[Air-L] trolls and Aspergian "sufferers"
Stefania Muca
stefania.muca at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 8 02:30:19 PDT 2012
Hello,
I haven't found the initial post so I'm not sure I understand the point of view of the one who started this topic. From previous posts, I understood that he supports Calcanis' article, which I have read and agree with. I didn't know about Calcanis before, I guess he made and said some questionable things in his life, but that shouldn't be the point. It's not like we're quoting Hitler here.
As I see, some persons on Air-l found Calcanis' ideas very controversial. First of all, I didn't read it in the "he compared awful people with disabled people and that's offensive to the ones with disabilities" key. If someone has a child with Aspergers I see how sensitive this issue is, but I also think we shouldn't get our personal feelings in the way of (any kind of) research idea. And like it has been said, research is not the exclusive appanage of academia. One shouldn't look down on someone else who has an interesting hypothesis, simply because that person doesn't belong to a "select club" of university graduates. Call me ignorant, but I don't think I need to study any disabilty from a medical point of view in order to make a simple harmless comparison.
My perspective on the issue is that everyone of us is somewhere on a scale from autism to "normality", so very few of us can claim to be completely non-autistic. ICTs are supposed to make us more sociable and emphatic, however its features can lead to seeing the one you discuss with online not a human being, but some sort of a game opponent who you can take down with psychological weapons.
Someone pointed out that this ideas not being - yet - accepted (?) by the group, it's safer not to point it out or, god forbid, support them. That may be true in a pragmatical way, but for me it's very intriguing that someone should bring arguments like:
- you're a privilegedwhite man; minorities have been discouraged to express their opinions; so didn't give me that "free speech" BS, you don't know a damn thing, boy
- what you say here is very aggressive (which part, btw?!) - if I met you offline I'd show you
- nobody supports you, hence - you're wrong! and you won't find a job anywhere with this attidude
The list can go on with examples of classic cyberbullying which I was dissapointed to find on this list. I'm not a person who's afraid of conflicts, I might even enjoy some of them, but there are things that leave a bitter taste in my mouth.
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:58:15 -0700
From: Michael Scarce <scarce at mac.com>
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: [Air-L] (What have I started?) Re: trolls and Aspergian
"sufferers"
Message-ID: <F2BB32A7-46C7-44A7-85EB-EF099462F017 at mac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Hi everyone,
I began the initial thread of this ongoing and surprisingly long-lived conversation. As a new member to the Association, I felt compelled to challenge statements that I found offensive, inappropriate, disrespectful, and unprofessional on the listserv. Even academic freedom has certain boundaries and constraints. It had a chilling effect on me. Rather than simply disengage and abandon the group, which seems largely self-moderated, I took a significant risk.
I have not continued to weigh in since my original post, but I have carefully observed the group's dynamics, including how far and wide the discussion has traversed, individuals' highly personal and impressive disclosures in relation to their work, and passionate struggles surrounding ethical relativism and interdisciplinary pluralism.
I have received many personal emails of encouragement, gratitude, organizational apology, and even outrage. The messages included far more than compassionate outreach, empathy and care-taking, however. Interestingly, I did not receive any emails of disagreement, healthy (or unhealthy) criticism, debate, and so on. This signifies something to me, which I have yet to sort out.
My original post was meant to convey: "You've got to be kidding me. Suffferers? Wow. Really?"
Forgoing traditional scientific use of third-person claim-staking, for me, it boils down to:
* the notion that science can and should be held accountable for the ways in which it influences society (conceding an artificial distinction between the two as mutually exclusive). I was taken aback by some of the absolutist and elitist entrenchment, and most especially the cautionary tale of "Tread lightly in your disagreement with me, young Jedi. What you express could render you jobless."
* certain forms of 'disability' or others forms of 'difference" as constituting cultures deserving of the kind of respect described by this organization's own Internet ethics document (even if it is ten years old)
* and an awareness of how the research subjects of which we speak are also researchers themselves, as evidenced by a few members' thinly veiled descriptions of each other as trolls within a context of conducting research on trolls.
I'm aware the focus of the listserv is not about organizational recruitment and retention. However, the abundance of self-irony alone is enough to keep me coming back.
Michael Scarce
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2012 13:14:46 -0700
From: Michael Scarce <scarce at mac.com>
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Phone Hacking Articles? (Re: Air-L Digest, Vol
97, Issue 4)
Message-ID: <7C625167-3438-4754-9B86-1AF8A9E002E0 at mac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Hi Adam,
This is not exactly what you requested, but have you considered readings other than the non-journalist scholarship and peer review publications you mentioned?
