I ser på en kvinde, der var offentligt tavs i et årti. Det har åbenlyst ændret sig, men kun for nylig.
You're looking at a woman who was publicly silent for a decade. Obviously, that's changed, but only recently.
Det er flere måneder siden, jeg gav min første, større, offentlige tale ved Forbes 30 Under 30 topmøde: 1500 fantastiske mennesker, alle under en alder af 30. Det betyder, at i 1998 var den ældste i gruppen kun 14, og den yngste kun 4. Jeg jokede med, at nogle af dem muligvis kun har hørt om mig fra rap-sange. Ja, jeg er i rap-sange. Næsten 40 rap-sange.
It was several months ago that I gave my very first major public talk, at the Forbes "30 Under 30 Summit" -- 1,500 brilliant people, all under the age of 30. That meant that in 1998, the oldest among the group were only 14, and the youngest, just four. I joked with them that some might only have heard of me from rap songs. Yes, I'm in rap songs. (Laughter) Almost 40 rap songs.
(Laughter)
Men på aftenen til min tale skete der noget overraskende. I en alder af 41 blev jeg lagt an på af en 27-årig fyr.
But the night of my speech, a surprising thing happened. At the age of 41, I was hit on by a 27-year-old guy.
Jeg ved det, virkeligt? Han var charmerende, og jeg var smigret, og jeg afslog. Ved I, hvad hans mislykkede pickup line var? Han kunne få mig til at føle mig 22 igen. (Latter)
(Laughter) I know, right? He was charming, and I was flattered, and I declined. You know what his unsuccessful pickup line was? He could make me feel 22 again. (Laughter)
Senere den aften indså jeg, at jeg nok er den eneste person over 40, der ikke vil være 22 igen. (Latter) (Bifald)
(Applause) I realized, later that night, I'm probably the only person over 40 who does not want to be 22 again. (Laughter) (Applause)
I en alder af 22 blev jeg forelsket i min chef, og i en alder af 24 lærte jeg de altødelæggende konsekvenser.
At the age of 22, I fell in love with my boss. And at the age of 24, I learned the devastating consequences.
Kan jeg se hænderne på dem her, der ikke begik en fejl eller gjorde noget, de fortrød, i en alder af 22? Jep, det var hvad, jeg regnede med. Så, ligesom mig, i alderen 22 tog nogle af jer måske nogle forkerte beslutninger og blev forelskede i den forkerte person, måske endda jeres chef. I modsætning til mig, dog, var jeres chef højst sandsynligt ikke den amerikanske præsident.
Can I see a show of hands of anyone here who didn't make a mistake or do something they regretted at 22? Yep. That's what I thought. So like me, at 22, a few of you may have also taken wrong turns and fallen in love with the wrong person, maybe even your boss. Unlike me, though, your boss probably wasn't the president of the United States of America.
Selvfølgelig, livet er fuld af overraskelser.
(Laughter) Of course, life is full of surprises.
Der går ikke en dag, uden at jeg bliver mindet om min fejl, og jeg fortryder den fejl inderligt.
Not a day goes by that I'm not reminded of my mistake, and I regret that mistake deeply.
I 1998, efter at have blevet fejet op af en usandsynlig romance, blev jeg fejet op i øjet af en politisk, juridisk, mediestorm, ulig noget vi havde set før. Husk på, at få år tidligere kom nyhederne kun fra tre steder: aviser og magasiner, radioen eller tv. Det var det. Men det var ikke min skæbne. I stedet blev skandalen bragt til jer i en digital revolution. Det betød at vi kunne tilgå al den information, vi ville, når vi ville have det, på alle tidspunkter, alle steder, og da historien slap ud i januar 1998, slap den ud online. Det var første gang, de traditionelle nyheder blev tilranet af internettet for en stor nyhedshistorie, et klik der genlød i hele verden.
In 1998, after having been swept up into an improbable romance, I was then swept up into the eye of a political, legal and media maelstrom like we had never seen before. Remember, just a few years earlier, news was consumed from just three places: reading a newspaper or magazine, listening to the radio or watching television. That was it. But that wasn't my fate. Instead, this scandal was brought to you by the digital revolution. That meant we could access all the information we wanted, when we wanted it, anytime, anywhere. And when the story broke in January 1998, it broke online. It was the first time the traditional news was usurped by the internet for a major news story -- a click that reverberated around the world.
Hvad, det betød for mig personligt, var, at jeg natten over gik fra at være en helt privat person til at være en offentligt ydmyget person over hele verden. Jeg var patient zero for at miste mit personlige omdømme på en global skala næsten øjeblikkeligt.
