I did a blanket approval of all my pending "friend" requests when I joined Facebook. My bad. It turns out that about 80 people had submitted my e-mail for approval. Ominously, in addition to Grace Explosion, Repsac3 was approved at the time. While I think Grace means well, Repsac3 has an unhinged obssession with conservatives - and with my blogging especially. As some readers know, he's started an entire blog to harrass and ridicule me, American Nihilist. He's also got about three other blogs devoted largely to me and a few other conservatives. The man's sick. He and his fully-clinical co-bloggers have published my work information to initiate a campaign of intimidation, for example:
If the Coward or any of his followers harass you online you, contact President Eloy Oakley at (562) 938-4122 or Executive VP of Academic Affairs Donald Berz at (562) 938-4127 and describe the harassment. For serious online abuse or defamation, there is always this option (case file in progress).If there's a genuine "case file" in progress, I haven't heard anything about it. This is mostly about intimidation. (O)CT(O)PUS, the author of that post, is now mounting a jihad against traditionals and Christians, "Revelations: Who Are the Hate Groups and Why We Should Be Very Afraid."
Well, (O)CT(O)PUS is getting over into the Frank Rich unhingeness zone.
I'm attacked because of my views. I don't threaten. I don't harrass. And I certainly don't advocate killing anyone (in fact I've denounced the recent murders repeatedly, and in no uncertain terms). As always, I speak out against racism and bigotry in all its forms. But for my neoconservative traditionalism, I'm attacked as a "hater."
On that note, I can't help feeling for Pamela Geller, who routinely gets attacked for her advocacy. See this unhinged anti-Semitic mysoginist screed, for example, from Jerry Marlow of the Hayner Hoyt Corporation, "Conservative woman as a whole are dumb fuckers, you fit right in you stupid bitch. I saw [sic] burn the whole lot of you at the stake as heretics."
By the way, regular readers might take a look at this piece from the Wall Street Journal, "Bloggers, Beware: What You Write Can Get You Sued."
It's truly the Wild West out there, folks. But never give in. Fight the good, moral fight. Not one of us has anything to do with the recent wave of violence, but the Charles Johnsons, Frank Riches, and Andrew Sullivans of the world would shackle us to the village stocks and leave us to die faster than you can say Carrie Prejean.
15 comments:
Hi Donald,
It's a beautiful Sunday where I am, and hopefully where you are, too. But since you've got time to post, I was hoping to get a post clarifying what you meant when you said
That said, for various reasons I worry less about the extreme right wing in American politics. As I noted previously, "it's my personal belief that radical left-wing ideology is the greatest threat to the country today."
What are the various reasons? How is left-wing ideology the greatest threat to the country? Do you mean an existential threat ("liberals will literally destroy the nation") or do you mean a philosophical threat ("liberals will destroy the ideological foundation of this country")?
This is the third time I've asked this question--and there's certainly some irony to me asking it again on a post about internet stalking and obsessive behavior--but this seems to me to be a crucial issue, something which probably deserves its own post.
(As I've pointed out before, your banner states that this site is about "commentary and analysis" but very often it's more "news you may have missed." Now, I understand this time of year might be busy--final exams and all--but, as I've said, I think this is an important issue, and I'd be interested in your analysis of it.)
Dr.D,
I would never in a thousand years go on Facebook or MySpace. They are an invitation to every kook in the world to find targets. Anytime people can attack anonymously that's an invitation to every gutless bully to operate with impunity. Too bad a good thing is made into a bad one. Such is human nature.
I cannot remember who to credit, but someone said "We have become two different peoples inhabiting the same land".
To that I say, look to history to find the outcome of this problem. It is not going to be pretty...and sadly at this pace and tone it might not be solved by words alone I am afraid...
The key will be that the rabid leftist expects that someone else will do the dirty work...
