Sunday 4 August 2013

Twitter Silence? Not for me.

I've just fully noticed the whole #TwitterSilence thing.

I'd heard bits here and there, but to be honest, I hadn't engaged.

For what it's worth, despite being a woman, writing about politics online, challenging authority and those who believe sick and disabled people should have no rights, I don't really get trolled much.

Why is that I wonder? There's certainly plenty of disability hate out there at the moment - more than at any time I can remember in my lifetime. I've never had death threats, rape threats, sustained cruel trolling or any other nastiness. The very few users I felt it was impossible and pointless to engage with, have been quietly blocked. I don't need to see their hate, they don't want to see my opinions - it's a win-win and really easy to do. One click. "Block" Ooops, done! Just like that.

But then, I've never called anyone a "spaz" or a "mong" online. I hesitate even to call IDS evil.

Anyway, getting into the why's and wherefores of cruel trolling is not the point of this post. My dear friend, Mrs Nicky Clark has suffered some of the vilest abuses I've ever encountered anywhere, never mind online, simply for trying to oppose disability hate language and crime.

No, this post is for those thousands of sick and disabled people who rely on Twitter as their only form of social interaction. Nothing has horrified me more than how totally isolated some of my supporters are. Simply because of their impairments, friends may have drifted away, colleagues no longer call, family may judge and choose to turn away.

For many, Twitter and of course other forms of social media are their only lifeline. Many have found love, acceptance, humour, intelligence and a deep understanding they had despaired of every finding again. It is where the word #spoonie came from.

What's more, many of those people, despite their own isolation, have been engaged in a desperate fight for dignity, support and inclusion which they see being stripped away from them at every turn. They have found a voice and that voice is now powerful, respected and innovative. The idea that self censorship, clearing the floor for their opponents could change anything at all would be anathema to them.

Every civil rights movement through time has found success by speaking out and speaking out and speaking out, calmly, reasonably, but forcefully whatever their critics say, whatever the provocation, however they are threatened or decried. Nothing else ever changed the world, ever.

So I'm afraid there will be no silence from me. I will be here, supporting people desperate for that support, as I am most days. I will be here for the friend who hasn't seen another human being since the grocery shopping was delivered last Tuesday. For the friend who just found out they are to lose everything at the hands of the DWP, with no idea at all why or how it could have happened. I will be here, as I always am when I open my DMs to find someone so desperate, they plan to take their own life - oh those messages I get regularly. They break my heart, silence would be a cruel and incomprehensible response.

Twitter silence will do nothing to articulate fear or desperation or loneliness. As a response to bullying and cruelty, I'm afraid I don't see the reasoning.

15 comments:

  1. "Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. The grave will supply plenty of time for silence" -Christopher Hitchens

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  2. I'm with you on this one Sue :-)

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  3. I absolutely see your point. However, of course I can see how merely blocking wasn't working out well for the women getting repeated threats.

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  4. So you report them. To twitter and the police. Not like there's no recourse

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  5. It should not have been silence.

    It should have been a mighty noise; a flurry of hashtags like #stoprapeculture or #shoutoutagainstrape and the like.

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  6. Got to agree with both Sue and Alex. Silence isn't the answer, protest is.

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  7. You touched me with this one, Sue. Thank you.

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  8. I'm just on my way back down south from seeing Danni and Johan in Gateshead - Danni has severe ME and relies on social media, including Twitter, to have any kind of social life as she's bedridden in a dark room. Twitter silence isn't an option if you're a friend to someone like that. Besides, the bullies want to shut people (be they feminists, disability campaigners or whoever) to shut up - why would we give them what they want, even for a day?

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  9. I see their point, Sue, but I also see yours. I'm around on Twitter.

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  10. Agree 99.9999% (undecided on IDS!)

    A bunch of people refusing to entertain their followers to raise awareness is one thing, but I can't see how someone who uses Twitter to raise awareness refusing to raise awareness is going to help raise awareness!

    Please keep on keeping on.

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    1. I'm not undecided on IDS. He is guilty of attempted genocide on an identifiable group - he knows the effects of implementing his absurd beliefs on innocent victims, and still feels justified. I say, try the lot of them, and be prepared to throw away the keys!

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  11. I don't think the silence does really help, but i can imagine the poor women being a little scared by the twitter bullying, but that's where proper officiating and monitoringshould be operating to stop peoples twitter accounts if they are found to be tweeting nasty threats to people. FFS, this stupid government never does anything right. Maybe when it's closer to election time David cameron will want to get involved, but don't hold your breath!!

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  12. I always need to learn from and hear from elders. They can teach me many things about inner strength.

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  13. I think IDS is undeniably evil. I also think that he is profoundly mentally ill and utterly unfit to hold office - the latter does not preclude the former.

    I have not passed up a chance to say so, publicly, for several years, in the so far vain hope that a journalist might seize upon the idea and pursue it, something I don't have the resources, physical or otherwise, to do myself.

    I'll keep plugging away, though.

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    1. fully agree Ron he will find out later in life of his evilness as all tyrants throughout history have experienced

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