What that meant for me personally was that overnight, I went from being a completely private figure to a publicly humiliated one, worldwide. I was patient zero of losing a personal reputation on a global scale almost instantaneously.
Denne forhastede konklusion, muliggjort af teknologi, ledte til horder af virtuelle stenkastere. Givet, det var før det sociale medier, men folk kunne stadig kommentere online, email-historier, og selvfølgelig grusomme email-jokes. Nyhedskilder smed om sig med fotos af mig for at sælge aviser, bannerreklamer online og for at få folk til at stille sig ind på tv. Genkalder I er bestemt billede af mig, lad os sige, hvor jeg har en baret på?
This rush to judgment, enabled by technology, led to mobs of virtual stone-throwers. Granted, it was before social media, but people could still comment online, e-mail stories, and, of course, e-mail cruel jokes. News sources plastered photos of me all over to sell newspapers, banner ads online, and to keep people tuned to the TV. Do you recall a particular image of me, say, wearing a beret?
Jeg indrømmer, at jeg begik fejl, især mens jeg havde den baret på.
Now, I admit I made mistakes -- especially wearing that beret.
Men opmærksomheden og dommene jeg modtog, ikke historien, men som jeg personligt modtog, var et fortilfælde. Jeg blev stemplet som en vagabond, dulle, tøjte, luder, sæk, og selvfølgelig; den kvinde. Jeg blev set af mange, men rigtigt kendt af få. Og jeg forstår det godt: Det var nemt at glemme, at den kvinde havde dimensioner, havde en sjæl. og på et tidspunkt var ubeskadiget.
(Laughter) But the attention and judgment that I received -- not the story, but that I personally received -- was unprecedented. I was branded as a tramp, tart, slut, whore, bimbo, and, of course, "that woman." I was seen by many, but actually known by few. And I get it: it was easy to forget that that woman was dimensional, had a soul and was once unbroken.
Da det her skete for mig for 17 år siden, var der ikke noget navn for det. Nu kalder vi det cybermobning og online chikane. I dag vil jeg gerne dele noget af min oplevelse med jer, tale om hvordan den oplevelse har hjulpet med at forme mine kulturelle observationer og hvordan jeg håber at min fortidige oplevelse kan føre til forandringer, der resulterer i mindre lidelse for andre.
When this happened to me 17 years ago, there was no name for it. Now we call it "cyberbullying" and "online harassment." Today, I want to share some of my experience with you, talk about how that experience has helped shape my cultural observations, and how I hope my past experience can lead to a change that results in less suffering for others.
I 1998 mistede jeg mit omdømme og min værdighed. Jeg mistede næsten alt, og jeg mistede næsten mit liv.
In 1998, I lost my reputation and my dignity. I lost almost everything. And I almost lost my life.
Lad mig give jer de store linjer. Der er september i 1998. Jeg sidder i et kontorværelse uden vinduer i Kontoret for det Uafhængige Råd under brummende fluorescerende lys. Jeg lytter til lyden af min stemme, min stemme fra skjult optagne telefonsamtaler, som en formodet ven havde foretaget et år tidligere. Jeg er her, fordi jeg er juridisk forpligtet til personligt at godkende alle 20 timer optaget samtale. De sidste 8 måneder har det mystiske indhold af disse optagelser hængt som damoklessværdet over mit hoved. Jeg mener, hvem kan huske, hvad de sagde for et år siden? Bange og sønderknust lyttede jeg, lyttede som jeg ævlede løs om alt tænkeligt; lyttede som jeg tilstod min kærlighed til præsidenten. og selvfølgelig mine hjertesorger; lyttede til mit nogen gange spydige, nogen gange ubehøvlede, fjollede selv være grusom, utilgivende, ubehøvlet; lyttede dybt, dybt skamfuldt til den værste side af mig selv, et selv jeg ikke engang genkender.
Let me paint a picture for you. It is September of 1998. I'm sitting in a windowless office room inside the Office of the Independent Counsel, underneath humming fluorescent lights. I'm listening to the sound of my voice, my voice on surreptitiously taped phone calls that a supposed friend had made the year before. I'm here because I've been legally required to personally authenticate all 20 hours of taped conversation. For the past eight months, the mysterious content of these tapes has hung like the sword of Damocles over my head. I mean, who can remember what they said a year ago? Scared and mortified, I listen, listen as I prattle on about the flotsam and jetsam of the day; listen as I confess my love for the president, and, of course, my heartbreak; listen to my sometimes catty, sometimes churlish, sometimes silly self being cruel, unforgiving, uncouth; listen, deeply, deeply ashamed, to the worst version of myself, a self I don't even recognize.
