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Hey, um.
Do we maybe want to think about reasons why noted white guy and video game legend Tony Hawk might be cooler about memes joking about fans killing him than a Dominican-American voice actress whose show was targeted by a GG-style hatedom for being "SJW"?
Maybe?
Do we maybe want to think about reasons why noted white guy and video game legend Tony Hawk might be cooler about memes joking about fans killing him than a Dominican-American voice actress whose show was targeted by a GG-style hatedom for being "SJW"?
Maybe?
Also, Tony Hawk doesn& #39;t have to worry about being killed because you& #39;d have to recognize him first.
It& #39;s a sucky situation that a Very Online profession of love for a celebrity was misunderstood as a literal threat of violence, but... I mean. Aimee Carrero barely has a bigger Twitter imprint than I do. My experience is this level of following brings more raw nerves than power.
I don& #39;t wish harm on anyone involved and I think the best possible outcome of a high-stakes misunderstanding like this is people move on from it, not keep it going and escalate and fan the flames.
But if you make a meme-riff joke about killing someone, and that person isn& #39;t Online enough to recognize what you& #39;re doing, they& #39;re not the bad guy.
I say this about comedians: when you tell an edgy joke, you own the risk you& #39;re taking.
I say this about comedians: when you tell an edgy joke, you own the risk you& #39;re taking.
And I understand how the meme culture makes it seem like it wasn& #39;t even that edgy! I do! This is a sucky misunderstanding and maybe the most genuine case of "context collapse" I& #39;ve ever seen.
I& #39;m not wagging my finger at anyone and saying they should have known better. This is just a perfect storm that resulted in a terrible outcome.
But if you want a takeaway from it, "Think very carefully about all the angles before you make a joke about, say, killing a real person" should be right up there with "If you have a big Twitter account, be careful how you put people on blast."
