Quote:
Originally Posted by
smurgerburger
I find all this "momentary stupidity" talk unconvincing, particularly after seeing wall-to-wall "momentary stupidity" online over the CEO shooting less than a year ago.
These people are expressing political opinions that seem true to them and even ordinary (within their online circles anyway).
Now for some of them it may be foolish to not foresee that there could be professional consequences, but that only applies to their decision to express themselves. The sentiments that they express are not the ravings of the temporarily deranged.
No, the sentiments are not "mistakes." They are their sentiments. The error, to me, is not reading the room. Or having a little common human sensitivity when online.
Another mistake is the assumption that a particular site or forum has a defined audience, as if you were in a room or at a club. All audiences are undefined and potentially unlimited.
Or, to be honest, the mistake is that they are expressing themselves in the moment as opposed to editing themselves after pausing. As a writing major (and journalism for two years), I see this as the most common problem with online communication. People don't pause to review what they just wrote. They just write and hit send. I kind of understand why because writing takes so much longer than speaking, and reading is faster than listening, so it is a self-damaging set-up. The loop is set up to make you an idiot. And because most people spend most of their time posting anonymously, when they actually post under their real-world identities, they lack that pause-and-review.
You are writing "anonymously." I use the parentheses because at some point coming soon, AI will be able to identify you pretty quickly and be able to attach your entire posting history to your real-world name. This may be only a few years away. I'm sure the CIA will be able to do this for 90% of the population shortly if they feel like looking. Scrubbing will be, at best, a partial and hit-or-miss strategy.
So everything you posted, even under an alleged pseudonymous handle, will come back to haunt you, if not next month, then certainly next decade.