My Interview with a Twitter User Who Told Andrew Breitbart: “Please Die”
The other day, someone tweeted:
@AndrewBreitbart you’re an idiot. Please die and let the rest of us live in peace. Kisses 🙂
A lot of people say a lot of nasty things about Andrew Breitbart. But, for some reason, I decided to try to talk to this person. I examined her Twitter timeline and saw her talking to people about the tweet. I invited her to talk to me, and she agreed.
So this is my interview with someone who said she wanted Andrew Breitbart to die.
It is not my goal to incite people against her, so I am not linking her tweet or giving her name or that of her university. I will call her only “K.R.”
Early on in our discussion she complained that, in response to her tweet, “there was a huge amount of people calling me a liberal and wishing death to me.” She said that there were also “nice people” who “supported andrew but were kind to me and open to discussion.”
I asked her: “What do you know about Andrew Breitbart?” and she replied:
ne[x]t to nothing. i only know what the video about him said and that video was extremely biased
I asked what video she was talking about, and she sent me a link to a video. The video was not loading at the time of our chat, so I had to wait until later to see it. It is a video from someone calling himself the “Amazing Atheist.”
There is no way I am going to waste your time with this video by embedding it. If you must see it, follow the link here. The guy in the video is basically the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons, only with less charm and self-awareness. Basically the guy’s shtick is, he writes Andrew a tweet:
@AndrewBreitbart likes to fuck children to death with cacti while thinking about fisting his mother in the ass. Just putting that out there.
Then he sits back and reads the outrageous responses from conservatives. I’ll quote one such outrageous response:
All the left can do is curse and name call NEVER have a decent comment about anything!
That tweet is obviously nowhere near as hip and clever as Comic Book Guy’s entry. So by now you can see that the Amazing Atheist pretty well “PWNED” Andrew Breitbart and his followers.
K.R. described herself as “a fan of the amazing atheist,” which is sad enough. Meanwhile, she said of Andrew: “i dont really know anything about andrew so i can’t say if im a fan or not.”
K.R. explained that she had sought to do what the Amazing Atheist had done. He “made a negative (and offensive) tweet to andrew to get a reaction out of his fan base.” That was her goal as well.
She explained that the Amazing Atheist had said some negative things about Breitbart. I asked her what those were and she said:
he siad that andrew was behind some lady named shirley getting fired, eposing the weiner pictures, and the shirley thing was he edited things from an interview or something to make her look bad
She added there was a third complaint but she could not remember what it was.
I explained: “Actually, he didn’t edit anything. He ran an edited video someone had sent him.” I then asked: “Would it be fair to say you’re not really familiar with the Shirley Sherrod controversy beyond what the Amazing Atheist claimed on his video?” She replied:
oh i have no idea about anything and im the first to admit it
Keep in mind, though, that she said Breitbart should die. I tried to explore what she knew about the specific complaints the Amazing Atheist had about Breitbart. We had already established that she knew nothing about the Sherrod controversy. What about the Weiner controversy?
all i know is that he [Weiner] took nude pics of himself and sent them to someone other than his wife…. and that it makes for wonderful puns
Now I’m starting to understand why Andrew Breitbart should die!
She claimed to be someone who liked to research things for herself. I asked: “What research did you do on the Sherrod controversy, the Weiner controversy, or the third controversy you mentioned before tweeting that Andrew should die?” (Turns out it the was O’Keefe ACORN controversy. Not surprisingly, the Amazing Comic Book Guy Atheist buys the Brad Friedman “heavily edited and deceptive” argument hook, line, and sinker.) Her answer:
i haven’t done any as of yet. ive been too busy with the multitude of tweets ive been recieving
Not quite responsive to my question — I actually asked what research she did before declaring Andrew Breitbart should die — but, OK.
I tried cutting to the chase, and asking why in the world she would wish death on someone she knew absolutely nothing about. I got a multitude of answers.
One was that she was conducting an experiment:
i did a social eperiment to see if what happened to him would happen to me . . . i wanted to see if id get the same reaction as the amazing atheist did
Then she tried to portray it as boredom, and/or (in the most self-aware comment she made) a comment that she had not thought through. But then she immediately tried to justify it as an effort to learn more about Breitbart:
i was extremely bored. i didn’t really think it through. plus i thought i might encounter people who would enlighten me as to their side of things. that way i wasn’t influenced by only one bias when learning about the guy
Right about at this point, there was an interruption from someone who “warned” K.R. about me. (I won’t say more about them except that they are aligned with someone who thinks random hoboes are sitting next to him in coffee shops to tape his tinfoil hat ravings for use by Fox News.) Anyway, this person started scaring K.R. by claiming that I was going to do awful things to her: expose her life, call her names — a bunch of things I had no intention of doing. I asked K.R. about it and she said:
its kinda freaking me out especially since he said not to contact you
Immediately, K.R. went into protective mode:
i want no personal information to be used, looked for, written or shared. no affiliation with my university stated or anything else potentially harmful to my or my university
Well. I never intended to publish anything that would direct people to her. I had decided from the beginning that I was going to keep her anonymous (despite her lack of care on that front), and use her as a generic example of someone who had engaged in ugly speech on the Internet.
I tried very hard to humanize Andrew, and make her realize that he is a real person. For example, I asked: “Are you aware that Andrew is married and has children?” The answer I received was casual and revealed no sign of remorse:
no no i am not [but] having a wiffe and children is wonderful…but it doesnt make you a better person.
When I asked what that meant, she said: “i should’ve said a good person.”
True enough, but since K.R. had absolutely no idea whether Andrew is a good person or not — other than the inane rantings of a social misfit on YouTube — I was not inclined to take her rationalization seriously. I tried to explore this in a delicate way, asking: “Do you have an opinion as to whether Andrew Breitbart is a good person?”
She evaded the question:
there are plenty of good peple who arent married and dont have kids. i dont have an opinion i have no clue who the guy is.”
I tried to take the issue out of the Internet context, asking: “Would you walk into a party and say to one of the guests that they should die, to see if the other guests reacted negatively?” She replied:
i see what youre doing and i understand that point of view and i admit i didnt think this through as much as i should’ve. i did it for the lols and to recreate what he did. mostly because i didnt believe people would say things like that. if one of my friends said “oh i said this stupid negative thing to this guy and people threw rotten apples at me” I would probably attempt it because it’s so un[b]elieva[bl]e.
I asked: “You did it for the ‘lols’? Could you elaborate on that for me?”
Like a very patient young person explaining something to an old codger, she said:
doing it for the lols” or “lulz” is an internet meme. it means doing it for fun for laughs
Yeah, I know. I was just trying to figure out why it should make someone “laugh out loud” to advocate the death of someone about whom they admittedly have not the slightest clue. I played along, relishing the role of doddering Internet know-nothing: “You think it’s fun to suggest someone should die?”
She responded with shame and remorse. OK, that’s actually not true. Actually, she said:
i think the reactions to such a statement are so ludicrous it’s entertaining
I patiently soldiered on, asking: “Would you walk up to someone in line at the supermarket and say they should die, to see if the other people in line would react negatively? If they did, would you find that entertaining?” She responded:
and as i stated earlier, i did not think this through as much as i should have
I noted that she had now had time to think it through. How did she now feel about what she did? Her takeaway was a stab at thoughtfulness:
i dont think i should have done it. the internet is weird. if i had done this in person id feel horrible and be in tears. as it stands, im only mildly amused. and while it was amusing, it was also stupid. if i had thought about it more, i wouldn’t have done it and i do regret it
I was fascinated by the comment: “if i had done this in person id feel horrible and be in tears. as it stands, im only mildly amused.” I tried to get her to elaborate, asking: “Why would you feel horrible if you had done this in person?” She replied:
because you see the actual people. when you’re on the internet, you see a username. in person, you hear people shouting and you see the anger. heck people can hit you. its a scary situation.
there’s not much they can do online
Ah, the naivete of youth.
I replied: “But is that really true? You might be surprised at what people do to each other online.” K.R. said:
i suppose. i havent experienced that though . . . im midly amused because there havent been any immediate consequences. there would’ve been in reality
I asked: “How would you feel if your mother saw your tweet saying Andrew Breitbart should die? Or if it showed up on the front page of the New York Times?” She responded:
oh she and my dad would slap me upside the head. thats partially why i regret it
Ah. The hint of consequences, leading to a hint of regret. In another futile attempt to get her to empathize with Andrew, I asked her how she felt receiving messages from people who said she should die. Her response was odd:
im kinda ambivalent.. i mean. 1) i have nothing against dying 2) its not like they know where i live
She thinks it’s difficult to find out where people live? This girl has a lot to learn.
