It’s very gloomy, and they said there could be snow but it’s nearly 40 F (4.4 C) so I’m not sure how that’s going to work. I’ll let the Weather Sprites figure it out.
I’m full of thoughts but few coherent, so I can’t promise you anything as substantial as yesterday’s post. I did notice the embedding didn’t totally work, and the pull quotes worked differently than I expected. Granted, these musings don’t make for the most fascinating content, but you get my thoughts and so far, these are they.
After that wonderfully resolved moment I chronicled yesterday, a man came out of nowhere on that very thread and attacked me with antisemitism. It was quick, and he blocked me as soon as he was done, making his spouts disappear.
Except from my screenshots.
I’d shared the info and people were reporting him. Then I learned he’d attacked someone else similarly.
Once again, the uniqueness of Spoutible comes into play.
We don’t keep abusers’ secrets on Spoutible. We let people see who they are. We name them.
And trolling is abuse. Bigotry is abuse.
It’s not jokes or venting or people being worked up. It’s abuse.
Abusers work best when no one talks to each other. They never target a single person, there are always more, but if no one says anything, no one knows.
Please don’t take this and apply it to other kinds of abuse in a way that shifts responsibility to survivors of it, though. People should do what is safe for them to do, whatever “safe” means, and they don’t have any responsibility over the behavior of the abuser.
Back to today’s point.
Because we can talk about it, because talking about it isn’t treated like some kind of problem or violation, it’s easy to root out bad actors. Because maybe there’s some deniability one by one by one.
But not if you look at the whole picture.
The people receiving abuse on Spoutible aren’t treated like we’ve caused trouble, like we can’t take “a joke,” like we’re too sensitive or weak. This is a revelation in social media, and it’s an incredible step forward in human connection.
You may think that’s too grand a statement but in a few years, you may read this and think it wasn’t grand enough.
That man tried to ruin the vibe we’d worked to create, and he simply wasn’t granted the opportunity. What an amazing thing that is.
Have a great Tuesday.
A Bit to Read 
Leave a comment