A few days ago an anonymous Tweeter DMed me to say I should go fuck myself, and that I'm an "uneducated fucking zero." I decided to do some digging and find out his true identity—and what set him off.
I really didn't like this. It's been on my mind all day. The guy called you something rude, but catfishing him like this just to send a message is way over the line.
This was a disproportionately unhinged way to respond to someone being rude to you. I hope that, upon reflection, you can see that this was way over the line.
I think this is a decent idea gone way too far. Like, what if you'd tried to engage him and instead been like, "Ok, so I misrepresented myself -- I'm Jeff Pearlman, and you wrote me a really shitty DM to me. I'm just a person, just like you. I write for a living, and sometimes I get stuff wrong. So do Bill Barnwell and Keith Law. They're just making educated guesses based on analysis. That's what we all do. Why do you react with such hostility to that?"
This could've been a teaching moment -- but instead you just terrorized the guy. (And I'd add that lying about your identity seems like a fairly substantial breach of ethics, but I'm not going to clutch my pearls about that.)
Clymer's point is terrific. Blocking traffic seems like a way to intentionally alienate people from your cause and develop a deep dislike for you and your compatriots. Aside from the "what if someone in a life threatening emergency needs to get to a hospital ASAP" point there's also what happens if a shift worker living paycheck to paycheck is late for work/misses work. An inconvenience to anyone with savings but a potential catastrophe for people just getting by.
I really didn't like this. It's been on my mind all day. The guy called you something rude, but catfishing him like this just to send a message is way over the line.
This was a disproportionately unhinged way to respond to someone being rude to you. I hope that, upon reflection, you can see that this was way over the line.
I think this is a decent idea gone way too far. Like, what if you'd tried to engage him and instead been like, "Ok, so I misrepresented myself -- I'm Jeff Pearlman, and you wrote me a really shitty DM to me. I'm just a person, just like you. I write for a living, and sometimes I get stuff wrong. So do Bill Barnwell and Keith Law. They're just making educated guesses based on analysis. That's what we all do. Why do you react with such hostility to that?"
This could've been a teaching moment -- but instead you just terrorized the guy. (And I'd add that lying about your identity seems like a fairly substantial breach of ethics, but I'm not going to clutch my pearls about that.)
I'm a former journalist myself, and I've gotten a few comments that stung -- nothing like you have. But let me recommend this: read this article by Lindy West about confronting her troll. Might be something you'd want to consider: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/02/what-happened-confronted-cruellest-troll-lindy-west
Clymer's point is terrific. Blocking traffic seems like a way to intentionally alienate people from your cause and develop a deep dislike for you and your compatriots. Aside from the "what if someone in a life threatening emergency needs to get to a hospital ASAP" point there's also what happens if a shift worker living paycheck to paycheck is late for work/misses work. An inconvenience to anyone with savings but a potential catastrophe for people just getting by.