I was about to explore that topic with her, but she had to go. I had almost finished the interview, but I had hoped to warn her about the perils of exposing your life online, so she could protect herself.
That didn’t happen. She stopped responding to my emails. I guess the person who “warned” her about me got to her.
When I first contacted her, I hoped to write a feel-good anecdote about how someone who initially came across like a creep turned out to be a decent person. My hoped-for theme: people are decent but the Internet sucks.
But in the end, I wasn’t able to produce that heartwarming post for you. I really wanted to. But it didn’t turn out that way.
I’m not sure why. Maybe the Internet got in the way.
Which is not to say I think this person is a bad person.
I actually have no idea what kind of a person she is. And it’s not my place to judge.
What she did was thoughtless. And the Internet made it easy to do so.
Patterico (f724ca) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:27 amThere was a wildly successful conservative blog in Houston that changed some of my comments by adding links to sites that desecrated Allah and then tried to email Qatari CID and was openly dissapointed when I wasnt beheaded they also allowed commentators and contributors to spread rumors that I was a deep undercover CIA agent putting me a high risk in the Middle East
They allowed people to muse whether I would still be supporting the US attorney Johnny Sutton if they beheaded my children gruesomely in front of me
And someone recently has posted pictures of my kids on porno sites to masterbate to – I haent decided to hire lawyers to look into who did this
And these were conservatives, yes people are animals on the internet – I also had death threats attempted to be called into my wife (her company intercepted them)
I have seen a respected conservative blogger muse publically that Kay Baily adopted her kids not out of love but as a prop for relection and I have seen a Republican pollsters top researcher spread the rumors on his site that ron Paul was a Nazi and that Rick Perry was gay.
And He also kept a post up that his publisher wrote wrote one the day a 15 year old boy was killed horribly crossing the highway that dumba$$ is hard to clean out of your grill – this was an employee of another top respected pollster and contributor to the Hill magazine – who took umbrage with me and several others when we pointed out that this was not acceptable (but the blog is shut down now)
Yes people are very ugly on the internet – I agree
EricPWJohnson (2a58f7) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:31 amOne funny part about the Comic Book Guy video: he sits in this very puffy sort of beige chair that kind of looks like a beanbag. So Andrew mocked it by calling it a “seat-like contraption” or words to that effect. On the video, the guy must spend about 30 seconds riffing off the contention that Andrew didn’t know the word “chair.” It’s one of the least self-aware things I have seen on the Internet in a while.
Patterico (f724ca) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:38 amThat would have been nice, if it were true. My experience is that many people are evil, and the Internet makes it easy for them to be so.
Chuck Bartowski (5a8609) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:40 amAs the first ice storm approaches, I fear the OWS fever shall wane, if I was one of the neighbors I would blast country music and spotlights out my windows from midnight to noon just to be as neighborly as them.
EricPWJohnson (2a58f7) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:47 am“there was a huge amount of people calling me a liberal and wishing death to me.”
After you wished death to AB. Imagine that.
The Monster (ecd8e6) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:51 amSome people on the innertubes are just bugf@cknutz.
JD (f93629) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:55 amOccupy brain cells.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:57 amWelcome to my world, Patterico.
The problem here is that this child felt she could say whatever she liked, and it shouldn’t matter. But as you learned, she cares very, very, very much what other people say to her.
So long as there is no outcome for improper actions, the improper actions increase.
This girl (and she is a girl, not a woman) can carry on all she wants, but the facts are simple: she wanted to say something hateful, and have no consequences for doing so. And it is even worse than it sounds: she doesn’t even know the people she attacks.
And make no mistake: this was decidedly not “an experiment.” She was just being a jerk.
I see this all the time. And not just from undergrads.
Personally, I think that what she writes ought to be part of her personal record, so that she can explain herself to future employers or graduate school admissions committees.
But then, some of the latter might think it is just fine to wish death on Mr. Breitbart.
Simon Jester (cc4166) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:59 amMichelle Malkin, read her book unhinged
EricPWJohnson (2a58f7) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:00 amAt least their saying please.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:08 amIncidentally, Patterico, if you speak to this person again, do share with her that a number of college professors feel that her actions should indeed be part of her permanent record.
If she had written a threatening note to a sorority sister (wishing her dead), I can assure you that would be part of her record.
How is this different?
Simon Jester (cc4166) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:16 amAndrew Breitbart, who rates pretty high in my book, does seem to bring out a lot of passions on both liberals’ and conservatives’ sides. A really good topic in any case though, esp for those of us who spend a good amt of time online. It’s really, really easy to forget that the person on the other end of the connection is the same person you’d see at a party or in the store.
And even though I *do* keep that in mind almost every time I post, I still say things I wouldn’t say in person, usually in response to what I consider someone else’s “over the line” comment. Because in person I wouldn’t always have openly disagreed w/ them.
Is that courage I should have had in person, or is that bluntness I should have refrained from online? Not always sure of the answer to that question.
The Trig Palin Defenders Society, certified 100% pro-life! (325a59) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:20 amDoesn’t the happy face make it better?
AZ Bob (2ca156) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:20 amOops, and heh. Case in point I guess.
no one you know (325a59) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:21 amThe most insightful thing she said was that to her people on the internet are not real. To her Andrew Breitbart may as well be a fictional character in a story, like Hamlet, or Hitler. So it’s OK to say whatever she likes about him.
Milhouse (ea66e3) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:26 amSo there’s no difference between her quote of “please die” and Patterico’s interpretation as “should die? The difference between request and imperative makes for a big difference in how it sounds.
But no real news here. Breitbart regularly encourages rude tweets but retweeting examples which he then uses as excuses for his own action using logic along the lines of “think what I said was bad? Here read this.”
It is not uncommon as act as if one person’s misdeeds can excuse the misdeeds of another, although wide spread acceptance does not make the argument valid.
Snertly (b9e636) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:28 amPerhaps neither. It is less appropriate to be blunt with someone when it will create a scene that will embarrass everyone else around you, and will ruin everyone’s evening. Or when you’re both guests of a mutual friend who just wants everyone to have a nice time and doesn’t want to have to deal with not being able to invite both of you at the same time.
Milhouse (ea66e3) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:30 amNo, there is no difference. Requesting someone to die means you think their death would be a good thing, indeed such a good thing that they ought to recognise it, and do the public a service by ridding the world of their presence. In other words, they should die. Oh, and by the way, “should die” is not an imperative; “die” is an imperative.
Milhouse (ea66e3) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:33 amMany people think that what they do on the Internet can be anonymous. They have not yet realized that the Internet and the cell phone are the greatest threats to privacy yet invented.
This girl’s ignorance and attitude are common in the younger generation and explain why the young gave Obama two-thirds of their vote in 2008.
nohype (c86dc7) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:46 amI agree with Simon Jester.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:47 amAnd nohype.
Very interesting post, Patterico.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:48 amSnertly, is there a reason you wanted to confirm that you’re just another troll?
SPQR (26be8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:51 amthe interview makes it clear that she didn’t for reals want Mr. B to die anymore than she for reals wanted to kiss him I think
but I think I would’ve given her the benefit of the doubt without the interview
happyfeet (3c92a1) — 10/24/2011 @ 8:19 amAnd this person’s vote counts as much as mine. Sigh.
physics geek (6669a4) — 10/24/2011 @ 8:23 amAnd I should apparently repeat myself:
“…but the facts are simple: she wanted to say something hateful, and have no consequences for doing so. And it is even worse than it sounds: she doesn’t even know the people she attacks…”
Hateful speech isn’t clever, or hip, or trendy. And I don’t think nasty things should be prevented. But the people saying hateful things should be held accountable for doing so.
People who do that kind of thing, sorry to say, just aren’t nice people.
At least the girl has the excuse of privileged youth.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 10/24/2011 @ 8:25 amTypical child of my Baby Boom generation: Poor little thing will have to go through life that self-absorbed, inconsiderate, and intellectually shallow. But I’m sure she rates high in self-esteem, and that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?
