Blogger Writes Rape. Commenters Threaten Death.
Spl@: Why I Hate D.C. blogger unnerved by Web threats
On March 5, 2009, Why I Hate D.C. blogger M@ received the following anonymous comment on one of his blog posts: “you’re going to go down hard, little bitch boi,” it read; “brutal bone crushing pounding of your skull between my boot and the pavement. Hot blood spewing everywhere.”
Even by Internet standards, that’s pretty nasty—illegally so. What could M@ have possibly done to prompt a death threat?
Something pretty nasty, actually. On Nov. 17, 2008, M@ wrote a blog post about a bizarre fantasy jog across the Memorial Bridge. Trapped between Washington and Virginia, M@ collides with several other runners. He regards them with an instinctive derision he compares to the primates behind the glass at the National Zoo:
“As I continue along the bridge, a young woman, too, comes straight at me and I think of Ralph Ellison and his Invisible Man and wonder why they cannot see my white skin gleaming under the towering lights,” he writes. “And she’s just my type: thin, pretty, white with brown hair. A feeling arises in me hitherto fore unknown. I want to rape her.”
He continues: “In my animal mind, I force her against the railing and push into her, afterward tossing her over the side, burying her in the cold and the wet and the deep—satiating, for now, my love for the city, my hatred.”
M@ accompanied the post with a diagram that included a photo of himself marked “me,” a male runner marked “random assclown,” and a female runner marked “cunt.”
The post was a success: 76 comments in two days. Some commenters praised M@’s writing style. Some chimed in with tirades against Hispanics. Most zeroed in on the rape thing. “Wait a minute…did you just say you wanted to RAPE her? What the fuck is wrong with you?” one anonymous commenter wrote. “Jesus Christ. Next time, stay in Virginia, please,” another offered.
In the seven months since M@’s initial post, the anonymous commentary on M@’s rape reference has become incessant—and increasingly violent. Now, a typical anonymous comment goes something like this: “M@sshole, when I find you, I’m going to cut a hole in your abdomen, and fuck it hard. And come in your new man-cunt. And scream in your face while I’m doing it. And shove my thumbs in your eye sockets to enjoy even more penetration into your disgusting carcass.”
Before he began blogging at Why I Hate D.C., rape commentary “wasn’t really my thing,” M@, a 33-year-old Arlington resident, insists. As criticism mounted, M@ defended himself by declaring that he finds rape “horrible,” posting resources for actual victims of rape, and citing literary precedent. “I was just making an analogy. I was trying to describe a thought that fled momentarily through my mind, like Vladimir Nabokov bringing us into the mind of the pedophile—into the mind of a monster,” he says.
When M@ stopped trying to explain himself, he began defending his First-Amendment rights another way—by littering his posts with rape jokes. “I didn’t intend to make light of rape at all as a violent crime. But after I got the hate mail, it turned into speech issue for me,” M@ says. In the months following, M@ worked rape into commentary about swine flu, WMATA, and inauguration bar hours. Readers responded to the motif by repeatedly threatening M@ with rape. One commenter began posting the threats under the handle ARNL, or “Anal Rape, No Lube.”
Why I Hate D.C. has always been a harsh place to air one’s innermost animal instincts. Launched in 2003, the site began as the personal ranting ground of blogger “James F.” When James relocated to Seattle, he bequeathed the blog to a series of foster haters, who have carved out an increasingly nasty online playground. Why I Hate D.C. is updated intermittently throughout the week by its four-blogger crew, but the comment threads are active constantly. One anonymous commenter posts upper-case scroll-down comments that spell out Op-Ed positions such as “I BLAME THE MEXICANS!” or “I BLAME THE JEWS!” A British commercial actor named Daniel Hoffmann-Gill harasses Why I Hate D.C.’s administrators for allowing free rein to nameless posters.
But only since M@ has joined the blogroll have the comments graduated from condescending self-promotion and satirical misfires to explicit threats of rape, beating, and murder. Since last November, M@ has received hundreds of threatened penetrations and skull-crushings. One comment baited M@ with a Google map of Trinidad, giving him two hours to meet for a personal confrontation. Another, after mining M@’s personal blog for intel, told M@ he knew where M@ lived and worked. M@’s father’s recent heart surgery is a constant source of ridicule. The collection of comments became more sinister when the actual death threats cropped up. “I interpreted those as death threats, because the person said, you know, I’m going to kill you,” says M@.
