The Other McCain

The troll @MMashItMatt popped up in my Twitter timeline Tuesday to call me a “piece of sh*t doxxer.” Now, there are two kinds of trolls: The worthless pests I block, and the potentially dangerous creeps I don’t block because I want to keep an eye on them.

See, I figured out that not every Twitter troll is just a random kook. Some of them are dangerous criminals and some of them are Neal Rauhauser who, if he is not a proven criminal, is arguably the most evil online operative I’ve ever encountered. Rauhauser once boasted that he had created more than 100 different accounts. And nobody has deleted more online content than Rauhauser, whose habits of secrecy and deception I’ve described at some length. And if you have read the dossier on Rauhauser, you can understand my suspicion that he must be operating somewhere in the shadows around the #GamerGate controversy. But I digress . . .

“Don’t feed the trolls” is good advice, but there are times when I deliberately call attention to a troll, so that my thousands of Twitter followers can see what kind of creepy evil is out there. And when I did this to @MMashItMatt, he said:

“You silenced a Palin critic by telling them you would
release their info. You are scum of the highest order.”

Oh, you mean “Audrey,” eh?

A small group of trusted people know the whole story of “Audrey” who, far from being merely “a Palin critic,” was in fact one of the most hateful and dishonest of the notorious “Trig Truthers.” The very last time “Audrey” posted to her blog in August 2009, she directly accused Sarah Palin of faking her fifth pregnancy — stated this as a fact in a post with the headline “Who’s not your mama?”

“Audrey” was one of several bloggers who latched onto the “Trig Truther” bandwagon that the vile Andrew Sullivan got rolling, and you can see how she squealed with pleasure the first time Sully linked her in November 2008. When “Audrey” stopped updating her blog in August 2009, some of her readers were mystified by her silence. And then on Sept. 12, 2009, this appeared in the comments:

**A NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR**
Hi faithful readers and friends, Morgan here.
Many of you have written expressing concern over Audrey’s absence from her blog. Several of you have heard rumors that she was threatened.
Those rumors are, unfortunately, true. Audrey has been threatened. She and her husband took the threats seriously enough to seek legal advice and have decided after consulting with their attorney to suspend posting for the time being.
She has asked me to convey her deep appreciation for the good wishes and support she has and continues to receive from all of you.
Thanks,
Morgan
[email protected]

Well, I knew that to be a complete lie, although perhaps a necessary lie, because the crazy readers of that once popular anti-Palin blog needed some explanation, and when Dan Riehl brought that note by “Morgan” to my attention, I wrote on Sept. 14, 2009:

Hey, “Morgan”: How about you grab yourself a nice hot cup of STFU, sweetheart? You’re not doing “Audrey” or her family any favors with inflammatory rhetoric like that.
A wise concern for mercy ought not be taken for granted because, in case you haven’t noticed, some of our regular readers were intensely curious about the mysterious end of this investigation. And the content of certain comments (some of which I’ve had to reject as hinting too obviously) indicates to me that these commenters are also capable of research.
Some other research-savvy bloggers might not be as scrupulous as Dan and I have been, “Morgan.” Your insulting comments could make those other bloggers angry, and who knows what might happen then?
Mmmm. The delicious flavor of fresh STFU . . .

It would be unnecessary and unwise for me to explain too much more than I explained at the time. But let me tell you, I was this close to hitting the “publish” button on an article, and decided against it:

Her carelessness confronted me with a very difficult dilemma, and I hesitate to think what might have transpired had some unscrupulous, selfish, vindictive person been in my position. . . .
As Dan Riehl and I discussed between ourselves, there is no reason to believe “Audrey” has been guilty of any legal wrongdoing, merely careless in her online choices.
As our research advanced, and sources provided further information, however, matters reached a point where I had to ask myself, “Do I really want to publish this?” This same research indicates that “Morgan” knows exactly what I’m talking about . . .
It would have been unnecessary cruelty on my part to have published without having first contacted “Audrey,” which I did by means of a courteous and quite friendly e-mail message to her husband (whom she had referenced at Palin’s Deceptions as a sort of in-house “expert”).

Everyone remembers how Dan Riehl and I exposed the perverted anti-Palin blogger Jesse Griffin, but that was different: Given the sick stuff Griffin had written about pornography, children and masturbation, there seemed to be a matter of public safety involved.

