It's like watching a train wreck - you just can't stop!

[layla]

So it turns out that LJ advisory board candidate legomymalfoy received actual death threats urging her to drop out of the race. Rather than let the bastards win, she's staying in.

Former candidate (and buddy of jameth) cambler, who was losing anyway, dropped out yesterday over a rumor of death threats against an unspecified LJ-er. Now that it turns out he's not the target, rather than offering sympathy to legomymalfoy like a decent human being, he's accusing her of not caring about her family's safety and whining like a five-year-old that he was unfairly forced to drop out of the race [ETA: post is now locked] and that LJ should invalidate the whole election on his behalf. (Wahhhhh! Mommeeeeee! They made me drop out! It's somebody else's faaaauuuult!) And the commenters, who are pretty much the same group of Jameth-supporting trolls who have been acting like fuckwits all over every OTHER election post, are quick to claim the death threat's a fraud and any rise in her vote count at this point must be due to sockpuppetry. (Please note in regards to that last comment thread, the only "flak for cheating" that she's been getting, that I've seen, is from Jameth's camp's unsupported claims that she's been cheating, which is rather a different thing.)

I'm alternately horrified at these people's utter lack of human decency, and horrified at myself because I can't seem to leave it alone.

Here's a link to the voting page again, because god, I do not want to see this batch of scum win this election.

EDIT (5/30): The election's over, I'm about snarked out for a while, and so, I'm stepping away from this discussion for the moment. Non-friend comments are still screened, and I may be (very) tardy to unscreen/reply.

Comments

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I appreciate that you feel the urge to defend your friends, and appreciate very much that you've done so politely; thank you! (And actually, I *do* think cambler's photographs are appealing. I don't always find them in the best taste, but he's unquestionably talented.)

However, it's absolute bullshit that you (generic "you") are not encouraging trolling if you know your flist is prone to trolling, and you point them in the direction of a link anyway. If Jameth chooses to surround himself with that sort of people, it's his business. But if he directs known trolls to a post, he is absolutely encouraging trolling, and it's extremely disingenuous to pretend he's not. And if he shows up in a troll-infested thread specifically to point out that he's amused by it (as he does above) he is obviously condoning and encouraging that behavior.

If I know a guy beats his dogs, and I give him a puppy and later smile and call out encouragement when I see him beating it, I may not have control over his actions and I may not have told him to do it, but I definitely bear some moral responsibility for it.