X-Post: The Wisdom of Walking Away: Avoiding the need for self-defense IS self-defense

In support of Law of Self Defense – Legally-Sound Self-Defense Strategy Rule #1: KEEP OUT OF TROUBLE IN 1st PLACE

A few excerpts:

To guide the crafting of a legally-sound self-defense strategy, I offer five basic rules:

Keep out of trouble in the first place
Minimize your legal exposure if trouble does start
Foster the confidence to act decisively when necessary
Diminish your perceived legal vulnerability
Facilitate acceptance of events

I know what you’re thinking: what’s with that first rule about “keeping out of trouble in the first place”? I don’t need to be told that, I’m the good guy, I don’t go getting into trouble.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of cases I see where an otherwise law-abiding armed citizen finds himself in legal trouble for having used force against another person, it is precisely because they failed to simply keep out of trouble in the 1st place. In talking with such folks I always ask, “looking back, were there any warning signals early on, that if you’d heeded them might have allowed you avoid the fight entirely?” The almost invariable answer, is “yes.”

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As an armed citizen, however, Reeves–and all of us who arm ourselves in public–don’t have the luxury of having “bad days,” nor acting childishly. I never had a proper religious upbringing, but my wife is a good Christian lass, and when through her I cam across this passage from Corinthians I thought it really fit my philosophy of CCW:

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a[n armed] man, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13

To put it another way, too many people when first arming themselves feel as if, “Hey, now that I carry a gun, I don’t have to take BS from anybody.”

The truth could not be more the opposite. For those of us who carry a gun, we have to take BS from everybody. Except the felony aggressor. He we can defend ourselves against. But the merely obnoxious, bullying types that roam this earth–well, my advice is to simply avoid them.

I urge you to read the whole post, which discusses the recent shooting in a FL movie theatre.

The author has it exactly right. There are things worth killing or dying over...but not many, (and certainly not an argument over texting, somebody looking at you the wrong way or insulting your favorite football team or choice of political candidate, a dent in your car bumper, ...) There are lots of times when letting an asshole "win the argument" and walking away is the far smarter course of action, and doing so may even save your life...or his.

I read a great article set of comments at a gun rights blog about a year ago (I think) saying a very similar thing as regards George Zimmerman. Their argument was that, whatever the law decided, Zimmerman foolishly put himself in the position that lead to his firing his gun at Trayvon Martin and was no second amendment or gun rights hero. (Of course I can't locate the article now, but my searching wasn't a total loss (See below)... And if I happen to find it later, I can always add it in. UPDATE: I think it may've been several comments, beginning with this one, at THE ZIMMERMAN VERDICT, PART 1. Yes, I misremembered; The author of the post, Massad Ayoob, disagrees with that assessment. But for a VERY thorough look at the whole Zimmerman case from a gun rights perspective, offered just post verdict, Ayoob's multi-part series cannot be beat, whether you ultimately agree with his take on the specifics or not.) I don't believe the author of the piece above, Andrew Branca, shares that view of Zimmerman either, but that doesn't take away from the wisdom of his current post.
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...my searching wasn't a total loss...

While I was looking for the post I described, I rediscovered one of the best arguments I've ever read in favor of gun rights. Since I both found it originally and rediscovered it via Stogie at Saberpoint, I'll give him the h/t: An opinion on gun control | Monster Hunter Nation. It is still possible to argue for increased / improved gun control laws even after reading his post--I myself still favor thorough, universal background checks, even if that means it takes longer to complete the purchase of a firearm--but Larry Correia doesn't make it easy.
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A Wingnuts and Moonbats x-post

To the guy who deserves it (though he'll probably never see this post), thanks.

Needed to hear it, and I'm glad you said it.

I owe you...

W James Casper
(repsac3)

X-Post: I Defy Anyone to Defend, Justify, Or Try To Rationalize This Creepy, Creepy Threat Made By Donald Kent Douglas

I defy anyone sane and decent--and that includes some of Donald Douglas' biggest supporters, and especially anyone who has ever been swatted, or who chose to leave their home to protect their family from possible bad behavior by those they blogged about--to say that the post below is not very creepy, or that doxing someone with whom you disagree over the internet is EVER justified.

I have already contacted my local police precinct (just so they have a record; there is obviously nothing they can do, so far) and alerted my neighborhood watch block captain and one of my closest neighbors, and intend to take more security precautions tomorrow morning. (No harm in adding another camera or two outside, as well as taking other steps it'd be better if I kept to myself.)

