Claiming otherwise would've been a much easier sell if you didn't name this thread "Ashley Madison FUN PIT!"
And alright, I have heard your feelings about sex and sexuality. I hope we can at least agree that they're not exactly typical, and so maybe our discussion of this situation as it applies to humanity and psychology shouldn't be colored quite as much by our individual hangups about sex, whether it's more puritanical as aife suggested or an outright hatred of it.
Again, I can't force you to say or do anything, but it would be a hell of a lot more respectable to see someone being honest about how they are getting a kick out of this than to try to rationalize it five different ways to try to make themselves seem like a really good guy for it. But I'm going to leave it here. There's nothing more I could say or a better way to say it than what Whabbist contributed.
I think if you read the original post, you will find that I listed the fun part not as the fact that people had been outed, but their own reactions to it, and the consequences of their actions/reactions: "I think we can all agree that the fallout is hilarious."
I understand that hacking ashley madison and releasing the personal information of all their 35 million or so customers is a breach of the customer's privacy, that it is illegal, and that the people who stole and released the data are criminals who use blackmail (not against the users; against the CEO of ashley madison). If the hackers get caught (but they probably won't), they'll go to jail.
The part where this conversation has gotten stuck is between "infiltrating the servers for the purpose of stealing and releasing the information is wrong" and "now that the information is public, how do we react to it?" This is a lot like where the conversation about torture in secret American prisoner of war camps gets difficult. The way that the information was obtained is illegal and immoral. What the people in the leaked videos and documents were doing was also illegal and/or immoral. However, only one set of people (the people who released the data, like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden) are getting punished for their actions; the other is getting away with, at worst, nothing more than a slap on the wrist. I don't think this is just or fair.
This is an issue I have devoted a lot of thought to and put a lot of research into over the years. I care about things like internet neutrality, cyber security, and criminal law. Technology is evolving faster than legislators can keep up with the changes, and there's no end in sight to that issue. I think people should be held accountable for their actions, especially when those actions have real world victims. And there are victims in this story.
Is Hamza a victim of the hackers and of Avid Life Media's bad security? Sure he is. But there are other victims too. Like his wife/kids, and like Josh Duggar's wife/kids. And the hackers did not make those women and children victims. The hackers did not make those women and children victims. Their husbands and fathers did. Their husbands and fathers have potentially exposed them to much more than just a little public shaming; cheating means you increase your risk of an STD (for example, AIDS), and if your partner believes that you are being sexually monogamous like they are, they may not get checked. The fact that these men have lied in this way can also mean that they have exposed their families to blackmail opportunities and other forms of criminal activity. There are social and financial consequences for these women and children as well, especially if the wives cannot get a divorce because their religious communities/families will not allow it and/or they cannot financially support themselves in the event of a divorce.
None of these problems that the families are facing have been caused by the hackers. Nor were they caused by ALM. Nor were they caused by TheRationalizer, nor by anyone else who found the information and spread it. They have been caused by the husbands. The men who signed up for the accounts, the men who paid for the accounts, the men who chose to message women besides their wives, the men who chose to pay to search for affairs. It is solely the responsibility of the husband that the bad things are happening as a result of their decisions, no one else. Even if the wife said no to sex. Even if the wife was too busy. Even if the wife had gained weight. Even if ALM's internet security was bad. Even if the hackers used illegal routes to steal the information. Even if it's mean to sift through the information. Even if it's wrong to share the information. And I don't think we should lose sight of that. These men have no one but themselves to blame for the consequences of their actions.
And they're going to try to shift the blame. They're going to try to shift responsibility for their actions onto someone, anyone else.
So it's not that I have no sympathy, it's not that I don't care, it's not that I want to gloat at the misery of others. I do care. I care a lot. Just not about the cheaters. Not about the people who betrayed the trust of their partners. Not about the people who have caused harm to those who loved them the most, and have caused harm to countless other people by monetizing the preaching of doctrines harmful to people and society's well-being. I am enjoying laughing at their misfortune; but it's not because I don't care.
Yes, there are a lot of victims here who deserve our sympathy. But Hamza's not one of them. And spreading this story does not hurt the real victims more than he and others like him already have. And maybe, just maybe, it will keep someone else from trusting a random, greedy preacher who is preaching to them about morality while practicing predatory behavior, and from being a victim of this, in the future.
Topic: Ashley Madison FUN PIT!