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"Proper Usage of 'It's Just The Internet'" Ordinance and more. . .

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"Proper Usage of 'It's Just The Internet' Ordinance"

"It's just the internet," "LOL Internets," and similar remarks are not a valid defense of trolling, spamming, making racist or homophobic statements, stalking, or bullying. These statements are also not a defense to being proven wrong by fact.

Violation of this ordinance will lead to an immediate loss of the argument, with an added punishment of being forced to read a college-level mass communications text until s/h/it recognizes the Internet is a personal communications medium.

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Corollary to the "Proper Usage of 'It's Just The Internet' Ordinance"

If "it's just the Internet" or any similar statement is invoked, one then forfeits rights to drag in Real Life. This includes but is not limited to issuing threats, or publicly mentioning the person involved's appearance, sexual orientation, religion, or lifestyle, unless any of the above is actually germane to the discussion.

Anyone in violation of this will be judged not to be an intarweb detective, but to be a stalker, and be requested to read The Gift of Fear repeatedly until s/h/it realizes that dragging Real Life into a silly internet fight makes s/h/it look really creepy.

ETA for one related suggested law. Firebad's Axiom of Green-Eyed Interweb Monsters

Allegations someone's objection to one's online behavior originated from jealousy when it obviously did not will substitute for "It's just the internet!" as an absolutely invalid defense.

Loving Brother of ETA: Edited for being tl;dr.

(Post a new comment)

ravenscanary
2006-06-05 01:14 am UTC (link)

Violation of this ordinance will lead to an immediate loss of the argument for the violator, with an added punishment of being forced to read a college-level mass communications text until s/h/it recognizes the Internet is a personal communications medium.

I approve, and donate my three marked-to-hell teaching copies of Understanding Human Communication by Adler and Rodman to this great cause.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	tsuzukilove 2006-06-05 01:37 am UTC (link)
	I'd donate my equally well-marked public speaking book from last year's class, if I could only remember the title. ^_^ (Reply to this)(Parent)

	gloria_mundi 2006-06-05 01:15 am UTC (link)
	Aw, come on. It's just the internet, lighten up! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	tsuzukilove 2006-06-05 01:34 am UTC (link)
	snerk (Reply to this)(Parent)

	iwanttobeasleep 2006-06-05 02:22 am UTC (link)
	"Wow, did you eat Fred Phelps for breakfast?" Is the best response to a homophobe ever. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	tsuzukilove 2006-06-05 04:08 am UTC (link)
	^_^ Next time I run into one, I'm so saying that. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	firebad 2006-06-05 03:51 am UTC (link)
	Awesome! But I think you need a "UR just JELUS" addendum. :) (Reply to this)(Thread)

	tsuzukilove 2006-06-05 04:10 am UTC (link)
	Maybe I do. adds (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	firebad 2006-06-05 11:13 am UTC (link)
	Yay! Now maybe someone will be JELUS of me! :) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	the_wanlorn 2006-06-05 05:19 am UTC (link)
	IT'S SO LONG. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	tsuzukilove 2006-06-05 05:21 am UTC (link)
	I'll edit. Removing examples and unnecessary verbiage. ^_^ (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	the_wanlorn 2006-06-05 05:57 am UTC (link)
	Well, since I'm the only one commenting about the length AND I'm half asleep, clearly I'm just being a little brat. Don't worry about it. ;-) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	tsuzukilove 2006-06-05 05:59 am UTC (link)
	~_^ It was a bit tl;dr anyway. I cut it as much as I could. ^_^ (Reply to this)(Parent)

	pink_lightning 2006-06-05 03:02 pm UTC (link)
	Moste excellente! I agree with this with fantastic enthusiasm! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	tsuzukilove 2006-06-05 07:55 pm UTC (link)
	Icon love! Is that Princess Marle from Chrono Trigger? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pink_lightning 2006-06-05 09:15 pm UTC (link)
	I forget. Let me check. Ah! It is actually Sailorjupiter from the cover of the first artbook. I should look into Chrono Trigger though. :) And I've always been meaning to compliment you on yours! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	tsuzukilove 2006-06-05 09:18 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you. They're not my boobies, though I wish they were ;) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	pink_lightning 2006-06-05 09:19 pm UTC (link)
	I've got boobies that size, but certainly not as nice looking. curses her tiger stripes (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	YAY TMI tsuzukilove 2006-06-05 09:20 pm UTC (link)
	Mine are about that big, but unfortunately, it's due to being a fat slob, LOL. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	iwanttobeasleep 2006-06-06 02:50 am UTC (link)
	What? Noooo! You edited out the best part! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	I could re-add in a comment. . . tsuzukilove 2006-06-06 05:34 am UTC (link)
	I edited it because I was afraid people would pile on with the tl;dr. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	harrylovesron 2006-06-09 07:32 pm UTC (link)
	Few days late, but good God, WORD. I've seen so many people make assholish statements and viciously insult people, then try and defend themselves with "It's just the Internet" or similar. I wonder, should this law also apply to "It's free speech OMG"-type statements, or is there already one for that? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	tsuzukilove 2006-06-09 07:36 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you very much. ^_^ Yeah, I've seen this around more than a few places, and "it's just the Internet" is one of the "escape clauses" that annoys me where few others can. I think there already is one for "it's free speech" somewhere on here. http://www.journalfen.net/users/tangentialone/957.html (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

harrylovesron
2006-06-09 07:41 pm UTC (link)

and "it's just the Internet" is one of the "escape clauses" that annoys me where few others can.

Same here. I'm as insistent as the next f_wer when it comes to Internets being serious business, but that fact does not obscure nor excuse being a total ass. Peoples' feelings CAN still be hurt by Internet statements, it's not like every offensive comment is disqualified from being offensive just because it's on the Internet and not spoken or printed.

And I'm pretty sure I did see a law like this applying to free speech; I just haven't looked yet. I forgot about that list, actually, thanks for the link.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

tsuzukilove
2006-06-09 07:51 pm UTC (link)

I'm as insistent as the next f_wer when it comes to Internets being serious business, but that fact does not obscure nor excuse being a total ass.

WORD.

it's not like every offensive comment is disqualified from being offensive just because it's on the Internet and not spoken or printed.

Actually, being on the Internet can make something *worse* than being spoken or traditionally printed, IMHO, simply because it has the potential to spread to a wider and more relevant audience.

For example, let's say I printed up a ton of fliers saying "Jane Doe is a filthy whore, don't talk to her." Even if I were to hand out fliers on a street corner for years on end, the likelihood of running into anyone who even cared about Jane Doe's sex life would be next to nil. However, if I posted the exact same message to a fandom she participated in, odds would be that at least one person would agree and start dishing the dirt on how they hated her, and she herself would most likely see it.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	harrylovesron 2006-06-11 05:57 pm UTC (link)
	Definitely. I think I'm going to open up a topic on fandom_discuss about this, because I want to hear what other folk think. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mcity 2006-06-23 12:10 pm UTC (link)
	Found the "free speech" one. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	gal_montag 2006-06-11 11:08 pm UTC (link)
	Hey, can we add a clause about saying something stupid and trying to weasle out of it by insisting that you "didn't mean it like that"? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	tsuzukilove 2006-06-11 11:18 pm UTC (link)
	I think that's already been done elsewhere in another law. ^_^ If it hasn't, come back to me on it. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	seiberwing 2006-06-26 12:30 pm UTC (link)
	http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/959799.html?thread=120116791#t120116791 Can we expand it to all bigoted statements? (Reply to this)