[Legally advised to remove screenshot that was here, as well as certain information from quoted paragraph below.]
"...you never can be too careful."

Years ago, a reader of my blog had resources from one of those background research sources that for a fee will provide personal information on people. The reader sent me a file on Repsac. I think it even included a photo of his home in [city, state] which I gather is ------ (or that included a link to a photo online). If I recall it was an older one story home, apparently on a street corner, with a large-trunk tree on the front lawn. The place looked kinda run down. That's the basic description, if memory serves me. Not sure. There was a street address as well. There was other information too, about family members. I already know where Casper went to high school and (surprisingly, because he's so retarded) college. Some of this information is easily found just by a quick search for "Repsac3" on Google. But some is definitely proprietary. Basically, hate-addled Walter James Casper's ripe for a doxing. And not just a quick Internet search doxing. We're talking about a full professional investigation-style doxing. All this is speculation, but hey, stalkers do face consequences sometimes, and if anyone deserves the honors it's the universally reviled Repsac3. Frankly, what pisses people off is not only that Repsac's a despicable troll (truly evil, in fact), but that he maintains a stalking hate-blog along the lines of Breitbart Unmasked.

These are all just ruminations and speculation, but you never can be too careful.-- Donald Kent Douglas

UPDATE: Pertaining to the paragraph quoted above (and posted at original site):

"face consequences," "deserves the honors," "you never can be too careful" (& from next day) "No one cares what happens to him. He deserves whatever malicious fate awaits him. I couldn't care less..."

I hope this information is perfectly clear.
The Illegal Activity of “Doxing”: Revealing “documents or personal information” about a person, without their permission, with the intent to Threaten, Harass, Intimidate, Shame, Humiliate or Place at Risk…. | The Last Refuge

('nuff said, I hope.)
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Look, if you want to make fun of my egg-shaped, seasonally shaved head, have at it.

Has anyone ever seen a troll whose picture so much resembles an egg avatar? http://t.co/HtZYXmpM6q
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 8, 2014

(But trust me, it's all been said before, and probably better--including by me. The first year I shaved it at a St. Baldrick's Foundation event, pretty much everyone I know laughed at me and with me (hopefully more of the latter...) about my Humpty Dumpty fatass head. The "new" twitter user avatar comparison is common. From my point of view, it's all old news, and I don't disagree... My head is egg-shaped. I have an egg-shaped head. Ha-friggin'-Ha.)


But really... Go after my looks, my politics, my intelligence...
Call me a retard, if that's what gets you off (but let's hope Sarah Palin--or anyone who has a developmentally challenged child, sister, uncle, or friend--is not listening to you use that word as an epithet).
Imply I'm a faggot, or no better than a sissy-girl, if that's your thing. (There's a lot of that going around, lately.)
Impune my religion, or claim that I have none.
There's a lot of shit you can say if you really want to try to hurt my feelings or disparage me. (As long as I don't value your opinion--which probably applies to all the folks who would say shit like this in the first place--it won't have the desired effect, but have at it, anyway... Do what you gotta do, crazy diamond...)

But this is a whole other level of creepy, and I have little doubt that almost everyone that Donald or I have ever interacted with online will agree it's the most stalker-like thing that either of us have ever posted about the other. (I also have no doubt that a scant few of Donald's most creepy sycophants will think I deserve whatever trouble he can drum up by doxing me, and whatever happens to me, my home or my family as a result. He has a few really scary "friends.")

To be clear, I include(d) Robert Stacy McCain and everyone else fighting Team Kimberlin in court or online to be in the former group. It would shock me if McCain or any of them were anything less than clear in saying that this is not normal acceptable decent behavior...no matter what deeds I am in fact responsible for as regards Donald Kent Douglas (or whatever deeds they falsely believe I'm responsible for, as a result of Donald's many lies..

Whatever happened before this post is water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned...
Maybe McCain and those who read his blog really didn't know. (I don't blame them for that. I can't say that I was aware Donald was capable of this level of creepitude, myself.)
I can understand why a friend would take the word of a friend and offer him support without checking to see whether his story held water. (Good friend. Shitty journalist.)

Now that he knows, though...

