Moral Panics and the Death of Fun

Re:Moral Panics and the Death of Fun by scrame on Wednesday October 22, 2014 @01:40PM (#8493892)

Moral Panic? Fun?

This guy was a C-level exec for a financial journal making rape jokes and using racial slurs without even the pretense of "my opinions do not represent my employer".

Sorry, to ruin your "fun", bro. The "misfits and troublemakers" quote you're building this on refers to people innovating and working against the system to make something new, not insulated fratboys making rape jokes on twitter.

You can have your free speech, but no one has to pay you to keep a prominent position while making it clear that you are espousing illegal hiring practices and being an otherwise narrow-minded dipshit. You are not a rabble-rouser or mischief maker, just a retrenchment of the same bullshit most everyone else in the world is sick of.

You drew the target on your back and are whining that people pulled the trigger.

Thanks for playing, though!

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Re:Moral Panics and the Death of Fun by delluminatus on Wednesday October 22, 2014 @01:55PM (#8494007)

Twitter posts are serious business, and this guy is a good example of how you can fuck yourself by forgetting that Twitter is a public medium.

Having said that, I think we should consider whether the dude really deserved the incredible backlash against him. Being retributive can give us a sense of righteousness, but in the end all this comes down to is punishing a guy for embracing the "wrong" subculture.

edit: I can understand being uncomfortable about his comments, and possibly even wanting to fire him over them. What I take issue with is the hateful attitude people have taken towards him. It's (imo) hypocritical to call someone a "fratboy" while deriding them for derogatory comments.

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Re:Moral Panics and the Death of Fun by pkinsky on Wednesday October 22, 2014 @01:58PM (#8494036)

As far as I know there are no actual instances of sexist behavior attributed to Pax Dickinson outside of shitty jokes on Twitter. He might be an ass, but I'm deeply uncomfortable with de-facto blacklisting purely as a response to offensive speech.

(And since this is deep in identity politics territory I'm saying that as a gay man of middle eastern ancestry.)

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Re:Moral Panics and the Death of Fun by alxjrvs on Wednesday October 22, 2014 @02:01PM (#8494064)

I think it has a great deal of worth, especially considering how much people in his (and most) industries operate with twitter as a public-facing manifestation of yourself.

Secondly, not wanting to do business with someone because they are an ass...sounds pretty reasonable to me.

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Re:Moral Panics and the Death of Fun by pkinsky on Wednesday October 22, 2014 @02:06PM (#8494104)

It's reasonable in the individual case, but the effect is still forcing someone out of the industry for making blasphemous, err, offensive jokes. (not, as far as we know, being an ass at work) This seems uncomfortably similar to blacklisting someone for being a Communist, even if it's an emergent blacklisting and not a top-down edict.

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Re:Moral Panics and the Death of Fun by aqme28 on Wednesday October 22, 2014 @01:49PM (#8493958)

Exactly. These weren't "dissenting & unpopular opinions in technology" (as he frames them), but hateful, ignorant, and even regressive opinions.

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Re:Moral Panics and the Death of Fun by pitt1980 on Wednesday October 22, 2014 @02:01PM (#8494071)

what was the real crime here?

making off color jokes?

or not realizing exactly how publically he was making them?

edit - I find it interesting to contrast this thread with this one https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8484312 interesting

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Re:Moral Panics and the Death of Fun by alxjrvs on Wednesday October 22, 2014 @01:46PM (#8493942)

Couldn't have said it better myself. Love that he framed Gamergate as a rebellion against the "PC" media.

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