Does anyone else think that the anonymity that the Internet, as well as our increasing use of technology that doesn't require direct, face to face interaction, is the root cause? The more we bury ourselves in technology, the less and less we have to be polite. It's easy to be an ass when you don't have to face someone. I find this to be the case on the roads as well. People may be generally nice, until they get behind the wheel. It seems to be the same with a keyboard.
Personally, I am amazed at the prodigious work at this site, and I appreciate your determination to post views with civility for opposing views. It is remarkable that your efforts are met with such malice in opposition. People who become known for supporting traditional marriage, carrying their down syndrome child to term, contributing to Prop. 8 in California, or skillfully espousing conservative views on a blog . . . will be facing a concerted network of character assassins.
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I like reading you, but I'll have to go to MMA boot camp before I try to blog like you.
This fellow Repsac3 seems to have learned a new word (nihilist) and wants the world to know he's learned a new word. With his choice of black background and dark blue links, his blog is practically unreadable anyways; I wouldn't worry about him. Obviously he's a dick.
On the viability of Facebook and MySpace (and Twitter) I'd like to leave you this link to this comment that opened my eyes just a bit...the Twitter phenomena (no matter how derided it may be) may well be one of the final nails in the coffin of Big Media.
(Oh, and BenJB, not to take any of the fun away from Dr. Douglas' answer to your question, but the Holy Trinity of Far Leftism - Statism - Anti-Capitalism (the Democrats as they are now presented) is unsustainable. How can you fund your future idealistic nirvana, unless it's on the backs of Capitalists paying your way? You've control of this nation now; let's see if you can work out a system that will keep everyone who wants to work working, and those who won't, satisfied with what little they deserve. I think the current crop of Democrats, and Obama, will fail at this task.)
Facebook and MySpace passed me right by. I have no time for either.
Between NewsBusters, HotAir, Giovanni's World, American Power, Finkelblog, Twitter, a few links thrown on my own blog once in a while, and a private chat room used by me and my closest NewsBusters friends, I barely have time to shower and eat.
LOL-Besides, I type slower than frozen dog-squeeze.
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What we are now seeing on the part of the freedom-hating Marxist left is an all-out assault on our 1st Amendment rights. The lefty speech fascists have every intention of stifling all dissension and honest, wide open debate.
They are currently busying themselves reclassifying anything said by a conservative as being "hate speech." What is more, the left fully intends to employ the police powers of government to enforce this lunacy.
It will go beyond government interference on the airwaves, too. Don't tell me this new internet commissar is being put in place solely for the purpose of internet "security." My guess is this current administration has a far different definition of security than most here do.
Make no mistake, Barack Hussein Obama is totalitarian to the core, and if history has taught us anything about these people, it is that dissension of any kind is not tolerated.
Just take a look at what Obama's buddy Hugo Chavez is currently doing in Venezuela.
Don't think it cannot possibly happen here, because it is well on its way already.
The problem we have in this country today is that the majority of Americans are now nothing more than government indoctrinated, American Idol watching, People Magazine reading mindless myrmidons, whose idea of a news show is Inside Edition or Entertainment Tonight.
Look at the results of the last three presidential elections, particularly this last one.
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I believe post-industrial America is heading for a major split, which may just result in an America being separated into two, three, or even four countries.
This nation is becoming more and more ungovernable with each passing election, as the gulf between productive Americans and the societal leeches is becoming to wide to bridge.
The probable insane seizing of this nation's health care system by the federal government just may be the tipping point here.
I mean, $600 billion in new taxes? Do these idiots not know we are in a severe recession that appears to be headed further south still?
Is anybody really buying that this Obamacare lunacy is only going to cost $1 trillion?
When has any government entitlement program not ended up costing at least three times its initial projections?
Hell, we're as good as broke now. Where is the money to pay for this going to come from?
The eeeeeeeeeevil, hated rich?
There aren't enough rich people on this entire f'ing planet to cough up the three or four trillion Obamacare alone is going to cost all by itself, not to mention the $12 trillion Obama has already blown out of the treasury, and that wasn't even there in the first place.
