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Comment by Arzh | Hacker News Reader

How is that not targeted harassment?

Many of those banned on Twitter were using language that poked fun at media departments or corporations, not specific individuals. Is targeted criticism of a corporate group now taboo? Why has it become OK to share memes criticizing Fox News, but not OK to share memes criticizing the Huffington Post editorial team?

Hyper-sensitivity to criticism of the media strikes me as misplaced. In an age where their content sits in every curated above-the-fold screen, who watches the watchmen?

How exactly is it ? Was it not targeted harassment when they were suggesting that miners should "learn to code"? Why not though? We all know that was derogatory. Does it become targeted harassment because it came from 4chan ? Or are they entitled to protection from the same type of jokes they were making?

When they were 'suggesting that miners should "learn to code"' was it in an article they wrote or was it a coordinated campaign to find people who were laid off of coal mining jobs and tweeting them "learn to code"?

Well, i don't know many miners with a twitter handle so I have no ideea whether it was a coordinated campaign or not. The fact that they worked for the media did give them reach though, what I understood from your reply is that as long as you put it in an article it's fine... just don't tweet @. That being said... 4channers should create their own Buzzfeed, you don't need journalism training for that; and just attack from there. I'm not saying i don't feel bad for the people laid off, but it' just a tweet. In bad taste, true, but it's not the first, and it will not be the last. this time though, the so called buzzwhatever journalists are the target so that is apparently worse. m2c

I don't think putting in that kind of thing in an article is"fine" but if it is in an article I would expect for you to show me where they are talking down on the workers, not just the job. I don't like coal mining so my desire to stop coal mining could be taken as "looking down" on coal mining but I DO NOT look down on the people who work in coal mines. I also don't see setting up or supporting the creation of programs that will teach these out of work coal miners a new profession as looking down on them either. I'm just trying to find why people are feeling like this because I can't find and hard evidence that they actually do talk down to these people.

Why "learn to code" though? Why not "learn to write quizes"? Why not "learn to plant potatoes". What exactly qualifies miners are prospective coders ? (this is where the actual joke began) "that kind of thing" -- you are making it sound way worse then it actually is. Most of them were targeted at the editorial department and not persons. Would the campaign be less opressive if people suggested that the laid off "learn to cook" ? That is exaclty the point, nobody looks down on coal miners and nobody looks down on coal mining. Coders on the other hand have been taken as a joke long before the twitter thing happened. look no further than Mr. Trump

What exactly is the reason a miner can't learn to be a code? The reason they are teaching code is because it is looked as a skill with a lot of demand which is the whole point of the programs that teach in-demand skills. I honestly don't follow what "Coders on the other hand have been taken as a joke long before the twitter thing happened. look no further than Mr. Trump" means, can you rephrase it?

You have to view it within the context of what Twitter does allow. For instance there's been weeks of people fighting about the Covington High School kids with people on both sides hurling insults far beyond "learn to code" at each other and Twitter as done nothing. In fact many of the journalists "targeted" for this were extremely vicious in their condemnation of the teens, town, church, republicans...

I suspect that this happened leading up to the layoffs only heightened people's interests in seeing the journalists get a taste of their own medicine.

Why exactly did you quote targeted? You are saying specifically that people are targeting these journalists, you just have no sympathy that they are being targeted.

"Targeted" implies they are being harassed. I don't see this as harassment as much as the fair result of their own actions and people correctly leveraging an open platform.

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