Following threats against Kathy Sierra, Robert Scoble has taken the week off blogging because, in his own words, he is “totally freaked out”.
I’ve given a fair bit of thought to the situation, and no matter what I write Robert Scoble will blubber on about how I’m out to get him because I disagree with him on a handful of things because he subscribes to the “all or nothing” school of support (was it Bush who said you are either with us, or against us?), but here’s my 2 cents worth.
Robert Scoble is a chicken.
And maybe even French :-)
What sort of message does running away and being silent give to those people who threaten others?
Answer: it tells them that by making threats they silence others.
For memory it was British Prime Minister Edward Heath that returned Palestinian Hijackers in the 70’s that lead to the rash of plane hijackings in that decade. Heath’s message to the terrorists: we’ll let you go, it’s ok to hijack planes.
Scoble is delivering a similar sort of message, that making threats against people you disagree with in an attempt to silence them results in a positive outcome for those making the threats: silence.
Our forefathers, at least in the Western world, died fighting for our freedoms, freedom of speech being one of the most important tenets of western democracies.
And yet Scoble is decided to be silent, based from what I can gather is not death threats to himself (although he may have received personal death threats, I simply don’t know) but threats to someone else.
Scoble’s position in the blogosphere means that others look up to him, and listen to what he says. If he was a true champion of free speech and the blogosphere he would DOUBLE his level of posting, not stop posting, because the message he would be sending to those who seek to silence others is that they will never be victorious, that they can never silence free speech, and that the good citizens of the blogosphere will win the day.
“All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.”
Edmund Burke.
Update: Ethan Kaplan has an excellent post on the entire situation. So good it was enough for me to add him to my daily read + follow him on Twitter, if only I was that articulate. Recommended.
Tags: Robert Scoble
Originally posted on March 26, 2007 @ 7:45 pm
As Robert said correctly on his blog: If he stops posting for a week, this means that the blog post about Kathy stays on top for a long time. There is no better way to spread the word, because Scobleizer is a very well frequented blog, as you probably know.
Sebastian
bollocks. The Sierra death threat meme will last a couple of days, if that long. What, the whole internet only reads Scoble therefore they will only now read a now ageing post from Sierra? That logic is nearly as screwed up as Scobles logic when it comes to newspapers. I don’t want to take anything away from Sierra, because I’m sure no one likes to be on the receiving end of death threats and her personal concern is legit, but seriously, she’s hardly the first to get a death threat, and this whole attempt at attention by others is verging on sickening. Read Ethan Kaplan’ s post (link above). BTW, I’ve not only received death threats before, I’ve been assaulted before, so don’t take any of this as me being nasty, unsympathetic etc, my heart goes out to Sierra, that doesn’t extend to Scoble.
Hopefully nothing as vile ever gets written about your loved ones as what was on MeanKids.org about Maryam. Then we’ll find out how chicken YOU are.
Do you always write to hurt people? It’s working. Congratulations.
what’s the joke with the “french” / chicken ? I just don’t get it .. (and Yes, I’m french)
Scoble
where were you when others were being threatened such as Michelle Malkin? BTw I’ve had death threats, I’ve got a silent home number for a reason BTW, so don’t lecture me. If you’ve got any balls, you’ll double your posting rate, and the message you will deliver is “F*ck you, scum bags!”. These nutters are aiming for silence, you’re giving in to them, the ONLY way to respond to death threats and others threats is to show those making the threats that you will not be defeated: strength is the key.
Duncan, you are totally right. Threats are meant to silent people. I write a socio-politico-cultural blog and have been at the receiving end of even the fundamentalists-supporters. Once the reaction was so sharp that I had to take down the post because people were looking for my address and having a baby daughter I didn’t want to let unnecessary risks simmer. But I didn’t stop posting other posts.