In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

I’m as annoyed by Joe the Plumber as everyone else…

But Jesus Christ, don’t post his address on your blog. I’m not linking to the post itself for obvious reasons, but come on guys. It wasn’t ok when right-wing bloggers did it to a 7th grader, and it isn’t right to do it to a man just because we disagree with him, he challenged our candidate, and his name was trotted out a lot by John McCain. And before someone says that this was just a DKos diarist and pretty much anyone can pen a diary, I’ll point out that the entry was promoted to the front page. So yes, the blog administrators are responsible.

I also don’t have much patience for wingnut bloggers whining about it, considering their treatment of Graeme Frost. It’s easy to throw that back in their faces right now — after all, Malkin went to the kid’s house herself, and Mark Steyn said “If a political party is desperate enough to send a boy to do a man’s job, then the boy is fair game.”

But come on. We are not Michelle Malkin or Mark Steyn. We can do better than this. If someone can explain to me what good could possibly come out of posting someone’s home address, I’m all ears.


17 thoughts on I’m as annoyed by Joe the Plumber as everyone else…

  1. Right on, Jill. I think it’s completely fucked up how people feel it’s okay to go after someone and harass them because they don’t like their views. It wasn’t okay when the anonywanks did it to certain feminist bloggers, it wasn’t okay when Michelle Malkin did it, it wasn’t okay when that moronic power tool Bill Donahue did it. It’s CERTAINLY not okay when assholes on our side do it.

    In fact, dear harassing assholes: Please leave our side IMMEDIATELY. We don’t want you. Now go get bent. Buh-bye.

  2. …maybe he’ll be overjoyed that two dozen strangers signed him up for Cheese-of-the-Month clubs because he always meant to but never had time, given his 70-hour weeks?

  3. …I’m sure they were all intending that he be sent kind notes politely discussing politics… no?

    Hope the address is removed before too much damage is done. That is seriously dangerous and wrong.

  4. Given that the national media has been camped out on his lawn for several days and that anyone with the inclination to track him down could easily do so since his hometown and odd last name are in the public record, I don’t see what additional damage publishing his address does. What’s offensive is claiming that he’s not a plumber because he lacks a license (he doesn’t need one) or calling him a tax cheat because some puny lien was filed after the bill was sent to the wrong address.

    There’s no equivalency with the Frost situation. The kid was dragged out of bed and flown to DC at 6am to read a speech, written by Democratic staffers, to a national audience. Malkin merely visited the house of his parents, who were the ones actually responsible for invading the kid’s privacy. In contrast, all Joe the Plumber did was ask Obama a question after the candidate made an unscheduled stop in his neighborhood while he was playing football on his front lawn.

  5. Did the diary ask people to contact him? The hyperlink only goes to the Dkos front page.

    In the event that it doesn’t, I think Raving Athiest is right, that information was out there, especially with regards to the snafu about registration and relationship to Charles Keating. It’s more akin to the ethics of the chinese “human flesh search engine” as people tied down various aspects of who Joe the Plumber was. Given just how much he stinks of being an astroturfing publicity stunt, I’m not sure people were especially wrong in getting to the bottom of it. On the other hand, there were plenty of inaccuracies, much as what went on in China, that were propagated before facts were firmed up.

    It’s really not that analogous to the S-CHIP situation with Michelle Malkin, unless the dairist was talking about harrassing him. I’m not sure if that happened or not, but I do want to emphasise that exposes, even when things like addresses are mentioned (that is pretty key evidence for just about any kind of fraud–guy doesn’t want wronged mob following–so PO Boxes, etc, etc) are an important part of our discourse.

  6. …and the Raving Atheist comes in to demonstrate why we are better and smarter than his side.

    Still, though it hardly needs saying: I agree with you, Jill.

  7. Oh god…I *really* had not read Raving Atheist’s post right, did I?

    Oops.

    Anyways, my point of disagreement is simply that in depth information searches are a permanent aspect of many activities involved in policing–from fraud to job screening. I just think it matters more what people *do* with information, not *precisely* that it was handed out. Advocating that people interact with the target would be my brightline.

  8. As an atheist, I would like to ask the Raving Atheist to leave my side, or at least consider becoming a Ruminating Atheist.

Comments are currently closed.