Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Internet

Re:Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Inte... by pdeuchler on Thursday July 16, 2015 @01:45PM (#9898726)

So what's your definition of abusive? Who's definition do we pick? Can we vote on it? What happens when a vocal minority disagrees with a consensus? What happens if that consensus harms a non-vocal minority? What happens when no matter your decision, someone will be affected adversely? Which side do you choose?

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Re:Ellen Pao: The Trolls Are Winning the Battle for the Inte... by wxs on Thursday July 16, 2015 @01:59PM (#9898844)

No doubt it will be a constant complicated debate, as social norms tend to be. But we don't throw up our hands and say "we can't have social norms! Who picks them? How do we vote?!"

Unfortunately I don't think we'll come up with a simple set of universally applicable rules and move on.

I do know that my abuse-free internet experience is very much a bubble, and every time I have been given the opportunity to see the experience of a "woman with an opinion" online I get to realize this. So let's as a society say "this isn't acceptable" and then deal with the much more difficult question of "what to do about it".

In any other commercial venue if a patron started shouting racist and sexist epithets, we would be ok with the owner throwing them out. We don't get caught up in slippery slope fallacies.

I can't scientifically prove that Fat-people Hate was objectively abusive but that's the beauty of social norms, I can say "I think it's abusive" and put pressure on businesses to remove its platform. Which is what I'm doing :)

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