Despite what he describes as a “whole coterie of nasty commenters” operating in Why I Hate D.C.’s comment boards, M@ is convinced the worst threats are the work of a lone commenter. “I’ve been tracking the IP address with three different services, and over the seven-month period, the addresses were static and exactly the same,” he says. M@ says he has carried on extended comment-board conversations with his mystery commenter, attempting to bait her for any identifying information—or just figure out what she wants from him. “I’ve spent hours and hours and hours on this,” says M@, who describes the Why I Hate D.C. gig as “a volunteer position” (he recently lost his day job). When M@’s not tracking IP addresses or reading and re-reading old conversations, he’s conjuring visions of the commenter. “I’ve been online for a while. I’m good at forming mental pictures of people. And I believe it is a 28-year-old African American woman who is employed at Howard University,” M@ says. “I just have that feeling.”
Dave Stroup, who serves as the administrator of Why I Hate D.C., says that the reactions he’s received to M@’s posts have been overwhelmingly negative. “Some readers have been disturbed by his writing,” says Stroup. “I haven’t noticed any specific death threats, and I don’t really understand who would—nobody knows who he is.” Stroup, too, has his suspicions. “It’s just been a feeling of mine that he may be leaving anonymous comments himself, to rile other people up,” he says.
M@ admits that the anonymous Internet presence has, at times, intruded on his emotional life. “Yeah, it can be consuming,” he says. At one point, M@ says the commenter baited him into using a racial slur. “I would never use or publish the n-word. But this person has been psyching me out for seven months. This is at a point where I was trying get as much information as possible. So sometimes, when you play with someone, you’ll try to press some buttons. See what happens. The commenter may think that he or she got me. But I got them.”
Now, M@ deletes the worst threats from the comments section, but he dutifully records them in a file he keeps on hand “just in case.” The document spans months of on-line back-and-forth between M@ and the commenter. M@’s fellow Why I Hate D.C. bloggers have failed to take any serious interest in M@’s rogue commenters—“I just mentioned it casually, and they were like, oh, really, that’s weird”—M@ says he’s spoken to D.C. police officers who have assured him the threats are illegal. “I will defend anyone’s free speech, but death threats are the exception, and they are a federal felony,” says M@. “Some people, you know, they just take things way too literally. Honestly, it stresses me out.”
M@ says there’s evidence to suggest that he has gotten to the commenter, too—the threats have toned down substantially since M@ informed this person that he’s looked up the IP address. Now, M@ suspects the commenter has begun using a proxy server. “It’s so transparent,” M@ says.
Despite the incessant barrage of threats to his life, M@ has never considered abandoning the blog—though he has aired some threats of his own. On March 4 he warned, “no longer will I be publishing or even reading anonymous hate mail. That’s an automatic delete from this day forward.” Later, he threatened to file a police report and contact Howard University. His anonymous troll responded by tauntingly reposting the warnings over and over again on dozens of M@’s old posts. On May 29, M@ upped the stakes: “this blogger would no longer participate in the comments,” he wrote. “I will neither write nor read comments on this site. I will simply post. And unsolicited emails will not be read. I’m done arguing w/ morons. I’ve got better things to do.” He posted another comment on the blog three days later.
“God, it’s so hard to stop,” M@ says. “Other people are better at ignoring that stuff, but for some reason, I’m a more sensitive person.” With law enforcement unlikely to intervene in M@’s case, the blogger says he has no choice but to continue to monitor the situation himself. “There is a part of me that would just like to bitch-slap that person,” M@ says, “But mostly, I’m just curious. I really, really want to know who this person is.”
UPDATE: M@ removed from Why I Hate D.C.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery
4:03 pm
I will chew a hole through your lower back, pull out your spine, and rape the chamber that has been left vacated.
5:01 pm
El-oh-el! I am greatly amused by this, Amanda.
