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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho knew threatening to rape a 17-yr old girl could get you fired?
http://madworldnews.com/angry-dad-revenge-bullies/
Angry Dad Goes Full BEAST MODE, Gets REVENGE On Daughter's Bullies
An angry father, who also happens to be baseball legend Kurt Schilling, went into beast mode to get revenge on his daughters bullies, and now theyre running scared.
Schilling, a former Boston Red Sox pitcher whos won a World Series MVP award, posted an innocent tweet congratulating his daughter on getting accepted into the Rhode Island college Salve Regina, where shell be following in her fathers footsteps and pitching for their softball team, the Seahawks. However, rather than follow in his praise for the 17-year-old girl, Twitter users started attacking her with sexually explicit messages, and the New York Daily News reports that so far nine of them have paid the price for it.
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These boys have yet to understand one of lifes most important lessons. In the real world you get held accountable for the things you say and if you are not careful that can mean some different things.
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This is a generation of kids who have grown up behind the monitor and keyboard. The real world has consequences when you do and say things about others. Were at a point now where you better be sure who youre going after.
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These arent thugs, tough guys or bad a**es, these arent kids whove had it rough, they arent homeless or orphans, these are pretty much ALL white, affluent, college attending children, and I mean children.
And more details....
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/ex-boston-pitcher-schilling-plays-hard-ball-trolls-article-1.2134914
Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling fires back after trolls violent, sexual tweets about teen daughter
As many as nine Twitter users paid the price for their posts after Schillings proud tweet congratulating daughter Gabby on her acceptance to the Rhode Island college Salve Regina devolved into sexually explicit online comments directed at the teen.
As a father, besides providing for my family, what other job do I have? Loving my kids and protecting my family, Schilling told the Daily News Monday night.
He said he is aware of nine trolls who lost their jobs or got kicked off athletic teams and were not done.
The unrelenting father, who wrote an angry response on his personal blog (38 pitches) after the social media maelstrom, told The News, Lost in all of this is, my daughter is 17. Shes a minor. And these guys are all adults. Im pursuing legal recourse on a couple of them because they broke the law. What they did can have them labeled as a sex offender for the rest of their lives.
LOVE IT!!! That should help clean up the Internet!
ON EDIT: At his personal blog, Mr. Schilling says he is a Republican, but I agree with him that his political views and professional sporting career do not make the sexually explicit threats against his daughter acceptable or appropriate. I especially liked this bit of his blog posting --
https://38pitches.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/the-world-we-live-in-man-has-it-changed/
P.S. Gabby I know youre likely embarrassed and for that I apologize. But as we have talked about, there is no situation ever in your life, where its ok for any man to talk about you, or any other woman this way (and truth be told no real man would ever talk this way anyway). It truly is time this stopped. I dont know where it started because it sure as hell didnt happen much when we were growing up. Like any dad reading this the only thing I need you to leave this home with when you head to college is the knowledge that I love you more than life itself and there is NOTHING I would not do to protect you. And while it may sound corny, its nothing Id ever be shy about saying in public, ever.
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)go to jail.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Are_grits_groceries
(17,111 posts)Many women get this shite regularly. Some are unlucky enough to attract some real nuts who stalk them. Death threats can't just be brushed off.
He got such a big reaction because he is Curt Effing Shilling. He was contacted by the police and the FBI. Women have trouble getting any help in a lot of cases. Would they have been fired if a woman with no connections made the same complaints? Maybe but don't count on it.
Now Shilling is being lauded by everybody. Eff that. The women who are harassed just as badly as his daughter need help too and they have few resources.
justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)of an ordinary guy who goes after people like this but for racism instead of sexism. http://racistsgettingfired.tumblr.com/
I don't see why ordinary people couldn't start a tumblr (or something else) about sexists getting fired.
I agree the Mr. Shilling got special treatment and that's not right but I think a community can do the same thing if they're motivated to do so.
Dorian Gray
(13,516 posts)perhaps KS's post about it will inspire people to do just this.
Are_grits_groceries
(17,111 posts)However, nobody cares. Unless women show them the threats then they shrug it off. Even then, they say 'don't read them' or 'brush it off.'
Google Brianna Wu. She has had to leave her home because of threats.
In addition, if you complain to Twitter, they either ignore you or wait until you have complained forever.
I avoid the comments because of what I will read.
One man went online with a profile as a woman. He couldn't take it. He had never gotten such vile comments before.
I do not want Twitter shut down. I do wish there was a way to expose more of these cretins. When they hide behind anonymity, it can be a chore.
IdaBriggs
(10,559 posts)Am I unhappy this is common place? YES! Don't even get me started on GamerGate.
I want this to become normal - consequences for horrific behavior.
I appreciate him using his celebrity to help women everywhere.
