| | This is an open letter to Orion Reasoner.
Orion (or whoever you may be),
I just read an amazing piece of literature that you penned on another website. You denounce Solo harshly as an organization that "truly has no shame" and that:
They are greasier and more dishonest than any postmodernists, subjectivists, or liberals out there who they so fanatically yet hypocritically denounce.
What is strange to me is that you cannot stop reading the stuff - and apparently can't get enough. I know of at least two pseudonyms that you have used to post on Solo since you left.
I normally don't respond to this kind of crap, unless it is as comedy, but I will make an exception here.
From what I can discern, your main beef is that you were somehow persecuted on Solo and your reputation was "maliciously sabotaged" by you being branded as an anti-Islamic genocidist. Still, I wonder how a person can have a reputation "maliciously sabotaged" when nobody knows who he (or she) is. Your pseudonym has been tainted, dude. Not you. And certainly not because anyone I know of actually believes you seriously advocate genocide. It is because of the level of horseshit you bring to your posts.
You start to say some intelligent things, then off you go into paranoia-land. Pure persecution delusions. Do you do drugs, or what? Coke and crack do wonders on inducing paranoia. Since your own paranoia seems to flare up suddenly, then go away suddenly, then flare up again, and so on, I wonder...
I remember my first contact with you back in September of last year. It is a good memory. I was still in Brazil and it was right before I came back to the USA. I made a total of 4 posts back then and two of them were to you. (I only started posting regularly to Solo in mid-February of this year.)
You had written a very good article called "The Secret Truth about Islam" which I found extremely instructive - principally as I had been married into a Brazilian-Arabian family during 5 years of my life. I saw that culture up close, but never delved into the Koran. You article was more than helpful in putting some of my past into perspective. I am sorry that this article has been deleted.
As time went on, I eventually uncovered the threads and articles where you had problems with posters. Frankly, I had never seen such a display of irrational invective on an Internet forum as I did coming from you. What a spiral downhill! You say you were run off Solo as a genocidist. I say you were run off because of your mouth. You couldn't control a decent level of discourse and your arguments descended into the idea-less and mere insults - nothing more.
I do sympathize with you, however, about how a crowd tends to gang up on a person and completely misunderstand his words - then bait, mock and taunt. That has happened to me more than once around here. But you are mistaken if you think that Solo has a monopoly on this. Crowd psychology is valid for practically all groupings of human beings. People get mean in groups. That's just the way people are. Not just Islamic people either. All people.
I wish you had had the emotional stability to deal with it back then. I know from experience it is tough, since there has even sprouted a hate MSK club over here that I have to swat once in a while. But if you look at these things closely, Orion (or whoever), you will discover that what looks like a group is usually a very small number of ring leaders. Most people are too busy to get involved, unless it is to throw in a couple of cents one way or the other and then go back to their own lives and concerns.
I don't agree with your evaluation that Solo has turned anti-Muslim in your absence. I, for one, am anti-religion and I hammer that message home every time I see one of those preachers or missionaries who sometimes show up trying to sell Judaism, Christianity or whatever as superior to Islam. The issue is faith against reason. No other.
The anti-Islam thing has been in the news a lot recently, so it has reflected in a few articles and poster comments. Certainly not because anyone was stealing your ideas or those of anyone.
I see nothing at all productive in your insults of Joe and Linz. You have your opinion of them and they certainly have their opinion of you. I have had my own disagreements with both of them at times, yet somehow we all managed to survive. I have a deep appreciation and admiration for their achievement - Solo - and frankly, Orion (or whoever), I haven't seen you do anything at all towards building a forum or vehicle for Objectivist ideas. I just see you bitch and try to sneak in the back door.
I sincerely believe that the shared goal of making a rational reason/emotion connection has superseded all of my own differences with Linz, Joe and some others around here - on both sides. That should have been your case, too, but you could't hack it. Just not up to snuff. The focus here is on Objectivism and Sense of Life, as given in the name.
You wrote "They ran me off -- as they've run off Firehammer, Stolyarov and many others before me -- so that they could claim my words and ideas as their own!"