Nogle få dage senere blev Starr- raporten udgivet til kongressen, og alle disse optagelser og afskrifter, disse stjålne ord, tog del i det. At folk kan læse afskrifterne er slemt nok. men nogle få uger senere blev lydoptagelserne sendt på tv. og en betydelig mængde blev gjort tilgængelige online. Den offentlige ydmygelse var ulidelig. Livet var næsten uudholdeligt.
A few days later, the Starr Report is released to Congress, and all of those tapes and transcripts, those stolen words, form a part of it. That people can read the transcripts is horrific enough. But a few weeks later, the audiotapes are aired on TV, and significant portions made available online. The public humiliation was excruciating. Life was almost unbearable.
Det her var ikke noget, der skete ofte tilbage i 1998, og med det her mener jeg at stjæle folks private ord, handlinger, samtaler eller fotos, og gøre dem offentlige - offentlige uden samtykke, offentlige uden kontekst, og offentlige uden medfølelse.
This was not something that happened with regularity back then in 1998, and by "this," I mean the stealing of people's private words, actions, conversations or photos, and then making them public -- public without consent, public without context and public without compassion.
Spol 12 år frem til år 2010, og sociale medier er blevet født. Desværre er landskabet blevet befolket med langt flere tilfælde som mit, lige meget om nogen begik en fejl eller ej, og nu gælder det både offentlige og private personer. Konsekvenserne for nogle har været frygtelige, meget frygtelige
Fast-forward 12 years, to 2010, and now social media has been born. The landscape has sadly become much more populated with instances like mine, whether or not someone actually made a mistake, and now, it's for both public and private people. The consequences for some have become dire, very dire.
Jeg talte telefon med min mor i september 2010, og vi snakkede om nyheden om en ung førsteårsstuderende fra Rutgers University kaldet Tyler Clementi. Søde, følsomme, kreative Tyler var hemmeligt blevet filmet af sin værelseskammerat mens han var intim med en anden mand. Da den online verden hørte om den episode, eksploderede latterliggørelsen og cybermobningen. Nogle få dage senere sprang Tyler ud fra George Wasington-broen lige i døden. Han var 18.
I was on the phone with my mom in September of 2010, and we were talking about the news of a young college freshman from Rutgers University, named Tyler Clementi. Sweet, sensitive, creative Tyler was secretly webcammed by his roommate while being intimate with another man. When the online world learned of this incident, the ridicule and cyberbullying ignited. A few days later, Tyler jumped from the George Washington Bridge to his death. He was 18.
Min mor var ved siden af sig selv på grund af det der skete for Tyler og familien, og hun var fyldt med smerte på en måde, jeg bare ikke helt kunne forstå, og til sidst indså jeg, at hun genlevede 1998 - genlevede en tid, hvor hun sad hver aften ved min seng, genlevede en tid, hvor hun tvang mig til at tage bad med badeværelsesdøren åben,
My mom was beside herself about what happened to Tyler and his family, and she was gutted with pain in a way that I just couldn't quite understand. And then eventually, I realized she was reliving 1998, reliving a time when she sat by my bed every night, reliving -- (Chokes up)
og genlevede en tid, hvor begge mine forældre frygtede, at jeg ville blive skammet til døde, bogstaveligt talt.
sorry -- reliving a time when she made me shower with the bathroom door open, and reliving a time when both of my parents feared that I would be humiliated to death, literally.
I dag har alt for mange forældre ikke haft chancen for at træde til og redde deres elskede. For mange har hørt om deres børns lidelser og ydmygelse, efter det var for sent. Tylers tragiske, meningsløse død var et vendepunkt for mig. Det satte mine erfaringer i ny kontekst, og jeg begyndte at se på verden af ydmygelse og mobning omkring mig og se noget anderledes. I 1998 havde vi ingen idé om, hvor denne modige, nye teknologi kaldet internettet, ville tage os. Siden da har det forbundet folk på utænkelige måder, sammenført søskende, reddet liv, startet revolutioner, men det mørke af cyber-mobning og slut-shaming, jeg oplevede har eksploderet. Hver dag online bliver folk, især unge folk, der ikke er udviklingsmæssigt i stand til at klare det, så misbrugt og ydmygede, at de ikke forestille sig at leve til den næste dag. Og nogle gør på tragisk vis heller ikke, og der er intet virtuelt ved det. ChildLine, en nonprofit-organisation, fokuseret på at hjælp unge, offentliggjorde en rystende statistik sidste år: Fra 2012 til 2013 var der en 87 procents stigning i opkald og emails relateret til cyver-mobning. En metaanalyse fra Holland viste at, for første gang var cyber-mobning den hyppigste årsag til selvmordstanker, mere signifikant end offline-mobning. Og det, der chokerede mig, selvom det ikke burde, var en anden undersøgelse sidste år, der fastlagde, at ydmygelse var en endnu mere intenst følt følelse end både glæde og selv vrede.
