Thanks Sharon. Excellent post.
Maybe I'm insulated. I come from an area of the country where there is zero tolerance for hate speech and threats of violence such as we have seen here. Anyone caught doing so is immediately ostracized and, quite frankly, unemployable from that moment on.
When I first saw what Rupp was passing around, it disgusted me. I honestly couldn't believe someone here would do something like that, no matter how badly they disliked someone. I've since come to realize, especially after seeing his responses, that he must have psychological issues that he's dealing with, and I feel sorry for him. He really does need to seek help.
What has really saddened me is that over the course of the last couple of days we've seen five or six people here come forward and try to either minimalize what was done, or shift the blame to the victims in some manner. Thankfully, the vast majority of the responses have been from people who have their hearts in the right places and don't want to see this kind of behavior in a place that should be all about the fun and enjoyment of a hobby.
Just to clarify, you're saying that Rupp was passing around these memes?
My understanding is that he PMed the memes to his group of friends here. This is a point he has never denied, and is further corroborated by his use of the word 'cabal.' If you read the script in the memes, you'll know what I'm talking about. The meme was all about forcing Fingh to submit before his clique of friends before he was summarily executed. Nice huh? My further understanding is that at some point, the image left the inner sanctum and was shared with someone else - possibly by someone who thought it was way over the top, but I don't really know.