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[personal profile] fpb
Everyone, by now, has read and digested [personal profile] charlottelennox' tremendous account of debased fandom politics and arrivisme. To me, the tale has had an ugly and personal echo. I feel vindicated, but dirty - the kind of vindication one would be happier without, because of the demeaning nature of the whole. These are people with whom I have been at war for years. When I remarked that "FA mods are still lying daughters-of-bitches", that remark went around the fandom, with the suggestion that this was a classic example of my bad behaviour or near mental illness. Well, those mods were the same, beginning with [community profile] heidi8 who distinguished themselves in Charitygate, universally regarded as the lowest point in the history of fandom. The role of [profile] msscribe in this particular episode was not central: the leading spirit, from first to last, was Heidi, and all the worst trolls were people who either belonged to her clique or aimed to.

In front of this sort of evidence, it might at least be admitted that, whatever one might want to think of my manners, I had made the right enemies. But that is not what happened. Instead, the moderator in charge of the discussion banned me from the community, while allowing all sort of scum to make insulting remarks about me. The excuse for this, if you please, was that the thread was not about me. Not about me, you see, but certainly about insulting and defaming me.

A couple of words about this moderator. The first thing I found out about her is that she is a member of Asatru. And Asatru is a neo-pagan community that spends half its time denying persistent rumours that they are neo-Nazi or at least racists. Well, perhaps they are not. All I can say is that I would rather have a Nazi for an enemy than for a friend; and that I would rather have a neo-pagan for an enemy than for a friend. They may not be Nazis. But I am familiar with Fascist and Nazi circles, and, by some inconceivable fatality, they do seem to be simply full of neo-pagan types.

And that is not the only thing about this person that I find politically repulsive. At the same time as she cultivates this entirely non-Nazi cult, she has also taken her name from one of Berthold Brecht's vilest pieces of Communist propaganda: Pirate Jenny, an odious fantasy of revenge and massacre on the evil hated Bourgeois. So we take it that she is not a Nazi, and we take it that she is not a Communist either. We reassure ourselves that she does not cultivate, even in jest, the memory of the two worst murder cults in recent history.

People like her, her arbitrary behaviour, her fondness for insult and persecution, her all too evident vindictiveness, are evidence that some sections of the fandom have learned precisely nothing from the whole appalling series of revelations. To the likes of Pirate Jenny, what [personal profile] charlottelennox' revelations have provided is nothing more than another target for persecution. No doubt, [profile] msscribe will now see her name become mud in everyone's eyes; and I cannot say that she does not deserve it. But as for looking at one's own attitudes; as for trying to spread some peace in the fandom instead of indulging in the endless game of selecting targets for slander and hatred; Pirate Jenny and her accomplices do not even come close to conceiving of any such thing. After all, fandom is about persecuting people.

Date: 2006-06-21 10:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neigedens.livejournal.com
A couple of words about this moderator. The first thing I found out about her is that she is a member of Asatru. And Asatru is a neo-pagan community that spends half its time denying persistent rumours that they are neo-Nazi or at least racists. Well, perhaps they are not. All I can say is that I would rather have a Nazi for an enemy than for a friend; and that I would rather have a neo-pagan for an enemy than for a friend. They may not be Nazis. But I am familiar with Fascist and Nazi circles, and, by some inconceivable fatality, they do seem to be simply full of neo-pagan types.

Forgive me if I phrase this wrongly, Fabio, but something seems kind of fishy here with this quote and your whole post in general. You acknowledge that your argumentative and often hostile personality has lost you more than a few friends, and recently has gotten you banned from the bad_penny comm on JF. You then proceed to...accuse the mod there that the reason you were banned was because she's a pagan and possibly a Nazi.

...I didn't pay attention a lot in 9th grade logical crap class, but isn't that what's known as an ad hominem argument? I've seen you do something like this more than a few times, too. You take someone's background and us it as an argument. Perhaps you don't mean it to, but it comes off as somewhat patronizing and kind of silly.

Date: 2006-06-22 01:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chocolatepot.livejournal.com
Incidentally, Wikipedia (and I know Wiki isn't a very good source, but this isn't a research paper) tells me that the reason Ásatrú is sometimes conflated with Neo-Nazis and white power organizations is that they both use Odinist symbols, not because of any similarities in beliefs. It's like saying that Hinduism and Jainism are suspiciously like Nazism because they all have swastikas.

Date: 2006-06-22 04:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fpb.livejournal.com
If I found the local Combat18 and such-like chapters were full of Hindus and Jainas, that their bookstores simply groaned with copies of the Vedas, the great epics and the Puranas, and that their activists kept spraying Hindu and Jaina symbols on city walls at night, I would think different. When I say that I am familiar with Fascist and Nazi groups, I mean exactly what I say; and knowing what I know, to me Odinism is suspect from the word go.

Date: 2006-06-22 04:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fpb.livejournal.com
Well, no, that is not what I said at all. And this surprises me, Briana, because as a rule you are a very intelligent person, but here you missed the point completely. Find anywhere where I said anything like and recently [my bad temper] has [got me] banned from the bad_penny comm on JF. That is simply not what happened. I made a comment more in sorrow than in anger, pointing out that I was very familiar with the kind of procedure that the Inner Circle enacted against enemies such as Gryffindor Tower; and for this, this person who is not a neo-Nazi or a Communist banned me. She did not, however, prevent the thread from turning into an I-hate-fpb fest. As for what she is, what does this kind of lynching behaviour make you think of?

Date: 2006-06-22 02:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] neigedens.livejournal.com
this person who is not a neo-Nazi or a Communist banned me.

If she's not a neo-Nazi or a Communist then why did you bring all of it up in your post?

Date: 2006-06-22 04:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fpb.livejournal.com
Because I admire a certain journalist who kept talking about the heterosexual Tom Cruise.

Date: 2006-06-22 08:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] becomethesea.livejournal.com
This has absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand, I just wanted to say that your MST3K icons are freaking awesome. :)

Date: 2006-06-23 06:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] becomethesea.livejournal.com
POD PEOPLE OMGZ YES YES YES. Your icon looks like a potato.

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