Today, too many parents haven't had the chance to step in and rescue their loved ones. Too many have learned of their child's suffering and humiliation after it was too late. Tyler's tragic, senseless death was a turning point for me. It served to recontextualize my experiences, and I then began to look at the world of humiliation and bullying around me and see something different. In 1998, we had no way of knowing where this brave new technology called the internet would take us. Since then, it has connected people in unimaginable ways -- joining lost siblings, saving lives, launching revolutions ... But the darkness, cyberbullying, and slut-shaming that I experienced had mushroomed. Every day online, people -- especially young people, who are not developmentally equipped to handle this -- are so abused and humiliated that they can't imagine living to the next day. And some, tragically, don't. And there's nothing virtual about that. Childline, a UK nonprofit that's focused on helping young people on various issues, released a staggering statistic late last year: from 2012 to 2013, there was an 87 percent increase in calls and e-mails related to cyberbullying. A meta-analysis done out of the Netherlands showed that for the first time, cyberbullying was leading to suicidal ideations more significantly than offline bullying. And you know, what shocked me -- although it shouldn't have -- was other research last year that determined humiliation was a more intensely felt emotion than either happiness or even anger.
Grusomhed overfor andre er intet nyt, men online, teknologisk forbedret beskæmmelse er forstærket, ukontrollabelt og permanent tilgængeligt. Ekkoet af forlegenhed plejede at stoppe ved din familie, landsby, skole eller samfund, men nu er det også det online samfund. Millioner af folk kan, ofte anonymt, slå dig med deres ord, og det er meget smerte, og der er ingen grænse på hvor mange folk, der offentligt kan observere dig og putte dig i en offentlig gabestok. Der er en meget personlig pris på offentlig ydmygelse, og internettets vækst har sendt den pris i vejret.
Cruelty to others is nothing new. But online, technologically enhanced shaming is amplified, uncontained and permanently accessible. The echo of embarrassment used to extend only as far as your family, village, school or community. But now, it's the online community too. Millions of people, often anonymously, can stab you with their words, and that's a lot of pain. And there are no perimeters around how many people can publicly observe you and put you in a public stockade. There is a very personal price to public humiliation, and the growth of the internet has jacked up that price.
I næsten to årtier nu har vi langsomt plantet frøene af skam og offentlig ydmygelse i vores kulturelle jord, både on- og offline. Sladder-sider, paparazzi, reality-serier, politik, nyhedskanaler og nogle gange hackere lever alle på skam. Det har ført til et ufølsomt og et uansvarligt miljø online, som er velegnet til trolling, invadering af privatliv, og cyber-mobning. Dette skifte har skabt, hvad professer Nicolaus Mills kalder, en kultur af ydmygelse. Overvej nogle få fremtrædende eksempler fra de sidste seks måneder alene. Snapchat, servicen brugt primært af de yngre generationer, der påstår dets beskeder kun eksisterer i nogle få sekunder. Man kan forestille sig omfanget af indhold i det. En tredjepartsapp, som Snapchattere bruger til at opretholde levetiden af beskederne, blev hacket, og 100.000 personlige samtaler, fotos og videoer blev lækket online til nu at eksistere der for evigt. Jennifer Lawrence og flere andre skue- spillere fik deres iCloud-konti hackede, og private, intime, nøgenfotos blev spredt over hele nettet uden deres tilladelse. Én sladerhjemmeside havde over fem millioner hits for denne ene historie alene. Hvad med Sony Pictures-hackningen? De dokumenter, der fik mest opmærksomhed, var private emails, der havde den største offentlige pinligheds-værdi.
