Just another fine day of early Spring here in New York City, clouds alternating with sunshine, a breath of green in the air, first cup of coffee. Fire up the machine, read the Times, Facebook, Washington Post, Vanity Fair and then, at long last, Daily Kos, just to see how the rox/sux wars are going at this precise moment in time.
All pleasures of routine. After that, I’d thought I’d put the finishing touches on my law school application for this Fall, hit the gym, go shopping, all the fun things of the metropolitan but nonetheless really quite pedestrian life led by yours truly.
But wait, what’s that asinine thing on the wreck list?
Oh God, him again. Now what? “Bros4Hillary” members publicly brag their fake posts led to brief removal of Bernie facebook groups. Say what?
To briefly sum up the moronic, defamatory bilge in question: several pro-Bernie Facebook groups were intermittently offline yesterday, this apparently owing in part to malicious efforts by someone associated with a Facebook group, Bros 4 Hillary, that counts myself among its over 7,000 members.
Said malicious efforts may have included the posting to pro-Bernie Facebook groups of child pornography, distribution of which is a felony under 18 U.S. Code §2252, and which allegedly resulted in the temporary shutdown of these groups under Facebook’s terms of service.
Erica Libenow, another member of a Bernie group, said, “We had what looked like a kiddie porn posted in one of our groups today. I reported that one. Seriously made me want to vomit.”
To be entirely clear: these tactics and the offending pictures are beyond any pale. Child pornography is ipso facto and rightly criminal to make, distribute or possess.
The diarist however links me personally and directly to these appalling, inexcusable actions in the graf immediately following the exposition above:
You may recall “Bros4Hillary” as the brain trust behind this image: [img]
The above image was posted to the Daily Kos Hillary News and Views diary on March 30.
It was attributed by its poster to the now-defunct Facebook group “Bros4Hillary”.
The poster the diarist refers to is me; the link goes to a comment I made. I am however not the person who allegedly posted the pictures at issue in the shutdown, nor do I have an administrative role with Bros 4 Hillary. I am a member of the group, which is coincidentally not defunct as per the diarist’s claims.
But because it seems to need saying: the idea of a child being exploited or abused in any way fills me with horror and disgust. This is not an abstract matter, not when you have friends that were sexually abused, as I do. Make no mistake: I am shaking with rage that the inference was made.
Notably, the diarist wasn’t around to respond to comments at odds with his narrative. Certainly not to clarify that there is no path leading from the offensive material either to myself or to other members of the group. Other than the one he traced, that is.
Nor did the diarist point out that the group itself has denounced the activity at issue. As it should; I am personally in full agreement with this denunciation. This is a matter for law enforcement, not meta points. That it is neither remotely honest nor fair to tar over 7,000 people with the alleged actions of one should be self-explanatory and normally would be. Especially given that many of those 7,000 people are gay men like myself.
Not in the late stages of an acrimonious primary however, one in which I’ve made my preference perfectly clear. It is not one shared by the diarist in question. Were it otherwise, I doubt the matter would have arisen nor for that matter that my name would have been dragged into it.
I know as much of the poster who wrote the diary I’m responding to as I do of the person on Facebook who allegedly posted the offensive material at issue: nothing. I am not interested in remedying this deficiency. Not in the slightest.
What I do know is this: I am a gay man in his forties, part of a demographic historically subject to blanket accusations of pedophilia, accusations that have ruined lives. The avatar picture on my profile page accessible via the link in that diary is of me, taken last summer. Do I really need to spell this out?
I don’t hide here, have never felt cause to do so. That is not going to change. I have my faults, cowardice is not among them. If I’m a target based on my beliefs, so be it.
Honi soit qui mal y pense.
But today marks the first time in all my years on this good earth, let alone on Daily Kos, that I have been linked in any way to child pornography no matter how tenuously or sleazily, in a public forum no less, and this entirely without agency or evidence. Nor did the diarist creating this link reach out to clarify the matter either before publishing or even subsequently to it. That would have been the responsible thing to do, one would imagine.
But again, it’s a primary, so here we are now; responsibility or honesty are so last year. My only question is how much lower we will sink before this is all done, and how many more people will be smeared in ever more destructive ways.
The day is young, I guess we’ll find out.