<story><title>How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mc32</author><text>Two things: Don&amp;#x27;t be too clever.  People trip over themselves to feel offended.  Two, you really don&amp;#x27;t have freedom of speech when you can get mugged by being obnoxious online.  Not being malicious -just obnoxious.&lt;p&gt;Yes all the tweets quoted in the article were obnoxious and leveraged stereotypes but I don&amp;#x27;t think people should be flogged for being like that.&lt;p&gt;I remember all the obnoxious Polish jokes growing up.  They were terrible.  But I don&amp;#x27;t agree that they should be censored.  Demanding this mind of self censorship is a sign that a society is fragile rather than robust.  A robust society can take the jokes.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s like with friendships.  With good friends you can nettle them; say terrible things and we know that&amp;#x27;s it&amp;#x27;s all in good fun, a ritual of sorts.  With so so friends you don&amp;#x27;t make  bad jokes because the friendship is too fragile.  It&amp;#x27;s a sign of an immature or fragile society when bad jokes upset the cart.&lt;p&gt;Edit.  An irony is that many of the people calling offense don&amp;#x27;t realize their own transgression in becoming part of a self-righteous mob meting out punishment at the speed of thought.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dsp1234</author><text>&lt;i&gt;you really don&amp;#x27;t have freedom of speech when you can get mugged by being obnoxious online.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ken White has quite a few posts about freedom of speech vs the Internet.  I think this quote is apropos to that type of comment.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Speech Is Not Censorship: Put another way, as we often say here, speech is not tyranny. Freedom of speech does not (and cannot, under any coherent legal or philosophical approach) involve freedom from criticism. Free speech does not mean &amp;quot;I have a right to say whatever I want without social consequences.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt; [0]&lt;p&gt;[0] - &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.popehat.com/2012/10/16/a-few-words-on-reddit-gawker-and-anonymity/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.popehat.com&amp;#x2F;2012&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;16&amp;#x2F;a-few-words-on-reddit-gaw...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html?_r=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mc32</author><text>Two things: Don&amp;#x27;t be too clever.  People trip over themselves to feel offended.  Two, you really don&amp;#x27;t have freedom of speech when you can get mugged by being obnoxious online.  Not being malicious -just obnoxious.&lt;p&gt;Yes all the tweets quoted in the article were obnoxious and leveraged stereotypes but I don&amp;#x27;t think people should be flogged for being like that.&lt;p&gt;I remember all the obnoxious Polish jokes growing up.  They were terrible.  But I don&amp;#x27;t agree that they should be censored.  Demanding this mind of self censorship is a sign that a society is fragile rather than robust.  A robust society can take the jokes.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s like with friendships.  With good friends you can nettle them; say terrible things and we know that&amp;#x27;s it&amp;#x27;s all in good fun, a ritual of sorts.  With so so friends you don&amp;#x27;t make  bad jokes because the friendship is too fragile.  It&amp;#x27;s a sign of an immature or fragile society when bad jokes upset the cart.&lt;p&gt;Edit.  An irony is that many of the people calling offense don&amp;#x27;t realize their own transgression in becoming part of a self-righteous mob meting out punishment at the speed of thought.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>vertex-four</author><text>&amp;gt; you really don&amp;#x27;t have freedom of speech when you can get mugged by being obnoxious online&lt;p&gt;If you published something similarly obnoxious in a newspaper before the Internet, I&amp;#x27;m sure you&amp;#x27;d get a similarly angry response from some people, and quite possibly have someone harass you in person if they knew where to find you.&lt;p&gt;If you stood on top of a soap box and shouted offensive crap at the public, you might have stuff thrown at you.&lt;p&gt;The only things that have changed - it&amp;#x27;s easier to publish things online, you&amp;#x27;re publishing for a global audience rather than a national or a local one, it&amp;#x27;s easier to find other people who find those publications obnoxious online, and it&amp;#x27;s a two-way medium rather than the traditional one-way medium of newspapers.&lt;p&gt;Basically, the masses &lt;i&gt;finally&lt;/i&gt; have a voice. If that&amp;#x27;s a problem, perhaps free speech has never actually had a chance of working?</text></comment>