Liberal Mechanistic Thinking and Weinergate
Jack Kemp
This morning, Bianca Bosker, a technology editor at the Huffington Post, wrote an article about how Anthony Weiner was exposed (her word) by a one letter Twitter typo mistake.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/07/anthony-weiner-twitter-dm_n_872590.html
It seems he entered "@" instedad of "D," to quote the article.
No, Ms. Bosker, it isn't that simple and mechanical.
When I was studying applications computer programming in the early 1980s, I used to say that I was smart enough
to write some program. The question was: was I calm enough to write it? Most people, including high strung people, don't have Weiner's problems because they don't take nude photos of themselves and transmit them to strangers
on the internet.
Ms. Bosker, I'd like to introduce you to that "internet security expert," Mr. Television of the 1950s, comedian Milton Berle. One of his oldest jokes, repeated by him on Saturday Night Live a few years before his death, went like this: Do you have any nude pictures of your wife? No? You want to buy some? In this case it was the husband in the nude photos, but you get the concept.
Mr. Weiner is a very hyper personality, totally full of himself. He contacted, via Twitter, at least five young women that we know of - and perhaps as many as twenty or more. He wore his wedding ring in one of the photos he sent - a turn off to many single women who until that moment might have imagined they might have a romance with him. It was just a matter of time until one of these young women - for whatever reason - would find Weiner's attentions overbearing or frustrating and the story would break. To trivialize Mr. Weiner's total lack of decent behavior as a newlywed contacting several women half his age, to reduce it to "he hit the wrong keystroke on his computer" is about as trite an attempt to avoid a value judgment on out-of-control toxic egotistical behavior as I have ever seen in print.
Ms. Bosker goes on to explain how to avoid this technical problem - as a purely technical problem. Can the rest of us assume that if a person is transmitting suggestive messages, semi and totally nude photos of themselves, that their mind may not be focused on keyboard entry but elsewhere? But in fairness to Ms. Bosker, the advice she gave is probably meant for the rest of us who most likely are not now - or in the future - doing what Weiner did on the internet. It's just that the general tone of the article leaves one with the impression that if Weiner had exercised more care in his typing, that in and of itself would have avoided Weiner's public problems. Fat chance.
Weiner was a train wreck looking for a crowded switchyard.
This morning, Bianca Bosker, a technology editor at the Huffington Post, wrote an article about how Anthony Weiner was exposed (her word) by a one letter Twitter typo mistake.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/07/anthony-weiner-twitter-dm_n_872590.html
It seems he entered "@" instedad of "D," to quote the article.
No, Ms. Bosker, it isn't that simple and mechanical.
When I was studying applications computer programming in the early 1980s, I used to say that I was smart enough
to write some program. The question was: was I calm enough to write it? Most people, including high strung people, don't have Weiner's problems because they don't take nude photos of themselves and transmit them to strangers
on the internet.
Ms. Bosker, I'd like to introduce you to that "internet security expert," Mr. Television of the 1950s, comedian Milton Berle. One of his oldest jokes, repeated by him on Saturday Night Live a few years before his death, went like this: Do you have any nude pictures of your wife? No? You want to buy some? In this case it was the husband in the nude photos, but you get the concept.
Mr. Weiner is a very hyper personality, totally full of himself. He contacted, via Twitter, at least five young women that we know of - and perhaps as many as twenty or more. He wore his wedding ring in one of the photos he sent - a turn off to many single women who until that moment might have imagined they might have a romance with him. It was just a matter of time until one of these young women - for whatever reason - would find Weiner's attentions overbearing or frustrating and the story would break. To trivialize Mr. Weiner's total lack of decent behavior as a newlywed contacting several women half his age, to reduce it to "he hit the wrong keystroke on his computer" is about as trite an attempt to avoid a value judgment on out-of-control toxic egotistical behavior as I have ever seen in print.
Ms. Bosker goes on to explain how to avoid this technical problem - as a purely technical problem. Can the rest of us assume that if a person is transmitting suggestive messages, semi and totally nude photos of themselves, that their mind may not be focused on keyboard entry but elsewhere? But in fairness to Ms. Bosker, the advice she gave is probably meant for the rest of us who most likely are not now - or in the future - doing what Weiner did on the internet. It's just that the general tone of the article leaves one with the impression that if Weiner had exercised more care in his typing, that in and of itself would have avoided Weiner's public problems. Fat chance.
Weiner was a train wreck looking for a crowded switchyard.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 3:49 AM
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