Discussion about this post

User's avatar
D. P. Snyder's avatar

I appreciate this essay and the author is very brave to write it. The scale of bullying in the digital age puts on display the self-righteousness, the perverse pleasure some experience of inflicting harm on others, and the general lack of emotional self-regulation that so many display, especially online. I think what surprises and hurts the most is that this should occur in the literary community where we come to express ourselves and find healing and community.

Some comments in this space that say "The world sucks, deal with it." Personally, I do not think the world sucks but even if it did, it would not be a good reason not to try to make it better. Furthermore, the "that's-how-things-are" approach simply fails to respond to the assignment proposed by the author, which is precisely this: How can we do better? What should we do if a colleague is being publicly harassed? If remaining out of the fray is not an option, and the author makes a good reason for why it is not, then what do we do?

Social media platforms have (mostly) abandoned any responsiblity for moderating their own platforms. A notable exception is NextDoor where localities choose administrators who follow ND's very clear groundrules for digital conversation and *remove mean or misleading posts*. In my town, the administrators are very good and while the site is still home to much cruelty, stupidity, and even threats of violence, there is a structure in place to get redress so that victims of harassment don't feel utterly alone. Further, there are *actual people* making these decisions. I would argue that it may be necessary for regulation. Perhaps social media platforms should be held accountable when someone can prove they were damaged, as James clearly was, by that platform's lack of responsiblity for maintaining civility. Suing Twitter would be a big ask. Twitter has a list of rules (https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules) but what good are rules if no one enforces them?

Let's say out loud that bullying and harm comes from all segments of our community including those who are the victims of bullying and historical injustice themselves. In fact, it is common for people that have been harmed to harm other people. Let's then agree that bullying and canceling is wrong and a real harm, whether the bully is a white supremacist or an autistic transgender person. If people gang up to sink someone's book on Goodreads because of a tweet, for example, this is despicable and should not be framed as some sort of act of justice. An identity as a marginalized person does not shield a person from responsability for heinous behaviour and the community should call such behaviour out.

Editors who pull a poem, story, or essay after a social media brouhaha make a grave ethical error. When I find out about such behaviour, I cross that publication off my list. Perhaps they don't care or feel it and, while I have no interesting in punishing people, I also have no interest in dealing with an editorial team that makes reactive decisions.

We know what cruelty, meanness, name-calling, and bullying are. It is never okay. I will think more about this topic and I urge others to do so as well. What will you do the next time a friend or colleague is disappearing in a Twitter storm? As with natural disasters, we should all have a plan in place.

Expand full comment
Thomas Cleary's avatar

I believe I can understand this situation. I’m an administrator or moderator in four different FB poetry sites where I’ve on occasion had to field legitimate complaints from poets as targets of vituperation. What I’ve done is, first of all, reach out to the aggrieved individual and ask them to give me an account of what happened with a screenshot of the accused’s words. Once I have that I bring it to the attention of the other admins or moderators in the group with my suggestion of a resolution. I receive a prompt response, speak to the accuser and inform them that what they’ve said is against the group’s rules. At this point they are asked to apologize to the person they bullied and put on probation. If they refuse to apologize they are immediately removed from the group. If they convey contrition to the individual but later repeat their behavior they are banned forever.

Expand full comment
49 more comments...

No posts