Comments on: Misuse of Twitter as a Tool

By: AbbieT

AbbieT — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 05:04:05 +0000

I’m old enough to remember when a deranged woman opened fire with a high-powered rifle on an elementary school playground (as well as a school-bus full of children taken hostage in a different incident). This is one time I think The Onion was oh-so not funny.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:53:51 +0000

PZ can trust me. I’m totally behind him. If Dave Mabus comes along and attacks, I’ll be right behind PZ.

By: Camels With Hammers

Camels With Hammers — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:22:58 +0000

Now someone is going to learn secondhand that you hope Mabus kills PZ and not know right away it’s a joke. I hope this misled person isn’t PZ!

By: Monado, FCD

Monado, FCD — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:41:37 +0000

That a stupidly scary joke! I believe that the person you were worried about is still in custody at a mental hospital, at least until December 2. I think.

By: P Smith

P Smith — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:55:19 +0000

It wasn’t more than 20 years ago that when columnists and humourists wrote something rhetoric, ironic or satiric, people didn’t automatically jump to conclusions and assume the worst. Readers read and re-read things, then wrote letters to the magazine or newspaper in response and there was no vitriol even when they disagreed or disliked it.

Nowadays, anything said in text “requires” smileys and qualifiers or people will assume and accuse people of the worst because there is no tone of voice, no laugh track accompanying it. And it happens more because quotemining assholes deliberately take things out of context to deliberately conflate and inflate things that weren’t there.

If there’s one thing the internet’s existence can be faulted for, it’s this. It seems the faster that information can spread, the less people think about what was actually said. Underthinking leads to overreaction, and some people seem to want this to happen.

Whoever said this famous quote (Churchill, Twain or whomever), he said it as a time when steamships, lettermail and the telegraph were king. How would you word it now?

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

By: Anonymosity

Anonymosity — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:01:50 +0000

I stopped reading the Onion a while ago. They had a story about a child that dreamed of a normal life while being locked in a basement dungeon and tortured daily.

I’m all for free speech/tweets/posts, but I reserve the right to stop following listening/following/reading.