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Comment by taylorwc | Hacker News Reader

I think they article would more aptly have been titled, "How One Thoughtless Public Expression of Justine Sacco's Lack of Judgment and Racism Had Consequences." Really hard to feel sympathy for her.

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How about, "one ironic joke, and then a long flight where she could not communicate that she was being ironic, cost Justine Sacco a lot".

She wasn't being racist, she was lampooning American insularity. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn't get that it was a joke, and/or didn't get the joke, and she paid the price.

Even if one were to give her the benefit of the doubt on whether or not her tweets express racist sentiment, there's still a stupendous lack of judgment on her part. She's saying things publicly, associated with her name. Anyone who expresses something in that fashion should be fully prepared to deal with backlash. She should have the right to express her views, even if they are unpopular--and she should be willing to handle the consequences.

Perhaps, but in this case, the consequences were really disproportionate to the "crime".

Here's what "should" have happened:

<public>: Hey, that's really racist.

<sacco>: Oh, I didn't mean it that way - I'm making fun of American insularity.

<public>: OK, I still don't like it, but I get what you meant now.

I agree with you that there was an overreaction. But that's a risk each of us runs when we publish something via a public medium. Any time I want to publish something, whether it's a private SMS, a tweet, a comment on HN, or something else, I'm obliged to consider its content, and make a judgment call on whether it's appropriate. If I'm wrong, I have to deal with it.

Well, I think she knows that now. I guess you aren't the sort of person to ever make a bad judgement call in public. Like not even a single occasion.

I sure as hell have. Many times. And every time, no matter how much I hated it, I had to face the music and deal with the mess I had created, regardless of whether it was my original intent.

I was probably a tad harsh there. Sorry about that. I guess it's a matter of degree - she wrote something she thought was ironic which came across badly, but instead of getting a chance to face up to the music and explain her side, the entire Internet went insane and she lost her job.

It seems a little much.

> Really hard to feel sympathy for her.

I'm sorry you can't feel sympathy for her for the bad things that happened to her. None of us are perfect, we all act badly sometimes—but we're not comic book supervillains, either. Even bad people deserve sympathy when bad things happen to them.

Really? No sympathy? Did you read the article? Obviously what she said was inappropriate but there are very few people that should be dragged through the mud as roughly as she was. Especially over less than 140 characters.

Should she have lost her job? Yeah probably being in such a high profile position. But should she be reviled as an truly awful person when her only crime was an ill-conceived tweet? I don't think so personally, and it scares me that we are willing to judge and condemn people for so little.

> it scares me that we are willing to judge and condemn people for so little.

Me too! That's why I try my absolute best to exercise caution and be thoughtful about what I say in a public forum. I don't disagree that the reaction was overkill; but that's the way the world is, even if I think it's wrong.

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