For nearly two decades now, we have slowly been sowing the seeds of shame and public humiliation in our cultural soil, both on- and offline. Gossip websites, paparazzi, reality programming, politics, news outlets and sometimes hackers all traffic in shame. It's led to desensitization and a permissive environment online, which lends itself to trolling, invasion of privacy and cyberbullying. This shift has created what Professor Nicolaus Mills calls "a culture of humiliation." Consider a few prominent examples just from the past six months alone. Snapchat, the service which is used mainly by younger generations and claims that its messages only have the life span of a few seconds. You can imagine the range of content that that gets. A third-party app which Snapchatters use to preserve the life span of the messages was hacked, and 100,000 personal conversations, photos and videos were leaked online, to now have a life span of forever. Jennifer Lawrence and several other actors had their iCloud accounts hacked, and private, intimate, nude photos were plastered across the internet without their permission. One gossip website had over five million hits for this one story. And what about the Sony Pictures cyberhacking? The documents which received the most attention were private e-mails that had maximum public embarrassment value.
Men i denne kultur af ydmygelse er der et anden slags prisskilt tilknyttet offentlig ydmygelse. Prisen måles ikke efter ofrenes omkostninger, som Tyler og alt for mange andre, navnligt kvinder, minoriteter, og folk i LGBTQ-samfundet har betalt, men den måles i profit hos dem, der er på rov efter dem. Invasionen af andre er råmateriale, der effektivt og nådesløst er udvundet, pakket og solgt med fortjeneste. Et marked er opstået, hvor offentlig ydmygelse er en råvare, og skam er en industri. Hvordan bliver pengene tjent? Klik. Jo mere skam, jo flere klik. Jo flere klik, jo flere reklamepenge. Vi er i en farlig cyklus. Jo mere vi klikker på den her slags sladder, des mere følelsesløse bliver vi overfor menneskelivene bag det, og jo mere følelsesløse vi bliver, des mere klikker vi. Samtidig er der nogen, der tjener penge baseret på en andens lidelser. Med hvert et klik tager vi et valg. Jo mere vi gennemvæder vores kultur med offentlig ydmygelse, jo mere accepteret det bliver, des mere vil vi se en opførelse ligesom cyber-mobning, trolling, nogle former for hacking og online chikane. Hvorfor? Fordi de alle har ydmygelse i deres kerne. Denne opførelse er et symptom på den kultur, vi har skabt. Tænk over det.
But in this culture of humiliation, there is another kind of price tag attached to public shaming. The price does not measure the cost to the victim, which Tyler and too many others -- notably, women, minorities and members of the LGBTQ community -- have paid, but the price measures the profit of those who prey on them. This invasion of others is a raw material, efficiently and ruthlessly mined, packaged and sold at a profit. A marketplace has emerged where public humiliation is a commodity, and shame is an industry. How is the money made? Clicks. The more shame, the more clicks. The more clicks, the more advertising dollars. We're in a dangerous cycle. The more we click on this kind of gossip, the more numb we get to the human lives behind it. And the more numb we get, the more we click. All the while, someone is making money off of the back of someone else's suffering. With every click, we make a choice. The more we saturate our culture with public shaming, the more accepted it is, the more we will see behavior like cyberbullying, trolling, some forms of hacking and online harassment. Why? Because they all have humiliation at their cores. This behavior is a symptom of the culture we've created. Just think about it.
At ændre opførsel begynder med at udvikle tro. Det er bevist sandt ved racisme, homofobi, og mange andre fordomme, i dag og i fortiden. Som vi ændrede opfattelse af homoseksuelles ægteskab, er flere personer blevet tilbudt ligelige friheder. Da vi begyndte at værdsætte bæredygtighed, begyndte flere personer at genbruge. Så når det kommer til vores kultur af ydmygelse, har vi brug for en kulturel revolution. Offentlig ydmygelse som en blodssport bliver nødt til at ophøre, og det er tid til en indgriben i vores kultur og vores internet.
Changing behavior begins with evolving beliefs. We've seen that to be true with racism, homophobia and plenty of other biases, today and in the past. As we've changed beliefs about same-sex marriage, more people have been offered equal freedoms. When we began valuing sustainability, more people began to recycle. So as far as our culture of humiliation goes, what we need is a cultural revolution. Public shaming as a blood sport has to stop, and it's time for an intervention on the internet and in our culture.
Ændringen begynder med noget simpelt, men det er ikke nemt. Vi bliver nødt til at vende tilbage til gamle værdier af medfølelse og empati. Online har vi et underskud af medfølelse, en empati-krise.
The shift begins with something simple, but it's not easy. We need to return to a long-held value of compassion, compassion and empathy. Online, we've got a compassion deficit, an empathy crisis.
