Dave Winer has written a lengthy post covering his thoughts on the “OMG somebody threatened death against Kathy Sierra meme”, short version: Sierra death meme game over.
It’s hard to pick the best bits from the post, the whole thing is utterly brilliant, you can read it here, but some highlights:
Just want to get on the record as Michelle Malkin did yesterday, that the kind of abuse that Kathy Sierra reported is not anything new, it’s been going on for a very long time…
People aren’t going to like this, but it’s true — when a woman asks for a riot she gets one, and almost no one comes to the defense of a man who is attacked. Who’s more vulnerable? Well, honestly, it’s not always a woman…
Those who provided the riot Ms Sierra asked for, unknowingly, I’m sure, attacked at least one person whose health is pretty fragile. I wonder how y’all feel now that you know that. I wonder how you’d feel if that person died in the midst of the shitstorm…
There should be people who are willing to provide personal support to others who are ostracized this way — and that support should be available regardless of gender, age, or other circumstances. I won’t support anything that only offers support to women and not men, we must help unpopular people, even people who we think are mean…
There’s a pile more goodness at Scripting News. I’ve taken the occasional shot at Winer over the years, mostly light heatedly (at least I hope he took it that way), but I know there are a lot of people out there who can’t stand him. If you’re one of those people, open your minds and reassess the man, because only sheer genius can write something like this, and Winer deserves a pile of respect for it.
Tags: Dave Winer, Kathy Sierra
Originally posted on March 29, 2007 @ 7:01 pm
Whatever the case may be, we can try and not be complete assholes about the whole situation. Don’t make it about us versus them, men versus women. That is utter bull shit and everyone sees through it.
Is offering support, and showing some sympathy so beyond us? Geez get your heads out of the gutter and grow up.
Agree sort of Muhammad, although I’m not sure who you’re targeting, Sierra, Scoble and friends made it all aobut feminism and women as victims, Winer correctly points out that victims can be men and that we should provide support to anyone in this situation, not just white women with a chip on their shoulders.
Jeez, I remember a year ago when Duncan was threatening to send someone round in person to with an errant blogger and ‘relate our anger in person‘, so to speak.
I know I’m late to all of this, but I’m guessing that this kind of stuff will go on forever, eh? It’s most likely that threats made online won’t amount to anything anyway – not many people have the bollocks to follow up what they threaten online. It’s much like driving – you feel just safe making threats and waving your fists from inside your car than you do from behind your computer screen.
Anyhoo, yep, even though that dude naively used elements of an existing blog design, the way the place flared up against him last year was unbelievable – especially with the threats of someone going round to his place in person.
He could have been vulnerable, had fragile health, etc, etc… and he had zero support. Men don’t.
So, yep, I’m umm.. kinda agreeing with Winer. I think.
Barry,
to be fair that wasn’t meant literally but as a way to reinforce the point, had totally forgot about it BTW, that guy was a complete goose :-)
anyhow, Winer is right, death threats are wrong, but they wrong no matter who they are aimed at, and there should be some sort of way the people who are the victims can get support, there probably already is (groups like Lifeline in australia for example, other support groups). If Tim O’Reilly, Scoble and the other do gooders want to do something as a result of the whole Sierra thing, I think the establishment of not-for-profit blogger support groups are a great idea, noting as Winer does ,ones that are open to all bloggers. We cant stop the nutters, we can help the victims, even ones we don’t necessarily like.
“If you’re one of those people, open your minds and reassess the man, because only sheer genius can write something like this, and Winer deserves a pile of respect for it.”
For crying out loud, all he wrote was common sense, plain and simple. Sheer genius, maybe. In fact, I think he is. But not on the strength of a common sense article.
You talk about ‘white women witha chip on their shoulders’. Hmm. Dave Winer talks about sticking up for people, even people we don’t much care for. If you are so enthralled by his ‘sheer genius’ produced article, why do I detect a lack of empathy for Kathy Sierra in your comments?