[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

The idea is that if hateful comments on social media are bad when they're aimed at politicians, they're bad when they're aimed at all politicians. Not just women, and not just the politicians we like.

I doubt any politician in this country received more social media abuse in the last 10 years than Harper. Which isn't surprising - he was prime minister. Still, I don't recall any public outcries over how Harper was treated.

And of course, this goes beyond politicians. If you have any kind of public profile, you're going to get nasty things said to and about you in social media. The fact it's everywhere doesn't make it right, but it does raise the question of who deserves special protection or sympathy. I think we're agreed on children, but I don't see the point in singling out other groups of people. Especially when there isn't a whole lot we can do about anything short of death threats.

You have completely missed the point save for your very last sentence.

The point is, male politicians DO NOT have to put up with this level of harassment and threatening language. It's just below the surface on some of the commentary on this board too, aside from some of the posts that I've seen removed as well.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley faces a much higher level of threatened violence and personal attack in posts online in the past week — and since her election — than her male counterparts ever get, says a University of Calgary professor.

In the past week, there have been angry social media posts that Notley should be shot, stabbed, or even thrown into a tree grinder. Some of the posts have referred to her as a b---h and other offensive terms.

"It's a whole class of crap that men in politics don't have to think about, much less address," said Melanee Thomas, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Calgary.

Many of the comments stem from the controversy over Bill 6, which extends occupational health and safety rules and workers compensation coverage to paid farm workers in the province.

Even when people fundamentally disagreed with male politicians of a similar level — such as former premiers Ralph Klein and Jim Prentice or former prime minister Stephen Harper — they didn't attack them online with nearly this level of violence, said Thomas, who studies gender-based political inequality.

"We see nastiness that is directed at politicians all of the time, and they deal a lot with that," said Thomas. "It's the level of the nastiness that's directed toward women, particularly the NDP in this case, that we find to be rather alarming. Not surprising, but certainly alarming."

Notley's team made rare move of posting Facebook rules in spring

In the spring, Notley's social media team posted guidelines on Facebook telling people how to conduct themselves in the comments. Among the requirements were restrictions on violent speech and pornographic language.

Thomas can't recall a time that any other Canadian premier had to do the same.

"It is exceptional," said Thomas. "For a premier of the economic engine of the country to say not only, 'Please be respectful,' but 'Stop using pornographic language.' Like — which men in politics ever [have] to deal with that?"

Some have questioned whether the threats against Notley and her cabinet members are "real" security concerns, but Thomas says that doesn't matter.

"It's not harmless, especially in a province that has a terrible track record for violence against women. They might be empty threats and a lot of the bombastic political rhetoric is kind of empty but it's not okay to say, 'I don't like you as a politician therefore I want to kill you.'".