Every day, apparently, somebody's got to get fired for saying something off, and since I've blogged about the Duck Dynasty flap, I've got to offer up the story of Justine Sacco, a lady no one had ever even heard of, who tweeted, got on a trans-Atlantic flight, and landed to find that during the 12 hours when she was incommunicado the internet had caught fire with outrage over a pointless, stupid remark she'd made, and #HasJustineLandedYet was trending. What a nightmare!
She joked about not getting AIDS, and she discovered she'd come down with a raging case of another disease — sudden-onset fame toxicity. There was no hope for the lady, whose specialty was actually PR, at which she was — to be fair to the company that fired her — manifestly incompetent.
Unlike Phil Robertson, Justine Sacco had no fans. She's just stranded out there, with no friends at all. It's pretty sad. One bad joke — on Twitter — and you're doomed. Will anyone dare make a joke again? Not about AIDS. Maybe not anything with a racial element that might be misunderstood. Maybe nothing that casts the speaker in the character of an absurdly insensitive lout. What else? Be careful! You never know when sudden-onset fame toxicity (SOFT) will strike.
ADDED: "Some liberal white person coming to grips with her privilege and wanting the whole world to know about it" — that's how Professor Jacobson saw the tweet. I said something similar in the comments to this post before reading that. It's actually a pretty easy joke to figure out, if you're at all inclined to read charitably. So the real question is, as Jacobson put it: "Why did so much of the Twittersphere quickly proclaim her a racist and go after her with such a blood lust?"
Jacobson's answer is: "Because it could." I'd say: There really is no "it." The whole 'sphere never does anything. But the virus of hate happens, because somebody saw something and retweeted it in a way that caught on. There was no mind at the top to exercise moral judgment about whether inflating a nonentity for the purpose of destroying her was a good idea or even minimally acceptable. It was a heartless force of nature. I call it SOFT. Human beings need to observe and see it and fight it.... while we still have minds... minds that have yet to go fully soft.
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Just like the terrorists who cut off the wrong head, the left destroyed one of their own accidentally.
She previously called for the LGBT community to destroy someone she disagreed with.
She will be resurrected..
I'm going to defend Ms. Sacco, not that it matters in the least to her or anyone else. I find it highly unlikely she is racist, homophobic or that she wishes AIDS on anyone in Africa or elsewhere. People make stupid jokes all the time, and those jokes are rarely indicative of their character.
Twitter is a tricky medium. Your dumb jokes can get you fired, but I think that is dumb.
Definitely falls into the "What the hell was she thinking" category. I could see a lame attempt at 'irony' going wrong; then again, given her South African background, you'd think she'd know better.
Best comment over at the original story:
"This all happened so fast . . . . got up this morning, read the news and realized I don’t even know who I’m supposed to boycott and here it is all over but the ritual dragging of the corpse through the virtual streets. I miss everything!!! I go to bed too early!!! I work for a living and haven’t figured out how to twit yet."
Jeezo-peep, it's fuckin' morons right & left! We used to be told never to say anything on e-mail you didn't want to see in the Washington Post the next day. And corporate e-mail was incredibly private compared to social media!
Stay away from social media, especially social media that has your name attached to it. All it takes is one pissed off person seeing it, and the whole world knows about it.
Twitter is a tricky medium.
Yes it is. Sane, intelligent people stay away.
I read where she only had 173 followers.
Apparently some SOFTies mine the Twitterverse for words the "tolerance or else" Nazis can glom onto and thus set right the world.
I know that is nothing that can be done legally but in a Karma run Universe I hope that whoever these clowns were will have heart attacks and die.
Clearly it was a stupid remark particularly for someone in her position and the remark more when going to South Africa on the heels of the Mandala funeral.
She is a native of South Africa. It is curious why she was compelled to make such a remark but the vehemence and tenacity with which she was pursued is even more remarkable and frightening.
PC police network?
I always try my best to remember that anything I post online in danger of being taken literally. That is I "try", but I often fail. It's difficult to moderate your dialog for the lowest common denominator. We live in a time where being a victim is lauded, and being a bully is one of the greatest of all sins, on par with being a warcriminal.
