Because I am posting this from my phone, I cannot link to a post that mentions being upset that I didn’t link to the student that came out as having a relationship with Hugo Schwyzer. There is a reason I didn’t link to this woman: I don’t know the degree of exposition she wants or if she is even OK with it being discussed openly. I am very, very wary of linking to any of his victims who have been abused and attacked by his supporters. This is not something I take lightly. It is a double edge sword, on the one hand, it is worth making it public, on the other, it risks exposing the victims, who are already vulnerable, to more abuse.
I’ll give an example: I have thousands of followers on Twitter. I am resilient to a lot of online asshatery. Yet, today (not last week but today), I had to endure a feminist with a significant following attacking me for not being “nicer” to HS enablers. I am very quick to deal with that nonsense mocking it first and subsequently blocking it but I am not going to inadvertently expose others to that kind of potentially triggering harassment. I know that what I write can be amplified and I try to be responsible about it even if some people might prefer that I do link to stuff and make it more visible. Not everyone wants the exposure. Some people have blogs that they write for themselves or their friends, just because something is online it doesn’t mean it should be treated as public goods.
When in doubt, I’d rather err on the side of protecting people who neither deserve nor need further harassment. And if there is one thing I did learn from Schwyzer is that his supporters will not stop at anything to make themselves heard, even at the expense of his victims and those he abused.
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