Polite Paradise

Vanquished, I can see you are really passionate about this subject. And, I get where you are coming from on certain points--encouraging people to "report" on one another, for example. Society, and subcultures within that, define what they think is the "correct" behavior/opinions to espouse, and this certainly changes over time. Witness, for example, US government scientists not being able to discuss human-caused climate change, because the current administration does not believe in it. They could have been at risk of losing their jobs if they posted publicly about human-caused climate change and identified themselves as government employees, and a third party took note of this and pointed it out to the authorities. This is something I think is wrong, but our current government leaders are saying it has to be that way, and just a few years ago with different people in charge, it was handled differently.

But, it would still be their own actions that started it, by posting publicly in defiance of their bosses' orders. So I think that's a very important component of the situation--it's not someone being "reported" after a private conversation in their own home, or even in a restaurant, is overheard. In this case we're talking about comments that are meant to be seen by "the public," blasted out to the world on Twitter or Facebook or something like that. Even Bolli's homophobic email wasn't sent to a friend, it was sent to a commercial company in response to their advertising, so there really isn't an expectation of privacy there. And, people need to be aware that their public comments (attached to their real name) could get back to other people and cause hurt--whether it's a friend's hurt feelings because you insulted their outfit, or your employer looking askance at you because you posted something that goes against the employer's mission.

In all cases, I'm talking about something that really did happen--the comment may have been taken out of context in a larger posted conversation, but it's accurate that the person did post those words. Obviously lying about what someone did to get them in trouble is not appropriate at all. I think there has to be proof provided, like unaltered screenshots of the whole conversation, that gives the comment in context as well. And, I like to think--naively, I'm sure, as we have discussed situations that got out of hand already in this thread--that a report to an employer is not an automatic firing, that the employer will investigate, talk to the poster, get their side and their explanation, talk to the people who work directly with them, etc..

Like in the example you give about thinking homosexuality is a sin in the religious world, but that only God has the authority to sort that out, so on Earth homosexuals should be given full rights, etc.--if someone just caught part of that posted conversation, it could look pretty bad, but if they saw the whole thing, or if the poster had a chance to explain what they meant, it might turn out okay for them. Personally I think they should know that it's a pretty hot-button thing to post and handle it very carefully and be extremely clear about what they really mean--witness the recent controversy with Liam Neeson and his story that (in my interpretation) was supposed to be anti-racism, but he explained it poorly and came off as racist instead to many, and seemed surprised there was any problem. If you're going to go around posting/commenting publicly with your name attached, you need to have enough awareness of the world to realize when you've got a hot potato on your hands and handle it accordingly--not by keeping quiet, but by being aware of and sensitive to misinterpretation. If you are flippant or muddled, it's just going to make a bigger mess.

Are perfect decisions always going to be made? No, because we are just humans. We can't all agree on what the perfect decision even is! There are always rumors, and lies, and exaggerations, and misinformation, and it's not easy to sort through that. Like I got the "AIDS in Africa" tweet story wrong, because I only had the amalgamated early impression of the story from the media, before it had been sorted out. I didn't even realize there was something to be wrong about there, but now I have learned otherwise. So I hope that if an employer gets a report about an employee, they don't just have a kneejerk reaction, but rather investigate it and ask questions. Sometimes the media can make that more difficult, if they put pressure on an employer to do something fast and dramatic; other times the media is the way the employer even finds out there's an issue.