Justine Sacco, Internet Justice, and the Dangers of a Righteous Mob

An anonymous reader writes "So what exactly was the injustice that everyone was fighting against here? There were no pro-Sacco factions, nobody thought her comment was funny, and it became clear early on that her employers were not going to put up with this. It was quite easy for groups to unite against her precisely because it was such an obviously idiotic comment to make. By the time Valleywag had posted her tweet, the damage to her career was already done; there wasn't any 'need' for further action by anyone. The answer is a bit darker – this wasn't really about fairness, it was about entertainment."

Comments

Tired of political correctness

[t0qer]

I spend more time in IRC than I should, but often we crack jokes about how a product "Has aids". I won't go into all the other things we talk about, but it's like a bunch of 30-40 year olds pretending to be 14 again. It's all jest, and in good fun. Doesn't mean we're homophobic (one of our regulars is Homosexual) but even he takes all the jokes in stride, because we're all friends.

I know folks from the last generation, before political correctness became so steeped in our culture. They give each other shit for fun. A venerable fountain of racial slurs and epitaphs flow freely from them, with no concern for peoples feelings or political correctness. It's a short form of hazing, to see if someone can congeal in the workplace, put aside differences and work well with others.

Those days are gone. What we have now is a work environment of walking on egg shells and carefully measuring each word for fear of offending someone. We spend an almost equal amount of time worrying about in office politics as we do actually working. I don't like it.

Re:Why so much butthurt?

[superwiz]

Only black people should be offended by the treatment of blacks in America?

Fuck you. Fuck you with a cherry on top. Fuck you with a chain saw and a cherry on top. 53% of the votes went to a black President who couldn't get the economy running and who was running against a businessman with a very clear understanding of how to stabilize destabilizing businesses. Had Obama been any other President he would have lost in shame. Yet he won. Because of how America treats blacks? Fuck you!