Second Life Support Group for Hillary Clinton Becomes Support Group for Harassment Victims in Trump-Era

Earlier this week I got this interesting notice from Evangeline Ling (above), a leader of the Hillary Clinton 2016 group in Second Life:

We are launching our post-election support group appropriately named SAFETY PIN. The purpose of this group will be to provide a safe space for people negatively impacted by the election to process it and to support each other. Please join our new group and grab a LM . Please stay tuned for meeting dates, we will likely have one or two a month. Still under construction but please stop by for a visit.

Safety pins have become a symbol of support for the many victims of harassment and violence, mainly minorities, women, and other vulnerable people who've been targeted by Trump supporters after (and before) the election. (Strawberry Singh, a Muslim-American virtual world blogger, explains more here.) "Our goal is to provide a place for occasional support group meetings as well as to help people network together to find good activist/advocacy groups," Evangeline tells me.

In real life, Evangeline adds, an 80 year old friend of hers was one such victim:

"He was placing out Hillary signs the legal distance from his poling place and had a Trump supporter angrily tell him it was a waste to put them down 'cause he was just going to burn them all anyways."

There's been much debate about whether wearing safety pins in the real world is a meaningful symbol or just a gesture. (In its original intent it commits the wearer to risking their physical safety to protect a victim.) But I can definitely see the value of an anonymous, online support group like this one. Many victims of pro-Trump assault are in parts of the country where they are far outnumbered by Trump supporters, and are therefore afraid to ask for help in public. For that matter, online social channels like Twitter and Facebook are not safe from harassment (up to and including death threats) either.

Then again, this means Evangeline's group will need to be very careful about their security in Second LIfe -- which as Bernie Sanders supporters can tell you after getting hit with demons and Trump swastikas, has also been a platform for such attacks.

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Comments

[Han Held]

I'm glad to see this; particularly in virtual worlds. I think that more will need to be done -I'm afraid to go into specifics (I don't want to give the racists ideas), but I can say that we can't just stop at having meetings or making groups.

We're going to have to anticipate ways people can be harassed and come up with counter-measures to ensure that everyone can be safe and free from abuse and threats.

[Fortune Zhao]

Oh but we aren't gonna talk about how people at Trump rallies were attacked and continue to be attacked just for stating their support for Trump?(or how Clinton's campaign funded that behavior)

This is the one-sidedness that must end in all media. IT has to stop. I am not for ANYONE being assaulted, regardless of who supports whom or whatever walk of life they come from, it is WRONG.

But the media, such as yourself-and don't give me the cop out that 'this is just a blog, so its my opinion' stuff. You know full well what you are doing and it's false narrative building.

Moral vanity is dangerous, pushing false narratives is very dangerous. And that is exactly what the Safety Pin brigade, and you, are doing.

[Iggy Igardt]

My only issue, has been how whites mostly from 'the states' have taken the swastika making a ten thousand year old symbol of peace, into hate.
Over one billion Hindus & Buddhist use the swastika daily in our prayers, unfortunate it was whites who made it a bad thing, but really do not push the agenda outside your borders.

A friend in SL already had the typical low-brow white harassment for them for using such a beatifically well made swastika, as it is adorning his temple of prayer. If linden Lab ever attempted to remove that, they would face an international lawsuit in an Indian court of law.

Let the white former-colonists lay in the bed they made for themselves, this time the world should not suffer for the mistakes they made thousands of kilometers away,
we already have to live with the damage they committed against our families and nationhoods.

[Violet]

Boo Hoo you lost--- grow some balls-

[Kook of Kitely]

@ Violet

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OpenSim,Inworldz is dying, Inworldz is unfree ,Inworldz is closed , Inworldz has no HG,Moses isEvil,Kitely,OpenSim,KitelyMarketplace,Ivan,Kitely,OpenSim,Kitely,OpenSim,KitelyMarketplace,Ivan,Kitely,OpenSim,Inworldz is dying, Inworldz is unfree ,Inworldz is closed , Inworldz has no HG,Moses is Evil,Kitely,OpenSim,KitelyMarketplace,Ivan,Kitely,OpenSim,Adam01Time,Lord Drako,Elania,Inworldz Forum Closed,

[Caitlin Tobias]

@Iggy

"My only issue, has been how whites mostly from 'the states' have taken the swastika making a ten thousand year old symbol of peace, into hate"

You have got to be kidding, right?