.@RSMcCain Bwahaha! Robert Stacy McCain Eviscerates Egghead Avatar Hate-Troll Walter James Casper III http://t.co/kvZqKShroV @MadJewessWoman
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 10, 2014

.@RSMcCain Repsac and his vile troll-rights crew attack you with a "Speedo" epithet. http://t.co/bkqQtSJD7P
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 10, 2014

...I would hope that McCain would set the patently dishonest hit post right--though I could forgive him if he chose not to
...or add a paragraph to the hit post making it clear he stands against the threat as well as the act of doxing one's online enemies, even by his friends. Hopefully he will, but if not, OK. His position on doxing in general is pretty clear to anyone who reads his blog, and whether he chooses to make it clear again in this instance or not, his position is well documented.

But to take up the cause of Donald Kent Douglas in his absurd war against me after today, one has to defend and justify this threat. If Robert Stacy McCain (or almost any of his or McCain's online friends and supporters, but especially the ones for whom BomberSuesBloggers is a thing, ever does that going forward, I will be very, very surprised...

(And I am... Very, very surprised... So yeah... I had to edit out the Bomber Sues Bloggers donation link. While the cause is non-partisan and all about the free speech of bloggers, too many (though not all) of the "bloggers" in question are partisan ideologues who use this cause as a hammer with which to beat on liberals, or lie about and demean the very folks on the left who're supporting their free speech. (In other words, people like me.) If you really want to help, I'm pretty sure Ken White (see link below) maintains a Popehat Signal Fund to help defray costs for pro bono free speech cases. (And if you really want to help these particular bloggers/v/bomber, some of 'em have the same link I deleted here on their own sites.)
~~~

"This is what is known as “doxing.” Doxing is always illegal, whether it is done against a federal employee, a state employee, or a regular person. There are federal and state laws that specifically address doxing government employees. With regular citizens, doxing falls under various state criminal laws, such as stalking, cyberstalking, harassment, threats, and other such laws, depending on the state. Since these doxing threats and activities are made on the internet, the law of any state may be invoked, though most often an investigator will look to the state in which the person making the threat is located, if this is known, or the state in which the victim is situated. A state prosecutor can only prosecute violations of the laws of his or her own state, and of acts that extend into their state. When acts are on the internet, they extend into all the states.

Misinformation was spread that doxing is legal. I am not sure how or why anyone fell for that misinformation. Surely, people must understand instinctively, even if they were misled about the law, that if they are threatening someone or putting them at risk, or tormenting or harassing the other on the internet, that this must be illegal. Common sense would tell you that bullying or jeopardizing another would be illegal in some way. So yes, doxing is illegal, no matter who the target." - Sue Basko - Subliminal Ridge: Understanding Barrett Brown's Case

~~~

"UPDATE: By the way, we should be extraordinarily grateful to Sue Basko for her common-sense explanation of why “doxing” is always illegal. This prompts the question, as she says, of why anyone ever fell for the “disinformation” that it was legal.
I’ve got a hunch that this mistaken belief originated in the anonymous/pseudonymous world of hackers and trolls, where nobody’s “real life” identity is known and where, behind the presumed protection of anonymity, people do all kinds of things they would never do publicly under their own names." - UPDATE: Walker v. Kimberlin, Et Al. (Also: Why ‘Doxing’ Is Always Illegal) - Robert Stacy McCain - The Other McCain

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UPDATE, Friday, 1/10/14, 7:10 PM:
Excerpts from Donald Douglas' next hate-rant, showing...well, you folks decide for yourselves what to take from what he says:

"Walter James Casper's a despicable lying half-wit douchebag --- which is to say, he's a regressive leftist. No one cares what happens to him. He deserves whatever malicious fate awaits him. I couldn't care less..."

That Donald feels this way is obvious...and more than a little disturbing. (I mean fine, he really seems to believe I wronged him online somehow...but that justifies his threatening to release personal information about me and my family, and believes that we deserve whatever bad thing that may happen to us as a result?)

Get a life, Casper. I suggest you start by closing up shop at your stalking "jihad" blog American Nihilist, which clearly is the source of all your problems.

I believe the technical name for this is #shutuppery, and is very likely the real reason behind all of Donald's attacks. He wants this blog gone...badly, and if that means someone has to break a few eggs (including that big one on my neck), than so be it. That's what we get for making him mad on the internet.

Honestly, I don't care what my co-bloggers think or do. They're not being stalked by an obsessive-compulsive hate-troll who's allied with and abetted vicious personal attacks on me them, my family their families, and my their livelihoods.