Selling yourself or your product you must pass the Twitter filter. What is your name? What is your quest? What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
People used to say that a certain type of joke is "not for mixed company."
She didn't know the whole world would hear.
I understand the joke. She probably intended to express outrage over the incidence of AIDS among black Africans and to say something about the privilege experienced by white people like herself. Sort of: Am I in danger from this terrible risk? No, since I am white and privileged, I escape, and we should see this as part of racial inequality.
Twitter is a tricky medium.
Twitter is the party guest your husband 'had' to invite who gets drunk, hits on everyone's wife, then shits on your living room rug.
Twitter is the ACA of the interwebs.
Who made the phone call this time to the employer? Surely not GLAAD, but I'd like to know for comparative purposes.
I think some statements are manifestly designed to express or increase hatred at individuals or groups.. Other comments are just imprudent observations or flat lined jokes. Is it really that difficult to separate them out?.......In my private life, I sometimes like to poke gentle, whimsical fun at children with birth defects or women with radical mastectomies. I would hate someone to twist my words in such a way that I could no longer be employed as an intelligence analyst at the NSA.
Twitter strengthens the herd by culling the weak.
She said "Jehovah", poor thing.
The digital world has this sometimes misleading amplification effect.
There are millions of successful striving ambitious people in this country who do not tweet or make promotional posts on Facebook.
That's because one of the things that has been amplified misleadingly is the value of Facebook, Twitter and the like to one's success.
Conservatives discover the Twitchy business model.
Twitter strengthens the herd by culling the weak.
I don't care who you are....that's funny right there.
I read about this when St Croix linked to it yesterday.
I will neither defend nor condemn Ms. Sacco's tweet, and neither should anyone else who doesn't actually know her. She's a nobody who has been hoisted up to notoriety for no other reason than to shoot her down.
The casual cruelty of the the perpetually agrieved makes me sick.
Calling this incident merely "Sad" is in my opinion quite the understatement.
As she's jetting across the Atlantic her name is being ruined beyond recognition, due entirely to her own indiscretion, and she's completely unaware of it all. Rather amusing.
eddie willers: I know that is nothing that can be done legally but in a Karma run Universe I hope that whoever these clowns were will have heart attacks and die.
Sometimes it is a Karma universe, particularly for the members of baying mobs and their leaders. Righteous enforcers of Terrors tend to end up getting terrorized themselves, in the end - unless they are unusually cynical, intelligent, and adept, which these clowns aren't.
Why wish heart attacks on 'em? Wouldn't you prefer to see them torn limb from limb by the other rabid dogs in their own pack? All you gotta do is wait. If FullMoon (first comment) is correct, what she sent around eventually came around for Ms.Sacco.
a. Firing somebody for a single statement, no matter how obnoxious, seems to me extreme, whether in this case or the Duck guy case.
b. I do not tweet, and I will never tweet, and if you take my advice, neither will you.
Mao Cultural Revolution redux.
Can't wait for the Little Red Book...
She doesn't deserve to be fired for a bad joke.
A less corpoately genteel version than that linked by Althouse can be found in St Croix's comment at the roughly 11:30AM mark of yesterday's Phil Robertson post.
The basis for her joke, that what prevents her from contracting AIDS is white privilege, is not epidemiologically sound.
GSSpencer:
Amusing?
People must just love you.
It was not a "trans-Atlantic flight" and she was not "jetting across the Atlantic." She was incommunicado on a flight from London to South Africa.
Stand by your jokes.
1.) Going to Africa.
2.) Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS.
3.) Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding.
4.) Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!
Curious, would any of the above Tweets have avoided the opprobrium and the firing?
South Africa, along with a couple of its neighbors such as Botswana, are literally the only places in the world in which life expectancy has fallen over the last 25 years. AIDS is the obvious reason.
Peter
Going to Africa. Hope I don't get Montezuma's revenge.
The joke is not complicated. I agree with rhhardin: stand by your jokes.
I was once honored by an agronomics society for my fine corn crop. They said I was out standing in my field.
The animals complained. It was the pig, they said. They lie, I say. It was the duck.
If this is and the Duck are the worst statements the perpetually perturbed can find, t is time to declare victory on racism and homophobia.
