Deleted Comments: In Which Yr Wonkette Is Invaded By A Troll And Some Clown Dick
Wolfman don't know Jack
Yr Wonkette has been playing a game of Whack-A-Troll for the last week, and while we normally wouldn't feed a troll's ego by giving any attention to them in your Sunday Shitferbrains, we figured we might as well this time. And because Yr Editrix told us to "please do an extry special Shitferbrains," and as a lackey of running-dog capitalist imperialists, who are we to disobey our overlord. Overlady?
We have no idea who this person is or where they are, since they're clearly using a spoofed email address and some sort of Internet Magic to hide their tracks, but he started out as "Wolf Tracker," a seemingly ordinary commenter with a contrarian streak who argued -- from a purportedly progressive perspective -- that removing Confederate monuments would be a very bad thing for education because statues of Confederate generals are a great conversation starter for discussions of the evils of slavery.
When John McCain said he might just vote for Graham-Cassidy, which would blockgrant federal funds for the ACA and Medicaid while deeply cutting both, "Wolf Tracker" explained that blue states ought to get behind the idea, since it would be a great way to set up statewide single-payer systems. No matter how many times people (including yr Dok Zoom) pointed out that Graham-Cassidy would actually cut funding deeply, especially to blue states, "Wolf Tracker" insisted that he was pretty sure that was only the first draft of Graham-Cassidy, and why condemn it when we don't know what's really going to be in it? As we said at the time, sure! And maybe the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party won't actually eat our faces.
Things blew up weird in last week's story about the "incels" ("involuntarily celibate" MRA dudes) who are angry with women wearing tights or yoga pants just to torment the poor lads who are unable to get the sex they deserve. We aren't quite sure why "Wolf Tracker" chose to go off the rails in that thread -- if indeed it was a choice -- but apparently it had something to do with people not agreeing with his insistence that incels aren't real, or that "incels" are only kidding, so why is anyone bothering to think they're anything to be concerned with, since, as he said, "It is snark and meme They do it for the lols." We'll confess we didn't try to reconstruct the whole tedious argument, but "Wolf Tracker" did offer this explanation of why some woman had no reason to complain about being leered at:
Then maybe she shouldn't dress like that in public work place?
I think what you mean is she just wanted to be oggled by some other men and probably the rich doctors she works with which was the point of that post.
There was also some defense of the act of "oggling" women -- and men, of course, because "Wolf" is all for equality, because everybody does it -- and to object to it is actually the worst sort of prudery, because liberated people just loooove them some sexual harassment:
Guess what- people oggle other people and so do you so stop denying it or by you a PRUDE T shirt.
Things got surreal, as "Wolf" started shifting identities, deleting his disqus account and starting new ones using other readers' usernames and avatars (including "Doktorzoom King," I'm so very honored) and then accusing anyone who looked at or mentioned WT's comment history of "cyberstalking" and "harassing" him, because words don't mean much of anything anyway. At one point, he decided to post a comment that we guess served as an Official Legal Notice that he was being victimized:
CEASE AND DESIST
Wolf Tracker (Wonkette Profile Name) 09 / 17 / 2017
USA
Dear Rebecca Schoenkopf and www.wonkette.com owner,
On 9/16/2017 and 09/17/2017 I was the subject of continued cyber harassment and cyber stalking by individuals that are members of your Wonkette website forum on www.wonkette.com forum. Wonkette owner/employees Rebecca Schoenkopf and Doktorzoom (fictitious name) have been notified of this continued harassment and have neglected or refused to address it to keep me and other members safe.
Doktorzoom has facilitated the harassment and openly with his comments in the forum which have been captured for evidence.
I am a member of the Wonkette website and have followed the rules and contacted the owner/employees and still this stalking and harassment has continued causing me to suffer severe depression, loss of sleep, anxiety and has triggered a PTSD episode among other health issues.
I have kept a record of the members involved in the stalking and harassment and their forum comments for legal proceedings.
Those members (by Wonkette/Disqus profile) include but are not limited to:
[usernames redacted -- Dok]
We will be seeking the members legal names from Disqus and Wonkette for further legal action.
Regards,
Wolf Tracker
For what it's worth, I didn't post with my fictitious name in that thread, since it was my day off. I had, however, asked another commenter (in the Graham-Cassidy thread) to please not call WT a rightwing troll. Apparently this is me "facilitating harassment":
He IS excessively fond of being a contrarian for the sake of being a contrarian, and may be so open-minded that his brain may fall out, but he's not a rightwinger as far as I can tell. Just very, very stubborn, and prone to argument for its own sake.
God, I'm a monster .
Then for a while, "Wolf Tracker" took to copying and then reposting others' comments and replies with this Very Official Notice: "09/17/2017 copied for legal purposes," and repeatedly copy-pasting a Wikipedia definition of cyberstalking (which, if you want to get technical about it, has nothing to do with "saying unkind things about another commenter in reply to them").
"Wolf Tracker" also offered this summary of Why People Were Mean To Wolf Tracker:
Just want to make sure this gets seen by Dok and Rebecca:
Just in case anyone cares what all the hubub of the night crew is it is because I told the truth that the Incels are 4chan trolls and they use reddit for their snark and memes to rile people up.
First time I ever heard of them was here on Wonkette but a simple google shows that is what they are and I don't agree with what they promote and it is stupid and immature like most 4chan stuff.
Chad Thundercock is a nickname for any attractive, popular men who are sexually successful with women. Similar to the term “Normies”, Chad and his female counterpart Stacy are often used as pejoratives by those who consider themselves nonconformists on 4chan’s /r9k/ board.