'm a little surprised that I actually look worried in that photograph. I was a little inebriated from that Pino Grigio I'd just polished off! Wow.
And the above commentator. I think that was my old buddy, who just found this story from his office in the Caribbean. I am greatly amused.
5:25 pm
ZOMG! Tobey McGuire is a rapist!
5:45 pm
This got out quickly on Facebook for me. Very quickly. I'm getting death threats now from my friends and relatives. This is SERIOUS!!!
6:18 pm
Get lost you dumb ape.
6:29 pm
Get OUT of our city. NOW.
6:54 pm
Get OUT of our city. NOW
--Exactly what I'm trying to do. El-oh-el. :)
7:05 pm
M@, may your life become disfigured by the social backlash you so richly deserve. You evidently believe that we women are only provisional human beings whose rights and bodily integrity can be revoked whenever a guy gets fed up with feeling like a loser. Yes, I know, you work with women, you see them at the gym, you know a few of them and you treat them like people. But you clearly see their humanity as provisional, not permanent. You're a sex offender wannabe, and I for one am glad that thousands of people will now know what you look like.
7:14 pm
M@, may your life become disfigured by the social backlash you so richly deserve. You evidently believe that we women are only provisional human beings whose rights and bodily integrity can be revoked whenever a guy gets fed up with feeling like a loser. Yes, I know, you work with women, you see them at the gym, you know a few of them and you treat them like people. But you clearly see their humanity as provisional, not permanent. You’re a sex offender wannabe, and I for one am glad that thousands of people will now know what you look like.
--Again, you got it so wrong. It was an analogy, at one moment in time. I don't just know a few women. I've lived and loved w/ them. As I told the reporter, it's an awful time in any relationship w/ a woman when she divulges her experiences with rape or abuse. My best friends (typed breast friends) are women. In fact, I have very few male friends. Most of them are women. I spend hours per week talking w/ my female friends.
Furthermore, I would never commit a violent crime. I don't see ANYONE as "provisional" or less than human. If you were to look at the comments on that initial post I wrote on Nov. 21, you would see that many of my female friends defended me.
I am a non-violent person. I don't get why you would think otherwise. As an atheist, I would identify most closely w/ Buddhist philosophy. I wouldn't go hunting b/c I don't want to kill Bambi.
In regard to thousands of people knowing my image, I would say that I look like 3,000 other white guys my age in Arlington County. I don't think I'm a celebrity now. Peace to you.
8:12 pm
"It was an analogy, at one moment in time."
And then apparently at lots more moments in time, as you joked about rape over and over again in the following months.
"I am a non-violent person. I don’t get why you would think otherwise."
Er... hellooooo? Maybe because you think it's completely fine to make "analogies" and "jokes" about raping and murdering women? Why would we believe that you *wouldn't* rape someone? We don't know you, and in case it needs to be pointed out, there are a *lot* of men out there who *do* rape, and those guys are out there talking up their rape fantasies and making rape jokes just like you are. From the way this article makes it sound, you've never once acknowledged that it was a terrible idea to describe a brutal fantasy like that in a public forum -- where many, many women who have been raped will read it and feel just that much worse about their experiences. And, I might mention, where many, many men who HAVE raped will read it and feel just that much better about what they've done.
It sucks that you're getting death threats, and that person has gone off the deep end. I was shocked by some of the things said. But honestly, I have to admit I have some amount of sympathy for anyone who wants to get dudes who brag about their rape fantasies to understand what it's like to feel threatened. Because reading what you wrote -- and hearing that lots of people *praised* it -- made *me* feel very unsafe in this world.
"(typed breast friends)"
Many of those "breast friends" of yours (the figure is something like 1 in 4 women) have been raped. Not every woman who has been raped will object to every flip comment or joke about rape, especially if it comes from someone she already knows and trusts. But I 100% guarantee you, *some* of those "breast friends" of yours were hurt by this and just didn't tell you. Consider whether any of your "breast friends" have changed how they behave around you in the last few months, and whether it's possible you have your head up your ass. "Breast friends," for christ's sake. That right there is the kind of thing that makes people think you don't give a shit about women.