A lot of AIDS in Africa. Mostly, if not entirely, infecting black Africans. Too bad the leftie PR woman mistakenly thought she was innoculated. Cant innoculate against stupid.
Anonymity is undervalued.
Buzzfeed can rot in hell for all I care. Even though this woman, most likely, detests me politically, what they did to her is absurd. Twitter is simply Lord of the Flies on crack.
Conservatives discover the Twitchy business model.
The literal nobody Twitchy went after is...who? They don't target that far below their level.
The current PC frenzy is getting really wild. National Review has joined the enemy. Some no-name jerk at NRO is doing what Rich Lowry did to Derbyshire last spring. I guess Lpwry doesn't have the guts to put his name on this.
Cracker Barrel found out the cost of this nonsense. If NRO drives Steyn away, I'm outtta there.
Lets have a lottery and decide who should be stoned today.
rehajm said...
Twitter is a tricky medium.
Twitter is the party guest your husband 'had' to invite who gets drunk, hits on everyone's wife, then shits on your living room rug.
Nobody told him he had to invite me.
Maybe ill-advised but a nice rack.
It is like the Spanish Inquisition all over again.
No one expects the Spanish inquisition
National Review has joined the enemy. Some no-name jerk at NRO is doing what Rich Lowry did to Derbyshire last spring
Criticizing him? Oh noes.
Why does being white make her AID's proof? You mean she doesn't have sex with blacks? How racist.
Don't use Twitter like a sane person over 10.
You know, the least they could have done was to see if she weighed the same as a duck (Monty Python reference for those unfamiliar with it; nothing to do with Phil Robertson, who clearly weighs the same as a duck).
If history is to be our guide, the activists will extrapolate from the specific to form a general conclusion, and this incident will invite calls for mandatory re-education or sensitivity training for all white people. I wonder who they will get as a spokesperson.
Here is the John Nolte column I linked to yesterday, it's quite good.
In today's world you need to guard your remarks at all times.
The prevalence of AIDS in Africa has four causes. First, the virus originated on the continent. Second, there is a high rate of voluntary and involuntary heterosexual promiscuity. Third, there is a high rate of voluntary and involuntary male homosexual behavior. Four, there is likely inadequate efforts to monitor the safety of blood supplies. Well, five reasons. There is a desire to treat symptoms while ignoring or denying causes.
The last days will be like the days of lot, said the Hebrew prophet Jesus. in the wealthy but bored town where Lot lived a mob of all of the men and boys in town came out and demanded the privilege of gang raping two attractive men staying overnight at Lot's home, and the mob would not accept Lot's two virgin daughters as substitutes. The rest of the story is an example of God's judgement on the town.
No wonder GLADD folks are afraid people who stand their ground on religious faith.
MayBee's idea is more efficient. It could be like Hunger Games. The symbolic condemned offenders of the Collective Pop Morality could fight each other to the death. The one who lives gets to go on a two minute rant of jokes. No other jokes shall be allowed in society.
Good link, Steyn laying into his idiot editor.
That's what I always did.
Don't burn any bridges to the sane in the same outfit.
The idiots there will burn the bridges from their end anyway.
All statements will be taken out of context.
A&E is running a Duck Dynasty marathon today and the next several days, no kidding. Bwahahahahaha.
If she was flying from London to Johannesburg, I don't think she was on a "trans-Atlantic flight." At least, I hope not.
The current PC frenzy is getting really wild. National Review has joined the enemy. Some no-name jerk at NRO is doing what Rich Lowry did to Derbyshire last spring. I guess Lpwry doesn't have the guts to put his name on this.
Here is the column that Steyn wrote.
That led to his editor criticizing him in public here, and Steyn's response here.
Some history might frame this squabble. NR is currently being sued by Michael Mann for defamation for one of Steyn's columns. They are completely in the right. And yet lawsuits are expensive and scary and often it's just cheaper to self-censor.
That's my take on what is motivating this.
