Congratulations, assholes of Reddit! You’ve driven another woman away from your internet clubhouse.
This time the woman in question was the site’s now ex-CEO Ellen Pao, who resigned today after a week of “Reddit Revolt” that included racist and misogynistic abuse aimed at “Chairman Pao” as well as the occasional death threat.
Indeed, the abuse was so bad that Pao felt the need to address it in her resignation note:
I just want to remind everyone that I am just another human; I have a family, and I have feelings. Everyone attacked on reddit is just another person like you and me. When people make something up to attack me or someone else, it spreads, and we eventually will see it. And we will feel bad, not just about what was said. Also because it undercuts the authenticity of reddit and shakes our faith in humanity.
Reddit board member Sam Altman, in his announcement of Pao’s replacement, described the attacks on Pao as “sickening,” and declared that “[i]f the reddit community cannot learn to balance authenticity and compassion, it may be a great website but it will never be a truly great community.”
This latest “Reddit Revolt” was triggered by the firing of a popular admin who worked with the site’s’ often beleaguered and ignored subreddit moderators.
But what really drove the revolt was the resentment many Redditors feel every time the site admins make any efforts at all to rein in the worst tendencies of Reddit’s regulars — the most recent “outrage” being Reddit’s banning of the FatPeopleHate subreddit and an assortment of others because they were encouraging real world harassment.
It certainly didn’t help, as far as Redditors were concerned, that she was a woman. The very thought of being bossed around by a woman is anathema to a shockingly large number of Redditors. Naturally, she’s being replaced by a dude, Reddit cofounder Steve Huffman, who promises to continue many of the same policies as Pao, but who will presumably be more palatable to the site’s fragile male userbase.
The abuse against Pao continued even after her resignation. In the thread announcing her replacement, this obnoxious comment at one point sported more than 1500 upvotes:
Only after someone pointed out that the commenter, who named himself after the racist Charleston church shooter, was in fact an unironically racist moderator of Reddit’s outrageously racist CoonTown subreddit did the comment end up with more downvotes than upvotes.
Stay classy, Reddit!
EDIT: Added links and a bit about her replacement.
The 21st century started 15 years and 7 months ago. There are people on here from 19 years of age to their mid-60s.
@Pandapool
I’m still a minor, actually, myself. Adjust that 19 down a little… đŸ˜›
“Stop bullying me! I am in the right here! You shouldn’t be offended at me throwing the mentally ill under the bus!
I didn’t mean to be offensive! It’s not like I said the “N-word” or anything! Stop being offended at what I said! Here’s why you shouldn’t be offended at what I said, because you must not be familiar with the English language…”
INTENTION.
ISN’T.
FUCKING.
MAGICAL.
It does NOT matter if you “intended” to be offensive or not, and it doesn’t fucking matter how the word is ‘commonly used’. The English language is constantly evolving and shifting, so words that are offensive, or used in offensive ways have no excuse.
Asking you to stop conflating mental illness with bad behavior isn’t “intellectual bullying masking itself as progressivism”, it’s actual fucking people with mental illnesses asking you to stop piling on the stigma they have to face every single fucking day.
Hell, “gay” is still commonly used as a slang term for “dumb”, should that mean I have to stop telling people to stop using it or else I’m being an “intellectual bully”? People still use the word “retarded”, should I stop telling them to stop using that word too, or else I’m being a big meanie pants? Neither of those are directed at the people they demean! So, it should be okay for them to say it, right? Right?
HOW ABOUT NO.
It doesn’t fucking matter if it wasn’t directed directly at mentally ill people, it’s still a fucking problem because it adds to already existing stigma surrounding those with mental illness. It conflates bad behavior with mental illness. It says that we’re all bad people because of something we can’t control.
How about you learn to distinguish what you personally find offensive from what other people might find offensive, and understand that when you get called out for shit, the best recourse is NOT to double-down and try to explain why you should be allowed to throw an entire group of people under the bus and insist that their mental illnesses are synonymous with disgusting behavior all while being a condescending pile of ableist garbage who insists that we must not understand how English works?
Otherwise, you’re going to get thrown out of here on your ass and we won’t take you seriously.
Aw, I went on a rant, and I got moderated for it.
Better?
http://media.giphy.com/media/W9zpNcKiBd8Qw/giphy.gif
@Pandapool
Heh. ^_^
Speaking of baby things, I got a kitten about a month ago. I cannot post photos, though. But he is adorable and bitey.
>o3o<
What color/pattern kitten is he. I can satiate myself by doing a Google image search for that kind of kitten.
@WWTH
Brown, classic tabby. Biiig eyes. Old enough that he’s kind of a catten. ^_^
?
http://love-and-hisses.com/images/LH/2014/01/2014-01-30-15.jpg
@WWTH
Like that, but with bigger eyes. And not nearly so much dignity. đŸ˜›
My childhood kitty looked similar to this guy
http://us.123rf.com/450wm/milotus/milotus1306/milotus130600009/20420178-fat-tabby-cat-with-white-furs-lying-at-the-wood-ground.jpg
My cousin has a new kitten, though he’s more like a teen now rather than a kitten or whatever you call a not-quite-fully-grown-cat. He’s adorable. All grey with orange eyes and he is just the friendliest and chilliest. He doesn’t care when a 3 year old carries him around or anything. I haven’t heard him purr yet, though. >ಢ3ಢ<
The storm is pretty intense. Constant lightning. Torrential rain. Heavy wind. It looks like a hurricane out there. Pretty cool! I popped my head out and kept thinking that it’s probably a bad idea to not be in shelter. But the lightning and the trees waving wildly about were really mesmerizing.
@WWTH
I…would probably get to a shelter if it seems that bad. Please?
I went back inside. The storm warning expired and I didn’t see any debris flying around or anything. I don’t think the basement is required.
@WWTH
Okay. Be safe, please. ^^
It’s all good. There’s a little bit of flooding in the basement though : (
Are you from an area that doesn’t get a ton of thunderstorms?
@WWTH
We’ve gotten a lot of thunderstorms lately, actually. We get maybe a few a summer, but California is currently in a drought and we haven’t gotten rain for shit, but we did get some bad flooding earlier this year from a non-thunderstorm. (It would be nice to get MORE rain, but not all at once. XD)
I just was concern since you expressed that maybe it’s a bad idea to not be in a shelter and stuff, so I thought it’s a bad storm, that’s all.
Gotcha. I more meant, not in shelter because I was half outside, If the wind got bad enough for trees and debris to fly around that could be dangerous. By shelter, I just mean inside. I’m thinking of popping my head outside for a second again though. The lightning is really awesome. It’s nonstop.
Ooooooh~~~~! Gotcha.
Yeah. I walk around in thunderstorms sometimes myself. I live in a hole in a forest (well, like, the house is at the very bottom of a hill of a forest, I should say) so, I mean, I’m not in COMPLETE danger at least, but it’s still a bad idea. XD
Are you a hobbit?
@WWTH
IDK. Don’t really like to garden and I’m 5’2″. The hair, the leathery feet, the love of food I got but everything else ehhhh. Maybe half-hobbit?
@andiexist
@Scented Fucking Hard Chairs
@Paradoxical Intention
Thanks for backing me up on that ableism thing, I was offline at the time. You’re all awesome. This is why WHTM has the best comment section anywhere.
You know, I guess being half a halfling would make me…
…
A quaterling.
http://media.giphy.com/media/93uYptVAHE7C0/giphy.gif