Gagging the truth
So our gubmint want to muzzle social media?
Poor Tom Hayes said he had been subjected to vile anonymous messages ‘like every other TD’.
Obviously those vile messages werenât vile enough as he and the rest of his cronies still havenât got the message.
Presumably he is referring to the recent suicide of a TD, and has the arrogant ignorance to not only presume to know what was in the poor manâs mind before the act, but is willing to use such a private tragedy to further his own petty agenda. That is so far beneath contempt.
Here is an anonymous message for you Tomâ¦â¦
You and the rest of your cronies were elected by us to carry out our wishes. Thatâs called Democracy. Remember that word?
Once in power, did you honour your promises? Did you fuck! The people of Ireland were cast back onto the scrapheap and your manifestos were torn up in favour of the wishes from the EU. If you had had any balls at all, you would have told Brussels that the People of Ireland are more important than some fucking balance sheet in the IMF. You would have remembered who elected you. You would have remembered who pays your grossly over inflated salaries. But you didnât. You couldnât wait to get your feet under the table with your European masters.
You Tom, and every one of your pals in gubmint are traitors to the people who elected you. You have sold this country out in favour of a nod of approval from the Troika. You have cast aside the old, the infirm and the young in your quest for approbation. You have condemned God knows how many to poverty while you continue to enjoy your lavish salaries and perks.
You express surprise that people use social media to tell you a few home truths? You are shocked at some of the things that are being said? Frankly I am surprised that the Irish People have been so tolerant and have restrained themselves from escalating their anger up several notches. You should consider yourself damned lucky that all you have to contend with is a few harsh words.
So get out of your ivory tower, Tom. If you donât like what you see in the social media then tough fucking shit. That is the real world out there where people are suffering, losing families to emigration and yes, committing suicide because of the appalling mess you lot have made of the country.
Or are you just afraid of the truth?
Absolutely 100% spot on GD.
Compared to the marches and riots in both Greece and Spain I think our lot are getting off damned lucky.
"Deputy Hayes said he had also been subjected to vile anonymous messages "like every other TD"."
Aw diddums – don't like hearing the truth!!
The problem with social media is that it comes from the real world and upsets their little bubble of comfort. Rather than listen to people, which is what they are paid to do, they would prefer to gag them.
Social Media comes from the real world?? Put a real person in front of these spewing hate and see would they do the same? Give a coward a keyboard and a false identity to hide behind and they become so so brave… How many of the "real" people who respond to your rantings have you met as "real" persons? Do you really know them and their real-world views? If you have something to say, have the guts to say it face to face.
What other world would social media come from? Mainstream media is controlled by editors with political affiliations and can be [and most often is] influenced to put out a particular agenda. By the nature of social media, what we hear is the unvarnished opinion of the man in the street. We may not always agree with those opinions but that is the price of free speech.
Regarding the "face to face" argument, I would have no problem whatsoever repeating what I say here to a person's face. If Tom Hayes called to my door right now, I would reiterate all I have said and a lot more besides.
By the nature of the medium, stretching right across the globe I haven't of course met all [or even that many] of the people who comment here. However I have met quite a few and the views they express here are very much their own. Who else's views would they be?
This the same Tom Hayes?
http://sluggerotoole.com/2012/12/10/pizza-for-mattie-mcgrath-pizza-for-mattie-mcgrath/
I suppose they gave him the job because of his experience.
Sweet sufferin' Jayzus! This idiot is supposed to be helping run the country? This wanker is claiming the moral high ground? I wouldn't trust him to mind a slurry pit.
In fairness GD, I don't think anything you said there would be considered 'vile'.
I don't agree that people shouldn't be able to voice their anger at our useless shower of wasters in the Dail, but there really are some horrible cretins online. (everyone here excluded of course), who spew nothing but vitriol and personalise their attacks. You'd see some people calling for politicians to be publicly hung.. I don't care how fucking angry you are.. we claim to live in a civilised society.. I don't think violence should be condoned myself.
