The Social Media Philosophy Project

Ok, folks, it’s that time again. ThePuck has officially gotten his panties in a wad. In the last 2 days, I have witnessed an attempt to attack and defame the character of other people in social media in a really serious way, about as serious as it can get, at least if it were actually successful. Please allow me to set the scene.

The other day, Oprah got trolled on international TV. An Anonymous poster on her message board had ridiculed her cause of the moment, which was online predators.

So, let’s run the play down: Oprah is plugging political activity that she deems important, and part of the fear-tactic she uses to convince others of her position is actually a troll-post created by the interweb’s favorite jesters over at 4chan. It was actually a DragonballZ reference which, thanks to this truly EPIC troll, is sure to become even more of a meme.

Needless to say, many people got it and the video was everywhere very soon. So, over on Pownce, Matt posts about it. This stirs up some response, though not what he expected, because soon Heather posts this, where she is attempting to get people to block Matt from their lists because he is, and I quote, a “sick fucker”. The next morning, this gem was posted by Amber.

So, again, let’s examine the flow of events: Oprah gets trolled, guy finds funny, people willfully mis-portray WHAT he is finding funny so as to vilify him and make vague allegations that could easily ruin someone’s life in our incredibly social world, and then those people jump on a moral high-horse about it.

Now, I generally don’t like to get involved in drama like this, but I find this absolutely outrageous. I acknowledge the seriousness of pedophilia and such, but “OMG YOU HAVE TO GO VOTE FOR THIS BILL TO SAVE THE CHIIIIILDREN!” tactics are simply drivel, meant for cattle and remarkably effective at motivating them. It was an unethical, manipulative tactic for Oprah to use, even in a good cause.

But this was not even what Matt was laughing about…he was talking about the epic troll pulled off by Anonymous. But because people are misrepresenting him and what he said, he is being portrayed as the worst sort of villain, a person who finds pedophilia funny. This is nothing more than bullying slander, and attempt to censor and police the internet because certain people’s pet emotional baggage got set off.

Well, guess what kiddies? Everyone has their baggage, but when you start trying to defame someone else’s character because of yours that makes you the unethical and manipulative moral monster. Notice the threats about “retaliation” from Amber.

I know I normally like to talk about bigger, more philosophical issues, but this is applied and practical ethics, right here: a man’s character is being defamed in the worst way. Or I could be completely wrong. Either way, it’s got me all fired-up (2:18 in or so).

I generally like to end a serious post with something silly and fun, sort of a way to cleanse the mental palate. So, am I wrong? Am I pulling a Walter, where I am not wrong, I’m just an asshole?