Aram Zucker-Scharff

“

“If the court rules for Elonis, those who are harassed and threatened online every day – women, people of color, rape victims and young bullied teens – will have even less protection than they do now. Which is to say: not damn much. […]

But the responsibility of dealing with online threats shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of the people who are being harassed. And it shouldn’t need to rise to being a question of constitutional law. If Twitter, Facebook or Google wanted to stop their users from receiving online harassment, they could do it tomorrow.”

”

– Tech companies could end online harassment tomorrow.

revaballerina:

coreespencer:

JESSICA WILLIAMS FOR PRESIDENT.

::MIC DROP::

F yes.

“

“UVA’s emphasis on honor is so pronounced that since 1998, 183 people have been expelled for honor-code violations such as cheating on exams. And yet paradoxically, not a single student at UVA has ever been expelled for sexual assault.

“Think about it,” says Susan Russell, whose UVA daughter’s sexual-assault report helped trigger a previous federal investigation. “In what world do you get kicked out for cheating, but if you rape someone, you can stay?””

”

– A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.

A Quick Note About Politics, Video Game Reviews, and Grand Theft Auto V:

agameofme:

It doesn’t take nerve to side with the powerful and to punch down.

To call for an absence of “political agendas” in video game criticism is itself a deeply political agenda, one in defense of a very imbalanced status quo that many perceive as perfectly balanced. It is also to hope for the impossible, since most games are inherently political and therefore any review of such a game, whether by choosing to discuss the politics of the game or choosing not to, is assuming a political position of some kind. When people say “get politics out of my games and game reviews,” what they really mean is “Keep making games that reinforce my worldview, stop making games that challenge my worldview, and stop questioning the political values of the games that reinforce my worldview.”