"Intershunning" -- a concept needed by the Internet!

[alfreda89]

Amy Sterling Casil, an interesting person and excellent writer, has come up (we think) with the word that can eliminate ever again naming a troll: intershunning. Use it well!

http://asterling.typepad.com/incipit_vita_nova/2008/05/intershunning.html

A snip:

"I select carefully who and what I cover -- and now I'm formalizing my policy. If I don't like what you do, how you do it -- and above all, feel that you are abusive of others, either by taking economic advantage of them, or you're just a bottom-feeding piece of stinking biofilm, I'll be intershunning you."

Comments

[incandragon.livejournal.com]

Darn skippy!

[asterling.livejournal.com]

Kathi -- I broke my rule already. One of the people I thought it was appropriate to Intershun was Lori Drew, the adult woman who thought up the scheme to manipulate a young neighbor girl that ended up costing the girl her life (she committed suicide - in October 2006). Nothing happened to the Drew woman all this time except the town shunned her and her family, which gave me the "intershunning" idea. I think eventually, they moved or were forced to move (I do feel sorry for her daughter, who was encouraged to do this by her mother - and the rest of the family, who may have had no idea). But I put her name today because she was just indicted by the Los Angeles Grand Jury for these internet crimes!!! (It occurred in Missouri, I believe, but apparently the grand jury could look into it due to the internet nature of the situation). They actually indicted her. Somebody actually did something!!

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I hate to say this, because it may sound shrewish, but I'm astonished and glad they indicted her. A country must mature (although we are so behind in many ways) and that means everyone has a drop of responsibility for the rest of our country. Be it a piece of land, or a stranger whose day is bettered because you take the time to say they look wonderful in that sweater.

I'm human, and I know we all have the potential to be petty. But a friend of mine in HS was stood up by a guy who was probably in a bet that he wouldn't ask her out. She wasn't conventionally pretty, but I suspected it was a set-up -- she didn't know his group, but I had bad vibes -- so I consoled her and told her his loss, there are better ones out there.

She found a better one, and she's now a prof at a university and has a great husband and two grown daughters. She made it. I don't know all the details about this poor girl's suicide -- but thinking something up as a joke is one thing. Writers do it all the time. DOING it is entirely something else. A mom has to be the one who says: "I know it sounds funny, but you'd never really do that to someone. It would be cruel. How would you feel if it was done to you?"

LD wasn't a responsible grown-up, and someone died. That's the sort of thing were if you're lucky, your small town neighbors only shun you for seven years, and you become a lifetime volunteer somewhere to work off the huge debt of a life taken much too soon.

People are so complicated. It infuriates me to see that step over to cruelty.

[asterling.livejournal.com]

Kathi, that's a great point about everyone maturing. I think the trend to "accept" everything (when not accepting it would be difficult, such as pursuing this indictment, which occurred in Los Angeles, not the local Missouri area where for two years, officials avowed there was nothing to be done) is pretty terrible.

I couldn't believe that any mother would allow her daughter to do something like that, much less encourage or foment it. I couldn't imagine getting wind of Meredith doing something like that and letting her get away with it. So, I'm gratified as well. I don't feel badly for feeling that way. I think that LD (good choice!) had her chance -- before any of the harassment started. It isn't because the young girl was driven to her death. She should never have cooked up the scheme in the first place -- so nasty and evil.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I think the trend to "accept" everything (when not accepting it would be difficult, such as pursuing this indictment, which occurred in Los Angeles, not the local Missouri area where for two years, officials avowed there was nothing to be done) is pretty terrible.

I think there's a big difference in being tolerant of some things and this just accepting that bad happens, the end. Wrong. Maybe that's the difference for we who write speculative fiction. We ask "why?" and "how did this happen, and how can we prevent it?" I have people tell me I'm very tolerant (maybe too tolerant) but so much that local people want to police is not my business. Yes, you have the right to raise your children in your religion. But if your religion takes children out of school at the end of eighth grade, then we must require you to send them to school until they graduate from high school. Because 75% of your children do not remain in your faith -- and they should not be left helpless outside your community, or a burden on the country's services. Can you tell I gently had this argument with a friend who was upset that the Amish are required to send their kids to high school?

It's true that occasionally the public must draw a line. I know that many motorcycle riders feel they must be allowed the responsibility of choosing, or not, to wear helmets. I can understand this, because of course helmets are heavy and unwieldy and may give a sense of false security. But I think it's fair for the state to say: "All right, you do not have to wear a helmet. But then you must sign this paper saying that you understand you're doing this against the best advice available, that you have health insurance, and that the public does not have to spend $500,000 in three days trying to save your brain after it hits the pavement."

When Obama spoke in Pennsylvania and actually spoke about race, it was the first time in my life I felt a politician spoke as if to adults. If he can be brave enough to speak like an adult, maybe the majority of the Electoral College is ready to grow up, too.