People who are actually productive and want to work, and who appreciate individual freedom and liberty, are going to find life in Obama's Amerika to be intolerable.
And they sure as hell aren't going to stand by why the government confiscates ever increasing amounts of their incomes in order to satisfy the whims of people who vote for a living.
At some point, something has to give.
-Dave
Let's see if we can clear a few things up, shall we?
According to the text on my cellphone, Donald sent me a friend request on 4/15/09, at 10:37am (eastern). I wasn't home at the time, (hence the text message on the cell) and was dumbfounded by the request... As any of his FB friends can verify, Donald signed up for his FB account on the morning of 4/15/09 (tax/tea bag day, if that helps jog any memories)... which begs the question of how I had sent him a friend request before he had an account, or how he managed to get 80 requests on day one, within hours of signing up, or frankly, why I would even send him a friend request, in the first place. (Why did I approve the request? Good question... A: I figured he might be intending to use the account more to promote AmPow than as a personal thing (And he has, in my opinion.)... Besides, I was curious to see whether our being FB "friends" would affect our stormy blogger relationship. -- For the record, it hasn't. We're no closer--or more distant--than we were on 4/14/09.)
As for my "obsession," either with conservatives in general, or with Donald in particular, that's just silly. I like blogging. But I find it boring and kinda counterproductive to only talk to people with whom I agree. So, after spending some time on a few REALLY bad (poorly written, abusive, unintelligent) con sites, I arrived here (well, at the professor's old blog, Burkean Reflections). While Donald (and a few others that come & go 'round here) can be abusive occasionally, I do think he's intelligent, and I do think the posts are well-written.
Besides, there have been many times when I haven't posted anything here for several weeks at a time, (& at least once, for several months) but on a few of those occasions, anyway, Donald has reinitiated contact by posting something about me here, and going so far as to "trackback" it on my blog (often at a post completely unrelated to the topic he was trying to drag me into over here.)
((And, while I doubt anyone's really all that interested in this little tit-for-tat between Donald & I, I can back my words with links to posts & comments that back what I'm saying, if need be.))
We've done this "blog to ridicule me" and "campaign of intimidation" thing several (bordering on "many") times (most recently here), but just to recap:
Yes, I have a blog that makes fun of you--specifically, your penchant for calling everyone with whom you disagree politically "nihilists." (Sorry Serr8d, that's Donald's overused, misapplied, & pretty obviously misunderstood word, not mine.) Every person/blog on that blogroll has been so designated by you, here on these pages--and that ain't even all of 'em you've so named. I made it up as a one off joke one night, and it caught a little fire amongst the people you've attacked here, who you haven't treated all that much better than we have you. Learn to cope, and for gosh sakes, stop whining about it. We don't plan on closing up shop anytime soon... (...but if you stop saying stupid things, we would probably have fewer posts about you.)
No, I never personally posted Oakley's or Bertz's info in any post I've ever written (though I think I may have quoted you doing so, once). Octopus is a different blogger who, in addition to running his own blog, is one of 3-4 cobloggers at American Nihilist. Continually blaming me (or anyone, aside the author) for his post or harassment or intimidation that you believe goes with it, is nonsensical. Continue to complain about it if you must, but at least put the blame where it belongs. (And by the way... This happened in FEBRUARY. You might want to think about letting go of the anger and hurt feelings... There's a good chance that Octo has already forgotten about the incident... ...and maybe even about you, too.)
Look... Maybe you don't hate all of the people you've called nihilists... If so, I apologize for choosing that word to describe your feelings for the folks on your "naughty" list, but there's no doubt you feel some kinda antipathy for us all, or you wouldn't've amassed such a list in the first place. But no, it wasn't your "neoconservative traditionalism," for which I suggested you were a hater; It was the willingness--& indeed zeal--with which you attack those with whom you do not agree. Looking at the list of people on my blogroll, and remembering the things you've written about them--for a quick example, take the "aids related dementia" you accuse Andrew Sullivan of having, in a post written this very day--I stand by that suggestion.