What's really bizarre and creepy is the comment Jason Lee Steorts makes:
"we could instead feel good about having awoken to a greater civility"
Yes, civility bullshit tag. But what makes this civility bullshit rather remarkable is that it's not coming from the people who are making the threats. It's coming from the guy with the black eye and the bloody nose. He's on the ground, waving his white flag. "Civility! I love it." It's rather pathetic, sad, and embarrassing.
rhhardin, did you ever have an editor who published something you wrote, over which he had editorial control, and then dissed it (post-publication) in public?
I was amazed. You just don't do that. If you find a column too offensive to publish, you just don't publish it. You don't go ahead and publish it and then publicly complain about its content.
The mildness of the humor there was ... oh, it was like being mercilessly beaten over the head with a blancmange. "How do you make a fruit cordial? Be nice to him."
I think the actual fags I know (who wouldn't mind the word "fag") could deal with the dire word "fruit."
Derb didn't give an inch either.
He's happily over at takimag.com and puts out his weekly Radio Derb, the best podcast on the web.
He's slightly wrong on blacks but open to data.
Blacks have the wrong leaders, appointed by the MSM for narrative play, at whatever cost to blacks.
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense."
She's Liberal. Who cares.
I thought the joke was "How do you make a fruit cordial? Buy him a drink."
Funny, on GMA this morning (Sunday) they did a story on the four black guys who stole a Range Rover and killed a white guy. Then they did the story of Sacco.
Guess which one was shown to be a clear sign of racism. . . .
I never thought the Tweet made any sense at all. Unless she is planning on engaging in anal sex with strangers while in South Africa it would seem to me that her odds of getting AIDS would be pretty close to zero.
Perhaps she had in mind that she would share some needles with sketchy folks?
The comment was extremely stupid on that basis.
Factually correct otherwise. South Africa does have a very high reported HIV/AIDS rate. Is it now "incorrect" (in Lenin's phrasing) to mention that? Apparently so.
Racist? How so? I am just not seeing it.
Perhaps homophobic but from what I am seeing there are few people complaining about that.
Or is this just a bunch of people trying to talk about anything other than the explosion that is going to happen Monday with Obamacare?
John Henry
Aussie Tim Blair put it best when he, seemingly, paraphrased the great Iowahawk; “If you have 200 Twitter followers, Joke X gets you targeted for annihilation,” observes Iowahawk. “If your name is Sarah Silverman, it gets you an HBO series.”
Of course, in the age of Facebook/Twitter/et al, if you don't understand, you get what you deserve. No cure for public stupidity unless you're a Lefty!
Perhaps one of our medicos can expound more but how high is the actual (vs the reported) rate of HIV/AIDS in South Africa and Africa in general?
Back in 80's and 90's there was some serious question, though not generally discussed in the US press, how many actual cases of AIDS there were in Africa.
The problem was definitional. Nobody denied that there were tons of very sick people. HIV testing was expensive and logistically difficult. So the WHO developed what they called the Bangui definition of AIDS.
In the US a diagnosis of AIDS requires testing positive for HIV along with symptoms of 30 or so diseases. Have TB and HIV+? That is AIDS. Have TB and no HIV? Not AIDS.
In Africa, the Bangui diagnosis is (from memory)1) Diarhea, 2) Loss of weight, 3) No appetite. 4) Fever for more than 5 days.
If a person had them, they were diagnosed with AIDS with no HIV test.
It has been a long time since I looked into this. Anyone know the current status on HIV testing and AIDS diagnosis in Africa in general and South Africa in particular?
John Henry
First I don't see anything cogent let alone.... Deep breath.....funny, racist,sexist,homophobic,misogynistic rude,bullying,stupid,out of place,lame,satirical, or grounds for employer reprimand...Exhale.
It's coming from the guy with the black eye and the bloody nose.
By that logic, the appropriate response to Barack Obama's repeated abuse of the Republican Party is to start calling him a nigger.
News flash: being a bully on the internet is fun. It doesn't cost you anything, and you don't even have to confront the consequences in person. You can be self righteously angry for five minutes, screw up someone's life, and then never have to deal with that person again.
Does being a hyperagressive Internet Censor make you a bad person? Indubitably. But, ironically, a bad person who sleeps easily at night.
