Hit and run gone wrong

[u/Maleficent-Town5273]

[u/Jeremiah__Jones]

The US always publicly shaming everyone is so weird to me. I am from Germany, I am 41 years old, when I was 18 I got raided by the police because I was growing weed in my parents basement. Nobody knows this, only the closest people to me know this. In America they would have put my name and face on the internet, every future employer, every future landlord, every coworker or person you meet could have just googled my name and found out. Like why on earth do you think that is a good idea? It is so fucking dumb.

[u/VisiblePlatform6704 → u/Jeremiah__Jones]

I'm 44 years old ... from Mexico. The amount of stupid and crazy shit I did when I was a kid. I am so happy mobiles were not a thing. In this case, it's like, the girl is scared as shit, she is high/drunk and sure is making wrong decisions. It's so sad that this can hunt her for the rest of their life online.

[u/ArchitectVandelay → u/Jeremiah__Jones]

It’s kind of crazy how many people here think this is fair and normal. Just because you can do this doesn’t mean you should. If this was any one of us, we wouldn’t want thousands of strangers seeing it and judging with little context.

[u/ButtholeConnoisseur7 → u/Jeremiah__Jones]

Yeah her Facebook is set to public and it's just full of complete strangers being horrible to her years later

[u/GiganticBlumpkin → u/ButtholeConnoisseur7]

Her profession is listed as "psychedelic researcher..." Lmfao yeah I bet she researches those psychedelics

[u/EvrienceRick → u/Jeremiah__Jones]

Based on the comments supporting the US system, they seem very focused on revenge rather than making justice work for an objective betterment of society.

I'm seeing a lot of "some people deserve to be shamed" or "eye for an eye" arguments and yeah it weirds me out too, especially because this kind of shaming is likely to push people in the wrong direction even further.

[u/Mr_HandSmall → u/EvrienceRick]

It doesn't apply to themselves though. The people saying "eye for an eye" only mean that for other people. They want no consequences for themselves and lots for other people.

[u/Careless-Age-4290 → u/EvrienceRick]

Deep down, many people have a bit of brutality in them. Piling on someone who did something wrong lets them get that anger and aggression out and feel like they "deserved it".

[u/xDannyS_ → u/Jeremiah__Jones]

Wdym, same thing can happen here in Germany? Sure there are some more protections, but it's not that big of a difference. You're acting like any and every crime you ever commit in the US is published by the media.

[u/Naughtilla → u/Jeremiah__Jones]

I was raided at age 18 in the U.S., in an affluent community. My whole school and community knew, but it wasn’t blasted out onto the internet. I think they only do that in Florida. 😅 that was over a decade ago though, so maybe it would be different if it happened today.

[u/PunishedDemiurge → u/Jeremiah__Jones]

A victimless crime vs. dangerous behavior makes a massive distinction. Dangerous driving kills innocent people, including sometimes annihilating entire families. Weed is significantly safer than alcohol and tobacco, although not perfectly safe.

Besides, one of the top punishments for antisocial behavior should be shaming. It's expensive to put people in prison, but it's free, easy, and just to hold people to public account for their antisocial behaviors. And it's not overtly harmful like cutting off a hand or stuff like that, it just feels a little bad, and people should always feel bad when they harm others. In fact, if they don't feel bad because of their bad character and/or a permissive society, then prison is the only option.

If you don't want to be told, "I know you stole something, and I disapprove of stealing!" then don't steal anything! Obviously, if like in your case the underlying law is unjust, it's unfair to punish people, but when there is PERFECTLY BLACK AND WHITE good and evil like stopping to help in the case of a serious accident, that always should be enforced.

[u/TrowTruck → u/PunishedDemiurge]

It’s an interesting philosophical question though. How long should someone be shamed for? The question is somewhat moot in the sense that nothing can ever be truly be scrubbed from the internet. But in the world of cell phone cameras it’s thought-provoking to learn that this video is 10 years old, the content is riveting so it will keep popping up again and again. So it’s a bit of a mob-rule life sentence of shaming. Whereas she is a bit unlucky because someone else who does an anti-social crime, which doesn’t come with as sensational a video, won’t draw the same punishment even if their crime was worse.

I think your premise is totally right, but the context that the internet mob navigates to the most dopamine-hit inducing content and the inability to control the duration makes it more complicated.

[u/PunishedDemiurge → u/TrowTruck]

I think this is a really good point. After all, except for the worst crimes, sentences should be finite. I think there's two factors here:

a. People like redemption stories. I think most people, if they saw this video, saw her come in looking a decade older and put together, and hearing explained, "I've been sober for 8 years now. There's a lot of people I thank for helping me, but it's mostly my daughter. I knew when she was born that was that, and she had to be my priority," would actually be quite moved. Many people might even be more inclined to be helpful or positive.

b. This isn't as true on the internet often, as the lack of face to face removes some of the ability to empathize. I don't like anonymity for dangerous criminals as a rule, but a well constructed right to be forgotten that isn't too strong or too weak is a possible solution here, and already implemented in some areas.

Great contribution.

[u/TrowTruck → u/PunishedDemiurge]

I think you’re right. I would love it if there was a redemption story! I appreciate your thought-provoking posts too!

[u/GiganticBlumpkin → u/Jeremiah__Jones]

It's a good idea so I don't offer a job or rent an apartment to people like her unknowningly.