‘Concentrated Campaign of Harassment … to Terrorize People into Silence’
UPDATE: Parallels to Rauhauser

Posted on | July 7, 2012 | 33 Comments

Alyssa Rosenberg at Think Progress is against such online harasssment when it’s directed at a feminist named Anita Sarkesian.

So maybe we can get Alyssa Rosenberg to take notice of online harasssment aimed at conservative women by her progressive friends? Probably not.

Perhaps Alyssa Rosenberg can ask Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin or S.E. Cupp what manner of “civility” they’ve experienced online over the years.

UPDATE: Helen Lewis of the New Statesman elaborates on the hate campaign against Sarkesian and says, “It looks like those charming chaps at 4Chan might have had something to do it.”

Those “charming chaps at 4Chan” were invoked by Neal Rauhauser after he helped the “Stop Rush” boycotters identify a Texas man who had infilitrated their group. “I have been sorely tempted to point him out to various actors — a guy like this, he could really produce some high quality entertainment for 4chan, Something Awful, Encyclopedia Dramatica, etc.,” Rauhauser wrote in an e-mail to Matt “Shoq” Edelstein.

Patterico noted how Rauhauser and his “Gaped Crusader” sockpuppet spoke the vernacular of hacker-trolls:

The Gaped Crusader, like Rauhauser himself, loves to speak in the idiom of 4chan-style hackers. Everything is “epic” and “lulzy” and there are a billion references to “lulzcows” and Encyclopedia Dramatica and the like.

UPDATE II: Lewis also mentions that the British parliament is debating a law that would “encourage service providers to identify internet trolls, without their victims having to resort to costly legal action,” and describes one troll’s threats against a member of Parliament:

A man who targeted [Tory MP] Louise Mensch was [in June] given a suspended sentence, and banned from contacting a list of celebrities. Few papers reported Frank Zimmerman’s full remarks, with the notable exception of The Guardian: they included a reference to the film Sophie’s Choice, in which a mother is forced to choose which of her children dies, and the following: “We are Anonymous and we do not like rude cunts like you and your nouveau riche husband Peter Mensch… So get off Twitter. We see you are still on Twitter. We have sent a camera crew to photograph you and your kids and we will post it over the net including Twitter, cuntface. You now have Sophie’s Choice: which kid is to go. One will. Count on it cunt. Have a nice day.”

“We are Anonymous” — yet another parallel: Rauhauser became fascinated with Anonymous after they hacked the security firm HBGary, posting a series of items about the hacker collective and their targets under his “Stranded Wind” alias at Daily Kos:

Feb. 28, 2011: Congressman Johnson Goes After Chamber Leaks
March 23, 2011: Aspects Of Anonymous
April 6, 2011: Anonthropology: Native Dialect
April 25, 2011: Apple & HBGary : Spying Together
May 19, 2011: Is Berico Sheltering Aaron Barr?

Subsequently, Rauhauser boasted of being contacted by a “very big dog” in Anonymous who evidently agreed to assist Rauhauser and Brett Kimberlin’s Velvet Revolution in a campaign of vengeance against their enemies. None of that, however, has ever elicited commentary from Alyssa Rosenberg and her progressive friends. We must assume they share Neal Rauhauser’s peculiar hatreds, and endorse his methods.

Category: Feminism, The Kimberlin Files

Comments

33 Responses to “‘Concentrated Campaign of Harassment … to Terrorize People into Silence’
UPDATE: Parallels to Rauhauser”

M. Thompson
July 7th, 2012 @ 12:42 am

Nope. We really don’t count as people to them because we don’t have convenient labels for us to be counts as. Or if we have them, it’s the wrong sort.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
July 7th, 2012 @ 1:37 am

The left is not very gentlemanly when it comes to dealing with conservative women.
JeffS
July 7th, 2012 @ 1:43 am

Better to say, the left is not very civilized when it comes to dealing with anyone who disagrees with them.
JeffS
July 7th, 2012 @ 1:45 am

“Perhaps Alyssa Rosenberg can ask Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin or S.E.
Cupp what manner of “civility” they’ve experienced online over the
years.”

She could, but she won’t. Like I said in an earlier post (and quoting wiser people than I), if it weren’t for double standards, the left would have no standards at all.
repsac3
July 7th, 2012 @ 2:23 am

Take, take, take… Maybe you might’ve actually said something about the harassment she was taking about, seeing as how you took the time to write about it, n’all…if you’re not too focused on protecting your own, I mean…
Deb
July 7th, 2012 @ 2:42 am

Why? He linked for those that are interested.
And is the thing you are taking “notice”?
Because I do not think it works that way.
Adjoran
July 7th, 2012 @ 4:06 am

He linked to the article at ThinkProgess, which is more than they would do for him. Besides, knowing the way your side plays, the harassment was probably from leftist sock puppets pretending to be misogynist conservatives. The usual tell is trite and boring.
483ww
July 7th, 2012 @ 4:14 am

The Other McCain’s Rubric for Criticizing Anything: you’re not allowed to publicly condemn something bad that happens to somebody until you’ve first spent the infinite amount of time it takes exhaustively documenting times other people’ve had somewhat similar experiences (this list must, above all, include all relevant Republicans). This information must be regurgitated every time you make these criticisms. Failure to produce this documentation is automatically proof enough that you’re promoting a double standard; all omissions of relevant bad experiences will be assumed to be the result of deliberate neglect. Any criticism ever is eligible to be delegitimized on this blog unless it follows these rules.
Fred Beloit
July 7th, 2012 @ 8:00 am

“Sarah Palin” is all that needs to be said on this score. It’s a wonder the Demunist sharks didn’t try to jail her.
robertstacymccain
July 7th, 2012 @ 10:01 am

My point, dear pseudonymous troll, is that this kind of vicious activity aimed at conservative women has been happening online for years — does the phrase “ping-pong balls” ring a bell? — without one peep of comment from the Left. But let someone whom the Left embraces wander into the sights of the gamer/hacker community, and suddenly “misogynistic” harassment of women online is an issue that demands attention!

