You may have read about the heartbreaking story of Amanda Todd, a Canadian teenager who recently posted a much-watched YouTube video (posted below) detailing the bullying and harassment she’d endured online and in real life. This past Wednesday, she was found dead, the apparent victim of suicide.
Here, from the Vancouver Sun, is the basic outline of Amanda’s story:
Amanda was 12 years old when she made a mistake that would haunt her until her death three years later.
Her ordeal started while she was fooling around online with friends. She probably didn’t think it was risky behaviour when she lifted her top to flash the person who was flattering her at the other end of the webcam.
Amanda’s moment of indiscretion was not unusual for someone her age: Sexting and using webcams to share sexual photos is a growing trend among children, some so young they are still in grade school.
“The Internet stalker she flashed kept stalking her,” said Carol. “Every time she moved schools he would go undercover and become a Facebook friend. What the guy did was he went online to the kids who went to (the new school) and said that he was going to be a new student — that he was starting school the following week and that he wanted some friends and could they friend him on Facebook.”
“He eventually gathered people’s names and sent Amanda’s video to her new school.”
The video and photos went to teachers, to parents, to Facebook friends, which lead to repeated taunts: “Oh, there’s the porn star.” …
Amanda was the victim of unrelenting blackmail. And the cyberspace stalker was aided by people in Amanda’s real-world life — kids who would share the photos on their cellphones, kids who would gang up to hurl first verbal abuse and then fists at her.
Amanda’s story illustrates what can happen to young girls when sexualized images of them floating around online, whether they’ve put these pictures up themselves in a moment of poor judgement or whether someone has stolen them from password-locked private photo albums, or whether someone has surreptitiously taken an “upskirt” or “down-the-blouse” or some other compromising picture of them in public. This is the sort of damage that things like the Jailbait and Creepshots subreddits can do to young girls. This is why it’s so important that things like these subreddits be shut the fuck down.
Sadly, even after her suicide, Amanda remains the target of bullies and assholes online.
One of these assholes? The MRA and atheist videoblogger and all-around terrible person known to the world as The Amazing Atheist, whom we first met when he had a Reddit meltdown and started spewing misogynistic abuse at his detractors. Now he’s spitting on Amanda’s memory.
Mocking the format of Amanda’s video, in which told her story by holding up sheets of paper to the camera describing the abuse she’s endured, The Amazing Atheist posted this picture to his Tumblr blog earlier today:
I simply can’t comprehend the mind of someone whose response to Amanda’s story is this. Beyond awful.
Here’s Amanda’s video:
Either Jake B genuinely thinks the Unamazing Douchebag is a sociopath who deserves pain and suffering,
or
Jake B is a troll who’s sneering at the idea of anyone criticising said Unamazing Douchebag.
Either way, adding a comment to a months-old thread is a strange thing to do. It’s not like this is a blog with few visitors and no current posts.
Or it’s an attempted “gotcha” & Jake B is hoping we’ll agree with him so he can tell us how horrible we are …
Is originality in trolling too much to ask for? 🙂
Apparently so! I think some crappy little factory somewhere turns out our trolls. Such tawdry cheapjack stuff they are these days.
Yeah, the wheels fall off before they’re even properly played with. 🙁
They remind me of the tables full of junky toys in shops like Moore’s back in the sixties … in those days Made In Hong Kong was about the bottom of the heap for quality, and you’d have to be five or under to be taken in by it.
You! Quit giving my first name and last initial a bad name! This site isn’t big enough for TWO Jake B.’s
Okay bullying is wrong. and I find what the photo TAA made is disgusting BUT quit calling him a misogynist just because he does not agree with all the crazy unstable misandrist nutjobs who call themselves feminists.
But there was a boy who killed himself over bullying because of the way he looks. Where is his coverage and attention. Or does the media not care simply because the boy was ugly and Amanda Todd was pretty. That boys story is more sad and depressing and he didn’t provoke any of the bullying (like flashing himself online). What about the current kids who are thinking of suicide because of bullying, why are we not helping them. Are we just waiting for them to kill themselves so the media can make a profit from their pain and death.
I’m sorry but I don’t take women who say stupid stuff like all men are rapists and men are biological mistakes as good and smart people. I think they are pathetic hate mongering victims
U mad?
I don’t take trolls who can’t tell the difference between a period and a question mark “as” good and smart people.
Bo-ring! If you’re going to take over a year to formulate a reply, make it a good one!
