Another Et Cetera on Trolling

Why do some bloggers give certain trolls free rein? Sometimes they do so out of a misguided conviction that ALL free speech is equally important. The problem with this is that if the trolls express opinions with which they disagree, those folks are either banned or spiritedly disagreed with by the freedom-loving bloggers. When they let a troll rampage freely without ever challenging what is said, I can only conclude it's because they agree with them.

"American Elephant" is so dishonest that he twists people's words around to mean something completely different than what they said. I remarked, on one commentary thread, that I did not believe gays and lesbians should pay high legal fees in order to safeguard relationships that the State protects for straights. He then turned around and tried to claim I'd said that he should pay my legal fees! There was simply no way any honest (or sane) person could have gotten that from what I said. "American Elephant" is, himself, a liar.

I also repeatedly -- REPEATEDLY -- stated that I don't believe the State should subsidize ANYONE'S relationship by taking more in taxes from singles, gay or straight, so that married people (gay or straight) can get tax breaks because of their status. There was absolutely no way any reasonable, or even rational, person could have mistaken my meaning. "Elephant" responded by repeatedly mischaracterizing what I said. He kept trying to claim that I wanted straight taxpayers to "subsidize" gay relationships.

Again, this guy is a liar. He is exactly what he keeps calling me. He is slandering me, and this is a legally actionable offense. In another age, he would have been called out for it in a fistfight or a duel. When I pointed this out to him, of course he resorted to the standard troll trick of claiming I was threatening violence against him.

He knew very well what I was saying. Again and again, "American Elephant" is a lying son of a bitch. It is far more likely that (if he had the gumption) he is the one who would stalk me than the other way around.

I called attention to the fact that I was using my own, full name in my posts. I told him I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and that I'm well known in the local GLBT Christian community. I assured him that if he wanted to take the matter up with me face-to-face, he would have no trouble doing so. Of course, being the lily-livered coward that he is, he then backed down and went into whine-mode about how I was supposedly threatening him. This is what liars and cowards do.

I have since informed him that I believe him to be a phony, and that I'm not the only person in the blogosphere with an incentive to expose his real identity and who he is working for. That, indeed, WAS a threat -- and I fully intend to make good on it if he persists in harassing me.

It's entirely up to the bloggers at Gay Patriot to determine whether they will ban him. He must express a lot of opinions with which they agree, since they never seem to challenge him on anything he says.

The only issue on which even "Elephant" and I seem to disagree is that of same-sex marriage. I don't believe that the State should be in the business of regulating private relationships or using the tax-code to manipulate individuals' behavior. He seems to feel the need to mischaracterize my viewpoint as "progressive" liberal, rather than libertarian, because he knows how to argue with the former and cannot intelligently deal with the latter. His own views on same-sex marriage are actually socialist, which I have also pointed out many times, and of course all he can do is go on lying about what I've said and impotently spluttering that he is not a socialist.

I intend to return to commenting on posts at Gay Patriot. Sooner or later, I will probably be banned, but I will never submit to censorship. Cynthia Yockey of A Conservative Lesbian seems to have declared war on Gay Patriot, but I am not interested in doing that. As I have stated in a previous post, my only real quarrel with that blog is that it permits one particular troll to indulge in blatant lying while he hurls the charge of "liar!" at others. It's up to each blogger to determine what he or she will allow, and that's not a choice I can make for any other blogger.

But again, if you permit that sort of crap, it makes you look as if you agree with it. Unless you state otherwise, which -- to my knowledge -- Gay Patriot doesn't. When one of your commenters baldly lies, and then calls others liars in a particularly stupid and childish attempt to obfuscate his own lying, it makes your blog look bad if you allow it.

It isn't going to be tolerated here. I still hope to build up readership for this Blog, and when I do, the same basic standard of common decency, and common sense, that applies to every other form of discourse will apply here. You will not be permitted to hide behind an alias and indulge in behavior that would get you horsewhipped, shot or sued in the real world. Nor, if anyone points this out, will you be permitted to wet your panties and squeal about how they are, supposedly, threatening you.

You need to be housebroken here. I don't ask much, but at the very least I demand that.