FIFY

And I'm willing to bet that there are several of Donald's "co-bloggers" (by which I think he means fellow con-bloggers) for whom this would be VERY GOOD NEWS...if it were only true. (I'm thinking' RS McCain and Aaron Walker, would be particularly thrilled, for instance... And then there's Patterico, Ken White, John Hoge, Lee Stranahan, Mandy Nagy, ...)

But the world revolves around Donald Douglas, and it's little surprise that he is the only one he sees...

UPDATE: Saturday, 1/11/2014, 7:00 AM:

So apparently, I was wrong:

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, @repsac3 gotta troll. http://t.co/TGo5mJBB2H via @AmPowerBlog
— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 11, 2014

Conservative hypocrisy from the daddy figure in Donald's online life... Whodathunkit?

I don't regret thinking better of McCain than his actual worth. I have seen him do the right thing in the past, including admitting he got the facts of a story wrong (and yeah, even when it went against his partisan politics), but I guess telling the awful truths about a lying megalomaniacal fellow "co-blogging" douchebag he considers a friend was more than he could do. Journalism be damned... ...and sometimes, doxing is just another tool in the partisan attack toolbox. IOKIYAAC.

Oh well... Shit happens. All I can do is tell the truth. There are always going to be assholes who'll do everything they can not to hear it... (...and some who'll actually lie about you, too.)

In Reply: Standing up and speaking out against on and offline bullies is about encouraging us not to passively accept their nonsense and to protect and defend ourselves and each other.

Revised and extended a little, in reply to the following comment at the intentionally lyin'assed Other McCain post "Portrait of a Stalker Troll: @Repsac3, Also Known as Walter James Casper III," by "journalist" Robert Stacy McCain:

Actually, no...that's exactly what it's like within fandom communities. Politics, fandom...it's generally the same online because the Internet is like never leaving junior high.

And...you missed my point. But I think I know what the problem is. I'm sure you know what the Streisand Effect is. (My personal favorite example is the now infamous Charles Carreon) So here are a few helpful guides. (Sorry for the language, folks)

The Complete Guide to Not Giving a Fuck.
The actual advice in here is a little questionable, but the important thing is the point that people are going to believe things about you that you don't think are true, and no amount of "setting them straight" is going to change that, like our friend Girl B's situation. She just wants people to hear her side, too. Does it work, though? Nope. The only thing you can really do is Not Give a Fuck. And as the writer notes, most people neither know nor care. I certainly didn't, and I can tell you this fact right now: if you hadn't responded, I would have forgotten about you already. Really.

My guide to not giving a fuck // Alden Tan.
This one, IMO, has more practical advice, primarily because he's pointing out that bitching on social media won't solve anything. Seriously, I don't even use it to vent. Private journals are a wonderful thing.

And finally, my personal favorite:

wadewilson: Internet Drama And You.
Though this is centered around that wacky subset of fandom known as roleplayers about whom I plead the Fifth on knowing anything about, it's still good advice about this issue. (So you can skip the whole "Pretendy fun time games" bit...unless you want to apply that to political discussions online. Because really, is anyone in any position to do anything even paying attention to us? Ha...big bag of NOPE.) But the big point here is that even though you might not start Internet drama yourself, you can end it.

Oh, and have I been there? You bet your ass I have. Someone on one of these commiseration spirals had badmouthed a good friend of mine. It hurts even worse when one of these spoiled little girls insults someone I care about, but part of learning to not give a fuck was learning that their opinion of her wasn't even worth the thought I was giving it. They weren't going to change their single functioning collective brain cell over it, so I had to make the hard choice to just drop it. Was if fair? HELL NO. Did I have a right to defend her? Sure I did. Was it worth it lowering myself to their level? Not even remotely. But ultimately, I just wanted these mouthbreathers to leave us alone, and they did. The price of that was allowing their short attention spans work in my favor. That's pretty much the universal Internet currency of peace of mind: letting people forget about you. - La Pucelle

All I can say is we disagree... In my opinion you put entirly too much responsibility on the people being attacked, and virtually none on the people doing the attacking. I would never want to live in a world where people--victims, potential victims, and good people everywhere--don't stand up to bullies, online or off. Standing up and speaking out isn't about convincing the bullies; with very few exceptions, they're a lost cause. It's about encouraging the rest of us not to passively accept their nonsense and to protect and defend ourselves and each other.

