Thread by @carolecadwalla

You have not been sued for libel.

I have.

There are many things I have wanted to say in the last 6 weeks of #DeppvHeard

But I haven't.

Because whatever I say will be used to attack not just me but others too.

Because that's how libel works. That's the whole point of it.
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You have not been sued for libel.

So you'll not understand how it's not just designed to silence you. Although it does. But also to destroy you. Which it does too.

It's not a pissy business dispute. It's a full-frontal multi-million quid existential assault. On who you are.
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You have not been sued for libel.

Because it is a rich man's sport. That only rich men play. Because only millionaires get to have 'reputations' in the age of the internet. Sticks & stones, pal, you just have to suck it up.
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You have not been sued for libel.

So, you don't understand how it's not just the trial or an act or an event, it's a process that goes on over years. It's a toxin that enters your central nervous system slowly & insidiously, until one day you can't move your limbs.
4/

You have not been sued for libel.

So you won't understand how it scares the very institutions that are meant to protect us. Even the liberal media orgs that published the goddamn words. *Especially* the liberal media orgs. Democracy dies in darkness? All the lolz to that.
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You have not been sued for libel.

You won't know how every step of the litigation fuels more social media abuse. Cos that's the whole point of it. You won't know how that shit sticks. Even with people you know. You won't know how the rage & unfairness seeps into your bones.
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You have not been sued for libel.

You have not been trapped inside the airless machinery of the legal process. You've not been forced to hand your personal messages against your will in the certain knowledge that anything you've ever said can & will be used against you.
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You have not been sued for libel.

But you may be a woman online. So you know how that goes. You communicate via platforms that optimise for virality - aka misogyny. You've seen what happens to women on the internet. You know what happens if they step out of line.
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You have not been sued for libel.

So you have not experienced your peers writing endless crap about #WagathaChristie while remaining stone cold silent even as they burn witches in pyres beneath your windows.
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You have not been sued for libel.

I'm speaking for no-one other than myself here. Because that's the first thing you'll learn: that you have to speak for yourself. Because no-one else will.

And over time, you'll realise that there's not even any point in that either.
10/

You have not been sued for libel.

But I have.

I'm still awaiting my verdict. But if my trial had been live-streamed, I'm pretty sure that I, too, would have been burned at the stake.

And I suspect, I wouldn’t just be broken. I’d probably be dead.
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