Dan H wrote:
Just a little bit of merit, huh?
So a member of the press comes into your place of work, asks you your opinion on a controversial topic, you provide it. They report it in an inflammatory way, and suddenly you're the target of death and arson threats? What is that, if not hysteria?
Death threats and stalking by a group of gamers is worthy of painting an entire group of fandom with GamerGate, but the same toward a pizzeria that took no action and merely offered their opinion is just slightly concerning? Wow. Wow.
Your comment about hysteria was in reference to the proposed change to the law itself, strongly implying that you were using "hysteria" to refer to the actual debate about the law. That is where I take issue. You said that well before posting the other article.
I think the reaction by the Internet dwellers to the pizzeria issue is disgusting, of course. In all cases, responding to something you disagree with by harassing people online and threatening them is completely, 100% wrong. But, it also happens regarding just about every issue that ever comes up in today's world. I am quite certain that any article you post about potential gun control results in just as much ugliness online from the right. Hell, I remember a lot of that happening after Gabby Giffords, who supports gun ownership and has said so many times over, mentioned something to the effect that gun control is important and we need to reconsider how we are handling it (I do not recall exactly what she said, and it's not important so I'm not looking it up).
I have watched the original report on Memories Pizza, and read the accompanying article on the news site. And while it is hardly unbiased, it is also hardly inflammatory. In fact, they seemed rather happy to have a chance to speak their minds, although they would not have been expecting the over the top reaction. It was a public opinion piece, which is pretty common and not as cheap as the article you provided suggests.
Gamergate was a VERY extreme case of this, an ongoing campaign of harassment that started as a few trolls upset (for no reason) that Zoe Quinn's game was getting "too much attention" and then developed into a full-blown assault on her and others that lasted two years (and is probably still ongoing). It's not an apples to apples comparison, but regardless, it was a big story because the Gamergater trolls made it a big story.
I don't condone either group of trolls. But if we have to talk about the trolls every time a controversial topic comes up, the conversation will not go very far, because they are around for literally every issue that comes up. In fact, I would expect that the right wing troll backlash against the reporter, Alyssa Marino, is happening somewhere. I'd guess it's the usual death and rape threats, probably with a few for arson just to balance things out...I don't plan on seeking these out, but I'll let you know when they stumble across my lefty news feed.
People are rightly up in arms about this bill, but the actions of a vocal few are making you guys look very, very bad. Do we really want to play the mob-rule game?
BTW, I don't have to crusade for gun rights. The trends of the last decade and recent court decisions are on my side, much like gay marriage. The funny thing is I suspect I'm probably more okay with gay marriage than some of y'all are with gun rights. Interesting, that.
Well, if you want to associate ME with the vocal few trolls and say that I somehow look bad because of what they are doing...OK, I guess I can't stop you. Hardly fair, since I don't do that to you, and I think we're both intelligent enough to realize the difference between disagreeing and acting like a complete shithead troll from the bowels of 4chan.
And I think you say that because you conflate gun control with infringing on gun ownership...but let's save that discussion for another thread. I have to actually get some work done today.
