"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
I get the sense that the outpouring[1] of WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING in Laura Hale/partly_bouncy's direction is coming as a surprise to some people.[2]
Part of that is the fault of a lot of the people who have had history with her, but for lots of good reasons -- most of them involving not wanting to attract LH's negative attention -- kept fairly quiet.
This means she was able to do things and hurt people who otherwise might have been warned.
And yes, I'm to blame as much for that as anyone else who knew what she was.
So what is she?
She is one of only two or three malicious, worthless sacks of skin that I've met in fandom. Given how many people I've met over the past n years, we're not doing too badly, percentagewise.
Given how much pain those two or three skinsacks have caused, though, I'm sometimes surprised so many of the good folks stay around. And part of the reason they do stay around, are able to stay around, have the heart to stay around, is that eventually, the skinsacks cross too many lines, and everyone else closes ranks but good.
We should do it more quickly when it's necessary, but I know it's hard. We don't want to believe that there are skinsacks among us; many of us want to believe that we're all coming from a place of love, even when we fall down and screw up and hurt people.
The skinsacks want to hurt you. And me. And everyone else.
Kick them to the door. Hard. Tell people about them. Document what they do. Don't let them participate in your community, your mailing list, your journal. Yes -- even if they haven't done anything problematic in your space yet. Because they will. They will use fear and intimidation[3]; they will use sockpuppets; they will use lies. They will push good people until the good people are the ones who step over the lines, in rage and frustration, and then play innocent.
The two most worthless skinsacks I have ever encountered, personally, in fandom -- just so you all know -- are these two:
1. Laura Hale/partly_bouncy (and other names)
2. Honisoit/EvilSmurf/Tritorella (and other names. Puppeteer, and a fairly clever one[4]).
There are others. Some, like Victoria Bitter, are well documented. Others are not. Document them. Tell people. These bloodsucking parasites rely on the good people keeping their mouths shut.
Make your blood poison to them.
eta: oh, wtf.
eta2: Yes, I was incorrect (in the comments) about Tritorella being the person who made threats to mamadeb on CritEdge. However, I believe her to be a puppeteer and flamemonger and general poison within fannish communities. I also *believe*, though I am willing to be corrected, that under the name Honi Soit/Evilsmurf she outed a DS slash writer to her employer; I was not very active in DS fandom at the time that went down. As I also mentioned, she asked me not to contact her, under threat of legal action. She has commented on this post, but I will not respond to her here or elsewhere (when I know who she is).
eta3: Revision of above statement: Honi Soit/Evilsmurf/Tritorella did out a DS fan to her employer. My uncertainty was not whether this incident happened, but whether I correctly recalled who had done it. I did.
1. My .02, Sometimes a brain can come in quite handy, about the outing, Calling out Michaela Ecks/Laura Hale/Purplepopple/Partly_Bouncy, In the department of "It's about damn time", Should have known..., Laura Hale: Sole proprietor of a unique marketing opportunity.
2. I will note that none of the people who appear to be surprised seem to have a history with FCA-L, which I think was my first exposure to LH and her lunacy. (Back in the day, FCA-L was a list with some fine quality crazy, some of it even provided by yours truly.)
3. "Fear is the original sin," wrote John Foster. "Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that some one is afraid of something. It is a cold, slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear; and it is of all things degrading." -- L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle
4. My "favorite" bit of interaction with this one was when she told me not to contact her again or she'd have the law on me for harassment. I haven't contacted her since, at least, not knowingly -- since she's a puppeteer, I might have done so unawares. She, on the other hand, has contacted me more than once -- to no response, I might add. Though I did tell my employers about her in case she decided to out me (something she has a history of doing). I didn't have to tell them about my fannish hobbies; they already knew.
Part of that is the fault of a lot of the people who have had history with her, but for lots of good reasons -- most of them involving not wanting to attract LH's negative attention -- kept fairly quiet.
This means she was able to do things and hurt people who otherwise might have been warned.
And yes, I'm to blame as much for that as anyone else who knew what she was.
So what is she?
She is one of only two or three malicious, worthless sacks of skin that I've met in fandom. Given how many people I've met over the past n years, we're not doing too badly, percentagewise.
Given how much pain those two or three skinsacks have caused, though, I'm sometimes surprised so many of the good folks stay around. And part of the reason they do stay around, are able to stay around, have the heart to stay around, is that eventually, the skinsacks cross too many lines, and everyone else closes ranks but good.
We should do it more quickly when it's necessary, but I know it's hard. We don't want to believe that there are skinsacks among us; many of us want to believe that we're all coming from a place of love, even when we fall down and screw up and hurt people.
The skinsacks want to hurt you. And me. And everyone else.
Kick them to the door. Hard. Tell people about them. Document what they do. Don't let them participate in your community, your mailing list, your journal. Yes -- even if they haven't done anything problematic in your space yet. Because they will. They will use fear and intimidation[3]; they will use sockpuppets; they will use lies. They will push good people until the good people are the ones who step over the lines, in rage and frustration, and then play innocent.
The two most worthless skinsacks I have ever encountered, personally, in fandom -- just so you all know -- are these two:
1. Laura Hale/partly_bouncy (and other names)
2. Honisoit/EvilSmurf/Tritorella (and other names. Puppeteer, and a fairly clever one[4]).
There are others. Some, like Victoria Bitter, are well documented. Others are not. Document them. Tell people. These bloodsucking parasites rely on the good people keeping their mouths shut.
Make your blood poison to them.
eta: oh, wtf.
eta2: Yes, I was incorrect (in the comments) about Tritorella being the person who made threats to mamadeb on CritEdge. However, I believe her to be a puppeteer and flamemonger and general poison within fannish communities. I also *believe*, though I am willing to be corrected, that under the name Honi Soit/Evilsmurf she outed a DS slash writer to her employer; I was not very active in DS fandom at the time that went down. As I also mentioned, she asked me not to contact her, under threat of legal action. She has commented on this post, but I will not respond to her here or elsewhere (when I know who she is).
eta3: Revision of above statement: Honi Soit/Evilsmurf/Tritorella did out a DS fan to her employer. My uncertainty was not whether this incident happened, but whether I correctly recalled who had done it. I did.
1. My .02, Sometimes a brain can come in quite handy, about the outing, Calling out Michaela Ecks/Laura Hale/Purplepopple/Partly_Bouncy, In the department of "It's about damn time", Should have known..., Laura Hale: Sole proprietor of a unique marketing opportunity.
2. I will note that none of the people who appear to be surprised seem to have a history with FCA-L, which I think was my first exposure to LH and her lunacy. (Back in the day, FCA-L was a list with some fine quality crazy, some of it even provided by yours truly.)
3. "Fear is the original sin," wrote John Foster. "Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that some one is afraid of something. It is a cold, slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear; and it is of all things degrading." -- L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle
4. My "favorite" bit of interaction with this one was when she told me not to contact her again or she'd have the law on me for harassment. I haven't contacted her since, at least, not knowingly -- since she's a puppeteer, I might have done so unawares. She, on the other hand, has contacted me more than once -- to no response, I might add. Though I did tell my employers about her in case she decided to out me (something she has a history of doing). I didn't have to tell them about my fannish hobbies; they already knew.