I believe my previous blog post Outrage Culture ties into this.
A few weeks ago, a Youtube channel called The Fine Bros attempted to file a trademark for their series of reaction videos. And I’m not trying to defend them here, what they were trying to do was either born of ill intent or idiotic oversight, depending on your interpretation of their intentions. And I’m not hugely familiar with them as content creators or people, or with what they were trying to do. But that’s not the point.
I’m familiar with the mob that went after them.
It’s the same mob that goes after politicians, game developers, and any controversial figure who happens to do something wrong. The initial outrage is to do with the matter at hand, but it so quickly and inevitably spirals into personal insults, digging up that person’s past and cheering when they inevitably fall from grace.
Sam Pepper is (was?) a Youtuber, notorious for creating ‘prank’ videos which were really just an excuse to be nasty to someone, and shame them on the internet. To give you an idea, he once collaborated with Friend A and pretended to shoot him dead in front of Friend B, causing Friend B to essentially break down into tears. All posted online. He’s done other awful things too, like sexual harassment in public for the sake of ‘pranks’ and ‘social experiments’. (I’d like to mention that I also frequently see him labelled as a rapist, but I’m unsure as to whether that’s truth or fabrication, or an interpretation of his sexual harassment. For the sake of this blog post, we’ll go with ‘innocent until proven guilty’.)
I’m not defending this guy. I didn’t think his videos were right, and the fact that he made money off of them was even worse. 2 days ago, he posted this tweet:
He removed all of his videos, tweets, and essentially his entire internet presence. And honestly, yeah, I’m happy his videos are down, his method of making money is scrapped, and his lesson is (hopefully) learned. But I’m far from happy about the means with which this was accomplished. Constant death threats and calls for suicide were made, as well as personal attacks against his appearance, his life, basically everything about him other than his videos. And that’s what drove him from his position. And you might retort with, “Well, it worked, no matter what the means,” but did he really learn that his actions were wrong? Or did he learn that the majority of the world hated him and wanted him to kill himself?
What if he does kill himself?
In case you think I’m being dramatic, here’s some of the replies to his one remaining tweet:
What purpose does this serve? At this point, people are just jumping on the hate train in an attempt to feel included in some justice-driven movement, to make themselves feel like they’re in the right. They’re the people cheering at the gallows, but this time they have a wall of anonymity and a more direct line of communication to the hanged man.And I’m willing to bet that these are the same people who pride themselves on their morals and values, and walk with their head held high.
This isn’t a blog post about Sam Pepper. This is a blog post about every ‘social justice movement’ that becomes twisted with hatred and warped into a mob, baying for blood, giving a thief a death penalty. It occurs on all platforms, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Reddit and on Tumblr, on any social media website or whenever a voice is made available. And, as always, the self-righteous are louder than the level-headed.
Perpetually Perturbed 