8:29 pm
What I've always failed to understand is this: If you hate DC for so many reasons, why don't you just GO SOMEPLACE ELSE? If all you have to blog about is reasons why you hate the city you live in, the answer seems pretty clear. Go live in a new one - & be happy about it. I just don't get it.
9:04 pm
M@ thinks rape fantasy, repeatedly, and then using the n-word make him a nice guy?
I sincerely hope the police do not help him out!
9:06 pm
I think the crotch-grabbing photo sums up M@ quite appropriately.
9:27 pm
Maybe if you simply stop paying attention to him, he'll move to Columbus like the coward who used to run the site.
10:16 pm
From the way this article makes it sound, you’ve never once acknowledged that it was a terrible idea to describe a brutal fantasy like that in a public forum — where many, many women who have been raped will read it and feel just that much worse about their experiences.
--That's actually a valid point. I did mention to the reporter, Amanda Hess, things that were not included in an article. It's OK b/c as a journalist I understand that the writer chooses the focus and cannot include everything. The news is, after all, a social construct.
I mentioned that rape is also a men's issue b/c even though men ally themselves w/ other men we also compete directly against them--so a man asserting sexual dominance over a woman helps me not. Also, men are connected emotionally w/ women. I've had visceral reactions hearing of the experiences of girlfriends and friends, people whom I love.
In the initial case, I was merely making an analogy and then I had a bit of fun pretending to be a sociopath, just to explore some boundaries--because, well, I'm a shit like that. I know it.
Amanda did misconstrue something in the article, however, in describing my first post and the "rape fantasy." She describes it as a "bizarre fantasy jog," whereas there was nothing fantastical about it. It actually happened and some woman was actually rude to me and I had a thought in my head I'd never, ever act upon. It was a momentary thought of an animal.
For fuck's sake people. I'm done with it.
11:04 pm
You're wrong, Matt. You do NOT view women as full human beings--as even a cursory look at your writing could show you. Cunt/she'll fuck me but not you/diagnosed with "a sense of humor" about rape/just my type so I rape her/just ask Al Franken... only a determined idiot could miss that pattern. From the security of not being a member the frequently-raped sex, you use rape not just as a cheap literary analogy and a TOOL for scoring praise from fellow assholes but also as a "fun" way to bludgeon people with your right to free speech. Oh, how noble and clever! How original! Face it, Matt, you are a shittier person than you admit to yourself and, incidentally, a flaccid writer.
It doesn't matter how many women you've loved; just as Sam Harris has said about honor-addled Arab men, we really can say you love women less.
12:02 am
Svegli,
I promised myself a while ago that I would stop arguing with morons but it's like kicking a tobacco habit--I need the patch!
YOU are wrong, Svegli (and what a name; sounds like schmegma). Your "cursory" look at my "flaccid" writing (obviously you know nothing; look at other writers on Why I Hate DC if you want to see some flaccid writing) does not give you much insight into what is a multi-faceted personality.... Nor does Amanda's article give you much insight into my personality...
I love women and count many, many as my friends. You don't know me. And neither does Amanda Hess.
12:10 am
One of my favorite persons in the world, by the way, is a gender-bending woman who subscribes to Bitch magazine. But I'll concede one point to you. I was stupid to focus so much attention on the Why I Hate D.C. blog for so long when there are so many more important things on which to focus.
And I'm an idiot for going into a femi-nazi classroom and inquiring whether anyone would like to start a men's group.
Everything about this article was absolutely negative about me. I said more than just that I thought rape was "horrible." I said more than I wanted to "bitch slap" my antagonist. I said I'd prefer to buy that person a coup of coffee and just have a conversation.
But Amanda had to end this article w/ the "bitch slap" comment, naturally. And I met that woman in person and had the two of them here in my home.... Well, it's my fault for not communicating better.
Regardless, you won't see me on the D.C. blog or ANY D.C.-related blogs from now on. I'm done.
12:50 am
Why can't you concede that writing cavalierly about rape is wrong?
1:03 am
Svegli,
I cannot yeild to you on that point entirely. I'm sure you're a nice person and all... and don't get me wrong, I've read my feminist literature and I know my shit better than most women on that subject but....
