Alanah Pierce has been responding to trolls who harass her with threats, abuse, and sexual slurs in what I would have thought was an effective way: she retweets their comments to their mothers. Does your mother know what you’re saying with that mouth?
I thought it was brilliant. But I’ve never understood the mind of a troll, and now some of these boys, with their mothers’ approval, are suing her for defamation. That’s nuts — the only defamation is exposing their own public words to another member of the public. But look how they rationalize it:
One of the boys said the threats were only meant as a joke and should be ignored. He then stated that he is more mature than Pearce because of how he would have handled such a situation and even accused her of being a tattle tale.
Our so-called ‘threats’ were just small pranks, and not much different than things you see on the Internet every day,he said.If I was receiving these death or rape threats online I would have just brushed them off because I’m clearly more mature than her.
But she crossed the line, though, by telling my mom about it,he added.Something you learn at a very young age is to never be a tattle tale. She obviously missed that important lesson.
Jebus. And their mothers agree with that bullshit? Well, I can see where someone’s upbringing went severely awry.
It takes a really twisted mentality to think you’re the mature one because all you did was repeatedly spam someone with the message that you want to rape them to death, cunt
, while she…tattled. It reminds me of all the trolls who have enshrined doxxing
as the most grievous crime you can commit on the internet, while lying, spamming, and harassment are just small pranks
.
Apparently, this is “satire” (as defined by, for instance, the Morris North Star), and Pierce has said that it originated from a different site. It’s still representative of how trolls think, and is all too familiar sounding. At least it doesn’t seem to be the case that anyone’s mother saw the abuse and thought it was OK.
I love how quoting them, verbatim, is “defamation”.
It reminds me of when Newt Gingrich said in 2011: “Any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood.”
On Alanah Pearce’s twitter account, she’s saying the idea that the boys are suing was in a satirical piece…and isn’t true…
initially anyway…and then it got picked up by others…
Oh. My. Fucking. Christ.
Does this idiot not see the utter hypocrisy? Really?
“Death threats and rape threats are just fun and games! But tattling!!!? SERIOUS BUSINESS”
I don’t know whether it is infuriating or hilarious.
Translated “My Momma/Dadda thinks the sun shines out of my ass and cannot believe their little turd blossom could ever say anything insulting and we know this ambulance chasing shyster who will file papers on a no win no fee basis”
diana: That would make sense. It sounds like it could be a satire site, since the contradiction in the quote is too blatantly obvious. Too good to be true. But you just never know anymore, sadly.
anteprepro
you’re quite right. Society has been surpassing the bounds of credulity a lot lately (the latest non-indictment immediately comes to mind).
Edit to add it may be that there was no such threat. It seems that comments in “Design and Trend” have found tweets by Alanah Pearce saying that it was a parody news report and she is not going to court.
GooberGaters have been harassing Randi Harper pretty badly because she put together a small tool that figures out if someone’s a piece of shit based on who you are or are not following too.
We totally are post feminism. /sarcasm
“Something you learn at a very young age is to never be a tattle tale. She obviously missed that important lesson.”
But by lawyering up and running to a judge isn’t he being a tattle-tale?
I suppose I have to blow my “cool” cover by asking… but
what’s “doxxing”?
Remember a time I worked for a game company and we had to moderate the forum bulletin boards. We had our flamers and once we called one of the mothers and … she spanked him while we listened over the phone. I felt very uncomfortable about that but I’d be lying if some small part of me didn’t find a speckle of justice in it.
“Never be a tattle tale.” Um. No. *kids* teach other kids not to be tattle tales and they are wrong. Adults teach kids to “tell an adult”. If you are interacting with adults than you play by adult rules.
@12
Doxxing is releasing personal information, such as a name or address, of an online person. It’s fairly uncool as it opens one to public ridicule. However that can be the point when an abusive troll is being is running unchecked.
“One of the boys said the threats were only meant as a joke and should be ignored. He then stated that he is more mature than Pearce because of how he would have handled such a situation and even accused her of being a tattle tale. ”
wow. Classic bully caught who whines that it was “only a joke”. Thanks guys, for showing that you are bullies and cowards.
And I’ll “tattle” on any jackass who thinks its evidently “funny” to threaten me.
“Our so-called ‘threats’ were just small pranks, and not much different than things you see on the Internet every day”…but how dare you tell my mother about it!!!
If these pranks are so meaningless, then why the issue with mother finding out?
Well, I hope diana6815 is correct that it’s just satire…I’d hate to have to give up all hope in human beings.
With that said…satire seems to be a tricky thing to pull off. It has to be obvious enough to not fall under Poe’s law, yet close enough to Poe’s law to make it entertaining.
jstackpo,
I’m not trying to be mean or anything like that, but you can use Google or another search engine to find the answer to almost literally anything in a second. In fact, if you use Chrome, and probably many other web browsers, just doubleclick to highlight the word, then rightclick and an option to “search Google for ‘your item'” will appear.
