People who make death threats are fuck-witters

I apologise in advance but this post could edge into rant territory. I try not to rant, but sometimes I do. Forgive me, but a blog is for blogging my insignificant thoughts and I certainly have a lot to get off my chest.

It concerns someone who has attracted quite a bit of interest, both in print and on Twitter: Sara Malm. I will not repeat her story or link to her i piece, because the content of her piece is not relevant. Instead I want to point to the ever-growing trend of death threats. Malm’s piece has proved controversial and spurned abuse, insults, response posts and messages threatening her life. Malm tweeted about the threats, saying:

“I'm done explaining myself. If you didn't understand it on Friday I doubt you will now. Stop sending me death threats, they're pathetic.”

“Although some of the personal ones are quite terrifying. Some douchebag tracked down my baby sis on fb and threatened me through her.”

People who read opinion writing, then disagree with it and then tell the writer they will kill them need to understand something. One, everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how much you disagree with it. Two, threatening to kill someone because of their beliefs is a sad indictment of some members of the human race. Three, going so far as to use the Internet to track down people’s family, just to use them as a way of threatening someone is.. is.. no words. No words can describe the stupidity of some people. Stupidity is not a strong enough word. Completely moronic, fuck-wittery is a bit closer I suppose.

Here is a simple life lesson that these fuck-witters should read, digest and adapt: people should be allowed to have an opinion without you wanting to kill them for it. Call me a revolutionary, hey, call me crazy, but that is my opinion. No doubt someone read that and disagreed. In which case, I will be sleeping tonight with an eye open and a nail gun underneath my pillow. 

      

I have used Malm as an example because it is a recent example. But the sad thing is there seems to be a growing number of people, who receive death threats. Some journalists in volatile areas receive threats from gangsters, corrupt police officers and military chiefs for revealing their wrongdoings. Some are Sara Malm or Samantha Brick. I am not lumping the two together, but they both had an opinion and both had their lives threatened. Is it me or should people be allowed to have a view without that fear? And this is not just a journalistic thing. Look at Rebecca Black, Alan Davies, One Direction from America, the Top Gear team, Alexandra Burke, Anton Ferdinand. Each has had death threats because of one reason or another and they happen so often now that it is hard to list all of them. I cannot believe I just wrote that sentence. It is difficult to comprehend but death threats are now the norm. That is the reality and it does not matter if it is genuine threats or Internet trolls. That is still a person, being told they are going to be killed.

Welcome to the human race, where we kill those we disagree with. R.I.P, sanity.