I don't care whether you thought my speech in that particular instance was a "cheap literary analogy" or not. Ten times as many people (more than half of whom were women) told me they did like it.
And I stand by that post, vehemently. That is the post that garnered the most vociferous of the death threats--and so I reacted in immature fashion by sprinkling rape references throughout my later posts. Sure, I regret that but... those were some comments. And let's not forget about the personal comments about my father. I wanted to make a point.
Here's what I have to do. Forget all of this. Focus on maintaining positive relationships with people on- and offline and try, as the late writer David Foster Wallace advised, to create my own reality by choosing my focus. It should be a sunnier reality, one without the negativity of the D.C. blog.
It's good that I got booted from that site. They're a bunch of hacks anyway. I didn't belong there. But I don't agree w/ you about the initial post. I initially thought this article would be more of an academic-style exploration of taboo and what should or should not be verbotem, rather than a blow-by-blow of my bitch-fest 2008-2009 w/ that antagonizer. I have said that it's OK to make reference (even in humor) to violent crime as a generality, but not OK as a specificity.
For example, people joke about murder--cavalierly, as you say. But you would not quip about the specific murder of your best friend's mom, for example.
I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree on that point but I'm sure you're a nice person and we'd agree on most things. It's funny, the post I was writing today (before I got booted from that D.C. blog) was going to be about supporting gay marriage rights in the District.
You don't know me.
1:50 am
Just how obtuse can you pretend to be, Matt? Murder, unlike rape, is not an overwhelmingly male-on-female crime in which biology itself decides the victims and the perpetrators. Men who write cavalierly about rape in a public forum are something like white people of the 1950s who wrote cavalierly about lynching--except that rape is far more widespread.
You were dead wrong, dude. And instead of admitting it and apologizing like the enlightened human being you aspire to be, you rattle off your progressive bona fides. Well, call me motherfucking unimpressed.
4:39 am
By the way, this sorry sack of dung is apparently interviewing at an embassy soon. I'm sure they'd love to hear about all this.
6:15 am
4. Also, I won't allow myself any longer to be baited into making (overtly) racist comments. (I have three African Americans and a half-Asian as Facebook friends.)
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
Luv the way the little bitch named 'm@' is "taking a few days off from the internet.'
March 05, 2009
Stanley said...
lookin' a little tubby there, mattie. but hey, it goes with the receding hairline.
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
Oh, there's a bitch from Howard University who needs to get fucked.... I'll do that.
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
"I have three African Americans and a half-Asian as Facebook friends."
In other words; Facebook = Reality.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
What's the grad. rate there? 30%?
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
Goodbye, nigger.
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
Bub bye! Have fun being black.
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
I got a big white cock for ya, babe. :)
9:42 PM
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
Re: Howard University. Duh on the DSL. I used that to bait you. You told me you work at Howard.
Got a boyfriend there? LOL
9:44 PM
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
Yeah, I think we should just have sex. I like black chicks.
9:46 PM
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
no, i was doing that too. i used three different services.
9:49 PM
M@ said...
what are you? a receptionist? I know damn well you're not a doctor there. LOL.
9:50 PM
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
u know u want it.
9:53 PM
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
I can handle you.... and unlike black guys, i go down... ;)
9:52 PM
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
You WISH, girlfriend. Hey, do you have gmail? This would be much easier if I could just call you or chat.
Are you OK? You seem obsessed with me. IT's unhealthy. I worry about you....
9:56 PM
M@ said...
Look, if you have some serious points to make, I will listen to you. If you want to talk. I'm sorry about your troubles. Have a good night.
9:57 PM
March 05, 2009
Anonymous said...
M@ said...
Yeah, what happened to you?
9:58 PM
M@ said...
What happened to you, dude?
9:58 PM
March 05, 2009
6:37 am
This has gone beyond stupid to dangerous. Everyone needs to stop the chest beating and get on with their life. I know if you met Matt IRL you would know that this man is not your enemy. He would be the first to stand up in defense of any woman he thought was in danger from an actual rapist. I have know him for many years. He has been a guest in my home. My husband and children would also attest that he is a kind, charming, bright, funny man. I will grant you that he is a guy, and if he is challenged he has a hard time backing down. That does not mean he would harm anyone physically and I doubt that anonymous would do so either. So, move on folks, nothing to see here.