Yay, another compassionate human being engaging in victim-blaming. That’s nice. Not.
Also, quit calling him a misogynist? Nope. That he once tried to deliberately trigger a rape victim he assumed to be female by talking about the rape in sexually explicit and violent terms proves that he’s a misogynist. It’s sufficient evidence.
Why? Because he’s a boy?
What an asshole you are.
Well that was different! And boring. I’m going back to replacing the heel pads on my boots, cutting rubber is more interesting than that was.
I’d have to agree with you on this part. Fortunately, very few women actually say stuff like that! Isn’t it nice how these things work out? Why, it’s almost as if feminists aren’t the reprehensible she-beasts that you think they are.
Rest in Peace Amanda Todd, may God have mercy on your soul. No one deserves to be bullied, we all make mistakes. Amanda todd was just being a young teenager full of life and vigor.
Wow, the comments on the Youtube video are disgusting. So many people getting upvotes for blaming her.
That’s an atheist for ya’ – they don’t care about anyone or anything but themselves. They love to bully, harass, threaten, and troll people (especially people who are already hurt and damaged enough as it is) because it makes them look “edgy”. They devote their lives to spreading hatred and misery. They’re the reason why the world is so screwed up. They’re all just a bunch of hateful, judgmental, intolerant, self-obsessed, pretentious bigots.
Really Kris? Maybe you haven’t noticed but an awful lot of the people going after the “Amazing Atheist” for being a terrible human being are also atheists. Like any religious group, atheists are a mixed bag. Let’s not get into ugly stereotyping–especially not blaming the society’s ills on a small, denigrated minority.
Thank you for that lovely opinion, Kris. What a wonderful first impression you’ve made.
You probably think only white, straight, cis men are atheists, too. Now, I am, but there’s plenty of diversity at, say, FreeThoughtBlogs.
Sure, the tiny minority of the global population that are atheist are totally responsible for all the world’s woes. Taking over from the Jews, who used to hold that honor.
The hell with the Amazing Atheist! What an insensitive and inconsiderate liar he is! If he thinks that being bullied doesn’t make people victims and that bullying’s acceptable, then he’s fucked-up in the head. But then again, lots of atheists are bullies.
Now, onto what Kris posted:
“You’re so right about the Amazing Atheist. He doesn’t give a shit about who he antagonizes as long as it makes him feel good. If he thinks that bullying is great, then he should have the crap bullied out of him and see how he likes it. Maybe then, he’d think twice about fuckin ‘with other people. But if he doesn’t may he roast in Hell forever.”
“Oh look, an unfortunate tragedy. How can I take this terrible event and use it to push my agenda and make it all about me?” said every atheist ever.
Why is everyone shocked that a guy with “atheist” in his username is an asshole? This isn’t news; everyone knows that atheists are bigoted, aggressive, intolerant, violent, abusive, barbaric, uneducated sheep. Every atheist’s favorite pastime is tearing others down to build themselves up. If they had their way, they would throw everyone who doesn’t agree with the psychopathic, man-made cult of atheism in concentration camps.
(And no, I am not trolling, I’m being 100% honest. F*ck atheists.)
Do you need a nap?
Snark aside, I would like to know how exactly atheism is a cult.
I think I’ve been to one atheist meet up. I read some Pharyngula once in a while. I like Victor Stenger books. That’s about the extent of atheism practice. And I’m a little more strident about my atheism than a lot of atheists are.
It’s not like I’ve signed all my money over to Rebecca Watson and moved to her commune.
Typical atheist. At their best, they bully and ridicule people; at their worst, they shoot up elementary schools, burn black churches, and brutally murder families and entire congregations for “wrongthink”. (Look up Craig Stephen Hicks and Devon Patrick Kelley for just two of the many examples of this fact. It’s not terrorism, it’s just atheism.)
Atheists claim to be smart, scientific, and rational… Yet they believe that our finely-tuned universe is just one big supernatural cosmic accident and commit horrible crimes in the name of their stupid, childish belief system. Smart, scientific, and rational? Does not compute. How can anyone who doesn’t acknowledge the fact that the universe has a Guiding Force behind its creation and existence? Yeah, I call bullshit on the atheist claim that atheists are intelligent. They’re not. They just think they’re better than everyone else because they believe in sci-fi fairytales and lack basic reading skills (hence their ridiculously inaccurate interpretations of the Bible).