordinary lives for having the gall to express their opinions is monstrous. Thank you John Oliver for picking examples for your segment that would get this exact response so you could show the Internet just how ugly it has gotten.
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SUSAN CRUSHBONE
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« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2015, 02:47:29 PM »

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Ebsy
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« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2015, 09:54:28 PM »

Great segment.
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Free Bird
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« Reply #3 on: June 24, 2015, 10:45:41 PM »

He really meant well, but Sarkeesian, no matter what you think of her, is too toxic to use an example regardless.
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CapoteMonster
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« Reply #4 on: June 24, 2015, 10:57:29 PM »

He really meant well, but Sarkeesian, no matter what you think of her, is too toxic to use an example regardless.
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Cory
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« Reply #5 on: June 24, 2015, 10:59:04 PM »

He really meant well, but Sarkeesian, no matter what you think of her, is too toxic to use an example regardless.

This. Same goes for Wu. John Oliver chose possibly the worst two people for his examples he could have.
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Zioneer
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« Reply #6 on: June 24, 2015, 11:25:49 PM »

SJWs are the bane of man. John Oliver deserves everything he gets.

Aaaand you're awful.
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The Mikado
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« Reply #7 on: June 25, 2015, 12:19:11 AM »
« Edited: June 25, 2015, 12:22:20 AM by The Mikado »

And this thread is amply demonstrating the reason why this segment is so valuable.

It's always amusing watching how people react to the really mild and entry-level media critique that Sarkeesian does so personally. It's like she ran over your dog or something.

SJWs are the bane of man. John Oliver deserves everything he gets.

Using the term SJW as a negative is one of those things, like a Confederate flag signature, that indicates that the person has nothing to say worth listening to.
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Marokai Backbeat
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« Reply #8 on: June 25, 2015, 12:22:57 AM »

He really meant well, but Sarkeesian, no matter what you think of her, is too toxic to use an example regardless.

This. Same goes for Wu. John Oliver chose possibly the worst two people for his examples he could have.

Wu to some extent is arguable considering she's displayed behavior that borders on paranoid delusions and has often picked fights herself, but Sarkeesian hasn't ever really done anything to deserve it. A lot of her work is atrocious but it's really no justification for hating her with such a passion.

The sad thing about Anita - aside from the sad things about Anita that go without saying; harassment, etc. - is that if people had simply left her alone there would've never been a big thing. Anita's famous for being harassed, not famous based on the quality of her work, which has only gone up marginally since she received such an influx of funds. She was doing the same old thing on YouTube for around a couple years before she got discovered through that infamous Kickstarter and people flew off the handle about her for literally no good reason whatsoever. If the edgelords of the internet had simply decided to leave her be, she would've continued being about two notches above nobody, toiling away in YouTube obscurity. The reaction to this video is the same kind of stupid bulls**t.

And yes, more needs to be done about online harassment, making certain things more explicitly illegal, giving tools to pursue it, etc etc. No sane person really disagrees, it's just that many of the people don't comprehend what they're making laws about. Important distinction. Good video. Oliver's doing good stuff over there.
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CapoteMonster
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« Reply #9 on: June 25, 2015, 12:25:59 AM »

And this thread is amply demonstrating the reason why this segment is so valuable.

SJWs are the bane of man. John Oliver deserves everything he gets.

Using the term SJW as a negative is one of those things, like a Confederate flag signature, that indicates that the person has nothing to say worth listening to.

Comparing a literal symbol of secession and figurative emblem of racism to a internet slang about overzealous bloggers is a massive hyperbole even by Atlas standards.
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Ebsy
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« Reply #10 on: June 25, 2015, 12:30:42 AM »

Whatever your disagreements with Wu or Sarkeesian, it remains that there is no reason at all for them to be targeted by the vitriol and threats of rape and violence. If you can't see that, well... please don't procreate.
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Marokai Backbeat
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« Reply #11 on: June 25, 2015, 12:31:31 AM »

Whatever your disagreements with Wu or Sarkeesian, it remains that there is no reason at all for them to be targeted by the vitriol and threats of rape and violence.

Clearly.
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The Mikado
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« Reply #12 on: June 25, 2015, 12:37:08 AM »

And this thread is amply demonstrating the reason why this segment is so valuable.

SJWs are the bane of man. John Oliver deserves everything he gets.

Using the term SJW as a negative is one of those things, like a Confederate flag signature, that indicates that the person has nothing to say worth listening to.

Comparing a literal symbol of secession and figurative emblem of racism to a internet slang about overzealous bloggers is a massive hyperbole even by Atlas standards.

