Do you know who I am? No? GREAT!

 

By…Erik Schuman

 

After a break I am back and from now on will be posting every week.

One of the great things about the Internet and social media is also one of the worst things about it. social media sites allow people the right to comment on anything. The “Power of One” can now be heard by many and all can react on it in whatever way they deem appropriate. It also allows people to remain anonymous if they choose to do that. Most do.

While some sites verify “big names” in some form, most users are not. This allows someone to sign up on Twitter with a handle like: Butcherboy32. This might have some meaning to that person. It might also be a way for them to pick a handle that has no ties to them at all.

Butcherboy32 signs up on Twitter and now he/she is free to say whatever they want. You can threaten to harm someone and if that gets you in hot water you simply delete the account and sign up for a new one as: Butcherboy33.  If Butcherboy33 then says how he wants to rape some woman or harm a bunch of people of a race/skin color he doesn’t like – he can do it. Anything short of threatening to harm/kill whoever the POTUS may be – or his family (one day it might be HER family) - you can pretty much get away with it (For the record I am NOT advocating that – not by any means whatsoever).

That needs to change.

The time has long since come and gone for social media to verify EVERYONE! If you wish to post on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or…you need to submit to the site your ID and phone number. They keep it secret, but they know who you are. This way when Butcherboy32 says he wants to “rape and mutilate” someone, law enforcement knows exactly who said it and where to find that person so they can be arrested and charged to the fullest extent of the law.

The closer we get to November 3 – the more this is needed!

 

This also would have come in handy last week.

FC Dallas’ defender Reggie Cannon was one of many players who chose to take a knee during the national anthem before their game against Nashville on Wednesday August 13. This marked the first MLS game with fans since the Covid-19 outbreak. In total fewer than 3,000 fans were at the game (Or as the Miami Marlins call it: A record-breaking attendance). Some fans had issues with what the players did. They booed. That is OK. That is well within their rights to do so. They threw objects on the field. That is NOT within their rights to do so.

And then social media took over. I think we know where this is heading. Cannon, who is black, took all sorts of abuse on that wonderful media platform. Cannon said the boos were “absolutely disgusting.” He is both right and wrong. It is disgusting but it is also OK for fans to boo if they so choose. I have been to games where my team stunk the joint up and lost by a million. I booed as did most others. The players would tell you they deserved it, too.

When Cannon gave his thoughts, social media then took over. Cannon received an avalanche of racist and threatening comments from “enlightened” people who are losers and have no life of their own outside of sports.

Both MLS and FC Dallas owners strongly came out in favor of Cannon, supporting him and speaking out against the Neanderthals who attacked Cannon. My guess is most of the people who did so are like “Butcherboy32” and didn’t have their name attached to the comments because they know if they did, they would have been fired from their job.

This is exactly why we need to have 100% of all social media accounts verified by an ID. If that was the case 99.999999999999% of all jerks who ripped Cannon would not have done so.

Having said all this, I sense Bill Baptist wishes he took this path in a recent post of his. Baptist is a freelance photographer from the Houston area. He has covered the NBA Rockets for some time. He is also inside the NBA “Bubble” in Orlando.

Make that: WAS!

Baptist recently posted something on his Facebook page. After Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris as his Veep choice, Baptist thought it would be a good idea to post the following – a take-off on the Biden campaign logo.

I agree. HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS! He got called out for it and the NBA then told Baptist his services would not be needed any more and sent him home. Baptist then insulted the intelligence of every single person by posting the following insincere statement:

“I deeply regret posting on my Facebook page a phrase that I saw and copied from others as a sample of some people’s reactions to Biden’s selection of Senator Harris as his choice for VP. The phrase I posted does not reflect my personal views at all. I should not have been so insensitive to post the statements by others. I sincerely apologize to all of those who have rightfully been offended and I have taken the post down from my FB page. It was a horrible mistake on my part.”

The part on bold was done by me. YES! IT! DOES! Baptist’s only apology is that he got caught doing it. He absolutely agrees with what he posted. It absolutely agrees with his personal views. THAT IS WHY HE POSTED IT!

Pedophilia is a sick, vile, disgusting act for which there is no chance for a cure for those engaging in it. NO ONE will disagree with that. Except those who are pedophiles. If someone posts something on the internet condoning this, and then someone forwards it on to their Facebook page or Re-Tweet it does that mean they condone that sick, vile disgusting act? DAMN RIGHT IT DOES! They can say how that doesn’t represent the “real me” but how many people out there have ever done anything but report to the authorities anything on this subject matter, unless they condone it? 0%!

For Baptist to use the tired, lame, and insulting line of: “Does not reflect my personal views at all” only makes him look worse. It is fine if he thinks Kamala Harris really is a “Hoe.” That is his right to be stupid. Just don’t tell us later how that’s not the real you…BECAUSE IT IS!

“Good luck” to Baptist trying to find employment ever again in a public setting. Maybe he can quietly get a job for some company. Or maybe he can get hired by someone in the Republican party since that is where his thoughts are although I doubt even Republicans would stoop that low to hire Baptist, but you never know.

The only thing I do know is what happened to Baptist should happen to all those who attacked Cannon. Only difference is they were (almost all) anonymous and Baptist was not. If I had my way, all would be treated the same.