You know, one of the things that bugs me when MRAs fall hook, line, and sinker for some obvious satire about feminists (WHTM has a few examples) is the post hoc insistence that its representative anyways, so all their points stand. If it’s really representative, go get some actual examples.
Not to mention it could jeopardize the doxxed person’s employment and open up the door for whatever property/bodily assault any other trolls out there who now have their address, are willing to attempt.
Design & Trend got snookered, she’s not being sued, that was some weird satire that got misconstrued as real:
https://twitter.com/Charalanahzard/status/540544498598563842
The boy is clearly lying about it being a joke to be brushed off because if he’s suing on the basis that the public knowing he wrote such things defames his character he is admitting knowing that it is offensive and paints him in a bad light to have written it.
You can’t claim it’s a joke of no import yet claim it’s an insult of his character to reveal he wrote it.
It’s not satire. It’s just a lazy hoax. Stop calling hoaxes satire. If people are yelling “Poe” then it failed as satire and should be classified simply as a hoax. Granting the label satire to such unimaginative efforts legitimizes the use of plain, straight-up lying in the service of actual for real clickbait.
Technically it’s neither. A hoax is intended to be believed.
At least that’s the impression I got. I might be mistaken. … Actually, now I’m confused. Is the story of Alanah Pierce contacting the parents a true story?
@jstackpo #12
“Doxxing” is a neologism deriving from the term “document drop”. Defined as the others have stated.
Two fake stories taken as truth in 4 days. Has PZ turned into my grandma?
Ah crap, posted on wrong story. I’m dumber than my grandma.
@Sally Stearns #21 Thanks for the link, it clarifies the situation.
Yup, stupid hoax is stupid.
http://vgmmdi.com/alanah-pearce-to-appear-in-court-after-outing-harassers-to-their-mothers/
Original website
@18, moarscience…
Thanks, got it. Wikipedia didn’t have “doxxing” which threw me off, so I asked here. Turns out it did have “doxing” – spelling is a tricky business.
Tony Robbins @29: That is clearly satire as written.
It’s annoying how satire gets picked up as news now and again, and distributed widely because checking sources is so 20th century.
Taking it at face value for a moment, because I want to ask a serious question: Alanah is Australian. The boys are obviously from the US, because of the word tattle. If they were Australian, they’d have called her a dobber, or worse, a dibber-dobber, and possibly alluded to the fact that dobbers are known for wearing nappies.
Which court would they actually sue in?
Dang it. @29
Tony beat me to it. The original article in “Video Games made me do it” is more clearly satire than Designntrend’s duped serious re-reporting. Although the VGMMDI article is subtle satire. (“..take Ms. Pearce to court on grounds of defamation, along with being a tattle tale and a goody two shoes.” “A publishing company is currently working with the boys to tell their side of the story. The book will focus on how these death threats should not be taken seriously and maybe people need to just lighten up. The book is currently titled “Sticks and Stones.”” “Some of the young women especially seem to keep their distance because they believed the boy’s harmless prank should actually be taken seriously. However, as we all know, words have never actually done any real harm.”)
VGMMDI other articles include: A patch that makes Grand Theft Auto V socially responsible and PETA protesting mistreatment of animals in Dragon Age.
It’s fairly uncool as it opens one to public ridicule
Not just that; there’s an implicit threat: “I know where you live” and it opens the target up to new avenues of harassment that are more targeted and personal (i.e.: cutting off electrical service, SWATting – calling the SWAT team to the target’s residence, crank calling, mailing nasty things, etc)
Seems to me that if this WERE a true story, the perfect defense would be “these trolls didn’t understand the joke. I was just pranking them when I repeated their words verbatim to their mothers.”
@Jacob Schmidt #19 – I have somewhat relevant anecdata.
I cannot talk much about if this is indeed representative of internet troll thinking, but this hoax story is perfectly in line with my experience with bullies. At age 11-12 I and one other boy were bullied by a gang of school mates. The form of bullying consisted of choking us untill our faces went red/blue and then laughing at our dizziness.
When I could not take it any longer, I told my mother about it. An she went berserk with school director and those boys had to stop this particular form of bullying. They replaced it with social shunning and shaming, because I was not “cool” and I was “tattle tale” and I should know what “fun” is.
It was completely lost on them, especially the leader, that while they got merely verbal reprimad for my telling, I was in serious danger of death from their “fun”.
So I was not initially surprised by presented “logic” and I did not and do not find it implausible that there are indeed people like this for realz. My bully was surprised, when at age 20 I did not extend my hand to greet him jovially.
“Don’t be a tattle tale” is out of the “Let’s support the bullies and gaslight the victims” book. Which is written by adults.
I remember getting spanked by my parents for telling on my cousin wo was setting fire to a piece of dry grassland next to the woods in the middle of summer.