Bashing "social justice" sounds a whole lot like an endorsement of social injustice. I'm puzzled and a bit saddened that we've gotten to the point where a large segment of society is so twisted that it regards social justice and advocacy for it as a negative.
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CapoteMonster
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« Reply #13 on: June 25, 2015, 12:41:06 AM »

Shrewd point Marokai. Anita's told quite a few fibs and has conducted herself poorly in more ways than one but none of that warrants people forcing her out of her own house or getting school shooting threats. The fact that many said she had those events coming or made up conspiracy theories about them proves the point about Internet vitriol being a major problem.
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Ebsy
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« Reply #14 on: June 25, 2015, 12:52:18 AM »

Shrewd point Marokai. Anita's told quite a few fibs and has conducted herself poorly in more ways than one but none of that warrants people forcing her out of her own house or getting school shooting threats. The fact that many said she had those events coming or made up conspiracy theories about them proves the point about Internet vitriol being a major problem.
That's the point of the segment. Of course, that doesn't stop some of youtube's resident fedora tippers from flocking to the comment section to fling insults and threats Wu and Sarkeesian, who probably had nothing to do with the making of the video and were in it for about 10 seconds each, just because they are contemporary markers for obscene online harassment.
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« Reply #15 on: June 25, 2015, 01:54:40 AM »

He really meant well, but Sarkeesian, no matter what you think of her, is too toxic to use an example regardless.

This. Same goes for Wu. John Oliver chose possibly the worst two people for his examples he could have.

If he had used examples that were fine, upstanding, and uncontroversial, the segment would have had no point.
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afleitch
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« Reply #16 on: June 25, 2015, 03:59:30 AM »

He really meant well, but Sarkeesian, no matter what you think of her, is too toxic to use an example regardless.

This. Same goes for Wu. John Oliver chose possibly the worst two people for his examples he could have.

If he had used examples that were fine, upstanding, and uncontroversial, the segment would have had no point.

Bingo.
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« Reply #17 on: June 25, 2015, 06:30:47 AM »
« Edited: June 25, 2015, 06:33:05 AM by Scene Music and Marijuana Gummy Bears »

Yes, Sarkeesian's videos are often poorly researched, show a complete lack of understanding of the material she's covering, often have the equivalent of when politicians make unironic references to Onion articles, just about every single criticism she's made of video games is about as relevant in 2015 as removable console memory cards and floppy disks, and she never responds to critics who validly point this stuff out, only the worst trolls who attack her.

However that is not the point of Oliver's segment.
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #18 on: June 25, 2015, 07:54:53 AM »

The internet needs to be purged with fire. And unsurprisingly, some of the posts in this thread are a perfect illustration for that.

Also, I've watched a few of Sarkeesian's videos and they're perfectly fine. Her tone is a bit bland but her criticisms are perfectly valid and justified. And besides, even if they weren't, an all-male forum wouldn't have much ground to refute them.
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« Reply #19 on: June 25, 2015, 08:56:25 AM »

Sarkeesian would be a nobody if it weren't for the visceral bile spewed in her direction by triggered gamers.
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King
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« Reply #20 on: June 25, 2015, 09:09:11 AM »

He really meant well, but Sarkeesian, no matter what you think of her, is too toxic to use an example regardless.

This. Same goes for Wu. John Oliver chose possibly the worst two people for his examples he could have.

Do those even count as examples? They were on screen for such a short period of time I wouldn't even list them in imdb credits for this episode. It wasn't even an interview, it was a clip of another news piece by ABC.
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Vega
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« Reply #21 on: June 25, 2015, 12:27:40 PM »

I'm sure his writers weren't aware, and that Wu person looks... well...

He normally turns in a good show, so it's not a huge deal.
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Beet
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« Reply #22 on: June 25, 2015, 12:33:36 PM »

Yes, I have to admit, I have no idea about whether what Sarkeesian says about video games is right or not, and the main reason I've supported her financially is the unhinged reaction she gets is disproportionate to anything anyone should ever get for saying anything about video games, which leads me to think it's not about video games at all. Just as GamerGate is not about video games.

The same thing could be said about so much of why the Internet has turned me into a radical feminist of sorts; a feminist says something very mild, be it an unwanted advance in an elevator, or guns aren't the solution to rape, and an explosion of misogyny follows. Technology has revealed some deep seeded misogyny amongst a large segment of the population. Women like Monica Lewinsky, Kathy Sierra, are my heroes.
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cinyc
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« Reply #23 on: June 25, 2015, 02:06:58 PM »

Bashing "social justice" sounds a whole lot like an endorsement of social injustice. I'm puzzled and a bit saddened that we've gotten to the point where a large segment of society is so twisted that it regards social justice and advocacy for it as a negative.

Just because someone calls an ultra-liberal agenda a pretty name doesn't make those who oppose their ultra-liberal world view evil or supporting injustice.  Is the opposite of pro-life called pro-death?
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SUSAN CRUSHBONE
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« Reply #24 on: June 25, 2015, 02:09:45 PM »

Bashing "social justice" sounds a whole lot like an endorsement of social injustice. I'm puzzled and a bit saddened that we've gotten to the point where a large segment of society is so twisted that it regards social justice and advocacy for it as a negative.

Just because someone calls an ultra-liberal agenda a pretty name doesn't make those who oppose their ultra-liberal world view evil or supporting injustice.  Is the opposite of pro-life called pro-death?

the name "social justice warrior" was popularised by anti-sjws, you know
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