SicSemperTyrannus (09cc33) — 10/24/2011 @ 8:57 amI feel sad for this young woman. She appears to be the poster child for “sheeple,” following whichever Judas goat strikes her fancy at the moment.
Based entirely on the conversation you described, I’m amazed both that she actually got into a university and that the university accepted her application. She might be good at “book learnin'” but it sure didn’t translate in your conversation.
I pray that she will come to understand the real world before she has to actually live in it.
ExRat (3b46ff) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:28 amAnd people wonder why I quit Twitter.
CrustyB (d4da92) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:35 amI don’t quite understand her, except that it seems what motivated her was that she thinks (or thought) it’s ridiculous to take hostile statements someone makes on the Internet seriously – since you don’t need any kind of connection or knowledge of the person to say it, and it’s so easy to do, as compared with actually doing anything or even caring about what was said.
And so she was going to sit back and laugh at how angry people were going to get over a few lines of typing.
Not, of course, understanding that not everybody understood she didn’t really mean it, although nobody really means it usually anyway.
Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:49 amI remember being told a very long time ago “if you wouldn’t say it to their face, don’t say it at all”.
Tanny O'Haley (12193c) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:50 amIn brief:
WHY did she do this?
Because that’s what the Amazing Atheist was doing and she’d started to envy him. Of course he at least had a regular website, so at least you see he was not very serious and you could blame people for not knowing this. Also, he tried to say the most ridiculous implausible things he could think of and see if people STILL would react.
She, too, wanted to be a troll – a really BIG troll.
She did decide to troll about something where she felt she would not be on the wrong side, but she had very little basis to decide what was the wrong side, except that people she was friendly with considered this wrong.
Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:51 amDid you decide to interview her because she wasn’t a regular?
Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:54 amI published 1 hour of hate tweets directed at Breitbart on my otherwise defunct blog.
One. Hour.
http://aninconvenientskeptic.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/one-hour-of-hate-tweets-directed-at-andrew-breitbart/
Skeptic (47afc3) — 10/24/2011 @ 10:14 amThis is the world that the Free Speech Movement, and its takeover of the EduCrat industry has bequeathed us:
Another Drew - Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (7391b1) — 10/24/2011 @ 10:30 amIgnorance and Paranoia.
The “Greatest Generation” spoiled their children, and the Boomers – in their narcissism – are polluting everything that they touch.
If Western Civilization is to be saved, it will be a long, hard, dirty, struggle.
happyfeet, is there an English translation of your comment available?
SPQR (91e3af) — 10/24/2011 @ 10:30 amHopefully, Patterico sent her a link to this thread so that she will have the chance to read a diversity of opinions about the subject.
For instance: if a mainstream blogger like Andrew Sullivan or Glenn Greenwald had posted “Please die and let the rest of us live in peace,” they would have been FIRED from their jobs. Perhaps the young woman will keep this in mind when applying for her first post-university job.
Icy (8b1256) — 10/24/2011 @ 10:34 amhappyfeet thinks this thread is a waste of time
And, as someone that routinely uses the most derogatory of terms when referring to Sarah Palin, his discomfort is understandable.
Icy (8b1256) — 10/24/2011 @ 10:45 amIn short, K.R. tweets ugly tweets for the same reason rude drivers flip the bird in traffic, or teenagers taunt zoo animals. Her moral sense seems to be limited to my dad would slap me upside the head. The “upside the head” is quite telling, sadly.
melanerpes (58d970) — 10/24/2011 @ 10:50 amInternet trolling has been around as long as there’s been an internet, and is part of the reason why it’s not just like real life. Trolls can’t be taken seriously – it just encourages them. Saying “please die” is just a hobby for them.
She sounds like a /b/tard kiddie (google it) – doing it for the lulz, really? She’s in college? What a moron.
You gave her a great deal more attention and respect than she deserves.
Xanthippe (2663b6) — 10/24/2011 @ 11:02 amUh, duh, I have no mind of my own … And these people vote!
Anita Busch (a025dd) — 10/24/2011 @ 11:03 am“27.Typical child of my Baby Boom generation: Poor little thing will have to go through life that self-absorbed, inconsiderate, and intellectually shallow. But I’m sure she rates high in self-esteem, and that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?
Comment by SicSemperTyrannus”
This thought has crossed my mind a lot lately. As my parents (War babies) feel about the Baby Boomers, I feel about this new group – these are the people who will be running the world when I’m settling in to my “Golden Years?”
It isn’t going to be pretty.
Em (813744) — 10/24/2011 @ 11:10 amAlso — and it’s merely a coincidence, I’m sure — there seems to be no involvement with God or religion in her life. She was drawn to a self-described “Amazing Athiest” because she is of that Socialist mindset. Congratulations higher education; you’ve managed to teach yet another impressionable young mind to NOT utilize the power of independent thought. Excellent work!
Icy (8b1256) — 10/24/2011 @ 11:49 amSo, basically, you interview Valerie Jarret?
Jeff H (8064e0) — 10/24/2011 @ 11:58 amIcy,
Perry is using productivity tests and student feedbck to remove radical ranters from the podiums at Texas State Universities, so hopefully we will have less of these wandering children at least from Texas
EricPWJohnson (8a4ca7) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:00 pmShe was being part of the herd. It’s easier than thinking.
Rob Crawford (04f50f) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:06 pmthe importantest thing is Mr. B is alive and well and fighting the righteous fight against the dirty socialist perversion of our little country
happyfeet (a55ba0) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:07 pmComing from one of the most annoying little twerps around, who says much the same thing as a matter of course. Of course happytwat defends this bint — she’s his tribe.
Rob Crawford (04f50f) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:10 pmgrumpy
happyfeet (a55ba0) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:11 pmHe’s OK with what she said.
Rob Crawford (04f50f) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:11 pmLooks to me like she’s qualified to be vice-president.
Mark Buehner (168992) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:12 pmNot grumpy, happytwat, just sick of your idiotic schtick and lost as to why it’s tolerated.
Rob Crawford (04f50f) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:13 pmI really admire Andrew Breitbart for being strong enough to take this kind of vitriol.
Imagine being the person who is the subject of thousands of hate tweets simply for the amusement of the authors. I couldn’t stand it.
MayBee (081489) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:15 pmIf the girl was legit (and, after all, nobody knows you’re a dog on the internet), then what you got was a very young, immature person who follows the unfortunately ubiquitous tendency among such persons to want to “get in on” on a trend. It’s the trend (sometimes called a meme) among our school-age-and-post-graduate young to be anti-whatever, and somewhat vicious to that end. Presumably, our society will survive it, and but that remains to be seen. The internet, much like the telephone and the automobile before it, will have unforeseen consequences and it falls to us old pre-internet fogies to try and mitigate as much as we can.
RebeccaH (23af65) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:16 pmA silly lil’ lass named K.R.
GM Roper (a0b04a) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:21 pmDissed Old Breitbart from afar.
Without knowing why
She asked him to die.
Did the Atheist appoint her Death Czar?
Happyfoots doesn’t like Mister Patterico’s “treatment” of this git because “K.R.” sounds too much like his bff nishi….
Challeron (f8bd4d) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:24 pmI don’t care who she is, but I would LOVE to know what University (she says) accepted her.
Marty (944f66) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:27 pmYou spent this much effort trying to deconstruct the thought process of some know-nothing 15 year old girl who was trying to be mindlessly provocative on twitter?
Why?
John (d30dbe) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:30 pmtwitter account @theamazingatheist no longer exists.
abbey normal (77b2be) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:31 pmAs for the attention: I was using her as an example. So, sure, she got more attention than she deserved — but that’s always the case when you pick an example of bad behavior to talk about.
As for the respect: you’re probably right. But I’d rather err on the side of giving too much than the opposite.
Patterico (b83770) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:40 pmTry re-reading what Patterico wrote, John.
Icy (8b1256) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:42 pmgood work.
Fred (d2121b) — 10/24/2011 @ 12:48 pmHer moral sense seems to be limited to my dad would slap me upside the head.
“If Daddy is dead, everything is permitted.”
Sorry Icy, but that is the purified essence of primitive religious morality as told to us by countless conservatives. All that changes is the location of the particular deity.
