Been a long time out of the blogsphere, and I've been kicking a couple ideas around but something happened last night that has made me so very angry. It seems some people don't like former model, TV host and social commentator Charlotte Dawson. It's because she pulls trolls out of the blackness and shines a light on them. She pursued one troll and got her suspended from her job as mentor (A MENTOR!!!) because of her spiteful comments. In recent times, she has re-tweeted a number of the more hurtful comments made at her and after a couple of appearances around the commercial traps it seemed the trolls decided to fight back.
How dare she pursue someone and make them accountable for their words!! "We'll show you, you....nasty...probably racist....person who is older than 25....." screamed the trolls.
I won't reprint what they said but suffice it to say, many of the comments involved requests for Ms. Dawson to kill herself and calling her all sorts of vile and horrible names. She's now in hospital.
I'm on twitter myself- I have a grand total of 64 followers. I follow 235 people on twitter. The 235 people consist of some friends, but mostly comedians, journalists, tv and film stars, politicians, musicians I like as well as netball players and teams. Charlotte Dawson isn't one of them.
You can call me crazy if you like, but I only follow people who I admire and want to know what is going on in their life. I don't dislike Ms. Dawson, but I have no great urge to follow her. It's as simple as that.
What gutless cowards hide behind a computer screen and send off hateful stuff to people they don't even know? Shrinks would have a field day. When I tweet one of the people I follow it's always in a positive manner. Occasionally I get a reply back. Most of the time I don't. That's fine. I follow Wil Anderson- a touch under 213,000 followers, I can only imagine how many tweets he gets a day, I never expect him to respond. Some of the more chatty Twitter folk I follow (with far less followers) do respond occasionally, and I'm fine with that.
If one of them said something or took part in something that I found offensive enough to get fired up about, then I would unfollow them on Twitter. Done. If I felt the urge to send them a parting shot it would be along the lines of "Hey there, really upset about this incident, I'm unfollowing you so I don't get even more fired up." and expect that they'll never respond.
Does that sound weird to you? I would do the same thing on Facebook. If you don't like the views of a person then walk away. Don't be a douche about it. Be the bigger person if that makes you feel better.
I hope if I ever have children I teach them the value of courtesy and manners in both the online and the real world. I also hope that those vile, creatures who spew hate on Twitter (whether at Charlotte, or anyone else) at the very least get outed. I would love to see them repeat that to her face. I dare them. I'm sure their mother can wait in the car while they do it....
We can talk about freedom of speech to the cows come home, and I'm all for it, but at some point, manners and common courtesy kick in. Cyber-bullying (and that's what it is) can be dealt with swiftly- block the user and report them. Lather, rinse, repeat.Or simply stop using Twitter. I suspect that Charlotte will opt for the latter and I can't say that I blame her.
Trolls bring the tone of online debate down and make people question everything- including their existence.
I wish Ms. Dawson a speedy recovery and I wish all those that put her in the hospital a much happier existence than what they clearly have now.
Be wonderful to each other, lovely people.
