Curt Schilling was one of MLB's better pitchers during my teen and young adult years but I have new found respect for him and it has nothing to do with his wins, strikeouts, or ERA. Forget the bloody sock game. Curt Schilling's greatest victory came earlier this week when he defeated two Twitter trolls.
For those that missed the story, here's what went down. About a week ago Schilling posted a tweet proudly congratulating his daughter for being accepted to a college on a softball scholarship. Of course this lowered the drawbridge for the Twitter trolls to attack. A few people used this opportunity to harass Schilling and his daughter for no reason with disgusting sexually explicit remarks. This kind of thing happens on social media all the time. Gutless people type terrible things to strangers because the feel there are no ramifications. Everyone thinks their untouchable on the internet. They think they're so funny. Well this time the joke's on them as Schilling is the one with the last laugh.
Schilling was able to identify two of the individuals that were doing most of the trolling. One of them was a college student. He was suspended from school. The other was a ticket seller for the Yankees. He was fired. I'm not usually one to find happiness in the misfortunes of others but I'm so glad these two creeps got what they deserved. Many will make the argument that it was all in good fun and Twitter shouldn't be taken seriously. That's bogus. If these things were said to someone's face or written in a letter sent through the mail they would be taken as serious threats. I don't know why people think they can get away with saying anything they want without consequences just because it comes from a keyboard.
Whatever happened to human decency? I don't want to use these two as an example of how the majority of society behaves. I like to think there are still a lot more good people than bad. Unfortunately it's the bad ones that always get our attention. I don't understand why certain people get their jollies by trying to get a rise out of someone they've never met on the internet. What's the accomplishment?
I wonder what these two trolls are like in their daily lives when dealing with real people. They probably act like any other normal human being you come into contact with. Maybe this incident shouldn't define their whole character. Still I have to wonder what kind of human being sees a perfectly innocent tweet from a father to his 17 year old daughter and turn it into something disgusting. What makes them even have that thought in the first place much less type it out and send it to the father for the whole world to see? It's pretty disturbing.
I really hope this sets some kind of precedent for holding people accountable for their words on the internet. Maybe this will be a wake up call to other trolls out there and we can reduce some of the hate and harassment that goes on. Maybe Schilling will inspire others to take action and we can start to kill off the trolls for good. That college student that got suspended, I wonder what his reaction will be during Easter dinner when Grandma asks him how school is going. Hope he's proud of his oh so clever comments now.
For those that missed the story, here's what went down. About a week ago Schilling posted a tweet proudly congratulating his daughter for being accepted to a college on a softball scholarship. Of course this lowered the drawbridge for the Twitter trolls to attack. A few people used this opportunity to harass Schilling and his daughter for no reason with disgusting sexually explicit remarks. This kind of thing happens on social media all the time. Gutless people type terrible things to strangers because the feel there are no ramifications. Everyone thinks their untouchable on the internet. They think they're so funny. Well this time the joke's on them as Schilling is the one with the last laugh.
Schilling was able to identify two of the individuals that were doing most of the trolling. One of them was a college student. He was suspended from school. The other was a ticket seller for the Yankees. He was fired. I'm not usually one to find happiness in the misfortunes of others but I'm so glad these two creeps got what they deserved. Many will make the argument that it was all in good fun and Twitter shouldn't be taken seriously. That's bogus. If these things were said to someone's face or written in a letter sent through the mail they would be taken as serious threats. I don't know why people think they can get away with saying anything they want without consequences just because it comes from a keyboard.
Whatever happened to human decency? I don't want to use these two as an example of how the majority of society behaves. I like to think there are still a lot more good people than bad. Unfortunately it's the bad ones that always get our attention. I don't understand why certain people get their jollies by trying to get a rise out of someone they've never met on the internet. What's the accomplishment?
I wonder what these two trolls are like in their daily lives when dealing with real people. They probably act like any other normal human being you come into contact with. Maybe this incident shouldn't define their whole character. Still I have to wonder what kind of human being sees a perfectly innocent tweet from a father to his 17 year old daughter and turn it into something disgusting. What makes them even have that thought in the first place much less type it out and send it to the father for the whole world to see? It's pretty disturbing.
I really hope this sets some kind of precedent for holding people accountable for their words on the internet. Maybe this will be a wake up call to other trolls out there and we can reduce some of the hate and harassment that goes on. Maybe Schilling will inspire others to take action and we can start to kill off the trolls for good. That college student that got suspended, I wonder what his reaction will be during Easter dinner when Grandma asks him how school is going. Hope he's proud of his oh so clever comments now.
