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Someone crossed a line recently.

Not with me, but with Kathy Sierra. Death threats, fucked up photoshop shit, the usual. It hit her hard too. I get that. Not that this will surprise most of you, but I've had someone threaten my life. Not on the intarweb. I mean in real life. The most...interesting one was when, a few hours before Hurricane Andrew made landfall, my ex and I knocked on the door of the apartment across the hall. We figured Hey, good time as any to talk to the neighbors, let them know that if their place gets holed, that they can run over here, for whatever that's worth. At worst, we figured we'd get a polite brush-off.

What we did not plan on was a cocked, loaded, 9mm pointed at my skull from two inches away. What I remember doing is stepping to the side to be out of the line of fire, and get my ex out of the way. What I evidently did was sidestep while kind of grabbing her right ribcage and flinging her about ten feet to the side. Adrenalin's a funny thing.

It turns out, gun-guy was a local gangsta, and thought I was one of the "bad" guys coming to make a hit. In a fucking hurricane. Evidently, clear thinking was not big in the gangs of Kendall at the time. Well, as it further turned out, the guy was probably a wanna-be. The big clue was hearing him about an hour later screaming and crying I'm leaving and going home to my mommy!

Kinda lost him some street cred.

That's not the only time I had a flash of OHFUCKGONNAGETKILLED. But it's the most memorable.

Threats like that will kinda fuck with you for days.

So I'm reading Scoble's comment on it, and Maryam's, and the reaction is interesting, astounding and unfortunately predictable. Well, Scoble's is. Maryam's, I'll get to in a second.

Scoble writes some stuff about his experiences with it, and talks about taking a week off from blogging in protest of what happened to Kathy. While I understand that, it's wrong. That's what the little terrorist bastards that did this want. Yes, I specifically mean terrorist. They used threats of violence and harm to instill fear and terror into their victim to the point where she's so afraid, she can't do anything. Like leave the house without extreme worry. Or sleep. That's what terrorists do, so fuckit, they're terrorists. Maryam's response is much better, but a) she's a better writer, and b) she lived in Iran during the war with Iraq and shit. That tends to warp your reactions towards such things.

Now, what can be done about it? Well, there's all kinds of drivel about concealed - carry permits and the like. So far, I've not seen anything about self-defense or martial arts classes, but I'm sure it will happen. (Not from me. I help teach martial arts classes, and it's a far trickier thing to recommend than you might think.)

However, there's a more effective measure that's available to anyone getting death threats from grotty little goatfuckers: publicity

See, asslickers like the ones fucking with Kathy need the cover of anonymity. Not the "I'll put "bynkiisucksballs" as my name, aren't I clever" shit. But the kind of anonymity where they know the fear they're creating will keep the victim from outing them. To her credit, Kathy isn't allowing that to happen, at least not completely.

When someone threatens you, out them. Publish the comment, with IP address, and whatever other kind of information you can find. If you can dig up real names, publish them too. No, I don't have qualms about it. Fuck that, you threaten someone, you just shat on your right to privacy. True, someone can go through the trouble of pretending to be someone else. But that rarely lasts long, and face, smegma - sucking shitheads like these morons are generally too lazy and stupid to pull that off.

Oh yeah, call the FBI, the Cops, and Dear Abby's daughter too. Get the feds on their ass. I'm pretty sure that some of these dickwipes getting real time at garden spots like Leavenworth will send a clear message about such things to the others.

The point is, don't YOU be the one doing the hiding. Expose and report the little fuckers every time it happens. Don't give them the power to attack you from the safety of darkness. Make them operate in the light. Someone threatens you or your family, don't ignore it. Handle it in whatever way you feel safest doing, but don't ignore it, don't silently take it. That's what they want. Don't give them what they want. Make it so fucking painful to threaten you that they'd rather eat glass than do it a second time. Better yet, make them not want to do it the first time.

Now, to the people who are shocked by this...

WAKE THE FUCK UP.

Holy crap, did you think that the shit you read about, and hear about, and the rest was a myth? That somehow, if you kept a stream of My Little Pony thoughts in your special precious brain, that bad things would happen to others?

Welcome to reality, sorry it just kicked you in the nuts. Humans are pack animals, and vicious ones at that. People have tiny egos, smaller penii, and the rest, and will attack, viciously, anyone who dares to disagree with them, not think like they do, and the rest. This shit is not new. It's been a constant throughout the history of the internet, and to be honest, all of human history. Anyone talking about the "good old days, when people were nice to each other" should be ignored, or better still, mocked.

It is not "negativism" nor "pessimism" to say that people are vicious little weasels. It is realism. It is acknowledging all the aspects of human behavior, not just the ones you like. I almost hate to say it, but anyone who is honestly surprised at what happened to Kathy should give their heads a good shake, and start living in the real world.

Also, can we stop with the idea that this is exclusively a male pastime. On the internet, I've found that women are equally as capable of this kind of shit as men. A penis != scumbag, nor does a vagina confer nobility.

Folks, you don't have to like that people suck, but if you can't deal with that fact in an upfront, grownup manner, then how the hell do you propose to fix it.

I also completely get off the bus with the idea that women are powerless to deal with such threats and affronts. Bullshit. They may think they are, but women are perfectly capable of the kind of strength that keeps them from being victims, or allowing someone to turn them into one. I'm sure of this, I was raised by such a woman. I am still continuously astounded at how women will allow themselves to become vassals of any man in the area. Fuck that. Right in the ear.

People, no one can take power from you. They can only convince you to give it to them. The way I look at it, the only sane reaction is to make it rather painful for them to attempt. That's why I shake my head when people like Scoble react by admitting that they gave away their power, and won't blog for a week, or whatever. Shit, I'd like to see someone try to shut me up, or keep me away from Macworld / WWDC by threatening me. I don't think they'd like the reaction.

Tell you what. Anyone doesn't feel safe at a blogger event, drop me a line. Chances are, I, or someone else knows someone in the area who would be HAPPY to play Big Scary Friend. If it's convenient for me, fuckit, I'll go and play Big Scary Friend. I like that game, it's fun, and it gets the point of this is not a good person to fuck with across. It tells people this person has friends who will happily get between them and harm. You want power, that's power. Knowing that you have a friend, or friends who will stand between you and harm and commit mayhem on the harm? Hell yeah, that's power. It's nothing special or even particularly brave. As Kennedy said, we are all in this together. Watching out for each other is just a basic responsibility.

But don't stop going to events. Don't stop blogging. Because the instant you do, the fucktards win. And I have real issues with fucktards winning. Power cannot be taken away, it can only be given away. Maybe we should be more choosy about who we give power to.

Technorati Tags: Maryam Scoble, Power, Kathy Sierra, Robert Scoble, WTF?

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