@Michealk,4:07
The Duck Dynasty merch??? all of it even at Cracker Barrel is owned by A&E
Just saying, if Duck disaster has you PO'd at A&E dont put money in there pocket by buying the merch.
Those people that complained about the merch being pulled should call back and demand the it be re-pulled.
support Phil and the family by buying Duck Commander merch.
Mobs are ugly. Liberal mobs are grotesque.
By that logic, the appropriate response to Barack Obama's repeated abuse of the Republican Party is to start calling him a nigger.
But it's not accurate and so not a good insult.
The disparaging sense of nigger is probably up to no good, sometimes useful for low tasks.
That's not Obama's problem.
The positive sense of nigger is the rogue sentiment, somebody black surviving by his wits against the man, which is why blacks use it.
Sometimes with an ironic sense of the disparaging sense.
I wonder if she's related to Nicola Sacco of Sacco and Vanzetti fame.
Maybe she can get a job with the Robertsons. She could give up tweeting and start quacking.
Some of the lynch mob are in the comments at that piece St. Croix linked to, defending their actions.
They are remarkably incoherent.
At least she didn't say "Just kidding, I am straight."
"Noooo. AIDS is not funny. Believe me, I've tried. ... There are certain topics that are off-limits to comedians: JFK. AIDS. The Holocaust. The Lincoln Assassination just recently became funny: 'I need to see this play like I need a hole in the head.' And I hope to some day live in a world where a person could tell a hilarious AIDS joke. It's one of my dreams." -- Michael Scott
Diogenes of Sinope,
"In today's world you need to guard your remarks at all times."
So true, so sadly true. Reminds me, somehow, of the very important but sadly little-know Violence and the Sacred by Rene Girard:
"When the least false step can have dire consequences, human relationships may well be marked by a prudence that seems to us excessive and accompanied by precautions that appear incomprehensible.... In a society where every action or gesture may have irreparable consequences it is not surprising that the members should display a "noble gravity" of bearing beside which our own demeanor appears ridiculous..."
"There are certain topics that are off-limits to comedians: JFK..."
Gilbert Gottfried: I ran into Jackie Onassis at a party. I figured I'd break the ice with a party game, so I said, 'Do you remember where you were...'
John Henry,
Your 6:37pm question is right on the mark.
We have some close friends from Kenya, are involved with a church ministry helping with orphanages and schooling in Kenya, used to make an extended visit there at least once a year when we lived in Southern Sudan (now South Sudan), etc etc etc.
This is all just to say I have a fair amount of longstanding and current contact with the medical care situation in Kenya. And here's my assessment: once you get outside Nairobi and the several good hospitals there, and aside from Kijabe Hospital, medical care, medical diagnosis, and coroner services are complete crapshoot. Think of the worst podunk place in the US you know of--the kind of place where you drive through and see a big hand-lettered sign that says "This Town Needs A Doctor!"--and multiply it by 2 or 3 if not 10.
If you die in a rural area in Kenya, unless you are a Very Important Person politically, there will not be an autopsy of any kind. Earlier this year I heard the harrowing account of someone whose young-adult relative died of a hemotoma or other related consequences from a fall in the shower, and of the victim being passed on from one rural doctor to the next with recommended treatment no better than bed rest or Tylenol. Yes, you can get first-rate medical treatment IF you're well off AND in Nairobi (or can get there), or maybe in Mombasa, but anywhere else you might as well be on a wilderness trip with 10 of your closest friends (one of whom happens to be a dermatologist*.) Diagnoses of AIDS mean nothing in terms of actual presence of HIV in such a scenario. And this is the country that is second only to South Africa in terms of development (or maybe third behind Nigeria?)
------------------------------
*Absolutely NO disrespect meant to toward dermatologists, but they're not ER docs by any stretch of the imagination--and don't have any test equipment along anyway so all they've got is their fine-tuned senses based on experience. As one of my MD friends who wasn't a dermatologist once explained: "Dermatology is the best specialty to go into: (a) Your patients never get better. (b) Your patients never die [that is, of the problem they're seeing you for.] (c) Your patients never call you with emergencies in the middle of the night."
No we don't. The only people who succumb to this are dweebs, or who are employed by dweebs. Evolution in action. The future will be inherited by people who laugh at such middle-school games. Suits.