Repsac3 is an uneducated troll that likes to pretend IT knows something about anything. Trolls. Good for a chuckle or two. One day IT might actually learn what a neocon is and IT might stop using the term. Like most trolls, the term neocon to them is a derisive term but it makes me laugh.
First off: bravo, Dave. That's the kind of cliched numbskullery I come here for. You remembered Obama's middle name, you mentioned Chavez and you even threw in an "Obama's Amerika" for flair (the use of the "k" in the spelling being a delightfully clever rhetorical device to remind us all that he's so totally a communist; very droll, my boy).
In the future however I would like to see a lot more uses of the word "leftard" (it's sister slur "libtard" is an acceptable substitute), the term "Democrat party" and at least one reference per comment to his birth certificate. I think that one is really gaining traction with the non-factually challenged out there so keep at it. Other than that, great stuff. Keep up the good work.
Now, Mark Harvey: you should be ashamed of yourself. "Troll"? That's the best you can come up with? Mark is running wingnut circles around your ass. Yes, we use the term "neocon" derisively and I'm glad it makes you laugh (we laugh about it a lot, too).
But come on man, I know you can do better. Check out my new main man Mongoose on this comment thread. That's how you bring home the crazy and fry it in a pan! I'll expect better from you next time around.
Hey Philippe, 'sup dude?
Mr. Harvey is nothing but a poor man's propagandist, lacking both intelligence and the ability to even tell his lies convincingly.
In this case, I'll simply point out that the only time I used any form of the word neocon in my comments, it was to quote professor Douglas...
As often happens, Snoop's rant is pretty much meaningless opinioneering, rendered moot in the face of all those facts he so willingly ignores or distorts.
Though it wasn't one of the ones I visited prior to arriving at Burkean Reflections, it's a perfect example of the kind of unintelligent, abusively, endlessly angry and--worst of all, in my opinion-- poorly written blogs I was talking about in my earlier comment.
He thinks me a troll, and seems to like the word "it" so much he feels the need to inappropriately capitalize it (both letters, even) every time he uses it. Explain why anyone should care...
Always interesting and funny to see two of the worst writers on this site call someone else"a poor man's propagandist." What that little phase says about both of you is legend, but I suspect that neither of you will see the irony.
At least at times Repsac3 does make a point or two, though just when I think he is actually going to defend his ideas with reasoned dialogue he just cannot help but slip back into his "canned" rant.
I actually hold some hope for him, but JWB not so much. If he graduated from an institution of higher learning he needs to ask for his money back. I have seen little of that rhetorical skill unless the sneer and name calling is what is defined as skill.
You may now progress with the name calling and silliness. I have no respect or value for your opinion. You have to give respect to get it. I know that must be a foreign concept.
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Mark,
Keep up the good work. You are getting better each time you post. Do not let a couple of inane, insecure individuals deter you.
Opinions are like assholes, Dennis... Everyone has one, and everyone else's stinks more than your own.
For the record, I feel the same about you as you do me... Makes some good points, but can't get past the con daily talking points.
(Like Donald, probably intelligent, though... What you folks see in the likes o' Mark, I'll never understand... You both can think and write rings around him, with probably half the mental effort.)
At least at times Repsac3 does make a point or two, though just when I think he is actually going to defend his ideas with reasoned dialogue he just cannot help but slip back into his "canned" rant.
As always, I'd appreciate an example of this behavior, but I don't hold out much hope of (ever, seemingly) getting any of you folks to actually offer one.
I do appreciate those few on the "right" side here, who've cautiously, quietly questioned why the rest see me as being disrespectful (without cause, anyway... I freely admit that I do throw the second punch.) or have treated me no more poorly than I've treated them. (Most recently, JSF comes to mind, but even Greywolfe, who disagrees with me as vehemently as I do him, have managed to have long discussions without it devolving into mindless labels or personal attacks.)
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