etee's Blog

I'll admit, while I enjoy the blogosphere, I don't get around all that much. And, yesterday, I sorta discovered why. Reading Dwight Silverman's linkpost, I came across the following:

On Death Threats and the Blogosphere -- Also Scoble: Taking the week off. This is really ugly. Why do people have to be such jerks?

After reading those posts, that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach returned. Then, I spotted the following over at Polimom:

Death threats and vulgar, repulsive photoshopped images. Such a nice world we’re living in, eh?... these vile minds could easily be your neighbors and co-workers — that they’re singing hymns with you in church, or pawing through the produce in the grocery store right beside you, or waiting in line behind you to pick up a kid from soccer practice.

Yep... that sure helped the ol' stomach to calm down... NOT!

Finally, I spotted the following question by Kyrie O'Connor over at MeMo:

Is it scary, or is there reason to be scared?

The answer to those questions is yes... and yes.

As one who has been on the receiving end of 2AM phone calls, I can certainly empathize with Kathy - and all the others out there who have experienced this type of nonsense. And, yes, it does worry me a bit, because you don't know when you might run across someone who is carrying a grudge (along with an implement capable of helping them tend to it.) I think that may have been why the members of the Dixie Chicks reacted to the death threats they received the way they did (yes, this sort of thing also happens in meatspace, unfortunately.)

While women may have a more visceral reaction to this type of abuse than men do (I'm guessing that it's some sort of testosterone thing, along with several millenniums worth of experience encoded into the DNA), to be perfectly honest I don't relish the thought of some nutjob with an axe to grind kicking down the door in the middle of the night, or slipping a stiletto between my ribs during the second hymn next Sunday.

So, what to do?

I think this is where we can take a lesson from our reactions to 9/11. No, I am not suggesting we go and invade another country. What I am suggesting, though, is that we stand up and refuse to let these people dictate how we conduct our lives. Doing so is a two-pronged operation. First: we continue on with our lives. We go out, we socialize, we don't adopt a bunker, survivalist mentality. Second: we demand that law enforcement take action against these creatures. And, if/when we find ourselves on a jury in such a case, we treat it with the seriousness it deserves.

I think it is time we add this type of behavior to our list of "things having to do with terrorism". After all, terrorism isn't just young Islamic males flying airplanes into large buildings, or setting off IEDs in Baghdad, or detonating themselves in a marketplace in Israel. It isn't just a Timothy McVeigh, blowing up a truck in Oklahoma City. It is also that person "singing hymns with you in church, or pawing through the produce in the grocery store right beside you, or waiting in line behind you", who then goes home and posts this type of tripe on blogs, or sends out an "anonymous" letter containing a death threat to some celebrity.

As others have noted, nothing deters quite like consequences. The victims of this type of terrorism have certainly felt the consequences of those actions -- it is only right and proper that the perpetrators have the same experience.

Lastly - I think we need to follow the sage advice: "physician, heal thyself." Even as we don't tolerate this type of behavior in others, we need to purge it from ourselves. We need to re-adopt the mantle of civility in our conduct, whether it is on the Internet, or the phone, or while driving down the road. We may not be able to change the world... but we can surely change ourselves. And, if enough of us do just that...