Since May 17, I’ve been covering the Kimberlin/Rauhauser story — a story significant enough to have merited the top eight threads at Memeorandum on May 25 — and yet almost no one on the Left bothered to take notice. Why? Because the story mainly involved progressives attempting to silence bloggers on the Right. (The Left has been perfectly willing to throw progressive blogger Seth Allen under their bus.) So it is evident that the Left doesn’t really deplore these vicious tactics unless someone they like is the target.

It’s like the way the Left was in favor of First Amendment rights for Code Pink protesters disrupting the State of the Union speech or heckling Karl Rove, but was mysteriously silent about the threat to First Amendment rights when Matt Edelstein and Krystal Ball organized an astroturf boycott campaign against Rush Limbaugh’s advertisers. Similarly, the Left was all in favor of outside groups engaging in political speech when it was MoveOn.org or any of the various Soros-funded “progressive” groups doing the speaking. Now that Republican “super PACs” are having an impact, the Left is indignant.

If it weren’t for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all.
Wombat_socho
July 7th, 2012 @ 10:03 am

Mailinator scum.
Choosing the Goreable Ox | Daily Pundit
July 7th, 2012 @ 11:10 am

[…] ‘Concentrated Campaign of Harassment … to Terrorize People into Silence’ UPDATE: … Subsequently, Rauhauser boasted of being contacted by a “very big dog” in Anonymous who evidently agreed to assist Rauhauser and Brett Kimberlin’s Velvet Revolution in a campaign of vengeance against their enemies. None of that, however, has ever elicited commentary from Alyssa Rosenberg and her progressive friends. We must assume they share Neal Rauhauser’s peculiar hatreds, and endorse his methods. […]
Evi L. Bloggerlady
July 7th, 2012 @ 11:12 am

True, I was making a point with understatement.
Bob Belvedere
July 7th, 2012 @ 2:27 pm

Stop being so nice!
Bob Belvedere
July 7th, 2012 @ 2:28 pm

Maybe they thought she was too big to SWAT?
Rich Graff
July 7th, 2012 @ 2:32 pm

Yup!!!!! Mention Sarah Palins name in front of or to a a far left liberal/commie and watch them turn into clinically and legally insane basket cases in less than one tenth of a second.
Bob Belvedere
July 7th, 2012 @ 3:29 pm

You think it takes that long?!?
The #BrettKimberlin Report D+43 « The Camp Of The Saints
July 7th, 2012 @ 6:42 pm

[…] do check out Stacy’s report on a case of Leftist-On-Leftist Thuggery, how [sur-frickin'-prise] high hypocrisy reigns among the […]
SPQR
July 7th, 2012 @ 6:50 pm

” (The Left has been perfectly willing to throw progressive blogger Seth Allen under their bus.)”

And Seth seems willing to crawl under it while muttering bizarre conspiracy theories.
DonaldDouglas
July 7th, 2012 @ 7:38 pm

Linked: ‘Online Harassment Against Feminist Blogger Anita Sarkeesian’.
DonaldDouglas
July 7th, 2012 @ 7:41 pm

@Repsac is a leftist harasser: ‘Intent to Annoy and the Fascist Hate-Blogging Campaign of Walter James Casper III’. As Belvedere notes, this is “left on left” harassment against Sakeesian.
Rob Crawford
July 8th, 2012 @ 12:00 am

They didn’t? What do you think the endless accusations were trying to do? What do you think the point of hacking and “crowd-sourcing” her emails was?

And don’t forget the fire-bombing of her church.
Rob Crawford
July 8th, 2012 @ 12:05 am

The left hates fascism so much they emulate it in every way.
Rich Vail
July 8th, 2012 @ 12:15 am

you only have to worry about “being nice” if you’re attacking a Democrat/Liberal….
repsac3
July 8th, 2012 @ 1:00 am

You’re such a victim, DonaldDouglas… Poor you, that folks actually dared to disagree with you…

While it probably won’t happen here, you know that folks saw right through you–including some of the folks pretty directly involved, Kimberlin-wise…

Yeah, you’ve had some idiots mistreat you, but compared to these Kimberlin folks, it’s been child’s play… And you know too, (or should, anyway), that for all your whining, I’ve consistently spoken up for you and against those who’ve done you wrong, no matter what side of the political spectrum they’ve come from… …and still you whine on, all these years later, as though I somehow “made” them all do it… Like I have mind control, and “forced” them, or something…

It’s a fantasy, and you really need to let it go…
repsac3
July 8th, 2012 @ 1:03 am

S’posssible… but if you’re trying to imply that “no conservative would ever, ever… ,” well that’s just nonsense. There are bad folks and fools (as well as good and decent folks) all along the political spectrum.
repsac3
July 8th, 2012 @ 1:05 am

Sadly true…
Rich Graff
July 8th, 2012 @ 2:36 am

There is nothing quicker than the rapid blink of an eye. Is that fast enough?
Rich Graff
July 8th, 2012 @ 2:40 am

Ooops!!! I forgot about the speed of light.
True Man
July 8th, 2012 @ 5:23 am

No you were not.
pchazzz
July 8th, 2012 @ 11:45 am

Sounds like a false flag operation to me.
Chris Ar
July 8th, 2012 @ 12:26 pm

With all due respect, stay away from 4chan. You do not know what you are talking about. 4chan is not Anonymous and Anonymous is not 4chan.
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