The question comes in light of the recent young republicans leaks. Firstly, I’m not a republican and I think the shit they were saying was out of line, regardless of context. That said, the situation, among countless other times similar things have happened made me think. Is it reasonable to hold individuals accountable for statements made that they thought were in private. I think the public figure aspect is obviously the main catch here. In instances where the individual is a public figure, they kind of made their bed in my opinion. That said though, the more normal and sensational these events become the more realistic it is to widen in scope. Would it be reasonable for a future employer or date to pull up your group chats/private messages/anonymous posts?
It’s by definition not private if others can just look it up. I’d say no. Nobody deserves to be judged by their employer or others for EVERYTHING they do or say. Everybody has a bad day sometimes. Everyone gets really annoyed and says mean stuff.
Furthermore, privacy has profound mental health implications. People that cannot get privacy develop mental disorders like paranoia, anxiety, self-doubt, and all sorts of other problems.
On top of that, if they knew their messages could’ve been leaked… do you think they would’ve said it in the first place? They WOULD be thinking it, but you wouldn’t know.
Invading everyone’s privacy because you don’t want to have to exercise your brain is a terrible thing to ask. To those of us that do know how to observe and think, it’s pretty damn obvious when someone is a pile of crap like these people. Removing ALL privacy just so dummies can agree is… one of the worst possible reasons to remove privacy.
Exactly. More people need to learn how devastating a Panopticon-esque society would be for mental health, let alone all the other issues.
Lol, that’s really funny, considering this quote from the leaked chats
They knew this was a possibility, and said it anyway. This is how these people really think, and I’m not sorry to see them ostracized for having disgusting views.
Regarding the situation at hand, I wouldn’t want my private chats shared, but if they got shared, they worst people would see is what hobbies and kinks I have. Never once have I said something about starting up the gas chambers again or praising Hitler, cuz I’m not a piece of shit.
Oh I’m not sorry for their consequences. That doesn’t make removing all privacy a good idea.
Though think of privacy as offering a feeling of safety. We wouldn’t know they literally said they love Hitler if they wouldn’t have felt safe enough to voice it. They didn’t think it WOULD be leaked. They just knew their opinion was gross to the mainstream.
I’m SURE you have said many things the mainstream would call gross. Maybe not necessarily hateful and vile ontop of that, but gross and ostracizing worthy to some none the less. Would you be OK with people ostracizing you for less than what they’ve said?
Would you have said/done those things if you knew it could be looked up by your name?
Yeah, but most of the time those views are just that people deserve to have food and shelter and not sell themselves to corporations so they don’t die. And if that’s what I get cancelled for, so be it.
I’ve seen what the mainstream celebrates, and I’m not about it for the most part.
Never shared an offensive meme when you were younger, made an offensive joke/statement, said something negative about someone?
lol well… not exactly what I meant, but OK.
You do point at yet another problem with the idea, though: Not all “unpopular” opinions are bad opinions, and exposing everything for judgement all the time would only further promote same-think under capitalism.
Agreed. I’ve often referred to it when talking to my friend group as “emptying the bucket”. Everyone has things they think or feel that are “NOT OK©”. And for the most part we realize that these things aren’t to be mentioned in polite society as it would do fuck all to help any situation. So we add those drops of venom to the bucket. And we fill, and fill, and fill, and fill until we either find an outlet to empty it or it spills over and becomes an unhinged rant on some form of social media or a public freak out.
Private conversation with friends is supposed to be where you can empty the bucket without it harming others or, usually, getting you in trouble. It’s supposed to be between you and the other person. Not something the other person is stockpiling for the day they need to cancel you.
And I want people to have places or people they can empty the bucket with. I want people to be able to get all the venom out and then go be a person who functions in the social systems we have in place.
I’d agree what you’ve said.