On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog

I've been extraordinarily lucky in that my online life has been rich, productive, and most importantly, safe. Friends that started online and then crossed over into real life have been exactly as advertised. I've never been stalked, and despite some rather vehement disagreements with what I write, I've never been threatened.

Others haven't been so lucky, and there are people online who think the so-called anonymity of being online means they can indulge their worst impulses, their own Dark Passenger, as Jeff Lindsay's Dexter Morgan character might say.

Via Paul the Spud at ShakesSis comes this blog entry from someone not so lucky. ShakesSis has herself been the recipient of some horrifically nasty e-mails and comments, especially in the aftermath of the Edwards campaign brouhaha, and reading the kind of threats Kathy Sierra has received, and the level of violence implied, makes me wonder just what kind of people are walking around out there.

This is an extreme example of the Coulterization of discourse. The right wing loves to say that there is no difference between Ann Coulter and Michael Moore, as if political speech, even rabble-rousing political speech, is the same as wishing the New York Times building had been bombed, calling for the leaders of countries we don't like to be killed, and other charming utterances from the Blonde Bomb. Or worse, they say that Coulter is "just joking", which is undoubtedly what the perpetrators of comments like "fuck off you boring slut... i hope someone slits your throat and cums down your gob" would say in the unlikely event that law enforcement actually finds the commenter's IP address and pays them a visit.

Those so threatened by a point of view, whether it's about politics, technology, or anything else, that they feel graphic depictions of sexual mutilation and murder that they would like to perpetrate on the author of such points of view are appropriate, I have to wonder if such people should be walking the streets.

On the internet, nobody may know you're a dog, but as soon as you cross the line into death threats, everybody should know you're a criminal.



The above cartoon by Peter Steiner has been reproduced from page 61 of July 5, 1993 issue of The New Yorker, (Vol.69 (LXIX) no. 20)only for nonprofit edicational purposes and complies with the copyright law of the United States as defined and stipulated under Title 17 U. S. Code.