Monica, you, me and the Internet
Fascinating Guardian piece on online thuggery. Important, even. Here.
One part of it really struck a chord with me: as a pale-skinned establishment kind of guy, I haven’t experienced even a fraction of the online abuse that women or minorities experience daily.
Sure, a lunatic – I know who he is, he knows I know – made it is his personal mission to spew all kinds of hateful crap all over the (necessary, unwanted) Warren Kinsella Wikipedia entry. For years. But that’s about all I’ve experienced. I just ignore it. I know I have an online footprint that is bigger than what the lunatic can ever achieve. I’m doing okay.
But what is described by the author of this Guardian piece – and the subject-matter of the tale, Monica Lewinsky – simply dwarfs anything a guy like me can ever experience. Reading it, I almost can’t believe she didn’t end it all.
What moves these truly pathetic men to say these things? Are they mentally ill? Are they monsters? Why are their victims almost always women? Many questions.
Anyway. I like the suggested solution: take back your good name. Push back. Assert your narrative.
Good advice for those of you out there reading this, wondering if it could ever happen to you.
It could.