I also remember getting spanked for NOT telling the adults that the same cousin had taken the cleaning petrol out of the adults only cupboard and was playing with it.
Trying to get your mates fixed is not nice, I agree.
But there are some very simple rules:
Is this person hurting you or somebody else? Go tell an adult!
Is this person doing something dangerous? Go tell an adult!
Is this person merely transgressing some rules like literaly stealing cookies out of the jar? Shut up, you’re not an adult.
“Trying to get your mates fixed is not nice, I agree.
But there are some very simple rules:
Is this person hurting you or somebody else? Go tell an adult!
Is this person doing something dangerous? Go tell an adult!
Is this person merely transgressing some rules like literaly stealing cookies out of the jar? Shut up, you’re not an adult.”
When I was in teacher’s college, the saying we typically used was “Tattling is when you’re trying to get someone IN trouble, and telling is when you’re trying to get someone OUT of trouble.”
Since these “fake news” “joke” websites really wouldn’t have a working model were it not for the fact that their lies are regularly mistaken for truth (unlike The Onion, they aren’t funny at all), I’m comfortable calling it a hoax.
Working business model, that is. Left out a word.
Briane Larrieux @38:
While that’s a pretty good definition and amusing besides, I can’t help thinking that showing someone’s mother what crap their kid has been saying is an attempt to get the kid IN trouble. I can’t speak for Alanah Pierce’s motives, but I know if *I* did such a thing, I wouldn’t be thinking about how I was saving this kid from a future of being an asshole; I would be thinking about how awesome it will be for the little shit to get his from the one person in his life who probably has some authority and control over him.
And I’m perfectly fine with that. Online abuse is a social problem. It can only be solved by applying leverage to social bonds. Some trolls are probably true sociopaths, but most have at least a few neurons that twinge with shame when the right person tells them to behave better. There’s nothing wrong with seeking aid from that person.
I’m not sure I like the implication that a manchild’s mother, specifically, is responsible for controlling or discouraging his shitty behavior.
@SallyStrange #39: I definitely cracked up at, “The boys who sent the threats, and don’t want their names posted due to privacy concerns, are going to take Ms. Pearce to court on grounds of defamation, along with being a tattle tale and a goody two shoes.” The FAQ clearly spells out that the site runs entirely fake stories, the title of the site is obvious sarcasm to anyone who isn’t Jack Thompson, and the article itself included enough absurdity to tip me off, at least. The Onion is still far and away the best (and lots of people still believe the articles, even when they’re linked in context and not reported second-hand); I disagree that other people shouldn’t attempt similar projects (and perhaps with niche focus, as is the case with VGMMDI), even if they aren’t as good at it.
@Azkyroth Drinked the Grammar Too :) #42: That bugged me about Pearce’s response, as well, but on the other hand, I think she should do what she needs to do to cope, and until she’s not getting loads of harassment, I’m going to focus on her harassers’ behavior over her responses to it.
@43
I think the problem is we read this 2nd hand from a news site that was simply duped and read it straight. Re-reported without jokes it’s, of course, impossible to recognize as satire and thus finding out it was fake leaves us with a “but it wasn’t funny” taste in our mouths. Because it *wasn’t* funny. All the freaking jokes were out and out omitted. It was reported by a duped guy who thought it was true so how are *we* suppose to get that it was a joke.
The original is clearly a joke. And if I were a gamer and had been following news about Pierce, it would have been even more obvious as Pierce would be topical news I would already have been aware of. Not being a gamer and maybe not having heard the story at all (I had but it was pretty periphery), the we might be excused for missing the joke. (Not sure that DesignNTrend deserves an excuse.)
It’s other stories (PETA Attacks Bioware Over Mistreament Of Animals In Dragon Age: Inquisitionare; and Gamer Blog Goes Unread Again) are pretty blatantly jokes. I don’t think we can say Video Games Made Me Do It’s business model relies on duped people reporting their fake stories.
======
Mother is responsible for manchild’s shitty behavior?
Well, she is if the little shit is underage.
Even in that case, I can’t help thinking there might have been someone else involved.
Also, most of the people involved aren’t underaged. In particular, this is what the term “manchild” conveys.
I’m having trouble parsing this.
Wellllll…. I was assuming that she only did this response to children. Because what would an adult care about what someone wrote to his mother?
But I’m probably wrong. … In which case, this exercise isn’t about actually doing anything to the actual people harassing her. It’s a public shaming of the act of harassment. If you act like children you deserve to be treated like children. (In which case this satire response is that they responded as children– “You tattled! Tattle-tale”).
This *does* run the risk of being interpreted as only children and immature people hassle women online. …. Maybe, but I prefer to see it as a public shaming and a creative one at that.
You know what I learned as a kid? That shaming people for being a tattle-tale is what perpetuates abusive behavior.
I’ve lost all ability to even.
http://vgmmdi.com/about-us/
People need to learn the difference between satire and trolling.