Geek As Citizen: Hashtag, Crashtag

I assume that you heard about the #CancelColbert hashtag on Twitter. I’m going to assume you did but the rough summary is:

  1. Colbert did a skit mocking racism in the name of the Washington Redskins.
  2. Part of the joke was retweeted, including his mockery of racism towards Asians.
  3. The joke on its own looked hideously racist (it was removed).
  4. Hashtag activist Suey Park tweeted the #CancelColbert hashtag.
  5. The internet had an intelligent discussion of racism, parody, and society.

I’m joking about #5 of course. I’d say the conversation degenerated, but the conversation never really generated. I watched a lot of the back and forth, which took on the air of a tennis game with grenades instead of balls. Eventually it got bizarre, snipy, weird, and in fine internet debate tradition, people directed racist and sexist comments at Suey Park and others.

As you may have guessed nothing good came out of this that I can find.

Read more