[Cad Lorakeet]

@Iggy because when you think of the Nazis the first thing that comes to mind is "damn those Nazis for appropriating an ancient symbol of peace". Also - I was not aware that the Nazis were mostly from the States. Interesting stuff.

[BAAAH]

LOLOLOLOLOL

Will there be warm cookies and trophies for everyone?

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Deal with it children. There's a President now who says mean words.

[Manmohan Singh]

Authur Caitlin- Iggy authur speaks from a tinder heart a truth that even to this day disenfranchises the peoples in post colonial greater Asia
The swastika is an important symbol in hundreds of cultures
should a symbol beloved by billions in greater Eurasia be condemned due to some warlords in Europe almost 80yrs ago using it for evil deeds -NO! the earth revolves around the sun not around Europe or America when your ancestors were huddled in caves in wintertime having to consider cannibalism our past decedents of the Indus Valley Civilization were mastering the art of building entire cities preplanned almost 8oooyrs ago
telling us our symbol of good luck peace is hate while you call Muslim Hindu brothers sisters terrorists for wearing ordinal attire makes you the real terror

[Cathartes Aura]

I think I need a safe space to protect my fragile winged self from all this horror... the horror that is anyone who needs a safe space to begin with. LMAO!!!

The snowflakes on the left think they hold the moral high ground. They're full of shiz...

You should change your symbol to a Butt Plug instead of using a safety pin. It would more accurately describe what the Globalist Establishment is doing to your anu$. lol!

I'm dirty... You're dirty... Everyone's dirty...

We're all full of shiz. Get over yourself. The snowflakes are weak as water! Weak as water I tell ya!! ;)

And the Turkey Buzzard goes... Hiss.

[Butt Plug]

Agreeing with Cathartes on this one.:)
The snowflakes if they don't like it ..let them go back to Africa!!

[JohnC]

Manmohan Singh, and Iggy, your knowledge of ancient history is commendable, but totally eclipsed by your monumental ignorance of 20th century history. And your total lack of empathy for those countries world wide that lost an estimated 60 million people between them. And much of this death and destruction was instigated and committed by an ideology that used your much beloved symbol to excess in it's rise to power. Had it succeeded you would not now have the luxury of complaining about its miss use of your symbol. You would either be subordinate to it, or fighting against it's destruction of all you now hold dear. Many people died that you might have this luxury of complaining about the miss use of your much beloved symbol. Many people with long memories still look with hate upon ignorant people who again raise a particular form of this symbol to indicate their allegiances. You are right to attempt to correct those who believe the symbol has only negative connotations. But you are ignorant beyond belief to imagine that they might easily forget the sacrifice so many made to destroy the ideology that this particular form of the swastika stands for.

[madeline blackbart]

JohnC There's not point even trying to point that out. These are the same people who shit on men (including white ones TYM). The very same subset of people who sacrificed there sanity at times and at times gave their lives to give them the right to whine and cry about BS that isn't that important. They're basically crying (and even throwing childish tantrums) about losing. They're reasoning is because what magically over night the laws about equality are going to disappear? Come on that's what checks and balances are for. If you know how our government works you know that logic is pure crap. Also the implication that only white people voted for trump and the implication all or most white people are evil is just so agitating. Reality check, people voted for Trump because of they whining coming from liberals and SJW types not because they hate minorities. And before we point fingers at me calling me racist, sexist, mean, whatever I didn't vote because I honestly believe BOTH options were awful.

[JohnC]

Your Post makes no sense at all, except maybe to to you. You just spew out ambiguous accusations with no focus. And then proclaim yourself to be above criticism
because you sat on the fence. Some people, like Trump and Clinton, as crazy as they may seem, at least have the guts to attempt to do something, to make a difference, as they see it.The difference is that one of them knew what they were doing, and the other thought it was a challenge to win at any cost, and now sees what the other knew to be true. Of course posting on Blogs is pointless. To point it out is like saying water is wet.

[Violet]

RE: My only issue, has been how whites mostly from 'the states' have taken the swastika making a ten thousand year old symbol of peace, into hate."

Actually it was the German's not the States-and why is that an issue? Do you own the copyright? Any idiot can draw that shape--

[Pussycat Catnap]

Good to hear about this.

Pretty pathetic to see people trying to defend the Swastika. Having actually lived in Korea for half a decade I know what symbol they "think" it appropriated and its not the same symbol.

As to the one-sidedness claim: the violence generally IS one-sided as well. White people and their cops attacking everyone else.
So Fortune: I call BS on you. 500 years of slavery and genocide says your claim is false.