
He Was Part of a Twitter Mob That Attacked YA Novelists. Then It Turned on Him - rhegart
https://reason.com/archives/2019/02/28/he-was-part-of-a-twitter-mob-that-attack/
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kkarakk
internet "reach" is very strange nowadays. for outsiders it seems like one
"woke" review on goodreads sparked the outrage. insiders know there are
coordinated groups on fb/twitter/discord keeping track of all of this and
organizing multiple campaigns to increase impact. whoever wrote this article
was probably also targeted as well - it is modus operandi that journalist
groups are informed of events once the operation is underway.

it is interesting to see this revealed once the op has completed
successfully(usually someone's career is negatively impacted), usually
multiple news sources write essentially the same story with the same sources.
however if you subscribe to only one of them it reads as an interesting piece
instead of propaganda i suppose

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darkpuma
Live by the sword, die by the sword.

~~~
clouddrover
And mob justice doesn't do anyone any good.

~~~
darkpuma
It's unfortunate he had to learn that lesson the hard way. Sometimes I wonder
if more could be done to educate young people about the hazards of online mob
justice, but the cynical part of me suspects that anybody trying to organize
education against it would probably be targeted by it.

~~~
supermw
Not unfortunate. The only fitting end for people like this is to be taken down
by the very mobs they created.

There have always been clear warnings about why mob justice is bad, but some
people just cannot resist its allure: The fame, the righteousness, the feeling
of being on some moral high ground where no one can touch you.

It's all so glamorous... until it all turns against you. Once the tide turns
there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing is more powerful than an idea
whose time has come.

~~~
unparagoned
Too be honest I read the article was like fine, maybe writers should try
harder not too perpetuate racist stereotypes. I don't think the "mob" here did
anything wrong. The title just seems misleading.

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Grue3
Rotten Tomatoes recently disabled user reviews for movies before they're
released. Maybe it's time for Goodreads to do the same.

~~~
elektor
I support that. As an avid Goodreads user, it’s annoying to see gif-laden
posts about how much a user is excited about a book that is coming out in
2021. It’s confusing and adds nothing to the discussion.

~~~
darkpuma
I mean, that's pretty weird, but so is reading reviews for a book that comes
out in 2021, no?

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mortdeus
hmmm, in the book i want to write one of the main protagonist as an asexual
black 16 yr old kid who lives in a racially segregated logging town in north
Georgia during the 50s.

And yeah, so in the story he gets lynched because he is spotted trying to
sneak away from a gorgeous white girls house after dark by a group of racist
men in their early 20s who are infatuated by the girl who has no interest.

Any ways, the way they lynch him is very grotesque and done in a very crazy
symbolic way that you kinda have to know whats going on in the story up to
that point to get.

I kinda wonder what kinda hell id get myself if i actually tried to write this
book in an age where people dont believe a white author can lynch a black
person in his book and not be racist in either way the pendulum swings in this
case. (e. g. you'd be justifiably considered racist if you wrote a lynching
into your book if its a form of realizing a fantasy youd like to commit IRL
but cant because society doesnt let you get away with it, but oh boy what if
we lived in the 50s... thats the obvious way this could be considered racist
but the lesser obvious way this racism can swing in the other direction is
when you exploitatively use the lynching to make the story appear more
interesting and sensationally important than it actually is. In other words to
use lynchings inspired by early 20th century jim crow black history as a prop
to suggest im trying to make a political statement or something on behalf of
black people, like they need my help to ensure their story is heard)

Frankly, i think its a lot harder for people to understand you can actually be
racist and yet be totally into the race in question especially when it comes
to borrowing from their culture without ensuring you paid proper reparations
up front.

Malcom X actually talks about this form of racism where white people at the
time of the civil rights movement were trying hard to make black people felt
like they were no different that white people when black people didnt want to
be recognized as being the same because they wanted people to respect that
they want to be seen as black people and treated like black people. They just
wanted black people to get the respect they were owed for being major
contributors to what made American culture great at the time. In otherwards
they didnt want their children to resent not being born white in America
because they have done more for far less than any other people in this country
and yet people still consider them a second class race nobody would
optimistically choose if you could actually select your preferred race to be
born into the world as. They deserve to be proud and respected in a way we
still havent figured out.

For example Elvis learned everything that made him a star by going to listen
to black bands play at jive clubs. He took what was obviously cool and exotic
in that black culture and then just whitewashed it for white audiences.

Rock and Roll was invented by black artists, many of whom starved to death
never seeing a single dollar for the songs they wrote and are now topping the
charts because an all white rockabilly band covered it live on johnny carson.

~~~
unparagoned
Your idea seems fine just going by the article. Just don't make it ahistorical
by making some brown Muslim being responsible for the lynching. Or don't have
the black person raping and killing kids, which would then cause the mob the
lynch him. Do you see and understand what the difference is? Anyway you
reminds me of this comic, if you don't write the book there is none to blame
but yourself. [https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/bah-2](https://www.smbc-
comics.com/comic/bah-2)

~~~
mortdeus
I haven't wrote it yet because I doubt ill ever want to write another book
after this considering i dont think ill ever be able to come up with a better
story premise than this one.

The major problem in telling a story like this, is that it is hard to force
the plot to reveal itself because there are so many pitfalls you can fall into
that turns the whole personality of the story into feeling like its kind of a
bit of a cliche or just poorly executed.

~~~
unparagoned
Shut up with your crap and Just write.

