I think people can certainly change their ways and not have things they said as a teenager hinder them through life. I think the lesson that really needs to be learned is that shit you say on Twitter will always be there, so maybe check that shit once in a while and remove anything you no longer stand by that could be problematic.

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If there is a universal lesson in life, it’s that you have to learn most life lessons for yourself. Kids are going to test personal and social boundaries and generally act like shit online and in public. What we need to be capable of as adults is to admit to ugly mistakes we’ve made in our past, and to not reflexively defend them when others discover them. What we need to be capable of as a society is to respond to the discovery of these moments in a way that is not unnecessarily punitive, and which allows for people to demonstrate the above ownership.

do we think PJ will go back and erase backspacer?

if not we shouldnt hold kids to the same threshold

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It's ignoring the problem via the normal "ends justify the means" bullshit that a certain crowd has been peddling forever. What the article illustrates is not a society that is turning away from excusing racism, but a society that is increasingly bestowing social capital on those who use their platforms to shame people for actions in their past that do not conform to the popular morality of today. Paint them with a scarlet R in the form of globally accessible blog posts or online news exposés so that it can never be removed and all future employers and friends can find out about that horrible thing they said when they were in 10th grade and judge them by it. That is not the behavior of society that the recognizes the dehumanizing effects of hate and is attempting to teach people not to engage in it, it's a society that is teaching people to derive joy through the humiliation of others.


The end of the article demonstrates that sometimes the right thing still gets done:

you McP.

Interesting, because I also read the entire article, which is why I'm quite certain it is not evidence that the Bad Things (tm) you claim are happening are, indeed, happening. What are the facts exactly? This young man--your run-of-the-mill An-Bev drinking dipshit who wanted to get on College GameDay--made a sign. The sign led to him setting up a charity drive (good!), in the process being personally lionized (meh) and creating a structure for corporate "generosity". A reporter looking into the story found some old tweets that conflicted with the image of him as a do-good-er and included them in his article. As a result, he no longer gets free beer (honestly, good, especially since they donated the value to the charity instead). He is, however, still at the helm of this charity drive, the corporations are still donating to his charity, and he seems to have taken responsibility for his actions, apologized, and had that apology accepted--he's not being kicked out of school, he hasn't lost a job, and the state has still dedicated a day in his honor. Moreover, the future problems you think this creates for him via the scarlet R would have been there for any future job regardless, given that he hadn't deleted the tweets and didn't really seem to be aware of them. Is it a little amplified via this story? Sure, but he also now has, on record, a public apology, so I'm pretty tempted to think this shakes out in his favor.

This is different from saying that there is no problem in a more general sense of a lack of mechanism for penitence and reintegration into society for those who make mis-steps (pretty disingenuous to insinuate that this is a presentist bias, since I was well aware that gorilla jokes were racist seven years ago, and fourteen years ago as well). I'd make some minor alterations to your claim--that, for instance, it's not just a "certain crowd," given that the pro-Israel lobby has been quite successful at getting folks fired for basic human rights stances, or that it is not definitely a society built solely on giving social capital to accusers (massively over-simplistic, which I think you know). But in general, I won't disagree with you there--we have not yet figured out how to make a more just society that still allows for people to make mistakes without excusing those mistakes. It's just that this story is not really an example of what you think it is. The journalist has been shamed for his hypocritical behavior, but even he didn't lose his job. Honestly--what else do you wish had happened here?

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Yeah Burt I'm sure this would hold up in court.

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Burt have you been to the UK

I think his car is still in the shop

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To breed with their kin in isolated peace

Why would they pass a law like this? there is no way this survives the courts and it will just waste millions of tax payer dollars and government lawyer labor hours

Why did Republicans waste millions of tax payer dollars on ACA lawsuits they desperately wanted to lose? The answer is probably the same for each.

They are bigoted cowards striking at those who look different than them under the guise of “the greater good”? That makes sense actually

The illegal alien part feels a bit like criminalizing the n-word but threatening to call ICE on someone speaking Spanish is absolutely targeted harassment and should be treated as such.

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