Thread by @motomatters

I will be having a few words about the Twitter outrage mob in a bit.

Let's have a little word about Niccolo Canepa. Today, my mentions have been full of people tweeting about Canepa.

They were all something along the lines of "Remember when that Italian dude did the same thing in that race at Mugello!!1111!!!! OUTRAGE!!!1!!11!"

No, I don't remember that. Because I actually used this thing called Google to check what happened before grabbing a pitchfork.

Because if you use Google to FIND OUT WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED, instead of just jumping on the OUTRAGE bus to Sanctimonious City, you will learn that Canepa's case was brought before a judge, and he was acquitted. And it didn't happen in a race, it happened at a track day.

Why was Niccolo Canepa acquitted? Because he didn't actually grab another rider's brake. He grabbed the rider's forearm. If you actually watched the video closely, you would see that.

Alternatively, if you had gone to Google, Bing, Ask Jeeves, Altavista or any other search engine of your choice, and typed in the words "Niccolo Canepa Mugello", on the first page, you would have come across the following story from @roadracingworld roadracingworld.com/news/canepa-of…

That story gives Canepa's version of events, which a judge found to be sufficient to acquit him.

Now, does this excuse Canepa's behavior? Not entirely. His intentions were good, but grabbing someone's arm on track is not a smart thing to do. The smart thing to do is go back into the pits and wait for the other guy to return, and have a word with him then.

But these events bear no resemblance to the tweets in my mentions, other than the name of the rider involved. People are far too keen to jump on the outrage bus to do any actual research which might contradict their prejudices.

Welcome to the internet.

This all reminds me of the Ballad of Shakey's Boot, which ignites every so often, involving a video/picture being completely misunderstood and misrepresented by people itching to seize Morality Heights. they inevitably overshoot, and end in The Slough of Self Righteousness.

Moral of the story: check everything first, find reputable sources, and don't rely on your memory. My memory is hopeless, so I try to google / check first.

Thus endeth the lesson.