Humanity is not entirely made up of [people who act] human(s)


Yeah. So it is impossible to focus on the readings after watching such powerful videos. There were several times that I had visceral reactions to what John Ronson said. I had never really thought about how Twitter (social media in general, really) was somewhat of a place of radical de-shaming, not in those exact terms anyway. But then I thought about it and remembered that I myself, multiple times in the past, had even remarked about how no matter how “weird” you are, there is ALWAYS someone, somewhere, that shares that same weirdness with you. But, I had stopped there. I didn’t completely recognize that potential power. Imagine the possibilities if it stopped with two people’s realization that “OMG, I am exactly the same!”. Imagine the solace people could find. Instead, humans have to go and turn this potential positive power into something disgusting. Instead of building each other up, supporting and comforting each other, we tear each other down in the most horrific ways. Instead of banding together and equalizing the existing humongous power differences (as the internet has the potential to do), we widen those differences further.

Stories like Justine’s show that humans do not handle power well. I can’t get over the money that gets made on the suffering of others. I exclaimed aloud (thankfully I was in an EMPTY classroom), when Ronson said that in just those 11 days in December, Google made between 120,000 and 468,000 dollars JUST on Justine’s name (“annihilation”)! That is disgusting!! I wasn’t sure how to take what he said about the people who were doing the actual shaming got nothing. He was talking about financial compensation. I’m hoping that was just meant to be funny (like a comedian’s “observations” that he tells in jokes). However, like he posited the possibility of Justine’s crime being that she wasn’t as good at making jokes as Randy Newman, he was guilty of that same crime. Not to mention, he was speaking in a much different context, to a much different audience than that of a comedian. Compensation for the shamers certainly wasn’t where my mind went when he talked about the money. My mind went to the fact that that money should have gone to HER. Additionally, the shamers should be held liable in some way for playing a part in the utter destruction of her life. The disgusting-ness that is Google making money off of Justine’s misfortune also made me think about the several other ways that people/companies/GOVERNMENTS make money off of people’s suffering all the time. It just speaks more to the terrible nature of humanity. But that is another story for another day.

THEN, he brings the REAL horror to the forefront. Some of what some people said was just incomprehensible to me. Hoping she gets AIDS, RAPING her!!! Come the F*** on!!!!! I am STILL horrified and enraged (still not powerful enough of a word) at people for saying something like that. Those people especially deserve to be put in jail. I would say that they deserve the fate prescribed for Justine by them, but it is possible that it would make me just as bad as them. However, it was men that said it, so…. If they are that ignorant to say something that abhorrent, they need to be able to take what they dish out. It may be the only way that they could understand the gravity and preposterousness of their words. Both of those ideas of “justice” are figuratively and potentially literally death sentences. It highlights the injustice and inequality plaguing humanity. It shows how it is possible for men to frequently get less prison time for rape than they do for drug possession. From the dawn of time, women have had it worse than men in every imaginable way. Women are constantly devalued, dehumanized, and viewed as disposable. I am so sick of women being targeted and singled out in exponentially more extreme ways than their male counterparts. Why is it ok for women to automatically be attacked in the ways specific to being a woman?

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