Seerak (4b820f) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:03 pmMany of you seem to be missing the point here, which should be blindingly obvious. This “girl” would never have attacked a prominent liberal for the “lols”. Period. Never. Because it’s not nice to attack liberals.
Andrew Breitbart was an acceptable target for her little “lols” experiment because she has been programmed quite successfully to believe that conservatives are not people.
These are the very same people who will shrug and look away when conservatives are led into concentration camps.
This is a direct result of the triumph of liberal ideology in our public and private school systems. This is no “outlier” this is how our kids have been trained to think by the people who run our schools. It’s no accident either. This is exactly what people like William Ayers have been working towards.
CosmicConservative (d0b5e7) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:04 pmGun Control rarely leads to people not committing gun violence.
Like how Liberals rarely engage their brain.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:04 pmSeerak, you are misattributing a quote to me that was said by somebody else.
Icy (8b1256) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:08 pmSome observations on your tale and my own experiences:
1)The internet does not communicate with real people beyond those you have met in person.
2) ComicbookGuy is real as is Homer, Marge, Bart, etc. IOW, not very much. You, I, Breitbart, etc all fall into that nebulous semi human/AI program area of perception. Are we really human or are we simply clever programs-?
3) Actions on TV, in movies, and the internet are not real. They have no consequences in real life. There is a disconnect between the world of people who grew up among other humans and little tech vs those who grew among lots of tech and little human interaction.
4) The internet, as catch-all phrase for all tech, is not finished evolving. It is disruptive, destructive and incomplete. In short, we humans have not adapted to the social meanings and uses of this wizard’s toy. we are still playing with it… we learn how to use it but not how to use it wisely… Like children with an automobile or firearms… We experiment, test, try new uses beyond the designed and prescribed. We sometimes do great harm without intending so.
The boundaries between the generations seem to grow harder and higher as time passes. Us older folks know that ethics, morality and values define a person more than wealth, toys, and fads. The young still focus on the new and wondrous.
AndyJ (d08522) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:13 pmthat was beautifully said Mr. AndyJ plus also everybody – Mr. B included – is really a lot still alive, and that is a wonderful thing
happyfeet (3c92a1) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:19 pmLet get this clear: she’s at university and that illiterate?
Toby (6c7dbf) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:31 pmAndyJ
you obviously havent met Andrew, tht was sooo much nonsense I dont know where to even begin to address it.
A Public persona perhaps but thats soo 1950’s this is the upfront in your face personalization of communication to an infinite detail that you re supposed to GET TO KNOW the person and not the persona
you got it exactly backwards
EricPWJohnson (8a4ca7) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:32 pmI don’t know why you didn’t out the little witch, patterico. Actions should have consequences, and that is the reason these people make these statements. There are never any consequences for them when they behave badly. That needs to change, and the sooner the better.
J. Knight (c0f7e7) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:36 pmhappyfeet, I know that Mr. B is still alive.
SPQR (26be8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:47 pmAndrew Breitbart will be indicted any moment now.
JD (ac32e2) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:51 pmyoung lady has much
ColonelHaiku (e0595a) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:53 pmto learn and sadly she will
learn from wrong people
The thought is father to the deed.
FredB (bdb117) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:55 pmcomic book guy was
ColonelHaiku (e0595a) — 10/24/2011 @ 1:59 pmthe Worst Episode Ever
of liberal wit?
When I was a child, I thought as a child.
But since I became a progressive, I have found that I have not had to change my thinking at all as I got older.
The liberal as spoiled yet subconsciously self-loathing child is a perhaps the best model to describe their behavior.
RS (0a7bfc) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:03 pmI tried I really did Mr. SPQR but I couldn’t get all the way through
happyfeet (a55ba0) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:04 pmShe’s just young and dumb, you were a little mean there.
Maybe very dumb, but she did (eventually) make a real effort to use her brain while talking to you.
The shortness of her responses is probably more because she rarely does make a real effort at using her brain so she can’t articulate at any level deeper than light and/or drunk conversation.
deepelemblues (ea26b9) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:07 pmbut happyfeet, I thought you were a fan of Chap Hop.
SPQR (26be8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:08 pmAmazing Atheist puts the Ass in assonance.
ropelight (ad6607) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:08 pmhappyfeet, perhaps you will like Professor Elemental’s response to Mr. B better.
SPQR (26be8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:09 pmWhat does Al Sharpton think of Andrew Breitbart?
What does Al Sharpton think about Robbers shooting unarmed grooms 41 times?
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:09 pmWe all know these people; it’s good to be reminded of their presence from time to time (thanks Patterico!) as they explain the 11% in almost every poll that votes for the most incoherent position possible.
Patterico’s post reminded me of a 99-percenter I used to work with in computer operations some 15 years ago. I was a young college student and he was an experienced late-twentysomething, working the swing shift doing mainframe batch jobs and tape backups. Due to issues in our batch jobs and the occasional need to go hunt down a terminal still logged into a file, we were issued master keys to the building of the large telemarketing corporation.
One evening, “Chris” left for a period and came back laughing. “I just took a dump on the CEO’s desk.” Indeed, Chris was fired the next day, merely for “doing his duty.”
I asked him about why he did the number two and he said “I wanted to see his reaction. I sort of got tired of him telling everyone what to do. Driving his Maserati.”
Chris is in his late forties today and from a mutual acquaintance, I’m aware he still is single and lives with mom. I’d imagine he’s still driving his ’80s Trans Am if it runs, since he hasn’t had a job since that paid anything and has remained primarily unemployed all that time (since everyone has conspired against him and blacklisted him, of course, for just getting the man’s reaction).
When we realize that 10% of the population is not capable of coherent thought and would have been thrown off a cliff in childhood by less sympathetic civilizations, there’s a lot of understanding we can gain on “the 1%”.
Multitude (46c705) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:14 pmI might like it more better after I eat my tasty hatch chili chicken enchiladas
happyfeet (a55ba0) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:16 pmGotta love the jew hating idiot trolls accusing us of having a love affair with Netanyahu the bigot because we oppose Sharia.
Leftys are anti-2nd amendment case in point the brady center.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:34 pmRon Paul sympathizes with Islamo-nazis.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:49 pmhttp://www.peakperformancepsych.com/
soen (14f2b5) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:51 pmHaving been around since Fidonet was sent ’round the world’ by placing a phone down on the modem…(literally – and we had Aus online back then), I must say that I agree with Chuck Bartowski:
“That would have been nice, if it were true. My experience is that many people are evil, and the Internet makes it easy for them to be so.”
Evil is often just…petty…stupidity. Nothing magnificent. Just petty.
Kathy Kinsley (3d88c2) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:55 pmThis is neither a left or right thing, it is just a comment on the humor that this little lost leftling was trying out. The comedy is in the utter heartlessness of the comment. Like in a sort of gallows humor sort of way.
Jim (e750c1) — 10/24/2011 @ 2:58 pmThe problem with this girl is that she is unable to see Andrew as a living independent thing. She only see him as an object that can associate to 2 things she heard of and one thing she couldn’t bother herself to remember.
“thing” being a rather poor choice for a word above. I meant “person”.
Jim (e750c1) — 10/24/2011 @ 3:01 pmI guess I’m bothered by the notion that running this kind of experiment is entertainment to her. One wonders how far she would go in statements to get an amusing response. Will she tell his family to die? Will she just tell others that he should be tortured? To me this is a typical liberal reaction which is: it’s fine for me to say these things but I’m bothered when others say them about me or to me.
rochf (f3fbb0) — 10/24/2011 @ 3:05 pmRe: comment #2
Beware! As a person familiar with this deranged individual, let me state there is not a single piece of truth in his comment. He’s dancing dangerously close to slander now.
Mark (57c05e) — 10/24/2011 @ 3:06 pmI think K.R. would benefit from more substantial discussion — such as defending herself to Patterico via email or engaging in a comment section like this one — than Twitter provides. However, I suspect she’s much more adept at the Twitter universe or text-messaging. That’s a shame because defending your opinions is a good way to learn to think.
I’m also curious about her knowledge of current events and world leaders. My guess is she can identify more Kardashians than G20 leaders or members of Obama’s Cabinet.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 3:12 pmCongratulations on the Instapundit link, Patterico.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 3:15 pmYou claim that the video in question was biased, but you analyze the man using your own personal bias. In other words you’re a piece of sh*t and you are openly content with it.
