Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Honestly, I don’t know what the hell Philip’s issue with David’s piece is so what’s the point of taking it up with him?
In think it goes back to an earlier post by David. Philip feels that David breaches the privacy of friends who can't respond.
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Haters bullied Charlotte Dawson and treated her as public property, says Rosemary McLeod, who then declares her guilty of “self-mutilation by surgeon”. Sigh.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to Sacha,
I'd appreciate it if anyone who felt moved to take it up with him was polite.
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Hmmm.
Philip Patston is boycotting not only the Herald over DHC’s column, but Public Address over what he describes as David Herkt’s “nasty”, “bile-spitting”, “bullying” obituary for Charlotte.
Post about it here.
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Hard News: Let's do some commerce, in reply to Jeremy Andrew,
I have seen good things said about http://www.patreon.com/ as a way of patronising (in a good way) your favourite web content folks.
They seem great, but not for us. As I understand it, participation as a creator means publishing your content to their site, and I can't quite get my head around that.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Weeelll… I thought Rachel Smalley’s rant on mainstreaming special needs kids last week was deeply offensive. By countering that it wasn’t her intention to offend, she thought that this was sufficient to change the meaning of what she has said. And I find this deeply problematic.
For sure. There's not much ambiguity there. She's said what she's said. Or rather, written what she's written.
I liked your blog in response more than your tweets. And you yourself quoted Autism and Oughtism to good effect:
I don’t think Smalley means harm, even though her article does harm. I don’t think she set out to misconstrue reality, I just think she did inadequate research into autism, special needs, and the state of the current education system. I would like to think that when we engage in the debate that she calls for – about mainstreaming and special needs children – that people like her will hear our arguments and realise that moving towards inclusion really is in the best interests of all students; that our children are not a threat, they are an opportunity for everyone’s betterment.
Which does not, of course, exclude explaining to Smalley why her argument was offensive.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to BenWilson,
I don’t regret it in that instance, but I wouldn’t make a habit out of it personally.
I've dwelt on it quite a bit. Also don't regret it.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to BenWilson,
On the flipside, though, they organized pile-ons themselves, on their victims. And that has been so effective that they haven’t actually suffered any legal consequences for the alleged crimes even now, years later, and after all that public controversy.
Damn right. There has been huge pressure put on victims and witnesses via social media.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to BenWilson,
Months later, no consequences at all have found their way to the actual Roastbusters, other than the pile-on they got, which does show the limits of the effectiveness.
Oddly enough I was told today that Beraiah Hales' claim that the police weren't doing anything isn't true. Detectives are out detecting.
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Hard News: Poor Choices, in reply to giovanni tiso,
that point can be made without slighting references to his weight or appearance, calling him a fag or wishing a painful and violent death upon his head.
That’s several steps beyond “rude”.
I don't think of Brownlee fat jokes as bullying per se -- I doubt he feels bullied -- so much as the kind of speech that normalises bullying.