How (racist/sexist/whatever) harassment on Mastodon works:
1. Harasser replies to their target's post, with the reply set to "followers only", saying the most vile stuff you can imagine.
2. All the harasser's followers join in on the harassment, posting more vile stuff.
3. Nobody but the target and the harassment crew can see the vile stuff that was said.
4. Target is traumatized. Nobody else can see why.
5. Everybody says "I don't see it so it's not happening."
@dave I've always figured what I didn't see was because of proactive moderation, but that is a tremendously messed up tactic all the same, and puts the harassment that does get posted in public in a much more sickening light. Like a marked difference of people who know what they're doing is wrong, vs. those who go completely mask-off.
Why can't people just trust each other when they say they're suffering abuse? I'm so sick of it.
