Sunday, June 7, 2015

Washing one’s dirty linen on Facebook

After all Facebook can be considered the new public and guess old idioms need to adjust with the times. And washing ones dirty linen was exactly what I saw happening on my Facebook news feed a couple of days ago.
It all began with this guy who has a reputation for writing incendiary articles publishing something about women also being responsible for rape. How females should dress more conservatively in order to not invite rape. As expected this created a huge uproar among Sri Lankan netizens. What was not expected is that this also resulted in his step daughter accusing him of abusing her 20 years ago. Due to the sentiments expressed in his writings and the tone of his articles and his overall aggressive and confrontational personality it was quite easy to see him as a monster quite capable of such an act. As far as the netizens were concerned he was already guilty of the crime and cries of rapists were being cast at him even though there was no legal conviction.
The purpose of this post is not to say who is right or wrong. I believe that should be only determined after a proper investigation. Most definitely NOT by public opinion.
Coming to think of it there is no purpose of this post other than to express my sadness and disappointment at everything and everyone I guess. 
Because everything spiraled downwards from the moment these allegations were made. What was worse was that it was on a public thread. The accused too had commented on the thread revealing some salacious information not only about the young lady concerned but also about her late mother and father. Information which was no one’s business as far as I am concerned. All of which was lapped up greedily by the readers who I am sure were getting some kind of voyeuristic pleasure out of this whole incident. I decided not to post links to the articles which lead to the furore, or the fb link on purpose. I believe the intention of the articles was to create controversy. To raise ones hackles and to obtain some kind of negative reaction. And I really don't want to be contributing to a person's misguided cause. Though I believe he has the right to express his opinion. And as far as the fb thread is concerned because what happens on Facebook should remain on Facebook ideally in a private thread.

2 comments:

sherlina halim said...
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sherlina halim said...
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