Oh and Dok and Rebecca please take look through the comments because you have a little group of friends that think they run wonkette and want to drive away anyone that doesn't follow their agenda and that will also drive away people that donate and just want to read articles and share opinions without being hassled.
Pretty strange logic from someone who created multiple accounts, tried to impersonate others, and keeps coming back to warn us we'd all better behave ourselves or he'll get his revenge, with endless scream shitting:
You like fucking with people?
Me too- and I am going to fuck with you forever.
Besties!
All the bad boys and girls get nasty medicine and here's some for you and you and oh yes you too!
Only thing worse than the Incels is the man haters on Wonkette that think this place is their personal support group for men bashing.
Oh look- if you act all tough from behind your computer your fake friends will like you.
Bend the knee bitch!
[said while usingsomeone else'sname and avatar pic] You know what a real asshole is?
Someone like you that pretends you can stalk and harass people online and then call them the asshole.
Speaking of Dok-where is that crusty old POS that allowed me to troll and stalk people on here?
Elsewhere, when I noted in comments that I'd removed the latest version of the troll, he was back almost immediately with another identity, and this reply, in which he advised us he Knows Where We Live (since we have it in our author profile):
How is that working for you?
Maybe what you need to do is post a public apology article for allowing a little group of man haters to take over the forum with the Wonkette rules clearly explained and then ban the little group on wonkette that thinks it is their personal support group for bashing men and then enforce your rules.
That should of course include a personal apology from you since you have encouraged that or is your mind so open your brains fell out?
Might want to run that idea past Rebecca because it would be damn shame if Wonkette was taken down with a law suit now wouldn't it Marty Kelley, who lives in Boise, Idaho.
As of this morning, we haven't been served with that lawsuit for allowing man bashing.
Our Troll was back, several times and identities a day all week, at one point deciding to show us what horrible hypocrites we are for having used the "Naked fat guy at a computer" image that has only been kicking around the web since the late 2000s. You do have to appreciate the Oh The Humanity tone, at least:
Can't wait for the next article on Wonkette- maybe you can go after Trig Palin again.
So is this how Wonkette rolls now- fat shaming people and being bullies?
You don't know anything about this guy but is is OK to fat shame him on Wonkette right?
Doesn't matter if he was a Veteran and has 20 kids and some of them are Gay and trans and black and he is a saint that supports orphans because hey he is sooo fat and that is all that matters to you so you can have a victim to make you feel better about your own pathetic lives.
Good job Wonkettes- you became the people you claim to hate!
Somehow, having our unspeakable hypocrisy pointed out lost its sting after the tenth or fifteenth repetition. Should we feel bad for bullying a decade-old picture of a guy who may be a saint, with many saintly children? We are very, very sad to have done that, by which we mean not at all.
Then trollboy saw someone had posted a comment with a P-E-N-I-S in it, and started complaining, repeatedly, about the "full on porn" that Wonkette was hosting, right where innocent children could see it. Some goofball who wasn't the troll posted this pic, noting it was "Google image #14 for 'Clown Dick'" (we have pixelated the naughty bits so no one will get the vapors:
Much of the rest of the week's trolling involved variations on all the hardcore porn being posted at Wonkette, along with endless repetitions of this copypasted Law Talkin':
18 U.S. Code § 1470 - Transfer of obscene material to minors
Whoever, using the mail or any facility or means of interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly transfers obscene matter to another individual who has not attained the age of 16 years, knowing that such other individual has not attained the age of 16 years, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.
You are aware there are minors on this website and it has no age restrictions.
Gosh, we're going to have to disappoint you there, Blitzed Wolfer: Even the unpixellated version of that image would get no more than an "R" rating from the MPAA (at most) and wouldn't meet any American court's definition of "obscene." Silly and maybe a little grody, to be sure.
Also, even though the image isn't obscene, it's worth noting that the 1996 Communications Decency Act grants publishers of websites immunity from liability for materials posted by third parties -- i.e., by commenters. No, Terrible Ones, that is not permission for you to post porn. And please, no more clown dicks.
In Saturday's Top Ten post, Our Troll wanted to know Yr Editrix what sort of mother she thinks she is, considering all the rampant obscenity she allows on her website:
Rebecca: Does anyone know what he is talking about with the porn? Did someone show an ankle?
Troll, this time posting as "Say What?": Would you want your daughters to read and see what some of the members you are defending post?
Federal law prohibits the possession with intent to sell or distribute obscenity, to send, ship, or receive obscenity, to import obscenity, and to transport obscenity across state boarders for purposes of distribution. ... For example, it is illegal to sell and distribute obscene material on the Internet.
You do understand you are facilitating that Federal crime if you do not moderate your forum right?
And so on. Frankly, we would love to see the FBI's reaction to Our Decency Hero showing up with a formal complaint. Do it, man -- but make sure you post the video of your visit to the local FBI office, OK?
Troll guy has also popped up to warn all of us to conform to his standards of what we ought to be saying on our own damn website, and insisting we not poke the bear and then complain about getting mauled. It's really more tiresome than anything, and while there are measures we could take to make it more difficult for him to troll -- like requiring moderation for all new commenting accounts -- at the moment, we'll continue to just Zot him with the Banhammer of Loving Correction (© and ™ John Scalzi ) each time he shows up.
Our poor, misunderstood troll will probably drop by the comments today to sue us in the comments for defamation -- not sure how it's possible to defame someone who's no more than a username -- but we figure eventually he'll get tired. If he does't, we'll consider other measures. When you guys see a new instance of Trollfella, it would probably be best just to flag and block him, but if you feed him, then he's your problem. In general, our advice is: don't poke the bore.
And of course, we'll be waiting for that lawsuit.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Don't hold your breath while waiting for that law suit.