FUCK YOUR ASS AND YOUR SISTER'S. SHE CAN LICK MINE, NOT KICK MINE.
YOU ARE A FUCKING JEWISH IDIOT, FUCKING YOUR JEWISH SISTER AND YOUR JEWISH MOTHER WITH A SHINY BASEBALL BAT.
YOU HAVE AN IQ OF AN ANT, YOU FUCKING ASS-LICKING BALL-LESS HERMAPHRODITE.
WHO CARES IF SOMEONE GETS BANNED YOU STUPID IDIOT. ANYONE CAN CREATE A NEW ID AND COME BACK AGAIN. BUT OF COURSE WITH YOUR IQ YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND IT. GO ASK YOUR SLUT MOTHER TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU.
FUCKING FILTHY ASS-LICKING JEW!
Charming, no?
That comment appeared in a troll diary, written by a troll that no longer comes back here. I haven't mentioned this incident here because doing so involves posting a bunch of hidden comments from one of the nastier trolls I've come across since joining this site. Apologies to anyone offended by the sight of these comments, but considering the accusations levelled against this site today, well...it seems permissible under present circumstances.
First, I should point out that I don't post anonymously. Last year I was a campaign blogger for one of our Congressional races, and made certain to post under my real name for disclosure's sake. I'm easy to find on Google after working as a peace organizer in Sarasota for a few years, s my phone number is pretty easy to find. My parents run a fairly successful business from home, so their contact information and address is readily available.
Maybe I'm a fool, I don't know. But I don't hide my identity online, here or elsewhere.
Anyhow, in May of '06, a troll by the name of "regence" (User #83061, for the record) showed up and posted a racist screed called "What exactly does Islam preach." You can guess how that one went: long story short, the last line is "Wake up and open your eyes before it is too late." During the course of the racist rant masquerading as a diary regence posted this patently idiotic line
A religion that EXPLICITLY says that all unbelievers should be killed, cannot be tolerated in a secular, democratic world.
I posted a comment that said
Exodus 22:20--should Jews be destroyed, too? (1+ / 0-)
"A religion that EXPLICITLY says that all unbelievers should be killed, cannot be tolerated in a secular, democratic world."
Exodus 22:20, jackass.
Anyone who sacrifices to other gods must be destroyed
There's a special hot spot in Hell reserved for the unjustly sanctimonious.
I then followed it up with an observation that the diarist was abjectly unqualified in theology:
Also... (1+ / 0-)
...unless you can provide an adequate definition of "dhminni," I consider you patently unqualified to discuss the theological aspects of Islam and, thus, abjectly full of shit.
Now, I grant that I was pretty condescending, but I really thought this troll deserving, considering that, at the time, there were a great many trolls coming in from LGF trying to post anti-Muslim flames. In my defense I was not the only one posting comments along those lines (my favorites being Sharon Jumper's aptly titled "STFU and read your Bible" and essexgreen's "fuck you, you mind-numbingly ignorant troll").
Regence posted a reply to me that began with this charming lead-in:
I can use dirty words, too, you motherfucker. Go fuck your sister up her ass. Or better still, send her to me so that I can shove a shining aluminium baseball bat up her ass.
That one earned 53 troll ratings, and one recommend (I'm giving Cecrops Tangaroa the benefit of the doubt and assuming that was simply a case of hitting the wrong button).
But the autoban hadn't kicked in yet, and regence thought he'd post another diary. Basically, it was a cut-and-paste of the comment excerpted above involving baseball bats. The title was "My response to JR and other abusive commenters." (I remember seeing it on the diary list and thinking "this ought to be interesting--who did I piss off this badly?")
The only part of his diary to appear above the fold was
This is my response to the abusive language used by all who commented on my previous diary entry.
I hope they enjoy my response!
After that came the cut-and-paste. Later, the text was altered to remove the part about baseball bats, but not until after about 200 other commenters had jumped in to call this troll out for what he was doing. And I personally appreciate the fact that so many did.
Anyhow, the intolerance, bigotry and racism I was okay with. But when the baseball bat part was posted, I became concerned that my words might actually lead to threats against my family in real life (like I said, we aren't that hard to find).
So I emailed Kos:
subj: My family was threatened by a user
I don't usually ask for favors from the blogfather, but this one troll, regence (user #83061) went beyond the pale. Here is one of his comments in its entirety (I think it might break some site policies...):
>
> "FUCK YOUR ASS AND YOUR SISTER'S. SHE CAN LICK MINE, NOT KICK MINE.
>
> YOU ARE A FUCKING JEWISH IDIOT, FUCKING YOUR JEWISH SISTER AND YOUR
> JEWISH MOTHER WITH A SHINY BASEBALL BAT.
>
> YOU HAVE AN IQ OF AN ANT, YOU FUCKING ASS-LICKING BALL-LESS
> HERMAPHRODITE.
>
> WHO CARES IF SOMEONE GETS BANNED YOU STUPID IDIOT. ANYONE CAN
> CREATE A NEW ID AND COME BACK AGAIN. BUT OF COURSE WITH YOUR IQ YOU
> CANNOT UNDERSTAND IT. GO ASK YOUR SLUT MOTHER TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU.
>
> FUCKING FILTHY ASS-LICKING JEW!"
The comment appears in a diary that calls me out in the title.
Thanks for your attention,
JR (#1882)
Took less than two hours for Kos to personally email me back that he was banning the user, and thanking me for pointing out what was happening. The Bill-O narrative seems to revolve around the idea that Kos is both responsible for and capable of policing over 100,000 (at the time, over 80,000) users at any given time. Frankly, that's a ridiculous expectation. But when it mattered to me, and when he was aware of what was happening, he acted without hesitation to remove an honest-to-G-D anti-semite from this site.
That might not matter to Harold Ford, but it mattered a hell of a lot to me.
Thanks, Kos. Don't let the bastards get you down.