Are_grits_groceries
(17,111 posts)I want more and more people to help expose these cretins. Until then...
karynnj
(59,508 posts)I think that the fact that Schilling is using his name and his daughter's very sympathetic case -- and PUBLICLY getting attention and real consequences. The fact that he says that people have lost jobs or college athletic positions and there might be potential lawsuits MIGHT have a deterrent affect on this atrocious behavior. Even if a small number of jerks stop to think they could be ruining their lives and don't write a similar threat to a woman, there is a real gain.
As to his fame making the punishment more likely - that is undeniable. However the problem is NOT that he is getting a response, but that so many people aren't -- and many likely don't even try because they assume (maybe from past experience) that they won't get help.
While it would be great if Schilling made sexual internet threats an issue, I see no reason not to praise him for taking public action on this. Not to mention, for those making tweets under their real names, I think that ANY woman could get some reaction if the offending tweets were from known college students - because no school administrator would want that garbage associated with their school. The hard part in some cases is getting the identities of the people making the tweets.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)Somewhere along the way, anonymous "troll" culture has gone from people being a little snarkier than reasonable adults might be face to face, to a contest to see who can be the most vile and terrifying, particularly as to threatening women.
There's a beat in there somewhere too that there is some kind of new civil right to anonymously harass and debase people.
I'm just glad to a well-publicized incident where that "freedom" to be anonymously vile is shown to be vulnerable. I hope it's the beginning of a trend where we start drawing a line past which people -- "kids" or not -- understand they may have to actually be publicly associated with the threats of rape and murder they find so amusing.
Sunshine is the best disinfectant.
niyad
(113,773 posts)Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,773 posts)Suddenly when it affects his family it matters.
REP
(21,691 posts)Don't get me wrong; I'm happy for the outcome. But why does it take a male voice to get taken seriously?
arcane1
(38,613 posts)At least a sports figure might serve as a positive role model for dumb-asses who think it's cool to act this way.
A woman saying "real men don't act like this" might not have the same effect on people with this disordered mentality.
ProfessorGAC
(65,334 posts)While she was glad Schilling did what he did, she said that this stuff happens all the time, and the consequences only hit home when a rich, famous guy, with powerful friends, took umbrage over what was done to his daughter.
I can't stand Schilling but he did a good thing here, and Kate is right. I don't get how anybody thinks what these guys did is ok.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)She gets taken seriously by way of her Dad's defense of her honor.....and the school is taking legal action against the abuser as a result.
MOST ATTACKS ON WOMEN RESULT IN---THE WOMAN HAVING TO LIVE WITH IT, go into hiding, avoid the abusers, learn self-defense, move to a new location, get therapy the rest of their lives, be told by people supposedly on their side that they're lying........
While the trolls and abusers usually go on their merry way. Their smirking, ego-maniacal, destructive, unrepentant, merry way.
I posted this before,http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6300404
REP
(21,691 posts)I don't have to tell you that even in everyday matters, having a female voice means not being heard or being taken seriously. Just an example: new in town, I took a car to a nearby place and told them the master cylinder was out. The guy grabs the keys, jumps in it, and tells me he'll see what's really the matter with it and drives it on the street with a 40mph speed limit. He gets the car back in the lot, looking shaken, and tells me, "Your master cylinder is out! That's pretty dangerous!"
Duh. I have a much better mechanic (and car) now.
If we aren't heard when we're trying to buy services, it's not a surprise when we're not heard when we demand that threats end.
SunSeeker
(51,785 posts)juajen
(8,515 posts)Here's a man of stature who is attempting to help women, and we are mad because he did not do something better, or sooner? Get a grip, women. He is doing something, which is 100% better than most men in our lives are doing or have ever done.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)There are plenty of Schilling bashings elsewhere in the thread, but THIS post is about *Social Norms*, in which women's voices are ignored, not taken seriously.
Only when a man of stature, an Alpha, steps in on her behalf against attackers, is the ATTACKER dealt consequences. The social response is in relation to HIM. She and her humanity, dignity, feelings, trauma, repercussions to her, are actually invisible in the interchange.
Capisce?
Sheldon Cooper
(3,724 posts)Anyone who thinks we're denigrating Schiller has reading comprehension problems.
betsuni
(25,753 posts)"These aren't kids who've had it rough, they aren't homeless orphans, these are pretty much ALL white, affluent, college attending children, and I mean children."
druidity33
(6,450 posts)and Yankee fans. (seems incongruous, right?) Glad he exposed them... i'd go further and prosecute the ones that threatened harm. But still, he says:
"So I look at it like this. Democrats, Yankee fans, people that dont like the sound of my voice, thats a pretty big group.
Those folks for the most part dont like me even a little bit.
Democrats for their own reasons, Yankee fans for theirs and the rest of them hate me for who I am or what I say, and thats not going to change."
Most of my NY friends are Mets fans... just sayin'.
IdaBriggs
(10,559 posts)are both issues he is aware may cause people to voice strong opinions.
But - and I agree with him - threatening to rape his daughter is over the top REGARDLESS OF ANYTHING ELSE especially over what should have been a non-controversial "yeah, my daughter has been accepted at college" tweet.
I hate Junior with the passion of the righteous, but NEVER said, let alone thought, such things about his daughters.
