I am increasingly starting to think that it is wrong to ratio people whose only offense is expressing a bad opinion on the internet.

Among many other reasons: It is very easy to misjudge based on a tweet what someone’s opinion actually is.

It’s also very easy to misjudge whether the opinion that a tweet seems to be expressing is something that the author still believes.

Just about everyone who has spent a significant amount of time on Twitter has tweeted something that looks really bad out of context.

It’s inevitable on a website in which people have a lot casual conversations in public.

Also: When people listen and learn, their opinions change over time. Most people who act in good faith on this website have a bunch of old tweets they’ve forgotten about that they no longer agree with.

Even when everyone involved in the ratio is more or less acting in good faith, it’s very easy to make a mistake and to be cruel to a stranger who hasn’t really done anything all that wrong.

When bullies are involved, it’s a lot worse.

Given that everyone has tweets that look bad out of context, it’s *really* easy for bullies to find something to screenshot or quote tweet out of context.

Bullies can make anyone they happen to dislike look terrible — and they can use bystanders as weapons against them.

When bullies know that people won’t look into the context before going and yelling at someone, they can get a large number of people to go yell at anyone who they happen to want to hurt.

For that reason and many others, I think that everyone on here has an obligation to be careful about who they yell at and about what kind of outrage they signal boost.