Yet one more argument in favor of bringing back dueling.....
This has not ended...the mob has tasted blood...there will be more victims soon.
I don't understand how you can compare the two. That woman said something extremely stupid and un-necessary. On the other hand, Mr. Robertson was asked a question about his faith and gave an answer. It just wasn't the answer that homosexuals wanted, so they started crying like usual. I don't believe the way Phil does, but I will fight for his ability to express himself.
"I'm in a snow globe full of retards and cat shit."
- Adam Carolla on dealing with political correctness while trying to do his comedy show in Los Angeles.
Mark Steyn's takedown (referenced by St. Croix above) is wickedly funny.
(That NRO management is composed of intellectuals desperate for approval, even if it means tossing their "convictions" aside isn't a surprise. Why they let Steyn write for them is a mystery to me. Steyn should head off to Reason.)
Who made the phone call this time to the employer? Surely not GLAAD, but I'd like to know for comparative purposes.
[Reposted because I think it's relevant and no one seems to care]
What caught my attention was how her "own" dad threw her under the bus and then got on the bus and drove over her. Even a liberal deserves a better dad!
Today's Emmanuel Goldstein is Justine Sacco.
FIFY.
This is the sort of thing that could have been science fiction thirty years ago.
... and now we're here. One reason I post with my own name is because I don't have much to lose. I have an entry-level job at a fast food restaurant. No one can ruin my life with what I wrote on the internet years ago.
If I did have a career, I wouldn't post on the internet at all. There's too much risk of winning the PC attack dog lottery. Someone will get offended, and that's it.
Zach said...
But, ironically, a bad person who sleeps easily at night.
That Must Be Why I'm Up in the Middle of the Night.
If She had said That Line to Her Boss in the Airport Bar After They Had a Few Drinks Her Boss Would've Laughed. In Essence it is a Joke of the Elite Being Above it All. He Knows This: That is Why He Fired Her.
This Will Evolve into a Meme with People Attempting Jokes By Using Her Sentence Framework But Replacing Words. Example: Replace 'Africa' with 'Cracker Barrell' and Go From There. They Will Think They are Being Edgy: They Now have Permission to Be Hateful Under the Guise of Humor Because the Sacrificial Lamb Has Already Been Slaughtered.
I thought that Twitter was shallow and a complete waste of time. it seems that's true, and worse.
The Russkies have freed the last two Pussy Riot girls from prison. Here we see a contrast between our two systems. In Russia, if you say or do something offensive, the government will send you off to Siberia for a couple of years for hooliganism. Here in America, we just hold people up to a public shaming in the social media stocks, resulting in them losing their jobs and having their lives ruined.
Like the Tom Petty song "You're So Bad" said, "I can't decide which is worse."
HIV prevalence by population group, 2008
African 13.6%
White 0.3%
Coloured 1.7%
Indian 0.3%
http://www.avert.org/south-africa-hiv-aids-statistics.htm
rhhardin said...
Going to Africa. Hope I don't get Montezuma's revenge.
More likely to be Cetshwayo's Revenge on that continent.
The things -- internet brou-hahas -- you miss by playing in the snow for a day!
Ms Sacco is not the loser..............Twitter is the loser as more people will realize it is not worth the risk to use twitter.
Well Ms. Sacco's Dad is a loser as well. I'm the father of two daughters; they have occasionally said or done stupid things. They're human, as we all are.
Ms. Sacco's father lives in South Africa. He promptly jumped on the social media bandwagon saying either that she was stupid or had done something stupid.
Way to go there Dad. In that situation the correct thing to do is STFU. You don't need to join the pack of baying hounds at her heels. On the other hand you might want to have a private chat with her about the dangers of what she did. But you don't shoot her down in public while she's still up in the big bird.
But maybe it's genetic; he's a moron and she's an idiot who didn't fall far from the tree.
Was not her position "PR Chief"? Should not a PR Chief have infinitely more sense?
I work for the government (executive service, not civil service in a Right-to-Work state). I guarantee you if I said publicly the stupid shit these people are saying, I would be fired.
As others have said, just have anonymous social media accounts.
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