Anyways, what to do with all the stupid fucktards online? Maybe create a separate Hyper text transfer protocol.. and banish them all off there where they can fling insults at each other all day.. 'you're a stupid cunt.. no you are.. no you are..' that kind thing. Not everyone can exemplify the perfect online etiquette such as ourselves GD.. 🙂
With regard to comments about hanging politicians, let's just say I can't condemn the sentiment when I look at the devastation the politicians are causing. I'm not talking about taxes and rip offs, but when you take into account the families being torn asunder by needless emigration, the soaring rate of suicide and people being made homeless then I would expect feelings to run pretty high.
As for the trolls – they are just a pain in the arse and are easily dealt with by just banning them from sites. This site has currently about 400 addresses banned 😀
It doesn't matter though how bad the trolls are, or how inflammatory the speech, there is no way that I would ever condone any form of control over the Internet. Once you introduce any form of control it will be abused by the powers that be. That must never happen.
I guess that's the end of the festive season. But you are right of course.
The festive season continues all year here. Provided there is Guinness in the taps, whiskey in the bottle and baccy in the pouch…….
I agree I guess. There shouldn't be controls.. but at the same time, there should be consequences for any threats to a person online or say publishing a person's personal details. There are some cretins who've nothing better to be doing than traipsing through websites to get your information and think they can say and do whatever online as they think it's anonymous.
I think too there should be guidelines on bullying online..maybe a try to be nice now and then notice or something. I'm no streaking violet myself but I've come across some horrible yokes around the place. Little fuckin queens you'd love to meet down a dark alley when you're wearing a big pair of steel toe capped boots.
Ok, one should only resort to violence as a last resort.. 🙂
In terms of the politicians, I think they should also be afforded some level of respect. I don't mean you shouldn't ridicule or criticise them. The best satirical comedies do that.. but it's not nasty and personal.
Surely change is possible also, without the threat of violence.
One more point, I don't believe anyone would take their life due to bullying.. it'd probably just be one more thing to be depressed about..but I don't believe it would be the cause.
I agree with you on most of what you say, however there are more than enough laws to cover the situation as it stands. There are laws concerning defamation, libel, privacy and all that and they can be invoked at any time. Total anonymity is very difficult to achieve on-line. Anyone with a little technical know-how can idetify a troll, and in serious cases where a breach of the law is concerned and various agencies can be involved, such as Internet Service Providers, then the troll can very quickly be identified.
Regarding respecting politicians, I think they have forfeited most rights to respect. They have on numerous occasions put themselves above the law and certainly beyond any level of common morality. While I will respect a politician as a mother/father/son/daughter or whatever, I will afford him or her no respect whatsoever as a politician.
Grandad,
I am not sure you could be counted as 'anonymous', a ten second web search would reveal your identity. I think the real anonymous people are those who go on forums with assumed names – mostly ridiculous ones – and pursue vendettas.
Anne,
People do commit suicide through bullying, it drives them to the point where they simply cannot face life. A friend's son did so.
As I replied to Anne above, anonymity is virtually impossible on-line. I just haven't bothered so hard to hide my traces!
You would agree though that suicide due to bullying predominantly affects the young? In the formative years when one's self esteem is still being developed, bullying can have very serious repercussions. However most adults will just see bullying for what it is – someone with severe personal inadequacies trying to bolster their own ego?
Sorry about that Ian.. I didn't mean to sound flippant. It just seems like a waste to allow fools to bother you to that extent.
Sadly, bullies aren't always fools – having spent most of my life in the church, the biggest bullies I have encountered have been those in senior positions, people with doctoral educations and powerful intellects who have used such ability to stamp on others.
Nor is it confined to the church. In the past five years, I have known a friend who was working for a VEC and another working for the HSE who were bullied out of their jobs – the former receiving a compensatory package and the latter being found a post elsewhere.
Yeah, have come across it myself too Ian. You'd feel like a bit of poodle snapping back at a rottweiler but what else can you do? I reckon there's a higher prevalence of psychopaths in positions of authority, than the general population..