Forsker, Brené Brown, sagde, og jeg citerer: "Skam kan ikke overleve empati." Skam kan ikke overleve empati. Jeg har set nogle meget mørke dage i mit liv, og det var medfølelsen og empatien fra min familie, venner, branchefolk, og nogle gange endda fremmede, der reddede mig. Selv empati fra en enkelt person kan gøre en forskel. Teorien om minoritetsindflydelse, foreslået af social psykolog, Serge Moscovici, foreskriver at selv i mindre tal, når der er konsistens over tid, sker der forandring. I den online verden kan vi pleje minoritetsindflydelse ved at blive en 'modståer'. At blive en modståer betyder, at i stedet for tilskuerpassivitet, kan vi opslå positive opslag for nogen eller rapportere en mobningssituation. Tro mig, medfølende kommentarer hjælper med at nedtone negativiteten. Vi kan også gå imod kulturen ved at støtte organisationer, der arbejder med disse problemer, som the Tyler Clementi Foundation i USA. I Storbritannien er der Anti-Bullying Pro, og i Australien er der Project Rockit.
Researcher Brené Brown said, and I quote, "Shame can't survive empathy." Shame cannot survive empathy. I've seen some very dark days in my life. It was the compassion and empathy from my family, friends, professionals and sometimes even strangers that saved me. Even empathy from one person can make a difference. The theory of minority influence, proposed by social psychologist Serge Moscovici, says that even in small numbers, when there's consistency over time, change can happen. In the online world, we can foster minority influence by becoming upstanders. To become an upstander means instead of bystander apathy, we can post a positive comment for someone or report a bullying situation. Trust me, compassionate comments help abate the negativity. We can also counteract the culture by supporting organizations that deal with these kinds of issues, like the Tyler Clementi Foundation in the US; in the UK, there's Anti-Bullying Pro; and in Australia, there's PROJECT ROCKIT.
Vi taler meget om vores ret til ytringsfrihed, men vi skal tale mere om vores ansvar i forbindelse med ytringsfrihed. Vi har alle lyst til at blive hørt, men lad os anerkende forskellen mellem at råbe op med intention og at råbe for opmærksomhed. Internettet er supermotorvejen for id'et, men online yder det, at vise empati for andre, en fordel for os alle og hjælper med at skabe en sikrere og bedre verden. Vi bliver nødt til at kommunikere online med medfølsomhed, tage nyheder til os med medfølsomhed, og klikke med medfølsomhed. Bare forestil dig at gå 10 km i en andens overskrift. Jeg vil gerne slutte af med en personlig bemærkning. I de sidste ni måneder er det spørgsmål, jeg er blevet stillet mest, hvorfor. Hvorfor nu? Hvorfor har jeg stukket mit hoved over fæstningen? Man kan læse mellem linjerne i disse spørgsmål, og svaret har intet at gøre med politik. Topsvaret var og er, fordi det er tid: Tid til at stoppe med at undgå min fortid; tid til at stoppe med at leve et liv af ukvemsord; og tid til at tilbagetage min fortælling.
We talk a lot about our right to freedom of expression. But we need to talk more about our responsibility to freedom of expression. We all want to be heard, but let's acknowledge the difference between speaking up with intention and speaking up for attention. The internet is the superhighway for the id. But online, showing empathy to others benefits us all and helps create a safer and better world. We need to communicate online with compassion, consume news with compassion and click with compassion. Just imagine walking a mile in someone else's headline. I'd like to end on a personal note. In the past nine months, the question I've been asked the most is "Why?" Why now? Why was I sticking my head above the parapet? You can read between the lines in those questions, and the answer has nothing to do with politics. The top-note answer was and is "Because it's time." Time to stop tiptoeing around my past, time to stop living a life of opprobrium and time to take back my narrative.
Det handler ikke bare om, at redde mig selv. Hvem som helst, der lider af skam og offentlig ydmygelse, har brug for at vide én ting: Du kan overleve det. Jeg ved, det er svært. Det er måske ikke smertefrit, hurtigt eller nemt, men du kan insistere på en anden slutning til din historie. Hav medfølelse med dig selv. Vi fortjener alle medfølelse, og til at leve både online og offline i en mere medfølende verden.
It's also not just about saving myself. Anyone who is suffering from shame and public humiliation needs to know one thing: You can survive it. I know it's hard. It may not be painless, quick or easy, but you can insist on a different ending to your story. Have compassion for yourself. We all deserve compassion and to live both online and off in a more compassionate world.
Tak for at lytte. (Bifald)
Thank you for listening. (Applause and cheers)