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marjaerwinIn practice, it is a form of censorship. Even if harassers like to claim it is free speech. For several reasons, it tends to silence minority views and minority perspectives more than majority views and majority perspectives.
One reason is the Petrie Multiplier-- When you have multiple groups, and harassment of outgroups, those in the smaller groups are likely to face much more harassment than those in larger groups. When you have two groups, a and b, the amount of harassment each member of group b faces is proportional to the square of the ratio of a to b, and similarly, the amount of harassment each member of group a faces is proportional to the square of the ratio of b to a.
Another reason is unequal vulnerability-- for example, it's easier for attack-posts to injure someone with photosensitive epilepsy like Kurt Eichenwald, or with ptsd, or with phobias, than someone without. This has the effect of discouraging discussion of these things. Similarly, it's easier for doxxing to hurt undocumented immigrants, domestic violence survivors, so on.
Another reason is that power structures tolerate "punching down" but not "punching up"-- so harassers tend to target marginalized groups and/or personally vulnerable individuals.
One reason is the Petrie Multiplier-- When you have multiple groups, and harassment of outgroups, those in the smaller groups are likely to face much more harassment than those in larger groups. When you have two groups, a and b, the amount of harassment each member of group b faces is proportional to the square of the ratio of a to b, and similarly, the amount of harassment each member of group a faces is proportional to the square of the ratio of b to a.
Another reason is unequal vulnerability-- for example, it's easier for attack-posts to injure someone with photosensitive epilepsy like Kurt Eichenwald, or with ptsd, or with phobias, than someone without. This has the effect of discouraging discussion of these things. Similarly, it's easier for doxxing to hurt undocumented immigrants, domestic violence survivors, so on.
Another reason is that power structures tolerate "punching down" but not "punching up"-- so harassers tend to target marginalized groups and/or personally vulnerable individuals.
