Bullies and Bystanders ⇥ ragingthunderbolt.wordpress.com

Raging Thunderbolt:

Even worse are reactions like Harry Marks’s (Marks is, of course, a noted fan of the podcast):

They took apart a developer’s website in a mean-spirited and childish way, not unlike how they’ve torn apart bad tech writers over the last four years. Yes, they’ve been doing this for four years, but now suddenly it’s a problem.

That’s where defenders of Angry Mac Bastards are wrong. It is not only a problem now, suddenly. It has always been a problem. Unfortunately, too many of us bystanders simply watched and let the cyberbullying continue. And, worst of all, the people who actually listened to the podcast and its sponsors encouraged and enabled the continuing cyberbullying.

Entirely agreed. The premise of Angry Mac Bastards seemed, to me, to be a show celebrating a lack of nuanced critique or interesting discussion, opting instead for shouting and vitriol. I’m sure there are fans of that kind of thing — Rush Limbaugh certainly has a huge audience — but bullying of this calibre and in front of a large audience is detestable. Good riddance.