You certainly can ignore a single isolated incident or two (and yes, it probably is in your best interest to do so, for exactly the reasons you describe.) But follow McCain's link to Donald Douglas' behavior over the last year or so one more time. These are not single, isolated incidents and they are not motivated by anything I do or do not do. The behavior shown at that link is Donald Douglas' responsibility and cross to bear. That he has chosen to make me the object of his "affections" has nothing to do with me, and my pretending that he isn't behaving the way he is isn't going to make him stop behaving the way he does toward me.

In any case, adding the guy's posts to a list the way I do may not be your solution, but it surely isn't stalking, harassment, or trolling, either. I trust you can see that. (If it helps, think of the list as my tiny contribution to Dr. Douglas' own little Streisand Effect. His attempts to obfuscate his responsibly for his strange behavior, and instead accuse me, is just as deserving of that sort of pushback, is it not? I mean, it's not like you're saying no one should've posted about Charles Carron's (or Babs') bad behaviors, right?)

Thanks for the conversation, though... I appreciate your thoughts, even though I don't entirely agree with 'em...

Personally, I'm glad you haven't "forgotten about me already"... Aside from the enlightening conversation, your willingness to discuss it with me renewed my longstanding belief that, even here on the internet, not every partisan from the "other" side (or "our" side, for that matter) is obligated to behave like all is WAR!!! While I don't plan to spend much time in McCain's comment sections, I hope to run into you again.
--

Posted Thursday, January 9, 2014, 10:25 AM (or thereabouts)
--

When I was posing La Pucelle's links here, I took the time to read them more thoroughly than I did initially. The following, from The Complete Guide to Not Giving a Fuck, actually argues for my position, and I'm sorry I didn't notice it until long after I posted my reply comment to him on McCain's site. (It may also explain why he found some of the advice there "a little questionable."):

STEP 4. Tell the truth.

You don’t need to be an asshole, but the world does not need another conflict-avoidant, evasive person. No one wants another individual who steps in line with everyone else. The status quo is doing fine without you, so it’s up to you to call bullshit if you see it.

X-Post: In Reply to @rsmccain (Robert Stacy McCain)'s Fact-Averse Hit Piece for His Ideological Brother-in-Arms, Donald Kent Douglas

Portrait of a Stalker Troll: @Repsac3, Also Known as Walter James Casper III : The Other McCain

Professor Donald Douglas has spent years fighting one particularly obsessed troll, Walter James Casper III, who might actually out-rank Bill Schmalfeldt in the Stalker Hall of Shame, because Casper has been cyberstalking Douglas for more than five years.

First off, the photo, which McCain and several of his readers have delighted in attacking like junior high mean girls. This is where it came from: James Casper | A St. Baldrick's Participant. That's right, I had just (in 2011) shaved my head for a charity for cancer kids. And yes, McCain... It does look like an egg.

(There's one from another year where I grew and kept a big bushy beard so I looked like yer average Wooly Willy character for the day we did the St Baldrick's event, to amuse my preschool-aged niece and nephew... Dr Douglas seems to like posting and making fun of that one a lot, too.)

As for "stalking" (or later, "trolling" or "harassing,") there's a reason that both of McCain's links suggesting he's offering evidence of my supposed bad behavior online go to a search of Donald Douglas' blog posts about me over the last year or so, rather than my posts about him; The results would show that:

The last time I posted about Dr. Douglas on my blog was on Wednesday, August 7th, 2013.

The last time I posted something about Dr. Douglas that wasn't a response to his posting or tweeting about me a day or two earlier? I don't even know... (I went back over a year, and couldn't find one.)

What Donald is upset about (and McCain is unquestioningly, unthinkingly regurgitating here on behalf of his blog buddy) is that I read Dr Douglas' blog without his permission. That's what Dr Douglas (and McCain) are labeling "stalking."

Among the significant characteristics of cyberstalkers is the disproportionality of their obsessions. Professor Douglas is not an academic celebrity or influential media personality. He’s a professor of political science at Long Beach City College in California. It is not as if he’s at Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia, Yale or some other big-money “prestige” school, and yet the fact that Professor Douglas is (a) conservative and (b) a blogger is sufficient to justify in Casper’s sick mind the most insane forms of stalking behavior.

"Stalking behavior" like what, exactly?

Reading his blog?

Responding when he posts about me?

What is McCain talking about?

Another characteristic of cyberstalkers is their resort to psychological projection: They are not obsessed with you — no! — you are obsessed with them, and don’t you dare accuse them of harassing you — of course not! — you are instead harassing them.

