I’ve had this debate before and was unable to come to a conclusion. It seems to me that any criticism, no matter how valid, could be characterized as harassment.
What do you guys think?
Is there a heuristic for determining which one a statement is?
Does everything just exist on a continuum between the two?
Is this harassment?
I think that the harassment is not the criticism in itself, but its delivery. If someone does not want to hear your criticism you might not be entitled to give it to them.
The amount of perceived harassment that is acceptable will depend on whether you are asking about criticism towards an individual because of their physical attributes, or criticizing a politician because of the policies that they have implemented, for example. A politician might feel harassed by the criticism in the media, but the right to express our concerns about the government is important, so we have to have a balance.
On the other hand, I do not think that it is generally acceptable to publicly ‘criticize’ and therefore shame private individuals because of how they look, or their dietary choices.
well said.
I think you can “harass” someone without directing the critical comment at them. For instance, saying “Trump is an effing r-tard” on twitter could be intending to harass trump supporters, despite being directed at trump, but “behind his back” since he’s not on twitter.
Generally I agree, but this reminds me of an episode of southpark (S19E05): https://southpark.cc.com/video-clips/b5jt90/south-park-don-t-i-look-ripped
Why was it necessary to reference an ableist slur? There are plenty of complaints about Trump that don’t require ableism.
No, but I had to say some slur for demonstration purposes.
I’m sorry If I offended someone, it was not my intention.
Edit: I guess I could say “insert slur here”