Jay's Other Stuff

Why “don’t feed the trolls” isn’t always useful advice, and maybe sometimes you should feed the “trolls” if you damn well need to.

I’m re-reading this essay by S.E. Smith at Tiger Beatdown right now, which I think describes the reality of dealing with sustained threats and abuse more vividly than I ever could..

“…Rape threats happen. Death threats happen. People threaten friends, families, jobs, household pets. Stalkers go to considerable lengths to collect and exploit information. People who are open about this, who do talk about threats and stalking and danger, and they are out there, are punished for it. They get more abuse, they’re told that they’re making it all up, that it’s all in their heads, that they are exaggerating, entirely new hate sites spring up to speculate about them and talk about their ‘desperate ploys for attention.’ That’s what I have to look forward to for writing this piece, for laying out some of the costs of social participation for you, for openly discussing the thing which dare not speak its name, the brash, open hostility reserved for people who do not shut up.

This is a reality, and it doesn’t go away if we don’t talk about it.”

- On Blogging, Threats, and Silence

(via ayiman)