Here Comes Everybody, Bitch
Of the books I've read lately, Clay Shirkey's Here Comes Everybody had some interesting notes on how the internet and easy connectivity has changed how society reacts to, well, everything.
He notes that the Catholic Church has had priest abuse scandals in the past, but this is the first time in history the church has been unable to squelch them. Why? Internet, of course. If you have a cause, you can mobilize people for your cause with the greatest of ease, circumventing the usual channels that were previously if not necessary for organization then certainly helpful.
So interactiveleaf posts recently about a pickup truck with more than the usual ornamentation.
I forward this to a non-LJ friend. Days later, we were discussing the picture. He suggests the license plate is probably racist (in that it contains racist code numbers, not because of the "CV", which probably stands for Confederate Veterans). So, on a wild try, I Google the license number.
Whether he was right or wrong, holy crap. Thanks to that photo, that number has gone viral, and this viral activity has bitten the truck owner right on his ass:
Douglas Story, a Chantilly dump truck driver for the Virginia Department of Transportation, says he wanted to grab people's attention when he paid $224.90 to have a mural of the burning World Trade Center detailed onto the tailgate of his Ford F-150 along with a sticker that reads: "Everything I ever needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/11."
But he got more than he bargained for when a photo of his pickup went viral on the Web last week. Motorists and Muslim groups complained that his Virginia vanity license plate -- 14CV88 -- was really code for neo-Nazi, white supremacist sentiments. The state Department of Motor Vehicles voted last week to recall Story's plates and force him to buy new ones. . . .
And his boss told him that he could no longer park on VDOT property with the anti-Islam mural. So Story spent an afternoon getting new randomized plates and peeling the mural off by hand.
"I feel naked," he said.
Don't feel too badly, Mr. Story. In one respect, the internet has failed, for you can apparently keep your fucking racist Confederate Battle Flag in your back window. Consider it your fig leaf of racist dignity.
He notes that the Catholic Church has had priest abuse scandals in the past, but this is the first time in history the church has been unable to squelch them. Why? Internet, of course. If you have a cause, you can mobilize people for your cause with the greatest of ease, circumventing the usual channels that were previously if not necessary for organization then certainly helpful.
So interactiveleaf posts recently about a pickup truck with more than the usual ornamentation.
I forward this to a non-LJ friend. Days later, we were discussing the picture. He suggests the license plate is probably racist (in that it contains racist code numbers, not because of the "CV", which probably stands for Confederate Veterans). So, on a wild try, I Google the license number.
Whether he was right or wrong, holy crap. Thanks to that photo, that number has gone viral, and this viral activity has bitten the truck owner right on his ass:
Douglas Story, a Chantilly dump truck driver for the Virginia Department of Transportation, says he wanted to grab people's attention when he paid $224.90 to have a mural of the burning World Trade Center detailed onto the tailgate of his Ford F-150 along with a sticker that reads: "Everything I ever needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/11."
But he got more than he bargained for when a photo of his pickup went viral on the Web last week. Motorists and Muslim groups complained that his Virginia vanity license plate -- 14CV88 -- was really code for neo-Nazi, white supremacist sentiments. The state Department of Motor Vehicles voted last week to recall Story's plates and force him to buy new ones. . . .
And his boss told him that he could no longer park on VDOT property with the anti-Islam mural. So Story spent an afternoon getting new randomized plates and peeling the mural off by hand.
"I feel naked," he said.
Don't feel too badly, Mr. Story. In one respect, the internet has failed, for you can apparently keep your fucking racist Confederate Battle Flag in your back window. Consider it your fig leaf of racist dignity.