A failed comparison that utterly fails to grasp the original message.

On the internet being black or asian or anything is unknown and irrelevant unless you voluntarily draw attention to it. Outside of formal social media sites, we truly do exist without skin color or nationality or religious bias while online. Now, if you hop on voice chat and you sound fresh off the boat or like you were raised in the ghetto, or heck, even if you have a bit of Southern drawl to your voice, you might get a polarized reaction to such a salient detail about yourself. But there are plenty of people who can write and speak online without giving away anything about their background, and they are judged by the merits of their words and actions.

If you make it a point to make a huge deal out of the fact that you're a particular ethnicity or gender, there are going to be people out there that either dislike you for what you are, or see a great opportunity for getting under your skin about any insecurities you might have. And the two are not as often the same as you might expect.

The essence and intent of the internet troll cannot be stopped, it will only be abstracted into more subtle and passive aggressive manifestations. Akin to people who develop extremely bizarre fetishes (i.e. the very act of renting an adult movie rather than anything to do with watching the content it contains) restriction will only cause it to take a more vague and flowery form in the direction of innuendo hinting at the intended message. The internet is extremely good at "rooting around damage" as so many here have often said.

As for all this talk about violent threats and actual harassment, aren't there already plenty of laws on the books for that sort of thing?

There is quite a bit of contradiction in those lines, and the former of them is the very reason the grandparent finds the FBI more threatening.

We kind of already have that. Depending on where one gets their news from and what one wishes to believe, one can comfortably find an echo chamber for just about any ideology right here on the internet we have.

It sounds like sarcasm but Poe's law hits hard with that one, given how many Americans unironically feel that way.

From the wiki link,

The election of Roosevelt was upsetting for many conservative businessmen of the time, his "campaign promise that the government would provide jobs for all the unemployed had the perverse effect of creating a new wave of unemployment by businessmen frightened by fears of socialism and reckless government spending."

Boy, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Putting "the bottom line" under such harsh scrutiny is the wrong way to look at MOOCs. They are an opportunity for anybody with the time and discipline to learn things alongside others interested in learning the same subjects without the need for scholarships or high GPAs. The people there are going to be considerably more interested in learning the material rather than trying to complete a degree in the name of high incomes or not shaming their family, kind of like the way university was intended to be before society told us we needed a good education in order to not be lower class citizens. I sign up for interesting MOOCs from time to time, and if the material is too difficult or I do not have the time to complete the lectures/assignments I may not pass them, but I may have still learned very useful things from the course or otherwise enjoyed the use of my time.

Rather than looking at the 4 million that didn't attend the class or the other 3.5 million that attempted it but didn't pass, I would look with great optimism at the whopping 400,000 that were willing and able to run the gauntlet. In the big picture it sounds like MOOCs are still touching a hell of a lot of people.

Insightful observations. These days there are many immature or irresponsible claims being made that undermine actual issues of inequality. Rape is always a talking point with its definition continually stretched as broadly as possible by radicals who want to manipulate the leeway given to anguished victims of actual abuse. People with a stance such as Miss Nevada's are branded and shamed as "rape apologists", and I have read of people trying to use the label of "slut shaming" to defend someone under fire for cheating on her boyfriend. Not for being promiscuous or provocative, but literally for two-timing in a committed relationship. Doing something she and her boyfriend presumably agreed not to do.

Tumblr in particular is an echo-chamber of hysteria and mental illness-- I'm not being hyperbolic either as many people blogging there openly admit to having some manner of disorder, illness, or experiences that "trigger" them, and pollution from this toxic environment is spilling out onto the rest of the internet in ways that appear even stronger than 4chan's influence.

Amidst rants like these the legitimate topics are being lost, and it really doesn't help that when the subject of sexism is examined forums meant for promoting discussion are quick to disable comments, ban criticism, silence dissent, all things Sarkeesian has also developed a reputation for doing. This in turn causes disagreements to smoulder and turn foul.

Hear hear, a shame I have no mod points today. Judging from past experience this summary is hardly the whole story, but rather cherry picked facts to make Sarkeesian appear the victim. She has built up a reputation of avoiding criticism and playing the victim as often as possible.

As technology gets better and better, especially at the rapid rate that it grows, exploiting this discovery may not always be that much more expensive.

It is a curiosity to try.

And thus we have people of each ideology living in their own worlds due to the echo chambers that form. Ironic how truth has become a lost cause in the age of information.

It absolutely does and a considerable number of officers will commit suicide, turn into monsters themselves, or otherwise wind up damaged as a result of years taking so many risks and being in that much danger. They see humanity at their lowest-- ranging from all the things you'd expect in the hood to domestic incidents in people who would appear normal to the rest of the world. They get to see the gruesome ways organized crime makes an example out of someone who crossed them. When there's been a big traffic accident, they have to go be there. They get to see and smell the aftermath of murder and death, and to a lesser extent witness how it affects the people related to these incidents.

Although the job may be less deadly while the soldier eventually gets to go home, the police officer is home. Over the course of a long career of this nature what might be changing psychologically?

Animosity towards change is natural and to be expected of an old fashioned place like Slashdot, especially considering how long it has been around. In the past there had been a couple of pretty terrible changes to the comments section that left a bad taste in the mouths of regulars, and precedents like that undoubtedly come to mind when a redesign comes about.

I'm... going to stick with the classic layout as long as I'm able to out of familiarity as well, but I'd be willing to give a redesign a fair chance if it retained all the traditional elements and didn't get too fancy with the scripts.