These boys have yet to understand one of life’s most important lessons. In the real world you get held accountable for the things you say and if you are not careful that can mean some different things… This is a generation of kids who have grown up behind the monitor and keyboard. The real world has consequences when you do and say things about others.
We live in a world in which cowards fight their battles using a nom de guerre and taking cover behind a keyboard. These brave defenders of the realm take on all they see as wrong with the world and dish out street justice to miscreants and innocents alike…because to them it makes no difference.
An entire generation has grown up using the camouflage of the Internet (“On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog”) to do and say things they’d likely never would in the offline world. Being on the Internet is for them a filterless experience granting them license to suspend all considerations of kindness, respect, and dignity. The saga of how Curt Schilling reacted to trolls going after his daughter was a spot-on response. It was the case of a father protecting his daughter, as he should. Beyond that, though, it was an opportunity to educate people too young, ignorant, and/or immature to understand that the Golden Rule isn’t suspended when you log onto your Twitter account.
The Sports Guru”? Ya he’s a DJ named Adam Nagel (DJ is a bit strong since he’s on the air for 1 hour a week) on Brookdale Student Radio at Brookdale Community College. How do you think that place feels about this stud representing their school? You don’t think this isn’t going to be a nice compilation that will show up every single time this idiot is googled the rest of his life? What happens when a potential woman he’s after googles and reads this?
The other clown? He’s VP of the Theta Xi fraternity at Montclair State University. I gotta believe if Theta Xi is cool with a VP of one of their chapters acting like this I’d prefer to have no one I know in it. Also, does anyone attending Montclair State University have a student handbook? If so can you pass it along because I am pretty sure there are about 90 violations in this idiots tweets.
You can see some of the tweets that upset Schilling here. Some of them really are pretty disgusting, something that no one’s daughter should be subjected to. Granted, Schilling, a former pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, isn’t exactly the warm and cuddly type. Schilling, something of a polarizing figure in his own right, has had his own misadventures on Twitter, but in this case he’s spot on. There’s simply no need, reason, or excuse for such insulting behavior directed at a human being…no matter how you might feel about her or her father. Even on the Internet, courtesy and kindness never go out of style. That said, there’s something about Twitter that makes it a magnet for those lacking a filter and a grasp of something as simple and easy to understand as kindness and respect.
This type of behavior happens because there are no perceived consequences and because there is some bizarre group mentality social reward to it that I confess to not understanding completely. Let’s cut that all off at the knees…. I want billboards with these guys’ pictures and tweets on it. I want each of their mothers and families to be contacted and shown what their sons are doing. I have a hard time thinking that these…. cyber-bullies — I can’t even call them “men” — would have been saying those things, if they thought their mom was watching. Or anyone they personal knew and respected or loved, for that matter.
When this types of misogynistic bullying awfulness occurs — as in Gamergate — the familiar refrain is: remember, men, you all have mothers, sisters, girlfriend. Do unto others as you would do unto them. But that’s not even it. It’s really just time to act human towards other humans. To stop spewing bile and hate to make yourselves feel bigger.
Most of us how been subject to the siren song of venting righteous indignation online. It’s distressingly easy to say what’s on your mind, hit ENTER, and walk away feeling better about yourself. That you may have said something you’d never say in a face to face situation probably never entered into the equation. You were angry, you vented, and you sent it out into the ether. There’s something about the one-dimensional aspect of Internet communication- particularly on Twitter- that makes it easy to bypass the filter or sense of respect you’d employ if the object of your communication was in front of you.
On my blog, I quite often get comments that are quite personal and surprisingly mean-spirited. I’d be upset about it…if I actually cared about what the trolls think of me. I’ve been called names I’d never dream of using in a face to face encounter, much less online. I’m surprised at those who believe that the fact that they disagree with me gives them the absolute right to tell me in no uncertain terms what a miserable excuse for a human being I am. I wonder; do these people have children? Mothers? Spouses? People they love? Or do they spend their pointless existence hovered over their keyboard looking to flame anyone who dares to express themselves in a way that offends their sensibilities?
The Golden Rule really does apply online, and there’s nothing wrong with treating people with respect and kindness. That’s not a sign of weakness or lack of resolve; it’s recognition that you recognize the importance of treating others as you’d wish yourself to be treated.
If you think it appropriate to lob cheap personal insults and/or sexually suggestive innuendo at someone’s daughter, you really ought to have your keyboard taken away from you. Real men treat people, no matter who they are or what they think and believe, with dignity and respect. If you can’t be bothered to do that, you shouldn’t be allowed to play.