The facts are there... Every post where I've mentioned Donald Douglas in well over a year has been in response to his posts and tweets about me. From the time he stopped posting about me back in August until his unprovoked and unwarranted attack just before midnight on January 6th, I haven't said word one to or about the guy. This isn't rocket science...

This kind of “accuse the accusers” tactic serves two purposes for the troll: First, it is a psychological rationalization by which he justifies his behavior and, second, it serves to obfuscate the situation in the eyes of law enforcement or other authorities.

Again, the record is pretty clear... While much of what McCain says here about trolling online is likely true, he's backing the wrong horse... It's not that the authorities that Dr Douglas reported me to are confused, McCain... It's that his allegations don't stand up to the slightest scrutiny (which McCain would know, had he bothered to look).

Something else: The conflict between Casper and Professor Douglas is not about politics, nor is it about Professor Douglas.

That is to say, Casper’s espousal of left-wing political ideas is not the reason for his behavior, but simply a pretext, and if he weren’t harassing Professor Douglas, he’d be harassing some other target, selected more or less at random. There is, of course, a specific history to the conflict between them, but it is ultimately irrelevant. There are plenty of people every bit as left-wing as Casper who are not obsessive stalkers, and there are other conservative bloggers who might just as easily become targets for stalking, if ever they attracted the attention of such a grotesquely deformed personality as Casper.

Again, all of this is true as regards the person lashing out...but that person ain't me. Donald Douglas doesn't behave the way he does because he's a conservative; he behaves this way because he's Donald Douglas.

Walter James Casper III has spent years smearing and harassing Professor Douglas, trying to get him fired from his job. This could (and in fact, often does) happen to any blogger who has a day job.

...but rather than provide links to any tweets or blog posts in evidence of this, McCain links to Donald's posts about me on his blog over the last year or so... Why do you think that is? (FWIW, I do the same thing on the sidebar of American Nihilist, believing Donald Douglas' posts are evidence of his bad behavior, not mine. Wonder what McCain's thinkin'?)

Not only did I never try to get Donald Douglas fired from his job, I regularly spoke out against anyone attacking bloggers offline for online behaviors, whether the victim or perps were conservative or liberal. And that includes the guy I once blogged with, who left the blog over our disagreement on the subject. There is no comment or post anywhere where I excuse or condone such behavior. Donald is lying, and McCain is mindlessly parroting Donald's lies. (And yes... The incident that Donald and McCain are talking about occurred in 2009. Really.)

To get an idea of the pathetic nature of Casper’s obsession, he has devoted an entire blog, called “American Nihilist,” to his anti-Douglas jihad. In the past six months, that stalker site has attracted an average of about 15 visitors a day. By contrast, Professor Douglas’s blog has averaged nearly 2,000 visitors daily.
In other words, the readership for Casper’s anti-Douglas rantings is less than 1% of the readership of Professor Douglas’s blog and yet, despite such clear evidence that no one else shares his obsession, Casper continues doing what he does, apparently with no other purpose except to annoy the target of his weird fixation.

As to the origins of American Nihilist, I've posted it many times:

I hate bullies. For well over a year, I read as Donald Douglas excoriated liberal blogger after liberal blogger, often in pretty nasty terms. I found him to be wrong politically, of course, but that wasn't it. My problem with Dr. Douglas was that he was pompous and kinda mean as well as being wrong.

Also, I was mystified by this whole nihilist thing. See, everytime he called me a nihilist, I asked him--a professor of political science--to back what he said with evidence of my nihilism. I'd challenge him to choose any dictionary, copy the definition of the word "nihilism," and then show examples, in the form of quotes from me, that support the notion that I am a nihilist. When he labeled some other blogger, I challenged him to do the same with quotes of that person. And while he was very free with the label, he has never actually shown that any liberal blogger has ever expressed a nihilist thought. In fact, he has never even tried.

As Donald attacked other bloggers on his site or theirs, labeling them no good nihilists everywhere he went, this whole "nihilist" schtick of his became kind of a joke around the liberal blogosphere, and folks began to know him as the wingnut who goes around calling everyone nihilists, like the boy who cried wolf... He practically made the word meaningless through repetition...

So one night I was bored, and created a blogspot blog that was a funhouse mirror of American Power. Where he used black I used white, and where he used white I used black. I intended it to be a one-off joke, where I'd do one or two posts calling everyone and everything "nihilist," and that'd be that. I sent authorship invitations to a few of the bloggers that Donald had recently attacked as being nihilists, figuring we'd all have a good laugh... But instead, a few of 'em accepted the authorship positions and started writing posts, in character. And the rest, as they say...

