Safer Internet Quotes

Calling the Internet a public forum is done to invoke a conceptualization of the Internet in which all expression is seen as valid and worthwhile. However, in reality it frames abusive comments as suitable online behavior while vilifying any attempt to make online spaces safer for everyone interacting in them. After all, if the only way for women to avoid abuse is not to talk, whose free speech has actually been affected?

As a rule, menstruation is generally not something seen in porn, which is a peculiar omission in an industry that fetishizes everything from shoes to stuffed animals to excretory functions. Though credit-card processing companies seem to have no problem with double- and triple-penetration sites, bukkake, and electricity play, most of them regard menstruation and other forms of blood play as out of bounds, citing obscenity violations as well as safer sex concerns---though anal cream pies and the like are at least as risky.

Therein lies the most common trap we fall into when trying to make the internet a safer place: framing it as a war of good people versus bad people instead of looking at acceptable and unacceptable ways to treat each other. 'Good people' get off the hook for doing bad things, while 'bad people' aren't considered worth understanding or empathizing with and aren't encouraged to progress, evolve, and do better. The question isn't 'What the hell is wrong with those people?' It's 'What the hell is wrong with us?' Or even 'What the hell was wrong with me?

Should I Invest in a Timeshare? In my professional career, timeshare properties have been by far the worst investments I’ve seen. Buyers are lured with a free dinner or spa coupon, only to endure a hard sales pitch by peddlers who do not know the meaning of the word no. This will be the most expensive dinner you will ever not buy, if you sign up for the “free seminar” in exchange for a restaurant coupon. You can’t borrow against a timeshare or use it like a regular financial asset, and you can only reside in it for very short and specific periods of time. If you are really considering getting a timeshare, then only buy it on the secondary market; simply do an Internet search—you’ll find plenty of remorseful sellers offering you their units at huge discounts.

I quit my high paying job in a Fortune 100 company to pursue my dream of helping people realise their dreams. I don’t make a lot of money now but I am happy. To whomever on the internet is selling people the dream that if you do what you love and work really hard you will make lots of money, please stop. Your passion is not a guarantee towards income. Your hard work is not a guarantee towards income. Here’s the deal: there’s no guarantee. Even if you choose the safer route of employment, layoffs happen, recession, contracts get broken, and industries shift. But when you choose social entrepreneurship, by definition, you are choosing risk. Yes, I have made some stupid money mistakes, mostly while I was pursuing my old dream career as a writer and trainer. It’s easy to be blinded by passion. When you decide to go for it, go with open eyes. And do it so that your dreams have better shot at actually coming true. “Impractical” dreams LOVE practical plans.

When so much of online abuse is driven by a failure to empathize with someone on the other side of the screen, turning those who are abusive online into some unknowable, unstoppable force of nature is a damaging mind-set. If we don’t try to understand them on a human, personal level, then we are moving forward in the dark. By dubbing them “those people,” we are also explicitly setting ourselves apart as if we aren’t one of them and thus can’t be part of the problem. Therein lies the most common trap we fall into when trying to make the internet a safer place: framing it as a war of good people versus bad people instead of looking at acceptable and unacceptable ways to treat each other. “Good people” get off the hook for doing bad things, while “bad people” aren’t considered worth understanding or empathizing with and aren’t encouraged to progress, evolve, and do better.