Specifically, what about well-written, thoughtful analysis from hackers themselves, of which there is a breadth and diversity of discourse? I understand this might fall under "non-journalistic," but I see it as being different in the sense of hackers' voices, in their own words, rather than filtered through a lens of stereotyping, sensationalism, or oversimplification.
Michael Scarce
On Aug 5, 2012, at 6:55 PM, Patricia Jeter wrote:
> Hi Adam (and everyone else)
>
> I know that Media Culture Society had a couple of articles earlier this year on the topic.
>
> Patti Moore-Jeter
>
>
> Read about my thoughts on how we connect with each other on line @
> http://virtuallifeconcreteworld.wordpress.com/
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
>> Date: Sun Aug 05 18:01:17 EDT 2012
>> From: air-l-request at listserv.aoir.org
>> Subject: Air-L Digest, Vol 97, Issue 4
>> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>>
>> Send Air-L mailing list submissions to
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>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2012 13:10:00 -0700
>> From: Adam Fish
>> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org, medianthro at easaonline.org
>> Subject: [Air-L] Phone Hacking Articles?
>> Message-ID:
>>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>> Dear List,
>>
>> I am putting together a syllabus and want to include a week on media
>> reform in light of the phone hacking scandals.
>>
>> Has any non-journalistic scholarship been written and published in
>> peer-reviewed journals regarding the News Corp/phone hacking scandals.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> --
>> Adam Fish, PhD
>> Lecturer, Media and Cultural Studies
>> Sociology Department, Lancaster University
>> 310.745.6976
>> mediacultures.org
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2012 23:15:38 +0300
>> From: Burcu Baykurt
>> To: Adam Fish
>> Cc: air-l at listserv.aoir.org, medianthro at easaonline.org
>> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Phone Hacking Articles?
>> Message-ID:
>>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>> Hi Adam,
>>
>> Television & New Media had a special section on Murdoch and phone hacking,
>> published in last January: http://tvn.sagepub.com/content/13/1.toc
>>
>> Would love to see the list of articles on that issue once you put them
>> together.
>>
>> All the best,
>> B.
>>
>> On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 11:10 PM, Adam Fish wrote:
>>
>>> Dear List,
>>>
>>> I am putting together a syllabus and want to include a week on media
>>> reform in light of the phone hacking scandals.
>>>
>>> Has any non-journalistic scholarship been written and published in
>>> peer-reviewed journals regarding the News Corp/phone hacking scandals.
>>>
>>> Thank you.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Adam Fish, PhD
>>> Lecturer, Media and Cultural Studies
>>> Sociology Department, Lancaster University
>>> 310.745.6976
>>> mediacultures.org
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
>>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
>>> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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>>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>>> http://www.aoir.org/
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> B.
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 4
>> Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2012 16:59:00 -0500
>> From: Elijah Wright
>> To: Thomas Jones
>> Cc: "Air-L at listserv.aoir.org"
>> Subject: Re: [Air-L] trolls and Aspergian "sufferers"
>> Message-ID:
>>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>> Clearly I should have paid attention to this thread a while ago!
>>
>>> That being said, I'm going to [safely] assume that neither of the two previous respondents have heard of what Jason Calcanis coined as "Internet Asperger's Syndrome"? While it is still an ongoing, vibrant discussion of diverse perspectives, its underlying premise is certainly feasible.
>>>
>>> This should get you started:
>>> http://calacanis.com/2009/01/29/we-live-in-public-and-the-end-of-empathy/
>>> http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=59a_1247115195
>>
>> Calcanis doesn't pass muster as "research" , in my honest opinion.
>> He's in the venture capital, startup, yell-loudly-at-people and get a
>> story posted on TechCrunch-or-whatever, scene.
>>
>> Having one person with a loud-ish voice compare internet behavior to
>> Asperger's syndrome is highly obnoxious. Having people who should
>> know better repeat the statement is just unconscionable and bordering
>> on 'vile'.
>>
>>
>>> Thomas Jones | Graduate Student | School of Information Studies
>>> http://about.me/othertomjones
>>
>> I think you should take a straw poll of the faculty at Syracuse and
>> see how many of them will agree that it's okay to flatten / construe
>> internet trolling down as being Aspergers-driven. This is one of
>> those things where even *asking the question* is likely to get you a
>> very hostile reaction from many folks...
>>
>> The results should be entertaining.
>>
>> --elijah
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
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