Yeah, so this article is in direct response to some of the comments that popped up on the social media posts mentioned in this article.
Full disclosure, since you’d probably notice this even if I didn’t directly admit it, I personally condemn the people or person who decided to deface the mural painted in tribute to George Floyd and the BLM movement on the Greek Tree in Sturges Quad. I personally condemn racism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, homophobia and any other form of hatred towards or oppression of minority groups. I am an advocate for human rights and equality.
Unfortunately, even people who claim to advocate for human rights and equality occasionally condemn the actions of ignorant and hateful human beings through the use of hateful methods not dissimilar from the tactics used by their opponents.
Before delving into specifics, I’ll be briefly metaphorical. If you’re watching a movie and you’re trying to decide who the good guys are, what do you look for? Personally, I look for the people defending other people. They’re generally not going out of their way to harm others—they’re just protecting and advocating for the people they care about.
Say you’re someone who wants to prove to the audience you’re one of the good guys. You even want to prove this to an audience member who came in half-way through the movie and isn’t sure who the good guys are yet. What are you going to do? Do you pick up a weapon and attack? Or do you defend?
When considering these kinds of incidents in real life, there are nuances to every debate. There are still weapons and warriors in the virtual and intellectual sphere, but they’re subtler and more socially acceptable than those on real battlefields. Now is probably the time to examine a dangerous weapon that internet frequenters are no stranger to: doxing.
Doxing is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the act of publicly identifying or publishing private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge.
Geneseo students are guilty of doxing. Yes, Geneseo students, in the name of liberalism and human rights, have exposed the personal information of a fellow student with the intention of getting revenge on them.
I won’t name names, but before this happened, another Instagram post went viral across our campus for the conservative views in the caption and suggested by the photo. The comments under this Instagram post were vulgar and disgusting, and yes, this Geneseo student’s home address was leaked over and over again in their comments accompanied by vague threats and terrible implications.
In the posts referenced in this article, I saw less doxing and more personal attacks. The conservative individual who posted the offending material was fueled by the words of fellow students or enraged community members. They even created an Instagram story titled “Idiot Liberals” and uses it to post screenshots of DMs and comments that they have received on Instagram. Many of these comments are genuine, thought-provoking points that don’t attack this individual on a personal basis, but a few are incredibly threatening and personally invasive.
Here’s an idea: send those thoughts to your friends. Whisper them to yourself when you’re alone. Don’t comment them at or DM them to people empowered by backlash. Don’t give the bad guys any reason to believe that you are anything other than the good guy. Do you see how you’re making it worse?
Instead of making jokes or spreading rumors about an individual and their personal life, think through an argument logically. Feel free to comment your side of the issue. Stand up for BIPOC and marginalized communities. Don’t attack just to attack. Educate the ignorance out of them.
I know what you’re thinking: “they won’t listen. They won’t be educated.” Maybe the person whose post you’re commenting on won’t listen, but the thousands of people scrolling through the comments section and trying to decide who’s in the right are going to see the slur you threw out at the offending person.
You don’t really seem like the good guy when you’re being petty and cruel just to exact some sort of half-hearted revenge. Who knows, you may actually convince someone to agree with you by writing that well-composed argument. Seriously. If you’re going to be a good guy, please do it right.