Frankly I didn't see anybody around here adopting Regi's views on homosexualism or Stoly's conservatism after they left. Solo simply went on its merry way doing its merry thing - without those who left. Even without you.
Rejection hurts. It hurts everybody. I don't believe that the intent is to hurt, but the result is always that. Solo itself has been hurt by rejections at times. Nobody is immune. Thus most of your derogatory evaluations in your rant sound a great deal like sour grapes to me.
For the record, a few comments about the people you cited and insulted.
Matthew Graybosch and Andrew Bissell are anything but "hypocritical toadies." They are fine-thinking intelligent young men who have their own minds and a great deal of integrity. One thing you can count on with both of them - they will be honest with you and they will think deeply about their views when they respond. Thus if they rejected Orion, he/she was duly rejected. No faking.
The Ethan SOLO Secret Spy things is merely humor. I can't for the life of me see anything more than that. Ethan has even had the good grace to engage you on the forum where you post and let slide a HUGE amount of filth from your mouth - and I believe that you guys even entered some kind of understanding.
Joe Maurone is a tangential thinker who is far from a moron. He is well read and extremely intelligent.
Sarah House is not an Objectivist, but she has one of the finest minds and souls of anyone I have ever encountered - and I only know her online from Solo.
Your insults of all these people say much more about you than about them.
But now we come to me. I am anything but a saint, that I can assure you. People say I'm a nice guy until they cross me or become highly hypocritical and smarmy. Then they complain that I don't "turn the other cheek" like they thought I would.
Anyway, I don't mind your boneheaded comical comments about me. (I do admit "Buddhaliciously pompous approval" has a certain ring to it.) But you went somewhere with your comments on Kat that is not a good place at all. You showed your loneliness and bitterness and meanness of spirit - and especially substance cravings from what I can see. I've been there and all the signals are in place with you.
I sincerely advise you to give up any addictions you have. Look at what they do to you. If you do not have a serious monkey on your back, I apologize for the comment - but that would make you a completely despicable human being. In my mind, I prefer you as a junkie. It has more dignity.
One of the things I respect, admire and salute about Regi and Cass is the love they hold for each other. I may disagree with all else, but not that. It is too rare to find it and it must be cherished, otherwise it goes away. I venerate that kind of love and they are both so damn fortunate to have it. What they have - and what I have with Kat - is too sacred for you to understand. If you did, that would be the one thing you would not denigrate - ever. I am sincerely sorry that you are so lonely. All I can say is that the highest in love is possible on earth, here and now, and nothing compares to it. It is one of the greatest prizes life rewards you with when you get it right. I hope you find yours someday.
(I also wonder if that is what makes you hate so much.)
About Solo, there are simply too many high-quality articles on file at Solo (more than 1,500) to take your comments on quality seriously. More sour grapes. Want proof? How about your own words?
"If SOLO had even a shred of conscience, they would now be apologizing to me, and actually begging for my forgiveness, considering the horrific way they have deliberately conspired to maliciously sabotage my reputation. But they haven't. And they never will... because no such shred exists within them." How about begging to take you back, too?
Orion (or whoever), one thing is not clear to you, but is clear to so many, many readers. The kind of rant and foul-mouthing you engage in does not bother people, really. At first they feel bad for you, rarely offended. But then a change takes place over time. I have seen this in posts, not only on Solo either. Their attitude about you transforms from victim to fool. You become the court jester. You bellow to make them laugh. Is that your intent?
Now one final comment. I must take issue with your last statement.
It is my sad and horrific duty to report that SOLO, as an organization, and all its people, are rotten to the bone and a menace to the Objectivist community. (sigh)
One more aspirant to the title of ONE OF THE ELITE OWNERS OF OBJECTIVISM. Sorry, dude. It ain't you. It ain't that little old former-TOC ARI lady who doesn't like me. It ain't Rand's heir. It ain't nobody around here or over there where you're at. It ain't nobody in particular.
We all are the nonexclusive owners of Objectivism - at least those who have the courage to pick it up and live it.
Michael
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