7 Responses to “When smart mobs aren’t”

1. 1 Catez  on Oct 7th, 2004 at 11:12 pm

   Good post. I just read the Wired article and also the Wizbang one. It’s insane how politics has become an internet idol.

2. 2 Bene Diction  on Oct 7th, 2004 at 11:16 pm

   Social identity theory run amock.:^(
   - we can’t pretend this kind of behaviour doesn’t take an emotional and social toll.

3. 3 Catez  on Oct 7th, 2004 at 11:25 pm

   Agreed. I joined UnRight Christian Blogs today - a direct response to some things that have occurred in my little part of the net this week. I’m not a political blogger - I am after a different kind of fish! It really saddens me the most when I see Christian blogs coming out with things that are destructive to others. I’ve had to draw a strong line with some people recently.

4. 4 Bene Diction  on Oct 8th, 2004 at 12:05 am

   I’m not a joiner, but since UnRight Christians has no rules for inclusion, I’m okay with being there. I read a lot of right/conservative/neo-conservative pundit blogs. There are some that understand communication is a process and a practice, exceptions though. Needing to win doesn’t encourage conversation. I read a lot of non political god-blogs that cover all spectrums and lots of non-faith blogs.
   It’s good to find bloggers that think things through from places I can identify with, without the hyperness. There is room for all of us, and having to draw boundaries is hard and tiring. Blog on!

5. 5 Joe Carter  on Oct 8th, 2004 at 8:23 am

   You are absolutely right that the bloggers and emailers who hounded Hailey were out of line. The anonymity of the Internet makes it easy for people to step outside the bounds of civility and far too many people use it to abuse others.

   I appreciate the fact that Wired questioned the tactics used by the bloggers but I wish they had gone a bit deeper in exploring what led to the outrage. Hailey, in my opinion, was attempting to take advantage of the North American reverence for academia to mislead people. Americans are often criticized for being anti-intellectual but we have a reverence for professors and anyone else with an advanced degree that borders on the idolatrous.

   Hailey made a claim that he presented as fact. When it was later discredited he tried to pass it off as merely part of a “work in progress.” This was simply dishonesty.

   I think much of the outrage was due to ordinary people waking up and realizing that members of the academy are human. They make mistakes, they are influenced by their political ideologies, and they can even be dishonest. While this should have been obvious, it was one more instance that caused people to lose faith in the priesthood of the academy. In my opinion, that was the root of the anger and frustration.

6. 6 Roy Jacobsen  on Oct 8th, 2004 at 11:02 am

   Let’s be sure we don’t muddle the two issues here, and paint with too broad a brush.

   This is what happens in the arena of ideas: one puts out a proposition with all its supporting data and reasoning, and others then attempt to kick it full of holes. In Hailey’s case, he did this and some of his critics looked at it and accused him of sloppy methodology and sloppy reasoning (at best) or downright academic fraud with a baldly partisan motive (at worst). Reasoned criticism of Hailey’s work is perfectly legitimate.

   Others then looked at the criticism of Hailey’s thesis and formed the “blog mob,” many–but not all–of whom went over the line in their responses.

   When a mob attacks an accused miscreant, that does not prove that the accused is innocent or guilty. The attack is wrong; there are rules that govern this sort of thing. Even if the accused is indeed guilty, lynching is never justified.

7. 7 Drina  on Oct 8th, 2004 at 11:52 pm

   It makes me wonder, who’s next on the mob list?