7:05 am
Amanda,
On second thought, this article was a complete piece of shit, nearly as bad as something Dave Stroup would write on the Metro subway system or Mayor Fenty.
Svegli,
I owe you no apology. You clearly have an axe to grind. You last response was so ridiculous I'm not even going to rebut it on the merits. As I said, I stand by the first post I made on Why I Hate D.C. on Nov. 21. I will not apologize and I stand by it 100%.
8:02 am
anyone who uses Blogger knows that you can't track comments by IP address. it's one of the shittier features. therefore, it's absolutely impossible for m@ to say he knows who has been leaving comments and making threats, especially the anonymous ones.
m@ is full of shit and I'm glad he's not going to be on why i hate dc anymore. the site will be much better without him.
8:31 am
It just kinda sounds like M@'s a sad human being desperate for attention. I mean, look at him here railing at every comment, asserting his dominance over not just the other commenters, but over the article author, his fellow bloggers, and an entire city's population. I don't really believe for a second that M@ wants to rape anyone or event that he thinks rape is ok, but the fact that he wrote about dominating someone else in an attempt to feel powerful doesn't really surprise me. Have a nice life being miserable, M@!
9:35 am
just remember this all cthose who have commented.
I'm gunnin' for your spouse, tryin' to send that bitch back to her maker, and if you've got a daughter older then 15, I'm a rape her, take her on the living room floor, right there in front of you, then ask you seriously, what you wanna do?
9:54 am
If there's anything I despise, it's someone who makes hurtful comments then backpeddals with some weak-ass "oh, it was just a metaphor" excuse. He knew EXACTLY what he was doing when he wrote this and other hateful posts, he spent countless hours responding to commenters and making things worse for himself (as he is now doing on THIS web site). He can't be a man about it and just say "I was out of line".
He completely killed that site. Completely and totally. It was never anything special, but occassionally the other bloggers made me do some thinking about the state of the city. M@ just hijacked the site as a platform for his terrible writing that no one would have otherwise seen. Total loser.
10:00 am
Ian, while Blogger does not have that feature, there are many free tools you can add that do track, Sitemeter being one. So yes m@ can track these visits to the site, even anonymous ones.
As for the topic at hand. let's all take a breath here. The first amendment is what's great about this country, anyone has the right to speak/comment freely. But this has to apply across the board in order for it to be a "freedom for all" so that it applies to everyone and everyone's beliefs, not just statements *you* agree with. Racists can publish things, donkey-fuckers can publish things, fans of puppies and NASCAR can publish things...you might not agree with them but you can't just pick and choose what is ok to say...I'm just sayin....
10:14 am
Sitemeter and the other items let you track who visits your site, not who comments. so unless your site only gets about 10 visits a day, it would be very hard to cross reference visits with comments. on a site that gets hundreds of visits a day, it would be even harder. thousands, impossible.
10:19 am
M@, every comment you make digs your hole further. Your comments are defensive, juvenile and simply make you look like an child throwing a temper tantrum. Consider taking your own advice and check out.
"My best friends (typed breast friends) are women. In fact, I have very few male friends. Most of them are women. I spend hours per week talking w/ my female friends."
"One of my favorite persons in the world, by the way, is a gender-bending woman who subscribes to Bitch magazine. "
-- Did you really defend yourself with "some of my best friends are women?" I've NEVER heard anyone homophobic or racist say anything like that before.
"I’ve read my feminist literature and I know my shit better than most women"
-- Oh. My. God.
"And I’m an idiot for going into a femi-nazi classroom and inquiring whether anyone would like to start a men’s group."
-- Yes, you are. Why not go into an Alcoholic's Anonymous meeting and ask if anyone would like to go to happy hour?
"It’s good that I got booted from that site. They’re a bunch of hacks anyway"
-- A twelve year old couldn't have said it better.
"obviously you know nothing; look at other writers on Why I Hate DC if you want to see some flaccid writing"
--- "I know you are but what am I!!"
