And it goes both ways. WaPo reports that a former Democratic aide has been arrested for doxing some GOP Senators:
U.S. Capitol Police announced late Wednesday that a former junior Senate Democratic staffer has been arrested for allegedly posting private information about Republican senators on the Wikipedia Internet website.
Jackson A. Cosko, 27, of the District, faces five federal counts including making public restricted personal information, making threats in interstate communications, identity theft, witness tampering and unauthorized access of a government computer, police said. …
A brief police statement did not give details, but a U.S. official said the arrest was tied to the investigation into the posting of personal information about Republican senators on the Wikipedia site as they held a hearing Sept. 27 on sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh.
At the time, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) rejected accusations that a member of her staff was responsible, calling them “lies, lies, and more despicable lies.”
The information posted purportedly included phone numbers and home addresses for three Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the hearing: Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah).
I suppose Rep. Waters is technically correct – Cosko was no longer in her employ – but it’s still a bit of a stain on her.
More abstractly, this incident functions as a measure of the heat of the culture clash between the liberals and the extremists controlling the Republicans, an infection if you will. If more such incidents accumulate on the Democratic side, it may indicate a left-wing swing into obduracy as well. The right-wing is already there, although I wonder if they’re really blameless and operating in an honorable matter, or if – privately – they cop to their hypocrisy and either don’t think it’s important, or are so addicted to power that nothing else matters.
The right to privacy is another way of speaking of the importance of civil society, the agreement that, whatever our disagreements may be, we’re not going to resort to violence. Doxxing is, not to be blunt or anything, a virtual assassination, a message to the victims that they can be hunted down.
It’s really unacceptable, if you think about it. If Mr. Cosko is responsible, an arrest and jail time is appropriate. Those who were doxxed, whatever their failings as human beings, are justified in their outrage.
But back to the analogy, the question becomes whether or not this is an infection which will be burned out by the host, or if it’s going to kill the host. As I noted here, I think it’s just a matter of time before the more virulent members of both sides are either dead, or removed from power by the oncoming generations. Those generations will hopefully take a look at the problems of today and discard those assumptions which hold no water and lead to, well, various misbehaviors.
And we’ll keep on muddling on.
