concordokken

Today has been a flurry of events, following up on all the posts about the Kathy situation and trying to understand the triggers that caused it.
Jonas has been my pillar and reason about the whole situation.

The reason i’m worked up about this isn’t because of one isolated case. not at all. it’s because when I posted it, some of my female friends told me that it happens to them as well.
So as much as i’d like for it to be an isolated case, that we men, don’t prey on the opposite gender it’s one of those drops of idealism that dried up in the sun.

in my home town of Umeå, Sweden, the police searched for four years for a single rapist that terrorized the women of the town.

they had him one time, but failed to realise it. why? he injected himself into the conversation, he played the role of the stable family father.

when they caught him, everyone in his close vicinity were all in denial. “Niklas would never do such a thing”“He’s such a nice person” were echoed by his family and loved ones.

During this ordeal, Some of the men banded together in groups that patrolled areas of the town, made deals with the cab companies so that women could get home safely on the weekends, and the dim streets were lit up by halogen lamps.

I’d like to echo something my friend Andie told me that at the time made me angry, but now makes sense. it is all of our responsibility, as men, to crush this sort of behaviour before it gets its chance to grow.

real men don’t abuse women. cowards do.

Kathy is a victim, of a sadist, of emotional and psychological violence. But also of her own fame and of the world surrounding her.

The people standing around and going “hey, that wasn’t all that bad” are veterans of abuse of Usenet and “IRC” flamewars from way back the veil.

the people who are shocked are the ones who believed there’s fame for free, and there isn’t. the internet makes fame instant, no prep, no hard work. write one nice thing, write five blog posts, and you’re a celebrity, with that comes the assholes.

there’s not one news anchor, columnist or writer who doesn’t get ten of these a day.

but they are prepared for it, they have people who help them screen it. this is how we chose our leaders in the past. by their readiness and willingness to submit themselves to the public, for good and for worse. and they stand firm.

thanks Jonas.