Authors have come and gone, but the blog is still here, still dealing with Donald's many attacks on others, and yes, launching a few on him, as well. The blogroll is made up of blogs/bloggers that Donald has attacked on his blog. Any of 'em are welcome to become authors here, anytime they wish. Other than illegal acts or items that threaten the continued existence of the blog, I don't censor anyone's writing. They're all adults, and thus each author is responsible for defending or apologizing for his own posts. (Yes, I know that Donald would prefer that I treat them like children, and only allow posts that I personally would approve of, but I see that as being far too "nanny state" for me. Should Donald ever run a group blog of his own, he is free to censor it any way he sees fit, but I believe that each individual author is capable of dealing with/defending their own posts.)

That in a nutshell is why I expose the foolish and the dangerous or nasty things Donald Douglas says on his blog. I don't like bullies in general, and I specifically don't like the way Dr Douglas treats the folks he doesn't agree with, so I decided to do to him what he was doing to others. Should he ever stop mistreating people, I'll stop calling him out for it. In the meantime, we'll all be here, Donald in his place, and we in ours...

As Donald became more focused on me, individually, I stopped making jokes (and eventually, posting original pieces regarding him at all) and started using it to respond to his posts and tweets about me. When he started threatening legal, law enforcement, or government action, I began keeping track of who posted what when, visible for anyone interested (or potentially involved in such action) to see...

As for the numbers, it helps to consider that aside the one page and sidebar where I keep track of Dr Douglas' attacks on me, I haven't posted anything there since August. The other blogger there posts about once a month. And frankly, no one at AmNi is much into treating our blog stats like freshmen boys comparing dick size in the locker room. Don's got a big blog penis. McCain's is even bigger than Donald's. So, why should anyone (aside them, perhaps) care? Does it make what either of them say any more right or wrong, honest or dishonest?

The answer folks, is no.

I can appreciate that Robert Stacy McCain felt obligated to defend his little blog brother Donald Douglas. He and his readers' attacks on my appearance and whatnot is par for the course (and in my opinion, speaks more to who they are than who I am...) Partisans attack because, hey, this is the internet, and ya gotta support your "team."

On the facts though, McCain's post is no better than most of Donald's obsessed, fact-free rants... I stopped doing anything to Donald Douglas that one could even spin into "stalking," "harassment," or "trolling" well over a year ago... (...and even before that, the overwhelmingly vast majority of what I did would be called "blogging" by most fair-minded internet users.) When Donald lashes out at me, I respond by adding the post or tweet to the list with a few comments--and occasionally (read, "last August...up until this post here"), by posting in response, too. Other than that, I do nothing more than read the poor guy's blog. Whatever Donald Douglas' issues may be, they're about him, not me...

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UPDATE: "Journalist" Robert Stacy McCain expresses a decided lack of interest in the truth:

"Tell you what, Casper: You go nurse your hurts in your own dark corner of the Internet and don't give me another excuse to take notice of you. That's gonna be a win-win, see? Because I've got no shortage of weirdos to pay attention to, and you really don't want me on your case." - robertstacymccain

I can only reply that the guy volunteered to be "on my case" by pecking out the lying-assed post in the first place... He could easily've, y'know, not done that...but he did. And it's shoddy and likely intentionally dishonest work.
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ADDED, for the record (High Irony Warning):

"See, these claims that I am engaged in “cyber bullying” and “cyberstalking” of Kimberlin, that I “defame and publicly attack Plaintiff” are merely word games; I report and comment and Kimberlin seems to think that by applying pejorative labels to my writing, he has proven that I’ve done what he says I’ve done." - "Journalist" Robert Stacy McCain - Brett Kimberlin and ‘False Narratives’:

Yeah I feel ya, McCain... Must suck for folks to outright lie about you online and then act as though their claiming (or repeating) an allegation or pejorative about you is unimpeachable proof that what they say is stone-cold fact by virtue of their having said it... If only you and your obsessed little friend practiced the ideals you're trying to preach... (Hell, I'd be shocked if either of you actually quoted and attacked things I wrote rather than repeatedly regurgitating the dishonest and paranoid delusions of "stalking" and "harassment" that your friend Dr Douglas has spent the last year or two spinning and spewing to any and all who would listen...with occasional help from a few unquestioning symps.)
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An American Nihilist x-post