In the case of “Audrey,” however, it was different. Before I finally decided against publishing a thoroughly documented article full of screencaps, etc., I had already dropped a few hints on the blog, just to gauge the reaction. What would “Audrey” do if she realized that her separate online personas had been connected, and that I knew everything about the real person behind both personas?

Silence. She must have been scared shitless, as well she should have been. Let me see if I can explain what I mean:

• X — Hateful and dishonest anti-Palin blogger “Audrey.”
• Y — Reputable human being with a real life in a small town.
• Z — Other embarrassing online behavior.

Now, imagine you are Reputable Human Being Y. For many years previously, you engaged in Embarrassing Online Behavior Z under a pseudonym that had never been penetrated. Y thinks to herself, “If nobody has figured out that I’m secretly Z, then Internet anonymity is very simple.” However, no one had very much of a motive to try to connect Z to Y; it’s a different matter when Y decides in 2008 that she is now also going to become X, telling lies about the Republican vice-presidential candidate who, as of August 2009, looked like a potential contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.

There might be all kinds of people who decide to take an interest in discovering the identity of X, and one of those people might drop me an anonymous e-mail saying, “Hey, look at this.”

Ask yourself this obvious question: Why didn’t “Audrey” (X) use her real name (Y) to do her anti-Palin blogging? There is no law against being a “Palin critic,” after all. But she wasn’t a “Palin critic,” she was promoting the hateful insane lies of Trig Trutherism.

Do you want to know what the GOP vote margin was in the county where “Audrey” and her family live? I could look it up. Trust me, if her neighbors had discovered she was behind that wicked blog, she would not have been the most popular mom in the PTA.

Oh, but what about Embarrassing Online Behavior Z? If connecting X (“Audrey” the anti-Palin hate monger) to Y (the real person in the GOP-leaning small town) would have been hurtful, connecting Z to Y would have been thermonuclear destruction. Trust me.

And I was this close to hitting the “publish” button on that blog post, OK?

That unpublished post is still sitting there, five years later, in draft.

Some people criticized my decision not to publish that. “She’s a vile and despicable subhuman monster! What’s wrong with you?”

Trust me, I made the right decision. I’d seen the sudden silence at her blog after I started dropping hints, and I could imagine the panic. In fact, once I’d dropped a few hints, some readers searched around and figured it out for themselves. “Audrey” had been careless, and if I could connect X + Y + Z, her anonymity was not secure. But still, that question: “Do I really want to publish this?”

Hit “publish” and you destroy somebody. For what? For politics?

No, it’s not worth it. And I would not want to be known for that.

We know the denouement. I sent a polite email to Y‘s husband, explaining that the secret (“X + Y + Z“) was no longer secret. I suppose  “Audrey” decided that continuing to write wicked lies about Sarah Palin was probably not a good idea. (Smart decision, ma’am.) And, of course, Sarah Palin did not run for president in 2012; the wicked lies of Trig Trutherism were just a waste of time, anyway.

Did I “threaten” anybody? No. I don’t threaten people. I made a choice not to publish, and “Audrey” made her own choice. To see my choice criticized by @MMashItMatt, however, makes me wonder if mercy was the wrong choice. What are we to do with these insane, hateful and ignorant people who confuse mercy with weakness?

@MMashItMatt had better contemplate the consequences of attempting to impugn my honor with his dishonest accusations.

Mercy has its limits, and I am not always merciful. Selah.

HATE TROLL > @MashItMatt < w 86 followers calls ME "piece of sh*t doxxer"? @AdamBaldwin #GamerGate pic.twitter.com/D29CAWLWcB

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) October 21, 2014

.@MashItMatt Hey, Troll: I could publish it NOW, if that would make you happy. @AdamBaldwin

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) October 21, 2014

Hate-filled perverted scum like @MashItMatt get mercy and don't appreciate it. Be careful. I'm CRAZY, you know. @AdamBaldwin

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) October 21, 2014

@rsmccain ignore the bots & socks & trolls, please.

— Adam Baldwin (@AdamBaldwin) October 21, 2014

.@MelissaTweets She's got a point, Adam. I'm a crazy troll magnet. Ask Barrett Brown, who is in federal custody. @AdamBaldwin

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) October 21, 2014

Somewhere out there online, Neal Rauhauser must be lurking in the shadows of #GamerGate. If you find him, let me know.