Arugula Latte
(50,566 posts)it seems like he's saying: "I'm no 'sensitive' guy -- I am used to getting dissed by Democrats and Yankees fans and I can take that, but these attacks on my daughter were way beyond the normal trollish insults I usually receive."
Part of the problem is he's not the best writer in the world.
Marrah_G
(28,581 posts)Shilling is a fucking tool. A typical hypocritical tea party asshole who cost the people of RI millions. He isn't just a republican, he is a politically active tea party guy with dreams of holding office.
That doesn't excuse what happened to his daughter. The internet can be a vile place.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,773 posts)would have potentially helped many women. Only when it affects him personally. I happen to know him personally and that's typical of him. He's a total dick.
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)Somehow, that just seems to bring more.
IdaBriggs
(10,559 posts)DamnYankeeInHouston
(1,365 posts)bullwinkle428
(20,631 posts)speaks VOLUMES.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,773 posts)Sadly.
seabeyond
(110,159 posts)and the incredible damage it is doing to our girls.
every girl, that uses any of the hi tech instruments.
there is nothing ok, about this.
i wonder if this falls into the category of us wagging our fingers, or being the purity police that a handful of men on du have such a problem with. that we are suppose to shut the fuck up about, not call out, cause after all, some men do not like to hear this. it makes them feel bad.
repercussions to this behavior will take us a long way.
sheshe2
(84,005 posts)chervilant
(8,267 posts)So far, haven't seen hide nor hair of that "handful."
mythology
(9,527 posts)Not that I intend to test that theory.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Someone famous can get results.
Random 17-year-old with run-of-the-mill parents that don't have fame or political power? Not gonna get any help from law enforcement.
In their defense, it's hard for law enforcement to actually go after the trolls. The communications almost always cross state lines, and so it becomes difficult for a local police department to pursue it. And arresting trolls isn't going to advance anyone's career at the FBI, or get them more funding from Congress.
Really fixing the problem is going to require fixing that last part.
ProfessorGAC
(65,334 posts)I heard Kate Fagan say exactly what you're saying on Around The Horn. She got the 2 minutes of face time yesterday and she used this situation as her piece.
The rich and powerful have more means to fix an issue like this than all the rest of folks.
niyad
(113,773 posts)raven mad
(4,940 posts)Amen, daddy!
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)The second step is imagining Dad's with fewer resources than you and reaching out a helping hand to help them protect their daughters, too.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)Oh, really? You mean just not in public, so you didn't know about it.
IdaBriggs
(10,559 posts)I have no memory of this type of language being acceptable in public ANYWHERE but it is all over the Internet and these kids obviously saw no reason to worry about their behavior (until now).
Poor manners or common misogyny? Or a raving sense of entitlement and the "freedom" to display it?
Skittles
(153,261 posts)he didn't notice it then
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)gregcrawford
(2,382 posts)They are filth beneath contempt. I don't care about Schillings' politics at this point; that's a discussion for another time. Right now, I just want him to know that I, for one, stand by him in his defense of his daughter, and in defense of all the women who have been victimized by these slimy little cowards.
onecaliberal
(32,976 posts)Including men who think there are illegitimate forms of rape.
PedXing
(57 posts)seabeyond
(110,159 posts)PedXing
(57 posts)However, in typical Republican fashion he is also considering lawsuits, which he normally vehemently opposes in his desire to end "frivolous" lawsuits with tort "reform".
Also, as repulsive as the comments were, these trolls are exercising their free speech rights. Certainly consequences are permitted, but I've heard equally repellent commentary from his fellow conservative friend, and apparent gal pal, Ann Coulter, and he hasn't gone beast mode on her or conservatives like her.
In other words, treat others like shit, but not people I consider important.
But, yeah, I'm glad he stood strong for his daughter. And I guess I respect him for that.
If she were the Sandra Fluck, and the troll was Limbaugh, well we know what Schillinf would not do, because he didn't do, anything.
seabeyond
(110,159 posts)PedXing
(57 posts)seabeyond
(110,159 posts)see. not really off your mark, are you?
PedXing
(57 posts)I explained how arrived at my statement because I thought you raised a valid question. You replied with snark about me allowing this or that. I pointed out that the internet is full of vile rhetoric. And of course you conclude, I suppose, that rape and threat of violence is meaningless. On the internet, it mostly is.
Your move.
seabeyond
(110,159 posts)this manner, on the net.
i find it an unhealthy manner to raise our girls in. it is their reality. it goes way beyond these boys. i take it seriously.
yes. i call out your dismissiveness. and though your say they could suffer consequences, your posts show more dissatisfaction with the father, than the issue.
move? whatever. i do not apologize for taking the issue seriously. even on the net. we have girls across the nation, in other countries, killing themselves because of this shit. lives matter.
PedXing
(57 posts)I have real experience with real sexual assault and I'm not sure I won't launch into an internet tirade that will sound a lot worse than any action actually taken.
Please don't reply.