In Reply: I don't agree that I should willingly silence myself against those who lash out and lie about me, even if I'm throwing away the opportunity to be the better man by speaking up

Revised and extended a little, in reply to the following comment at the (surprisingly, willfully dishonest) Other McCain post "Portrait of a Stalker Troll: @Repsac3, Also Known as Walter James Casper III," by "journalist" Robert Stacy McCain:

OK, here's the deal: I'm going to give you a fair shake because you're actually coherent. (unlike Schmeldfelt) I was right, I've seen this before. Specifically on LiveJournal fandom communities. As much as I'll admit that I look down on teenage girls in fandoms, they've provided a lot of insight and some of them have been surprisingly mature. So here goes.

Girl A and B are in the same fandom, let's say Doctor Who, and they both write fanfiction. Girl A is upset at Girl B for some reason, let's say that Girl B doesn't like the Doctor/Jack Harkness "ship" and writes Doctor/Martha fanfiction. So Girl A starts writing gossip on her LJ about Girl B, and Girl A's clique gets in on it. And even worse, either Girl A or one of her clique starts posting in one of the many anonymous communities about Girl B and her fanfiction. (They're like 4chan. If you don't know, don't ask. Believe me, you're better off not knowing) Every manner of high school gossip you can think of, with a bunch of "anons" badmouthing Girl B among a relatively small community. However, they keep their gossip and badmouthing to their own journals and the anonymous community; they never contact her directly.

Now, Girl B usually has two options. The first option is to go on these communities to defend her reputation. Occasionally, the friends of the injured party also get in on the act to defend their friend, i.e., "whiteknighting", thereby escalating the incident and earning Girl B a reputation as a "wanker", someone who drags out drama. By answering drama with more drama, Girl B ends up making a bad reputation all on her own where one usually never existed in the first place.

The other option Girl B can take is ignoring the threads about her on anonymous communities or on the journals of Girl A or those of her friends. And eventually, the drama started by Girl A fades away, since Internet memories tend to be short unless there's something to the rumors or the issue is exacerbated and artificially extended by Girl B herself.

Is it fair? Hardly. Welcome to human nature. But it's been accepted by both courts and by piddling little online fandoms alike that being gossiped about online is not cyberstalking. When badmouthing crosses over into direct and continued contact, it becomes bullying, and persistent following of someone crosses into stalking. One tweet does not constitute stalking or bullying, but continued attempts to contact a target is, even if the stalker in question thinks he is "trying to set the record straight." No one else sees it this way, nor will anyone but the stalker ever see it this way.

So that's pretty much where we are right now. You have the same options as Girl B. - La Pucelle

First off, the nature of partisan blogging is that it is confrontational... We frequently post on our blogs about the facts, ideas, and attitudes that another blogger is discussing on his, sometimes in agreement, but far more often in opposition. Sometimes the confrontations are all about the ideas, and sometimes they get personal, but ether way, it's built into the thing in a way it more than likely isn't in the communities you're describing.

That said, there has been no contact between Dr Douglas and I in about 9 months. He posts about me on his blog or via twitter, and I respond in kind, posting about what he said or making note of the fact that he once again lashed out, on my twitter feed or blog...

Sure, I have the choice not to post... (...just like Dr Douglas does, and just like every blogger or commenter or twitter-user does, just before posting about what some liberal/conservative asshat said on their blog.) But being cowed into silence because the crazy ass who's writing about you will be somewhere between slightly-and-somewhat more likely to post additional crazy shit about you if you respond to what he says (and will perhaps have friends who'll pile on along with him, taboot) is no way to live your life...

I call Donald Douglas out when he attacks because much of what he says is patently untrue, and he shouldn't be able to lie about me on his blog without my pointing out every lie he tells on mine if I so choose...not even if some think that not doing so would be the smarter or more "sane, grown-up" way to behave.

I understand what you're getting at but no, I don't agree that I should willingly silence myself against those who lash out and lie about me, even if I'm throwing away the opportunity to be the better man by speaking up... (I decided a few years ago to curtail being the guy who lashes out in the first place as often as possible--and yes, I have at times failed at doing that, since...but that's about as far as I'm willing to go...)

(As an aside, if even half of we partisan bloggers and commenters were sane grown-ups, the partisan blogosphere would shrivel up and die.)
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Posted Wednesday, January 8, 2013, 10:45 PM (or thereabouts)