With this kind of journalism maybe you’ll have a spot at Fox News.
This women was simply trying to troll Andrew, and you jump on this like you happen to be a qualified intelligent individual.
A reasonable intelligent person would say “Oh, thats just trolling” An idiot would say “What would make a person say this?!”.
Overly dramatical journalism.
Leon (42f0ec) — 10/24/2011 @ 3:40 pmOr just journalism, such as we have heard about but never read/seen.
BfC (2ebea6) — 10/24/2011 @ 3:45 pm==I’m bothered by the notion that running this kind of experiment is entertainment to her==
That was no “experiment”. She just made that up after she got caught, because she thought it would make her look less bad if she called it a social experiment. It reminds me of the doofuses who get caught with child porn on their computer and then tell the cops they were just doing “research” for a book about pedophiles. Riight.
elissa (7119c7) — 10/24/2011 @ 3:58 pmExplain trolling to us, Leon.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:01 pmLeon – Wasn’t the video in question biased? How can you claim otherwise?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:02 pmand you are openly content with it
happyfeet (a55ba0) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:07 pmMr. Feets – KR sounds like nishi in training.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:12 pmmaybe a little but I think our nishi is inimitable
happyfeet (a55ba0) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:16 pmdaleyrocks – I never said the video wasn’t biased. I simply said how can you point out something as being biased when you, yourself is biased on the other end of the spectrum, and so heavily that it shows up in your journalism. Its poor journalism, nothing more and nothing less.
DRJ – Trolling is simply to provoke an emotional response through a statement that is quite often provocative.
You can argue that this journalism is fair, but I personally haven’t seen any respectable journalist try to discredit individuals in their own blog.
I won’t disagree with the girl being stupid, however.
Leon (42f0ec) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:17 pmLeon,
Patterico didn’t discredit K.R. He gave her a chance to explain her statements but she couldn’t, and that’s what discredited her. That’s what real journalists do.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:24 pmBy the way, Leon, isn’t “overly dramatical [sic] journalism” a provocative statement made to provoke an emotional response? In fact, doesn’t that describe your entire comment 96?
DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:26 pmGet over it tool.
I mean Patterico also racially profiles muslims too as well. /sarcasm off
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:31 pmhappy dyslexic
ColonelHaiku (fbf87d) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:37 pmChristmas shout out to Leon!
hcum yrev uoy kcuf
Shorter Leon: “… blah, blah, blah, Fox News, blah blah blah…”
Moron.
SPQR (26be8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:40 pm“I simply said how can you point out something as being biased when you, yourself is biased on the other end of the spectrum, and so heavily that it shows up in your journalism. Its poor journalism, nothing more and nothing less.”
Leon – That’s basic journalism. Point out errors and spin. Anybody can do it. It’s not rocket science.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:48 pmit’s really sick to wish deadness on somebody while the tasty McRib sammiches are back for a limited time
sick sick sick
From what I understand anyway. I never personally had one yet that I can remember but there’s a McDonald’s at my JFK terminal and I might try there on the way back.
So there that’s something to look forward to for everybody me and you and Mr. Breitbart and Mr. daleyrocks and Miss DRJ and Jared Padalecki but not Kurt Cobain.
happyfeet (a55ba0) — 10/24/2011 @ 4:52 pmWhen I try to offer logic I get met with
“Tool”
Another guy seeing “Fox News” and instantly in his head that was grounds for discrediting.
Some idiot accusing me of accusing the writer of discrediting K.R. when I was clearly talking about the creator of the video
Idiots insulting my grammar with worse grammar than myself.
The best of all is people who accuse me of trolling who I actually had to explain what trolling was to them. If my comment emotionally provoked you then maybe you need some thick skin.
It’s childish for your people to jump on me for disagreeing with this poorly written blog.
Why is this not trolling?
Leon (42f0ec) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:04 pmBecause the amount of grammatical and punctual errors on this piece is very very high, and that is a fact, but I’m probably talking to the wall since i’m insulted by individuals that demonize a young stupid girl.
Thanks, Patterico. I used to think that I was socially and emotionally clueless.
htom (412a17) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:08 pm== It’s childish for your people.. ==
who are “your” people?????
elissa (7119c7) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:08 pm“When I try to offer logic I get met with”
Leon – Dude – Your first comment here offered a barrage of insults. Get over yourself.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:14 pmHey, Stashiu3? Is this “Leon” person with the perfect grammar an old friend? Just asking.
Simon Jester (c8876d) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:22 pmLeon, thinking that associating someone with “Fox News” is a put down – that shows you are a clown.
SPQR (26be8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:24 pmShorter Leon-Ma Patterico gave me a wedgie!!!!!!!!!!!Sniff Sniff.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:40 pmFox News is a lame-ass propagandy cable news network for people what like to be condescended to by various blond womens and a Shep. NTTAWWT
happyfeet (3c92a1) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:40 pmMSNBC is a lame-ass propagandy cable news network for people who like to be condescended to by various white people with tingles up their legs and Rachel Mancow. NTTAWWT.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:50 pm“Punctual” errors????? Do you mean “punctuation” errors?
It’s laughable for you to criticize the grammar on the blog post when you make mistakes that a 3rd-grader would avoid.
But your biggest mistake was blaming this post on Andrew. Nobody named Andrew wrote the post, it was from our gracious host, Patterico.
When you can’t even get the facts straight, don’t expect anyone to take your arguments seriously.
Chuck Bartowski (ae41b0) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:50 pmIronic.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:51 pmHeeheehahahahahahahaha.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:53 pmPatterico,
This is a great post. To be able to compel a person to examine their motives and actually think through why they’ve done something only helps that person grow.
While this girl clearly is not well practiced at examining motives and unintended consequences, that she actually took the time to slog through the whys and wherefores is rather remarkable. And I think that that is something that the typical internet troll does not do. The hard work. The honesty. And acknowledging the regret because one actually is honest enough to take a step back far enough to get clarity about what they have really done and what impact that might have on an innocent person.
She’s just young and dumb, you were a little mean there.
Maybe very dumb, but she did (eventually) make a real effort to use her brain while talking to you.
I don’t think she’s dumb – I think she just hasn’t exercised her brain in critical thought very much (if at all). If she were dumb, she wouldn’t have understood the points Patterico was making, therefore wouldn’t have been open to or seen anything negative about her actions – let alone understand unintended consequences. Also, I don’t see as she he did as being mean but rather challenging a mushy brain to perform. It can only benefit her in the long run. Hopefully, too, this interaction will leave a significant remnant and when faced with boredom again, she’ll think before she acts.
Of course, I hope too, she’ll re-think her adoration of Amazing Atheist. Perhaps she’ll even be compelled to ask him what motivates him to perceive himself as ‘amazing’…
Dana (4eca6e) — 10/24/2011 @ 5:55 pmLeon… “you people”… the people like you, have never had the role models – including parents – that show you (and instill in you) the qualities and values required to help make you a moral, ethical, and productive person. Your mentors have always focused on political correctness and taught you that because you’ve been victimized all your life, you are owed the things that normal, well-adjusted people work for and earn with their labors. You have made bad choices for your entire life and now your chickens return each night to roost. And that pisses you off and prompts you to lash out at your betters.
It’s as simple as that.
ColonelHaiku (fbf87d) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:00 pmLeon must be a transgendered Iranian atheist.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:02 pmThere is a common thread here.
Comic book guy thought he had to explain to Andrew what a “chair” is, when Andrew called his beanbag-looking chair a “seat-type contraption.”
K.R. thought she had to explain to me what “doing it for the lulz” meant, when I asked: “You did it for the ‘lols’? Could you elaborate on that for me?”
Leon thought he had to explain to DRJ what “trolling” is, when she asked: “Explain trolling to us.”
Each and every one of these people missed what what being said to (or asked of) them. And that they needed to patiently explain things to the old person.
Each and every one of these people was wrong. They still have no idea what flew right over their heads.
Patterico (f724ca) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:10 pmMeanwhile, I found the “Real” 99 …
SPQR (26be8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:48 pmEach and every one of these people missed what what being said to (or asked of) them. And that they needed to patiently explain things to the old person.
Each and every one of these people was wrong. They still have no idea what flew right over their heads.
