Is Harassment of Public Figures Acceptable: Your Sincere Opinion

[Neo-Scholastic]

How else do you complain?

• Primarily by electing someone else.
  Publicly advocating for your cause.
  Distributing literature.
  Petitioning officials.
  Assembling to organize and peaceably demonstrate.
  

Not by stalking individuals and their families and intimidating them in their private lives. When that becomes the norm then no one will want to be in public service. What goes around comes around.

[Jackie]

My civil side urges me to say that there are many weapons that belong in an activist's arsenal, but harassment of individuals isn't one of them. These people didn't put Trump in charge. Your real problem is with the basket of deplorables. In one sense, the folks listed in the OP are merely doing their jobs. Their personal lives have been affected by professional choices. Part of me says that this isn't right. There ought to be "turf"upon which it is appropriate for activists to fight these battles, and otherwise, these people ought to be left alone.

But in another sense, the choice to be a figure in the public sphere is one that has private consequences. They had to be aware of what they were getting themselves into. Through their work, they affect the private lives of millions; it's a two way street.

If they were to drop out of the public sphere, and dedicate themselves to different pursuits, they would get their privacy back soon enough. So in the end, it's up to them.

If this gets in to the Sarah story, there is a huge difference between shaming someone who clearly supports a bully, and the real harassment of those hosed down and beaten up on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

[The Grand Nudger]

How else do you complain?

• Primarily by electing someone else.
  Publicly advocating for your cause.
  Distributing literature.
  Petitioning officials.
  Assembling to organize and peaceably demonstrate.
  

Not by stalking individuals and their families and intimidating them in their private lives. When that becomes the norm then no one will want to be in public service. What goes around comes around.

The fewer ghouls like the ones you're carrying water for who want to be in public service...the better.

When the law has failed, and our shared ideology has been subverted...shame is the final recourse before violence. What goes around comes around...indeed.

[Shell B]

I don't think protesting or refusing to serve a public figure is harassment. I do not think actual harassment should take place.

[Neo-Scholastic]

My civil side urges me to say that there are many weapons that belong in an activist's arsenal, but harassment of individuals isn't one of them. These people didn't put Trump in charge. Your real problem is with the basket of deplorables.

When someone calls half of the electorate "deplorable" or "bitter clingers" it only reinforces the perception that that someone holds them in contempt. Building resentment against you isn't a good way to earn votes.

...in another sense, the choice to be a figure in the public sphere is one that has private consequences. They had to be aware of what they were getting themselves into. Through their work, they affect the private lives of millions; it's a two way street.

No it is not a two-way street. Public policy does not maliciously single out individuals. I believe that public servants in general, no matter how misguided, are doing what they believe is best for the nation as a whole. That is not to say there isn't corruption and self-serving policies and legislation. There are. And those should be dealt with legally and electorally, not through mob action by a self-selected set of belligerents and instigators.

The idea that they "know what they are getting into" smacks of blaming the victim although it is true to a limited extent. A public figure can expect to have unflattering pictures of themselves plastered on the front of newspapers, have nasty articles written about them and even confronted at their offices. But if it becomes common practice to stalk and harass people, their spouses, and children in their private lives, then very fewer and fewer decent people will take on the responsibility of leadership or public service.

Just as a reminder, I remain interesting in seeing examples of left-leaning public persons having been harassed in their private lives and subsequently being told by right-leaning pundits etc. that they deserved it.

[The Grand Nudger]

Holding someone in contempt is not harassment..and some people really are contemptuous.

Like you, for example. Casting the assholes who set public policy as victims..rather than..oh, IDK, the public that the policy plays out in.

[Anomalocaris]

I don't think protesting or refusing to serve a public figure is harassment. I do not think actual harassment should take place.

To be fair, “separate but equal” service should have been provided to Sarah sanders at a outside stand up counter in the back near the dumpster.

[vulcanlogician]

[John V]

White Democrats chasing a black woman out of a diner...

[The Grand Nudger]

IKR, that's a job half done, fuckin dems.  Sposed to chase every brown entirely out of the country!