"I mentioned that rape is also a men’s issue b/c even though men ally themselves w/ other men we also compete directly against them–so a man asserting sexual dominance over a woman helps me not"
-- I don't even know what this means. Yes. You are a great writer. The proof is that there are writers who you think are worse than you.
"I am a non-violent person. I don’t get why you would think otherwise."
-- Let's see. Because you published a RAPE FANTASTY? Oh I'm sorry, as you explained above, it wasn't actually a fantasy, it was something that you ACTUALLY THOUGHT. Which is so much better.
"I would identify most closely w/ Buddhist philosophy."
-- I challenge you to find something in anything written about Buddhist philosophy that justifies the insane, inflammatory crap you write.
"You don’t know me."
-- The first thing you've said here that really makes me happy.
M@, you are going to be about as popular in DC as sniper. Maybe you are just doing this to get attention and make yourself into some kind of local hated-celebrity. Good luck with that. And good luck on your job hunt.
2:05 pm
MATT (god), you need to read this. http://tigerbeatdown.blogspot.com/2009/06/m-did-not-rape-you-he-just-drew-diagram.html
Maybe it will help you, I don't know, get a soul.
3:58 pm
"As I told the reporter, it’s an awful time in any relationship w/ a woman when she divulges her experiences with rape or abuse."
I'm amazed--amazed--that a guy could somehow make that about him. Yeah, it's so hard for YOU to listen to what happened. Gosh.
5:38 pm
M@s only mistake was giving some of his readers too much credit. Doesn't anyone recognize a metaphor these days?
Stay strong, M@, and get the hell out of DC. Ditch the blog and start working on a novel.
5:45 pm
wtf. rape and murder is a metaphor these days?
frankly, m@ is an incredibly disturbed narcissist, and he's distraught because dave deleted him right when he should have had his big moment of glory: this cover story in city paper. he invents comments and threats and tries to make himself the victim for attention, and in fact almost begrudges rape victims the sympathy and attention they receive after such a horrible experience.
it's clear that this man will never get his life in order and will always prey on the sympathy of others (like amanda who wrote this article and fell for his contrived story of "free speech and death threats") and when that backfires, he'll crawl back into his miserable hole and console himself with the lie that he's just smarter than everyone else.
5:53 pm
Ian--You're a moron. You got that totally wrong. From my perspective, Amanda shafted me. Are we on the same planet, dummie?
5:54 pm
Thank you, Julie. We'll let Dave get back to his "mission" of posting "snark" about the local subway system. He's so fucking good at that.
7:01 pm
Ok, I am tired of reading comments. Oh my God so what!! He used the word "rape" get over it people!! How curiously strange and weird, odd and surprising, me a woman, I was not outrageously violently abominated by it?
Context maybe? CONTEXT? can you read? Are you the same people listening to Eminem? give me a break.
If you don't like it, then just don't like it, but stop the interpretation as if you knew what it is about.
Move on.
Ok so M@ you don't know your audience apparently... you can't write like that for those people: THEY ARE NOT READY! learn your lesson, and you too: MOVE ON.
7:14 pm
Morons. All of you.
7:17 pm
Matt, you're so laughably transparent. Everyone who criticizes you in the light of reason is a moron or a hack, right? No chance you're an unreconstructed great ape who's fooled himself into thinking he's a champion of civilization? Men rarely undertake the simple task of judging rape from a female perspective--see exhibit A: your dismissal of rape's obvious parallel with lynching. Exhibits B through Z are available on every thread you've ever sullied with your fatuous presence. There's nothing novel or edgy about your chauvinism. There's nothing novel or edgy about your unwillingness to see it. It's intellectual weaknesses like these that account for your flaccid writing.
11:38 pm
Get a fucking life.
Really. Get a life. Do you morons really think a blog is going to change the world? Do you really think anyone cares what you write?
They don't. I know this. Sure Ill still write crap - and leave comments. But I never fool myself into thinking anything is important.
If you do not like M@'s postings - do not read them. Do not comment on them. Find something else to read.
Fucking morons. Take up drinking - at least then you will be doing something productive.....
PS I have been drinking tonight, so I did something productive before writing this comment nobody really cares about.