They are never the student, always the teacher. They’re very worth as enlightened beings, out of our reach and far deeper than us, depends on that mindset. Whether it’s yokels on the internet or a professorial-like POTUS teaching us, it is us who must – in their eyes – be forever ignorant. Their very worth depends on it.
Dana (4eca6e) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:51 pmObviously the Socratic approach doesn’t appeal to Amazing Atheist, K.R., or Leon.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 10/24/2011 @ 6:59 pmI blame Jon Stewart
happyfeet (3c92a1) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:05 pmsrsly
happyfeet (3c92a1) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:05 pmWow, that was a fascinating read. Thanks for conversing with that girl, and for sharing it. Her parents should be ashamed that they raised a girl so ignorant as to border on some kind of sociopathy.
One can only hope she and others like her will wise up.
cheers!
Linda (b21016) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:35 pmG*d help me, I agree with happyfeet!
phunctor (29abd1) — 10/24/2011 @ 7:40 pmObviously the Socratic approach doesn’t appeal to Amazing Atheist, K.R., or Leon.
Comment by DRJ — 10/24/2011 @ 6:59 pm
Sarcastic. It’s spelled s-a-r-c-a-s-t-i-c. Sheesh. Do I have to correct everything for you old fogies?
/
no one you know, who thinks Dana's last comment was pretty awesome (3e92e3) — 10/24/2011 @ 8:20 pmUntil people started writing that they wanted her to die. Suddenly what people write on the internet seemed a whole lot more important.
Milhouse (ea66e3) — 10/24/2011 @ 8:21 pmHow can we get in touch with the super HOT Dana the photographer in LA?
JD (ac32e2) — 10/24/2011 @ 8:23 pmComment by no one you know, who thinks Dana’s last comment was pretty awesome — 10/24/2011 @ 8:20 pm
You know what, NOYK? That was very nice of you. And as I was momentarily basking in a lovely little glow of appreciation, I re-read my comment and ugh, I noticed an unbecoming little nibble of humble pie awaiting,
They’reTheir very worth as enlightened beings, out of our reach and far deeper than us, depends on that mindset.Really, Dana, really?
Dana (4eca6e) — 10/24/2011 @ 8:40 pmAnd apparently Dana chose to not respond to the question posed directly in front of her comment. 😉
JD (ac32e2) — 10/24/2011 @ 8:46 pmHeh, JD… I did not think you were referring to me…camera for fun, yes. The other part, uh, no way, no how. If you are referring to me, I must inform you, you’ve been seriously misled!
Patterico has my email addy.
Dana (4eca6e) — 10/24/2011 @ 8:51 pmApropos of Leon: Anyone remember Puce?
I’m thinkin’ Allah or AmishRepairman was dogged by that benighted desert louse back in the Den Beste days near the millenial corner.
gary gulrud (d88477) — 10/24/2011 @ 8:59 pmDana – we are trying to meet up in LA on Thursday.
JD (ac32e2) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:12 pmToo bad I no longer live in SoCal.
Simon Jester (669d30) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:22 pmJD, if you don’t mind posting your email, I’ll send to you for details.
Dana (4eca6e) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:27 pmDana, would you like me to send it to you? JD posted it and I hid it rather than leave it out there.
Stashiu3 (601b7d) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:33 pmOkay. Thanks, Stashiu.
Dana (4eca6e) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:34 pmDone and no worries. It’s now deleted from the blog too so it doesn’t get accidentally published.
Stashiu3 (601b7d) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:36 pmYou guys both rock.
Stash – I hope you are doing well.
Dana – it would be awesome if you could join us.
JD (ac32e2) — 10/24/2011 @ 9:39 pmIn my experience, keyboard commandos are only brave when behind their keyboards. They possess little or no courage in real life.
Stan Switek (23913b) — 10/24/2011 @ 10:00 pmI once challenged a similar troll who’d told Andrew that he’d been shown to be a liar regarding the pimping sting.
He basically gave me the brush off, then tried to throw a bunch of Media Matters links at me.
When I pointed out that Media Matters was a “partisan hack job” he then turned on the most vile abuse I have ever seen in all my years on the internet.
Later he commented to his friends about how people who read Fox News and/but consider MM to be biased. Silly idiot never bothered to ask – I read the BBC and CNN and don’t even keep a link to Fox.
scrubone (db396f) — 10/25/2011 @ 12:27 amExcellent post, Pat. I once tried to engage a European woman on Twitter like that on the topic of Islamist terror, and the false narrative of Tim McVeigh being some radical Christian terrorist when he was nothing of the sort. As difficult as it was to be civil, I thought I had made my point and she had turned a corner when I told her that after being defeated in the Crusades, armies of Christian countries gave up on the concept of conversion at the point of the sword (something that Jesus himself NEVER endorsed), but that this is still the attitude of radical Muslims bent on moving the world toward a global caliphate. Her response generally was that it took centuries for the Christians to learn their lesson, and perhaps centuries from now, the Muslims will learn it as well.
You can lead a horse to information, but you can’t make him think.
L.N. Smithee (6f877e) — 10/25/2011 @ 12:38 amI saw this go down in real time, and was interested in how the interview would turn out. I kind of figured it would go as it did, considering she follows that guy in the first place, and thinks he is funny. She is also apparently not aware of online bullying. Did you ask her how she would feel if she ever engaged in that behavior and the person ended up committing suicide? Good effort anyway. At least you made her realize how ridiculous her tweet was.
I wanted to post a reply to that troll on youtube, but will just post it here:
Wow, not even one minute in, and you are spreading so many falsehoods, it’s laughable. First – Shirley Sherrod DID say exactly what the video showed. Breitbart didn’t manipulate anything she said. Second, Breitbart didn’t get her fired. Her bosses fired her without even speaking to her, or asking her about the tape, or viewing the tape in it’s entirety. Thirdly, Anthony Weiner is the one who “leaked” his photo. He tweeted it, and it got retweeted. His chicks are the ones who “leaked” all the other photos. Bretibart posted them. Weiner exposed himself, and resigned because he is a lying fraud. Next, Breitbart was not behind the ACORN videos. O’Keefe did those and brought them to Breitbart, who put them on his web site. And no, it was not clever editing, and no, it was not all exposed as a lie. The entire transcripts were available from day one, and the full length videos were posted.
Dude, if you’re going to sit in your basement and obsess over Breitbart at least get your facts straight.
And seriously, stop blaming Breitbart for the actions, failings and shortcomings of others… I suppose you blame him for how your life turned out, too?
sarainitaly (24a662) — 10/25/2011 @ 5:16 amShe did it as an experiment? Sorry, I don’t believe that. She took the words of someone she “follows” and admires, never bothered to check the veracity of what he said and assumed that requesting that the object of someone elses ire should just go ahead and die was acceptable, maybe even admirable. “See? I’m cool too.”
Maybe now though, after your talk with her, she’ll see a little more clearly that her targets are real people.
J Milam (070f8d) — 10/25/2011 @ 9:34 amPeople are much more willing to do things they consider wrong when they can do it anonymously. In a tiny village where everybody knows you, it’s hard to misbehave because everyone you know will be down on you. Move to a market town and it’s a little easier. A city and you can literally get away with murder. A metropolis and you can become a habitual criminal who can travel to other parts of the city and pretend to be a fine upstanding citizen.
And the ultimate community of anonymity of all is the internet.
Except in this particular case, it’s merely a perception. The reality is and always has been different. Everything you write gets logged somewhere, and unless you very carefully sign up for and use different user names and email addresses several times a day, you’ve left a trail that can be followed–easily. Even with all those precautions your ip gets logged, so you need to steal random ips as well. The reality hasn’t caught up with the perception yet, but it is moving that way. Anonymity is always the best mask for evil, because nobody anywhere wants everyone to think of them as evil. It’s one reason we all ought to pretend we’re speaking in a room with a few thousand strangers and a few dozen acquaintances when adding any comment to the web. If you’d be ashamed to say it before a large audience including a few people who’ve gained your respect, DON’T SAY IT.
Renaissance Nerd (de4d63) — 10/25/2011 @ 11:47 amMaybe she did it as an experiment and maybe not, but keep in mind that liberals view conservatives like animals at the zoo–dangerous, dying out, and should be kept behind bars.
rochf (f3fbb0) — 10/25/2011 @ 1:29 pmI’m a little late to the conversation (followed a link from Glenn Reynolds) but to me, the thoughtless behavior exhibited by Miss K.R. is fairly common for those who are both ignorant and who essentially live in an echo chamber. And sadly, this behavior is far more prevalent on the left side of the political spectrum. Possibly because leftists as a general rule tend to face little or no consequences for their appalling actions.
