Publish stupidity = life ruined

J
JPNor

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The women in the three photos above all have something in common:

1. They photographed something that they thought was funny, but was perceived as insensitive.

2. They published said photo to social media.

3. Their lives were ruined.

You've probably seen all three of these photos at least once. In the first photo, the two men went to a Halloween party dressed as George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin (in blackface). The second picture needs no explanation. And the third picture, perhaps the most extreme example of the above, is Alicia Ann Lynch, who dressed as a Boston Marathon bomb victim for Halloween.

In all three cases, the women lost their jobs shortly after their photos surfaced. In Alicia's case, however, internet justice was especially swift and incredibly harsh. She received multiple threats involving murder and rape. Her parents, and even some other random guy with the same name as her dad, received hate email and threats. And the collective Internetizens found a Tumblr account with many, many photos of her. Nude. By the time she deactived all her social media accounts, the damage had been done.

TL:DR? Alicia's life was completely ruined, at least for the near future, as a result of her stupidity. 

It's arguable what was dumber: the original action, the fact that the action was documented, or that said documentation was published for the world to see. Regardless, I ask the question: Did their stupidity merit such a harsh punishment?

If I asked Trayvon Martin's mother, or a marathon amputee, I'm sure I know what their answer would be. But to the neutral rest of us, the observers, did they deserve to be fired for being stupid for a few minutes? (Really, really, stupidly insensitive?)

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