There’s more than one word for people who lurk around social media using its anonymity to spew hatred and venom because they don’t like someone’s views or the way they look.
Most of those descriptive words can’t be published in a family newspaper. But here’s one that can: Cowards.
If you’ve been on Facebook or Instagram or TwitterX, you’ve surely seen the kind of nonsense that these haters and racists use to bully their way into conversations where no decent person cares for their opinions.
Earlier in the week, the Charleston City Paper published a story on the Modjeska Simkins School in Columbia, which is affiliated with the S.C. Progressive Network. For the eleventh year, the school is again offering a 16-week curriculum of classes that teaches little-known history about South Carolina. It sounds like pretty interesting stuff – if you’ve got an open mind to learn facts you might not know about things like racism, oppression and how the planter class long took advantage of regular people. Maybe not everybody’s cup of tea, but definitely interesting.
And like most of the stories we offer, this story was published online – with a photo of some of the recent graduates. It showed a diverse crew of folks who looked happy on graduation day.
But some of them apparently didn’t look like some of the closeted bigots who hide behind the secrecy of the Internet. These word thugs crawled out from under their rocks for long enough to write some pretty horrible things that would cause any decent grandmother to find a big bar of soap to wash out their mouths. (If you ever wondered how the behavior in the Epstein files could have gotten started, it’s got to be somewhere near the kind of depraved mindset that pokes fun of people who may not have a model’s figure or have a different skin color or ancestry.)
Here are some of the wicked things these wretched Internet trolls said:
“No one in their right mind wants anyone like that anywhere near their kids.”
“I can smell this picture.”
“I’m going to make a bingo card for this.”
“Maybe they should take a class on nutrition instead.”
Fortunately, there are a lot of decent people who saw this crap on the Internet and shot it down. They didn’t hold back on junk from the haters, bigots and sizists with comments like:
- “I’m proud we have a group that does continuing education with a focus on the facts surrounding our history. I am deeply saddened and upset at the bullying in these comments regarding people’s body size and appearances.”
- “The men showing up in this comments section are demonstrating why there is a ‘male loneliness epidemic.’”
- “Apparently, you’re still in middle school with that stupid comment.”
- “Insulting someone’s eyes when you look like the offspring of two diseased siblings is a wild choice.”
The Simkins class will be offered in Columbia and six satellite locations around the state starting later this month.
“We’re going to teach you how to be effective” in challenging the historical power structure, said organizer Brett Bursey, who heads the 30-year-old, nonpartisan S.C. Progressive Network Education Fund. He also added, “The school’s mission is re-seeding a movement for systemic change with autonomous groups across the state.”
In our free society, people are going to disagree with news stories like the one on the new history class. But let’s remain civil. Often, that may be hard – and many of us may be guilty of lashing out occasionally (I am such a sinner). But let’s not fuel and sow division. If you disagree, stay within the guardrails of decency. Or just shut up and move on.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report. Have a comment (that’s not purely nasty)? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
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