Rarely do you come across a heated, politicized Twitter exchange between strangers and scroll away thinking, “What a logical, civilized exchange that was.”
Which is why this unicorn of a conversation between former Uber engineer Susan Fowler and a random critic seems all the more relieving—finally, an exchange where both people walk away amicably.
The conversation, pointed out by Guardian technology writer Alex Hern as being “an unexpected turn of events,” took place Thursday night after Fowler tweeted a Bloomberg Business story featuring her efforts to get the U.S. Supreme Court to consider her sexual harassment claims against Uber while deciding to what extent employers can contractually stop workers from pursing class-action lawsuits over work conditions.
In February Fowler disrupted the startup herself with a blog post alleging sexual harassment from a former manager, as well as inaction from HR for her claims, and the daily aggression she faced as a female employee.
https://twitter.com/alexhern/status/900828330315968512
https://twitter.com/susanthesquark/status/900750693358641153
After Fowler shared the original article, a user by the name of @contratastic, shamed her claims and her push toward the Supreme Court, writing, “She destroyed millions of dollars worth of shareholder value already, but hell hath no fury like a feminist scorned and she is going again.”
Awkwardly, Fowler clarified to the user, “Lol she is me, mah friend.”
https://twitter.com/susanthesquark/status/900750693358641153
https://twitter.com/contratastic/status/900820201050189828
Instead of getting combative, Contratastic instead said he was going to read her blog post—which, c’mon, he should have done before criticizing her. But, at least he made some sort of goodwill effort to better understand her claims, and without being coaxed into doing it, too. And what do you know, after he read her blog, he realized just how shitty her situation was.
https://twitter.com/contratastic/status/900820705901764608
https://twitter.com/contratastic/status/900821158832074753
https://twitter.com/susanthesquark/status/900821373676773376
Even when Contratastic said he didn’t think there was anything “feminist about any of this,” and Fowler believed he meant about her actions instead of the companies, she explained how equal workplace treatment seemed like “the best kind of feminist” to her. He even drew upon an example in her post—that her entire team received personalized leather jackets except for her, the woman—to express his disagreement with Uber.
https://twitter.com/contratastic/status/900821992366104577
https://twitter.com/contratastic/status/900822632014127104
https://twitter.com/susanthesquark/status/900822841557372929
https://twitter.com/contratastic/status/900823108268965888
https://twitter.com/contratastic/status/900823830440095744
Yep—the most optimistic Twitter exchange in the world ended with well wishes and genuine thanks.
https://twitter.com/contratastic/status/900823349844160513
https://twitter.com/susanthesquark/status/900823572016267264
He even continued to tweet about her on his own—how weirdly kind for a Twitter exchange of this nature.
https://twitter.com/contratastic/status/901107112562053121
Just goes to show Twitter isn’t just edgelords who are shit-posting meaningless distractions into the void.
H/T alexhern/Twitter