I live in an area where the Left controls everything – the Press, the education system and the government. Yes, I’m in coastal California. And leftists tend to utter appalling statements quite without regret – and usually without any sort of challenge. The political right, mainly because we are faced with a deluge of leftist theories (and are held to a far different standard – see the TEA Party vs OWS and Sarah Palin vs John Edwards treatment for two fairly recent examples), are both more courteous in general and more accustomed to thinking through our arguments.
Miss K.R. is young and foolish. Hopefully this conversation may induce her to examine her own behavior more closely and act more maturely in future. But I am not hopeful. She is simply emblematic of much of the university population – they know very little and what they think they know is often based on false foundations. Sad. I find her to be pathetic. Kudos to Patterico for actually trying to communicate with her. Empty heads like hers are what got Obama into office and what maintains leftists in power around the world. It is too bad that there are not consequences for this kind of behavior – people like Miss K.R. MIGHT think twice about their actions. And I agree with those commenters who suggest that acting atrociously is far easier to do when one thinks themselves to be anonymous than when one is facing a real person.
StoneHead (5b997f) — 10/25/2011 @ 4:26 pmNice blog post Patrick. Make sure you send her a link.
You are an eerily-convincing “doddering Internet know-nothing”. 🙂
Analogies: it’s easier emotionally to drop bombs from planes than to kill people you can actually see. Easier to hire a hitman. Easier to be an ostrich. Ignorance is bliss. Get your morality and your laws and your religion and your facts and your wisdom away from me so I can have more fun in the reality I prefer instead of the real one. Thank you.
Andrew (b779e1) — 10/25/2011 @ 4:53 pmIt’s a common human trait to wish one’s enemies dead, even if one learns about one’s enemies second-hand and makes the declaration as a matter of tribal solidarity.
I have been wishing for Gaddafi’s death for decades. Sending him a cutesy tweet asking him to please die didn’t fall within my declarations that I’d wish he’d die.
Brietbart isn’t Gaddafi, but if wishing death on people is bad then it can’t be good to wish Gaddafi were dead. Gaddafi had a family and children, too. So do all the various evil rulers called Hussein.
ErisGuy (afd3ad) — 10/25/2011 @ 7:16 pmBad attempt at moral equivalence. There’s a difference between wishing death on a truly evil person (like a dictator or a murderer) and wishing death on someone whose politics you don’t like.
In other words, it’s not necessarily bad to wish death on some people.
Chuck Bartowski (e84e27) — 10/25/2011 @ 8:53 pmDidn’t Qaddaffi and the left support the IRA back in the 1980s?
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/25/2011 @ 8:54 pmNowe we know to the left Obamas wars are good Bushs wars are bad except if Obama continues them.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/25/2011 @ 9:00 pmand
… and I’ve seen LOTS of people MAKE SHIT LIKE THE ABOVE UP, pulling it straight out of their asses.
Want to name names and provide links to these two cited events? Or shall I add yours to the list of
lying sacks of shitsorry, “people” who did the above?[note: released from moderation. –Stashiu]
IgotBupkis, President, United Anarchist Society (c9dcd8) — 10/25/2011 @ 9:07 pmPerhaps ErisGuy and K.R. attend the same university?
Icy (d6e7a9) — 10/25/2011 @ 9:10 pmNo, it’s still bad, but it’s more understandable. “Schadenfreude” is a very reasonable related emotion.
Wishing death on someone evil IS wrong. But wishing death on someone you know virtually nothing about just so you can see how people react is pretty evil in and of itself.
The more proper thing to do would be to wish God would see fit to smite them for their wickedness, and to not hold His hand, as He appeared to be doing for so long.
IgotBupkis, President, United Anarchist Society (c9dcd8) — 10/25/2011 @ 9:12 pmThe left love to claim they care about the military and their opponents such as bush don’t but it is obvious that the left hate the military.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/25/2011 @ 9:33 pmHonestly a military man was beaten to death by his fellow comrades what do the left have to say about that?
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/25/2011 @ 9:54 pmLoose cannon, tightly wrapped: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LHslkhZWzUQ
Psychoanalysis/vilification of an anonymous tweeter. eeeenteresting….
tifosa (3f3133) — 10/26/2011 @ 3:22 amUm, why?
Milhouse (ea66e3) — 10/26/2011 @ 5:59 am#167: projection, thy name is troll. Once again. I’m afraid most of our trolly types are not the self-examining sort of people. Kinda funny, when you think about it.
Simon Jester (55bf68) — 10/26/2011 @ 6:18 amNo, not “funny”. What’s that other word . . . pathetic.
Icy (222796) — 10/26/2011 @ 6:44 amEricguy
Gadaffi killed US citizens and thousands upon thousands of innocent men women and children –
Andrew shows videos
EricPWJohnson (2925ff) — 10/26/2011 @ 6:51 amI look forward to the exposé on the Soros/Piven death threats/wishes. (#notholdingmybreath)
tifosa (3f3133) — 10/26/2011 @ 8:10 amThe list of people I wish dead is very, very small…
The list of people whose obituaries I would smile while reading?
Oh so very much longer.
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 10/26/2011 @ 8:42 amHow about you provide a few links to such things?
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 10/26/2011 @ 8:43 amTifosa
I am not aware of anyone who has threatened Soros’ life on this or any other blog I’ve frequented. And I am sure the Koch brothers could match Soro as hate speech targets
I agree with you that wishing people were dead directed in earnest is wrong whomever it is, so would Pat and Andrew
EricPWJohnson (2925ff) — 10/26/2011 @ 9:02 amtifosa still self beclowning
SPQR (ed8e90) — 10/26/2011 @ 9:08 amSomeone is sending death threats to Soros and Piven?
Another Drew - Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (30e753) — 10/26/2011 @ 9:29 amProbably an inside job just to get some additional press and sympathy.
Eventually, Mother Nature will give them (the “someone”) their wish.
Outliving you enemies is the best revenge.
…your…
Another Drew - Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (30e753) — 10/26/2011 @ 9:29 amWishing death on someone evil IS wrong.
Um, why?
Comment by Milhouse — 10/26/2011 @ 5:59 am
Life is a good and precious thing, so it’s wrong to express a want for any human being to die, since you’re saying “your life is worth less than nothing” and that God is wrong for allowing them to live a little longer.
But wishing death on evil people is even more wrong, since their eternal life is an even more good and precious thing, so wishing them dead while they haven’t had time to repent is wishing them to go to Hell. And that’s even more wrong.
Hope that clears it up 😉
no one you know (325a59) — 10/26/2011 @ 9:57 am“Probably an inside job just to get some additional press and sympathy.”
AD – That’s Michael Moore’s schtick.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/26/2011 @ 9:57 amNOYK, think of it as either a Post-Partum Abortion (the CW is that all abortions are good, right?), or as a Predator/Hellfire assassination (which furthers the security and integrity of the Republic).
Another Drew - Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (30e753) — 10/26/2011 @ 10:17 am(Heh!)
Death threats toward Piven (Beck still won’t let you Google?) and wishes both. Read theblaze, FoxNation?
tifosa (dd38f5) — 10/26/2011 @ 1:30 pmThe Occupy rooms are rockin, btw.
tifosa (dd38f5) — 10/26/2011 @ 1:31 pmIf you can’t be bothered to link us like a real grown up, wtf are we even talking to you?
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 10/26/2011 @ 1:47 pm“The Occupy rooms are rockin, btw.”
tiffy – One of my kids spent the day with the Occupy folks in New York to see what it was all about. He said they were about the dumbest folks he ever met. He went to a very progressive college but was amazed by the level of stupidity.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/26/2011 @ 2:17 pmComment by daleyrocks — 10/26/2011 @ 2:17 pm
One of my kids spent the day with the Occupy folks in New York to see what it was all about. He said they were about the dumbest folks he ever met. He went to a very progressive college but was amazed by the level of stupidity.
If someone is not stupid, or more accurately perhaps, ignorant, they wouldn’t be there, because the idea is stupid. The exceptions might be people more inmterested in running a coimmunity or joining a community or becoming important than in whatever they are supposedly protesting, or formerly homeless or formerly jailed people who went there for the free food.
