OT: constant cyber-harassment

[SDBud]

I'm afraid you'll have to hand over all weapons, sign a waiver, and promise not to use any specialized training.

Ugh, that's like debating with one half of my brain tied behind my back, which incidentally, is also how we have to work most of the time.

Fine, fine, I'll take a handicap.

With the phraseology you used, I'm willing to bet you're many times smarter than a good many of the folks hanging out here. - - With one half of your brain tied behind your back, most of them wouldn't even have a chance!!!

AND, with many others, you'd never notice the difference.

[tlohse]

Nobody messes with the red heads We are known to have bad tempers.

[Midwest_non_sleeper]

I'm afraid you'll have to hand over all weapons, sign a waiver, and promise not to use any specialized training.

Ugh, that's like debating with one half of my brain tied behind my back, which incidentally, is also how we have to work most of the time.

Fine, fine, I'll take a handicap.

With the phraseology you used, I'm willing to bet you're many times smarter than a good many of the folks hanging out here. - - With one half of your brain tied behind your back, most of them wouldn't even have a chance!!!

Well, I'm no member of Mensa (yet), but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once. Seriously though, I read everything. There is no book I will not read, regardless on if I find it personally interesting. I have had a constant hunger for knowledge ever since I was a kid. When I was in high school, I would stay up reading until three or four AM, which actually harmed me, because I was "too tired" to go to school. That caused me to miss too many days, and thus I could not graduate. I dropped out of high school my senior year, as it was pointless to continue. The rest of the story is a blur, but generally consists of military, violence, bad things, life lessons, the realization that I was (and am), in fact, not invincible, etc.

[Midwest_non_sleeper]

First of all I believe that in today’s world I follow a eye for a eye approach to things. Secondly cyber bullying or harassment of any kind whether it is online or in real life is wrong and is a serious crime and anyone doing it should be punished and removed permanently from the forums for life or until the administration seems enough time has past and things are good again.

I'm not so sure that I agree with this philosophy. Firstly, you would need to adequately define what is considered "cyber bullying" and "harassment". That task sounds easy, but it is most certainly not. Many people differ on the identification and definition of those two, which inevitably causes rifts. Many people defer to a government definition of those, which is inherently dangerous, because government may have a punitive interest in silencing a select group of people, as we can plainly see happening at this very moment. In many cases, the person is merely stating their opinion, but is instantly branded as some sort of heretic by people with relatively thin skin.

Secondly, people are subjective in their own personal belief structures and ideas. Harassment as defined by one person may be good-natured bantering to another. There is no subjective thought-process by a group of people that infer the use of physical violence due to what someone has said to them. Many of them will immediately pivot to the threat of physical violence as a means to answer the perceived harassment.

Thirdly, even if categorized as actually being verbal harassment or cyber-bullying, those things should absolutely NOT be in the realm of criminality whilst in an online environment. Sure, there is some sway in this, in that certain aspects can be construed as those things, but extreme care needs to be paramount when deciding if they reach that level. There are options for dealing with "harassers" or "cyber-bullies" that are provided by the vast majority of online services, especially social media. There are tools to block those people, which should be the very first tool used, but it is not. Instead, we see those people go right to a governmental entity for rectification of their grievance, which is most decidedly dangerous, as government has a very heavy hand. Or, they will go to the masses and proclaim that the person that wronged them need be destroyed via "doxxing" or some similar intimidation tactic. This is very dangerous, as mobs of people that are inflamed and unruly tend to get violent when they are in sufficiently large numbers. The last thing they will do is take their plight to the platform, which usually ends with the "guilty" party being permanently silenced.

Let me ask you something. If you were talking to a group of 10 people, and you said something that offended one of them, should you be immediately thrown in jail? What are the chances that you would offend someone in that group of ten? Maybe fairly low. What about a group of 100? 1000? The chance of being offensive to at least one person goes up exponentially as the audience gets larger. So with that in mind, how could you even allow anyone to speak, since the chance of them offending one or more people is very high? This is not a simple problem, and therefore, it has no simple answer. It especially does not have an answer as simply "they should be criminally charged" and "punished". That is a severe totalitarian stance, and not something that I can support, because in the end, following the logical conclusion of that dictate, you would simply be required to jail everyone at some point, which is ludicrous.

[jnk...]

Nothing is as dangerous
As harboring a thought.
So if I ever have one,
I'll try not to get caught.

[jimbud]

Let me guess jimbud, you are as dumb as a bag of hammers!!!


Just came back to reply to your well thought out and sophisticated insult with an equally well thought out sophisticated reply.

Oh yeah, well your mother wears combat boots!!!

Sleeping well?

JPB

[babydinosnoreless]

Nobody messes with the red heads We are known to have bad tempers.

I may be grey now but I too was a red head once and I don't like bullies either. Especially bullies who come into a forum where the rules have been made clear and try to change the rules. Bullies who pick on the knowledgeable experts that help new users. Bullies that contribute nothing to help others and only make posts when conflict happens.

I have no idea what you think you are accomplishing here by your posts do they make you feel like the big person on campus ?

You say your fighting the bullies, when you are actually being one of the bullies.

[Goofproof]

Nothing is as dangerous
As harboring a thought.
So if I ever have one,
I'll try not to get caught.

Set Thought Free, when confined, When confined it grows weak and dies. Jim