(Thanks to James Bow for bringing this to my attention)
“I absolutely did not write this. It never appeared on my page. It’s a complete fabrication,” says Holley. “I did not beat my son for walking home with the gay boy across the street. I would never beat him. And he’s not even old enough to walk home. He isn’t even four!”…. At this point, I’m convinced that Holley Biffle was set up by an extremely clever troll. Is there anything the internet hates more than a homophobic Christian child beater? He knew this perfect storm of privilege and intolerance would fire up the internet rage machine, and boy was he right.
On Tuesday, I posted a picture of a truly hateful Facebook post by one heretofore deservedly anonymous Holley Biffle. It was astonishing in its ignorance and homophobia, and the thought of Ms. Biffle violently passing that hatred along to her child was almost too much to stomach.
Except for one little thing.
It wasn’t true.
It seems the Facebook post was a hoax, which was a possibility I hadn’t considered initially. How easy is it to fake something like that? Evidently, ‘tis but a trifle…and that trifle can set off a worldwide $#!&storm that can result in death threats and other forms of harassment at worst, and a reputation being impugned at best.
I don’t know the details of the scenario surrounding whatever beef the unnamed troll has with Ms. Biffle, and I don’t know that I care to (it’s sad that this person could trash someone and remain anonymous…at least for the moment). What disturbs me most is that this sorry saga highlights an aspect of our culture that demonstrates us to be both intellectually lazy AND predisposed to assume the worst of someone before we get the facts. It seems I’m as guilty of it as anyone else, and I’m embarrassed. I could have done a simple Google search, but I didn’t. Like everyone else, I assumed the worst and reacted accordingly…and thus unwittingly helped to accomplish what the anonymous troll set out to do.
I urge anyone still targeting this woman to think about how easy it would be for someone to do this. They don’t need your password, they don’t need to set up a fake profile or hack your computer. They just need Photoshop, your picture and a message of hatred.
It’s amazing how quickly a person’s life and reputation can be ruined and how easy it is to accomplish. When I was a wee lad, an adult in my life told me a story about how a tree that spent 200 years growing to its present height and girth could be felled in a matter of minutes. So it is with a reputation; one can spent a lifetime building and protecting it, but it can be ruined in mere minutes. And those of us willing to immediately assume the worst of someone can be duped into participating in the process.
I’ve heard it said that a lie can be halfway around the world before the truth is even out of bed. For my part in the process, I can only apologize and hope that will be enough. I’d have to take a number and wait my turn, though, because it seems a LOT of people made the same mistake. I will try to do better in the future…not that it will do Ms. Biffle any good.
Mea culpa….
