Under my desk...

...that's where I'm going to be hiding.

Apparently someone, somewhere, out there, on a blog has accused Ravelry of hosting "right wing hate speech" (No link to the blog in question - though I've seen it - I'll explain why). Also that it permits "stalking."

There is no way this can go a good direction. If there really is a genuine hate group on Ravelry (and I've not seen it, of course...I've dealt with a few prickly individuals but no one HATEFUL), then that's a huge problem (and hopefully the Ravelry PTB will deal with it).

But, if this is someone out to slander Ravelry, to make it look bad, then that's ugly and wrong too. Defining what is and is not "hateful" speech can be tricky sometimes, and there is speech that a person may dislike greatly but that would not be considered "hate" speech, because it didn't issue specific threats or call for specific violence. (That said: there are TOS on Ravelry that are not the same thing as the First Amendment; there are probably things permissible by government that would not be permissible on the site. It's a slippery issue, like the whole Banned Books Week thing - I admit I don't particularly like that name, because there's a difference between the government preventing us from buying a certain book and a school district deciding that a particular book is, perhaps, too 'adult' for their elementary library....but both get lumped as "banning." And there's a shade of difference there; if the child's parents wanted them to read the book, they could still go out and buy it somewhere....)

Or if it's someone who feels they've been wronged in some way - and are lashing out - and are trying to use the blog platform to get sympathy/make Ravelry look like the devil - well, that's problematic too. (I hate to say it, and I hate to jump to conclusions, but I'd not be surprised if this were what was actually the case. Just based on way too many of the human interactions I've had in the past 6 months.*)

(What bothers me is how VAGUE the accusation is - no group is named, no specific instance of stalking is outlined. I can understand someone who feels threatened not wanting to name names, perhaps, but the lack of detail - especially considering the blog in question is pretty much anonymous/pseudonymous - does not lend credence to the accusations for me).

It's stuff like this kind of thing that I fear will someday make me yank out all the plugs on my electronic devices and take a baseball bat to the computer. While a lot of the wonderfulness of the human race can come out over the internet, so does a lot of the messed-up-ness. And my tolerance for the messed-up-ness is getting lower by the day.

(*Just too add: I think this is another big reason why I've felt so 'broken' lately - several people I've dealt with IRL have turned out to be, I don't know how to say it nicely, but shown the sort of memememememe and "If I don't get my way, I'm going to pout and be nasty about it" behavior that makes me absolutely nuts. There are very few things that will make me walk away from a friendship but someone who ALWAYS has to have their way ALL THE TIME and acts childish when they don't get it...that's one that will.)