3:31 am
desensitized world
6:11 am
svegli--I just read this crap. Um... Let's see, you comment.... Anyone who disagrees who disagrees w/ me is a moron in regard to the parallel between rape and lynching.
Let me address that on the merits.
You actually think that a crime is more heinous based on the immutable traits of the victim? Rape is worse than murder, as you suggested, because the victims are primarily of one "gender" (sex)? Seriously?
I'm sorry, dude. I just disagree w/ you. You aren't right simply b/c you state so in a comments section. I just fundamentally disagree w/ you. We'll have to agree to disagree. There is no way I agree w/ you on that.
YOU are a laughably transparent and you are NOT coming at me w/ "reason," as you say. I don't care if you think my writing is "flaccid" because... that's a ridiculous thing to say. It's nonsense. Intellectual weakness? Again, nonsense.
You are a fucking moron. Yes, I said so!
9:49 am
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism.
Matt, you're an idiot. Are apologies so difficult for you?
10:43 am
@M: Dude, get over it. Seriously, you're not writing for the blog anymore so time to move on. No need to make TWO post about it on your personal blog and get into comment wars here.
Next time you want to write about rape; keep it to yourself.
11:40 am
honestly people, the best thing to do at this point is stop commenting. you're not going to change m@'s opinion (he's a narcissistic ass) and if anything, you make him feel better by bashing him. it makes him feel relevant when really, he's so irrelevant that he got kicked off why i hate dc - a website m@ himself believes is crap. he couldn't even do THAT right.
you're not gonna win. this man is so deeply disturbed that he'll never get it no matter how hard you try. you can't argue with crazy, so just leave him be. these angry comments give him a sense of pride and the thing he'd hate most is to be dismissed and ignored.
so of course, the best thing to do is what everyone should have done in the first place: ignore him.
11:57 am
Uggh, M@ is the dumbest internet handle ever.
3:50 pm
Dan, you're a teacher and you're supporting this idiot? I hate to think what attitudes you are passing along to your students.
8:44 am
I'm all for the First Amendment, but examining M@'s "writing" and responses to the WIHDC and City Paper comments, I can only conclude: M@ = Tw@.
12:43 pm
Yes. We all need to follow Daniel's advice and stop passing judgments on others, stop incessantly responding to inane blog posts and comments, and stop trolling. Please, he's being very clear and we should follow both his words and his complementary example.
11:55 am
Reminder: You are not allowed to use multiple aliases in the comments on this blog. You are welcome to be anonymous, but you may not pretend to be more than one person. I have removed recent comments that were posted by one person pretending to be multiple people.
12:21 pm
M@, if you are basing your "28 year old African American woman who is employed at Howard University" assessment on the fact that I commented twice (negatively, but it was pretty innocuous stuff in comparison to the rest of the lot) and confirmed your creepy stalkage that I was, in fact, a Howard University employee, then you are sadly mistaken. I only commented those two times, ever, certainly never made any threats of any kind against you, and--the kicker!--I'm white. Such shrewd perceptive powers you have.
5:02 pm
Amy,
Once and for all, fuck YOU.
5:42 pm
Well Amanda, looks like you are on M@'s "Shit List". He blogged about it. Check it out.
7:25 pm
What a misogynist fuckshit. Oh, sorry. He's just a "sensitive person" who posted about his desire to rape and murder a passerby, y'all, then decided to get all scared when others posted about their desire to rape and murder him. Of course, his post is OK, 'cause women in our society don't get scared when "nice men" talk about how much fun it would be to harm us in this way. It's not like women in our society have a much greater risk of actually being raped and murdered, and it's not like we're full people with feelings. Free speech is essential until it makes him uncomfortable, and then it's inexcusable.
12:02 pm
oh M@, you are so sad. I know I shouldn't even be bothering with this, but it's like picking at a scab. Plus I'm bored at work, and I just have to know. Do you honestly believe I am the person responsible for the harassment? What I said before about making the two negative comments on WIHDC was the truth -- I have never commented on your personal blog nor made any threats. So what's with this once and for all stuff? The worst thing I've done to you is compare your work to Chuck Palahniuk's Snuff, and I have a feeling you took that as a compliment.