Latest news: Organizers, or whoever, agreed to abide by Community Board 1’s decision that drumming shall not go on for more than 2 hours a day.
Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb) — 10/26/2011 @ 2:25 pmTifosa stfu you diseased vagina.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/26/2011 @ 2:26 pmHe should have found the open mic area. There have been hundreds (at least) who’ve made statements about why they’re there. There’s live vid in several places throughout Zuccotti. You could see for yourself.
tifosa (dd38f5) — 10/26/2011 @ 2:29 pmSeems “a real grownup” would take on the responsibility to look up information for themselves.
tiffy – Get your freak on, grrl!
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/26/2011 @ 2:30 pmYou have a way of brightening the room, doh. btw saw some havoc you stirred up over the weekend :^)
tifosa (dd38f5) — 10/26/2011 @ 2:31 pm“Seems “a real grownup” would take on the responsibility to look up information for themselves.”
tiffy – More grownup than you, grrl. He talked to people in person instead of watching videos.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/26/2011 @ 2:34 pmThe fact that the people speaking have to stop every 5 or 6 words so the crowd can repeat what they just said makes the entire process utterly retarded.
And as to your claim that a “real grownup” would look stuff up themselves, you don’t seem to understand how things work…
You made a claim, and so YOU get to back it up. I’m not doing your f*cking work for you, b*tch.
Scott Jacobs (d027b8) — 10/26/2011 @ 2:51 pmuh, yeh. Must be the park is VERY BIG. He missed this plethora of people at the livestream open mic (not “videos.”)
tifosa (dd38f5) — 10/26/2011 @ 2:52 pm-_-.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/26/2011 @ 3:01 pm‘Seems “a real grownup” would take on the responsibility to look up information for themselves’ was intended for #184
tifosa (dd38f5) — 10/26/2011 @ 3:38 pmProject much?
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/26/2011 @ 4:07 pmCongrats Tifosa, you managed to threadjack a post about lefty death threats against Breitbart—to your fav topic, OCCUPY!! Brrrr. it’s getting cold. And real smelly.
elissa (c9f46f) — 10/26/2011 @ 4:20 pmOccupy Denver protestors so stupid that they stayed out in the snow storm, several hospitalized for frost bite.
Fight the Man! Frostbite is a tool of Wall Street!
SPQR (26be8b) — 10/26/2011 @ 4:21 pmthanx :^)
tifosa (dd38f5) — 10/26/2011 @ 4:22 pmWho woulda thunk the clowns formerly known as ACORN would be among the organizers of/fund raisers for the Marxist faction of the Occupy sh*theels!?!?
ColonelHaiku (fbf87d) — 10/26/2011 @ 4:24 pmIt’s snowing in Denver?
Another Drew - Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (30e753) — 10/26/2011 @ 4:25 pmBut…but…we were told that Global Warming…
Obamas mercenaries are getting desperate.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/26/2011 @ 4:27 pmDude tifosa is the same idiot who thinks the military fights for private gain.
DohBiden (d54602) — 10/26/2011 @ 4:29 pmDo you think any of OWS crowd reads Instapundit…
“COLD-WEATHER ACCESSORIES: Hats, Gloves, Scarves, and More.”
– a link to Amazon.com
Does UPS deliver to the Obamavilles?
Another Drew - Restore the Republic/Obama Sucks! (30e753) — 10/26/2011 @ 4:45 pmtifosa getting his Bob Beckel on!
Icy (222796) — 10/26/2011 @ 4:57 pmDown twinkles tiffy.
Listening to human microphone speeches = grwn up
Talking to people one on one = Not grown up
tiffy, have you been to Zuccotti Park? Have you had sex there or crapped on a cop car? Do you have pictures? If not, why not?
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 10/27/2011 @ 8:35 amNever a truer word: “My hoped-for theme: people are decent but the Internet sucks.”
In the space of a couple of days recently I had two charming tweets – one a death threat, the other a death wish.
And all, or at least mainly because I SUPPORT someone on the internet.
But that someone is … wait for it … Tony Blair.
I don’t habitually rant against some individual, organisation or group – as do many on social networks. (Though I DO have a bone or two to pick with the omniscient and omnipotent press.)
It tells us something about human nature that if you are POSITIVE about something or someone you are threatened. If you are negative it seems you are a hero. We can all think of dozens of such “heroes.”
Funny old world, InternettyNutty land.
[note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]
BlairSupporter (f0b04d) — 10/30/2011 @ 6:00 pmRegardless of your intentions, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece. I only started using social media a few months ago. I always thought that one, it absorbed too much time being mostly personal in nature, and two, I did not want my personal all over the internet available for any Tom, dick, or Harry to read about. After being asked to join Google+ by someone I follow in the tech industry, I decided to jump in head first. I opened a Google+ account, YouTube page ,Blog, and Twitter profile. It may seem like a lot to start out with but I quickly thought up the idea of experimenting by unleashing myself in every way. Share myself virtually and see if I had the same result as I do here in the real world. I consider myself an extroverted and many friends. This new experience would be a way to see if my own social perceptions were in fact true. I can happily report back that it has indeed been the same for the most part gaining many new friends that have similar substantive
Pbizzel (15878e) — 10/31/2011 @ 3:11 amRegardless of your intentions, I thoroughly enjoyed this piece. I only started using social media a few months ago. I always thought that one, it absorbed too much time being mostly personal in nature, and two, I did not want my personal all over the internet available for any Tom, dick, or Harry to read about. After being asked to join Google+ by someone I follow in the tech industry, I decided to jump in head first. I opened a Google+ account, YouTube page ,Blog, and Twitter profile. It may seem like a lot to start out with but I quickly thought up the idea of experimenting by unleashing myself in every way. Share myself virtually and see if I had the same result as I do here in the real world. I consider myself an extroverted and many friends. This new experience would be a way to see if my own social perceptions were in fact true. I can happily report back that it has indeed been the same for the most part gaining many new friends that have similar substantive interests. The one thing that I did not foresee was the rampant rift raft who engage in negative insults without having anything to do with the conversation. It goes right in line with what you tried to accomplish in your interview. I hope that you try this again. With so many people being involved with social media, why do the same rules of physical interactions not hold true. In my case they did but why do others that who bring negative emotions and thoughts to discussions without provocation. The girl mentioned that her parents would not have approved. She told you that it was something to get away with on the internet yet when asked by you admired it was wrong and inappropriate. So why has our moral compass taken a back seat when a veil is put in front of us and the world. That is the crux….that is the million $ question. Why are we not outraged at destructive behaviour anymore? Personally I think that for a very long time, the progressive movement has been using the laws of erosion and geology to change the human condition. By putting more and more pressure on us thru technology outlets, media substance, and good old tasking peer pressure to make us all opened to displaced negative reactions. We can see this being more and more evident especially with the Occupied Movement. In addition, it is turning more and more violent. That is when it goes from erosion and geological change that takes time and pressure to quick shifts or cbange much like an earthquake. These leaps happen sometimes without people thinking it thru. I think that can lead to actual violence or damage. These Titanic shifts being either large or small can have rippling effects that go global. That has already been shown to be true thru the above mentioned occupied movement. My hope is that we can keep open to discussion and debate with these changes. I believe your interactions with KR serve that need. I believe it needs to continue with each of us that use social media and engage with this change in a positive manner. It is our duty to constantly question the negative actions by others not thru violence but thru discussion. I hope we all do this and keep the change that happens good for all of us. Currently the progressive left is engaging us in an all out assault of our values and beliefs…..I consider the “us” to be the 53%.
Pbizzel (15878e) — 10/31/2011 @ 3:48 amlol, you wrote an article about the amazingatheist’s troll video outcome?
milowent (bc04ac) — 10/31/2011 @ 9:01 amOh dear, I don’t even live in America, yet I do enjoy TAA and his videos, and that pwnage video was hilarious.
Konsai (a43422) — 11/14/2011 @ 5:46 amI do think it is certainly ridiculous to pick out this girl of the crowd and call it out on her. How old is she, is she like a young teenager? I could never take someone who doesn’t capitalize a single word serious, not to mention that the questions but even more than that the answers were ridiculous in ways that I can’t even define with words.
Please pick someone else next time, this is just embarassing for everyone involved.