I’ve been meaning to comment on this story all week long. So in keeping with the theme for today, let’s hit it. Just what story am I talking about, you ask? Well, there’s a case going on right now up north in Canada, and it could have chilling repercussions for the freedom of speech on the Internet. A guy named Gregory Alan Elliott is accused of criminal harassment for tweeting differences of opinion at two special snowflake feminists. They made a big stink about it eventually, and tried to claim they were in fear because of these tweets. There’s only one problem, though. They’re full of shit:
The graphic artist and father of four lost his job shortly after his arrest, which was well-publicized online, and if convicted, could go to jail for six months.
These are astonishing repercussions given that it’s not alleged he ever threatened either woman (or any other, according to the testimony of the Toronto Police officer, Detective Jeff Bangild, who was in charge) or that he ever sexually harassed them…
Indeed, Elliott’s chief sin appears to have been that he dared to disagree with the two young feminists and political activists.
He and Guthrie, for instance, initially fell out over his refusal to endorse her plan to “sic the Internet” upon a young man in Northern Ontario who had invented a violent video game, where users could punch an image of a feminist video blogger named Anita Sarkeesian until the screen turned red.
Guthrie Tweeted at the time that she wanted the inventor’s “hatred on the Internet to impact his real-life experience” and Tweeted to prospective employers to warn them off the young man and even sent the local newspaper in his town a link to the story about the game.
Elliott disagreed with the tactic and Tweeted he thought the shaming “was every bit as vicious as the face-punch game”.
Until then, the two were collegial online, with Elliott offering to produce a free poster for Guthrie’s witopoli (Women in Toronto Politics) group…
Yet Guthrie and Reilly didn’t behave as though they were remotely frightened or intimidated: They convened a meeting of friends to discuss how Elliott should be publicly shamed; they bombarded their followers with furious tweets and retweets about him (including a grotesque suggestion from someone pretending she was a 13-year-old that he was a pedophile); they could and did dish it out.
“They were not vulnerable,” Murphy said once. “They are very accomplished, politically savvy women. If they can’t handle being mentioned in the tail end of a political discussion (on Twitter), then they’re in the wrong business.”
How could a case like this even make it this far? I can’t understand it, until I look at what the ultimate goal of the rad fems are. They want to silence all dissent. Why? Because they know their agenda isn’t palatable to the public, so the less strident opponents they have, the better. Some idiots will go along if they don’t see a lot of opposition to a program. Look at the cuck from yesterday. His whole life is fucked because he bought into all this feminist bullshit. If he had been exposed to more strong voices that might not have happened.
At the end of the day, it’s up to the people to stop this sort of government overreach. But if you sit back and think that it’s going to fix itself, you’re going to have a bad time. It takes awareness and activism. Sitting on the computer and tweeting is great. Posting blog posts is cool. I do both all the time. But you also have to educate friends and family, maybe even get involved at the local and state level. Most of the issues I talk about here are macro, but local is where it all begins.
And yes, I know this is Canada, but the attitude this case represents in on the march. If we site back and do nothing, they will eventually turn the Internet into a fucking prison. I, for one, am not willing to let that happen. A poor guy is being threatened with jail time over some totally innocuous tweets. This madness has to end.
