

Reddit’s Terrorists Have Won: Ellen Pao and the Failure to Rebrand Web 2.0 - hullo
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/11/reddit-s-terrorists-have-won-ellen-pao-and-the-failure-to-rebrand-web-2-0.html

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hedgew
The title itself labels Reddit users as terrorists (seems harsh), but it
continues to label people as:

Toxic, Misogynists, Poisoned, Racists, Haters, Trolls, Pedophiles, Basement-
dwellers, White supremacists, Obnoxiously biased, Sixth grade bullies,
Conspiracy theorists, Unrepentant sex criminals, Seething underground pool of
excrement and bile, Not belonging to "normal, decent portion of the human
race"

To quote what the writer, Arthur Chu, wrote elsewhere:

> "In a war, a real war, a war for survival, you use all the weapons in your
> arsenal because you assume the enemy will use all the weapons in theirs.
> Because you understand that it IS a war."

This, is what he believes is war, and this is how he thinks it should be
fought.

Personally I'd prefer niceness and civility.

~~~
astrodust
Niceness and civility are worthy goals, but that'll never happen at a place
like Reddit. The poison is too culturally ingrained.

That's not to say there aren't nice people there, just as there are nice
people in war zones, but they're not in charge and they get pushed around by
forces beyond their control.

~~~
strathmeyer
HackerNews is the only website that has had somebody call my employerer...
because of a comment I made on an article that was later linked here. He made
sure to let us know that he made a lot of hiring decisions in tech and
wondered why I would upset him so much. That kind of toxicity isn't allowed on
Reddit.

~~~
DanBC
Did you email HN to let them know?

~~~
strathmeyer
...the threats were e mails from HN. When trolls threaten you the appropriate
response is to ignore them. Now I just don't know if the reason I can't find a
job is because I am on a blacklist somewhere.

------
thelastguy
Reddit calling their users terrorists? And they wonder why all their userbase
are leaving in doves.

~~~
mikeyouse
I personally left because it became highly approved / encouraged to call Ellen
Pao a cunt every other post followed by all manner of racist bullshit. Lo-and-
behold, the idiot neoreactionary mob was wrong again and Ellen was trying to
protect the reddit culture, but there will be no apology, they'll just move on
to the next faux-outrage that justifies their intense racism and misogyny.

When thinly veiled stormfront posts regularly make it to the front page of
your forum, it's time to jump ship and watch the burning mess from afar.

~~~
monstruoso
People where mad at her because she obviously is a scammer, along with her
husband.

Her rap sheet and her actions were the things that brought her animosity from
the users. I do not support the view that it was because reddit users
obviously hate women, all women and since Pao is a woman, they must hate her
too.

I think that position is inane.

~~~
mikeyouse
Her rap sheet? Obviously a scammer? Why is everything so dramatic?

Neither accusation had any bearing on her management of Reddit, and both are
highly spurious. As far as I can tell, the entirety of the complaints against
her are that her husbands hedge fund blew up and that she sued KPCB.. I'm glad
that a mob of Internet trolls knows exactly what happened in both cases.

Have you actually read the Kleiner transcripts? She had better performance
than many of her peers, faced actual harassment from senior partners but it
didn't meet the threshold that the courts demand for her suit, so she lost. It
was probably a good decision from the courts and she negotiated a settlement
for not appealing -- this happens _all the time_.

I have no idea how any of this justifies literally thousands of people calling
her racist and misogynist names.. And then having everyone of those comments
upvoted to the hundreds or thousands of points. Talk about inane.

~~~
monstruoso
That's as far as you can tell. You are entitled to your opinion. If you
opinion is that she was right in her lawsuit, that's fine. But the opinion a
big part of redditors is that she made a frivolous lawsuit to cover the losses
from her husband's scam. This is partially validated by the fact that the jury
did not believe her claims.

It doesn't matter whether you think your opinion of her is the right one. I'm
explaining to you that the reason why redditors hate her is not simply because
she has a vagina and redditors hate all women.

