Faith-based internet

[jhetley]

One thing I keep trying to remember, after seeing rude comments fly back and forth in re Ellison. Another person got tromped for reserving judgment, prior to Ellison's public confession and maybe-penitence. And I reminded myself -- I do not know these people. I have no personal evidence on whether what they have posted is truth or fiction.

I have "known" some of you readers for a period of nearly a decade, without ever knowing your real names or having any proof that you even exist outside of some shadow's imagination*. Anything, anything at all, that you post could be a total fabrication.

I know a _lot_ of people who get paid for inventing stories out of thin air. I admit quite freely that I tell lies for fun and profit.

And I've given up on a certain usenet group because someone has made a habit of posting with forged identities. It ain't that hard.

So, don't believe everything you read on the internet. Okay? Wait for evidence?

*Perhaps Sailor Jim's sixteen-year-old with perky breasts living somewhere in New Jersey.

Comments

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

And I've given up on a certain usenet group because someone has made a habit of posting with forged identities

It only takes a couple of idiots to spoil things for everybody else.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Jim... I've never met you. But I have met people who have met you, and I've been reading what you post for a long time. If you were to post that you had witnessed a particular thing, I would believe you, because I have no reason to suspect that you would lie outside of your professional published work. There's a DIFFERENCE between real life and fiction, despite the efforts of the fundies to convince us otherwise.

Similarly, when someone I have met and respect, and whose real-life reputation is good, posts that they were there and saw this event happen, I believe them. And now Ellison has owned up, which seems to remove all doubt.

Now, can we move on to the real issue here? What Ellison did was unacceptable. He should never be admitted to a Worldcon again -- I'm tempted to say "even on his own dime," but that's probably not enforceable. Anything less sends the message that oh, it really wasn't THAT bad, it was just Ellison being Ellison. Which is no different from excusing rape by saying "boys will be boys". I think it's time for the boys to grow up and be MEN.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

A: I've referred to the two separate incidents as assault and sexual assault elsewere. On EBear's LJ, I suggested that I would like to see criminal prosecution. That's the victim's choice, of course.

B: Prior to Ellison's "confession", various eyewitnesses to the Hugo ceremony, male and female, expressed strong differences of opinion as to what actually happened on stage. This discussion happened in private SFWA groups, so you wouldn't know about it. As opposed to, say, Live Journal, the private SFWA group gives reasonable proof of identity and these were real-life-reputation people on both sides.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Hear hear.

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

Pernicious the Musquodoboit Harbour Farm Cat and his faithful amanuensis and general factotum note that monsieur Hetley has expressed his reservations about their existence on numerous occasions, as well as that of the province of Nova Scotia, and wonder, now that he has been here, whether he might care to issue a public retraction in the appropriate venues?...

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Never surrender or retreat. Victory or a mutually-verified settlement.

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

We would expect no less of you, dear monsieur Hetley...

[mt-yvr.livejournal.com]

Good gods. Musquodoboit Harbour? (laughing) It is so funny what you run up against in the oddest places.

[Family has a house in Ship Harbour, near Musquodoboit (and yes, I even know how to pronounce that mouthful), and we went every summer for eons]

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

Pernicious the Musquodoboit Harbour Farm Cat glares at monsieur mt_yvr. "Funny, eh? Oddest place, eh?? Mouthful, eh??? I suggest that, if those are genuinely the terms in which you think of this Purr-fect Venue for Thought and Relaxation (tm), this jewel in the crown of Her Late and Much Lamented Majesty, the Queen Mother, then it would be wise indeed for you to find some other destination from which to obtain your eons..."

Pernicious the Musquodoboit Harbour Farm Cat's faithful amanuensis and general factotum hastens to intervene with his employer. "I feel certain, Pernicious, that you have misconstrued the tenor of dear monsieur mt_yvrs's remarks, which were no doubt intended to express a certain sense of comradeship in our long struggle to convince monsieur Hetley that Nova Scotia, and, in particular, Musquodoboit Harbour, do, in fact, and without putting any finer point on it, exist..."

"With allies like that, who needs opponents?" mutters Pernicious the Musquodoboit Harbour Farm Cat, who never misconstrues anything... or admits to doing so, anyhow... He turns back to his current World of Warfare concerns -- he is tired of allies of any sort, and will henceforward play by himself...

[mt-yvr.livejournal.com]

(laughing)

Darlin, funny what one runs up against in the oddest places online.

And I honestly can't claim the kind of distance from Ship Harbour and area that would allow me to say descriptors for said area aren't equally applicable to myself. My family settled the northern shore (something I never quite understood for its apparent dire implications, you know those southern shore people... which I never did) and I spent every summer there, since practically before I was born. Father got his phd in Dal, before moving us to Ontario.

As to mouthful.. well, as long as the conversation is oral, people have no problem, once the spelling of the lovely Musquodoboit comes into play? People tend to become a little funny around the eyes.

The place exists. It also is one of the most cherished sets of memories I have. (smile)

WoW? Oh my. It really is insidious.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

>well, as long as the conversation is oral,
>people have no problem,

I generally pronounce it "Mosquito-bite"...

[mt-yvr.livejournal.com]

Musk o dob it.

Or Musk a dob it. Depending.

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

sir, i'm non-sequitorializing, to remark that based on this comment i looked at your user info and based on THAT i added you to my friends list (not that i have any time to read LJ...but still).

i truly enjoyed my one experience with musquodoboit harbor.