The Madness of King Mike

Two of my libertarian-leaning friends and I began posting on Objectivist Living last year, and we were perplexed when the owner of the website immediately began accusing us of disseminating what he called "propaganda." When we inquired as to what was driving his accusations, he launched into what would become a repeat sermon about the use of "covert persuasion techniques" in society to control others. The concept is something of an obsession with him, and he integrates it into a daily appeal to authority and acolyte-like worship of the works of Daniel Kahneman.

We ignored the silly accusations for a time and went about our forum discussions, but it wasn't long before the owner upped the ante and began hypothesizing that we might be paid government or progressive agents using "covert persuasion techniques" to corrupt the minds of Objectivist Living members. It wasn't too long before one of my friends and I were placed in moderation for spreading "propaganda" - despite no concrete examples being produced as evidence - and the other being essentially driven off the website.

Today a thread appeared entitled, "Where do some of the trolls come from?": http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14125&hl= The owner again makes the accusation that some of the recent posters (my friends and I, presumably, among others) were paid covert agents of the government attempting to disrupt Objectivist circles, and offers this as a justification for the erratic behavior.

I think certain individuals are prone to this kind of irrational paranoia when holding a position of power for extended periods of time, but it's especially hypocritical on an Objectivist website that is supposed to be championing evidence-based inquiry and reason. I hope this Salem-witch-trial-like logic and slandering doesn't spread within the Objectivist community.

The owner of OL is in full damage control rewriting history, now claiming that he banned me because I was "stupid" and posted "bad things" about him.

I will mail a $10 gift card to the first poster of either forum who can provide a concrete example of my posting "bad things" about this individual at any time before he entered one of my threads unsolicited and began accusing me of "preaching" and spreading subversive "propaganda" on his website.

As a side note, this same person claimed that based on his in-depth knowledge of human psychology, denying the accusations and getting angry about them was proof that I was guilty because the innocent are supposed to laugh accusations off. As a former prosecutor, I can assure you that this is not at all the case and people respond to false accusations in a wide variety of emotions - most commonly anger. Don't worry - we were all a bit more busy locking up murderers and rapists at the time than covertly infiltrating a little-know philosophy forum.

Maybe I'm getting grouchy or just picky in my old age, but I think it is a very bad idea to open up threads that are only for the purpose of bashing someone who is not a public figure and totally an enemy of Objectivism - someone like Obama, for example.  And even then, it is much, much better to criticize the ideas not the person.  I really don't like attack posts like this.  Could it at least be moved to dissent, because I don't want to be associated with a forum where this, or that ugly attack on Rand and Branden that was posted as humor.  If no one is able to move this thread to Dissent, maybe the posters could all use the edit to remove their posts and the start them up in dissent.

Being a public blog owner - especially an overtly political blog - and publishing articles under one's full name makes someone a public figure in my view. They have fully put themselves "out there" for the purpose of spreading their ideas. I thought what I was doing was discussing the ideas in the OL thread to which I linked and a prominent Objectivist's behavior as it relates to the broader Objectivist community. If somebody is publicly accusing Objectivists of this forum or any other of being paid covert operatives, isn't that accusation worth addressing, and rebutting before it gets out of control?

It's not "slander" if it's true, which it is. If you don't care about the topic, then don't comment.

"General Forum - For General Discussion"

"Dissent - For those who question Objectivism."

Based on the descriptions, this topic is much more appropriate in the General Forum than in Dissent.

What happens in OL should stay in OL.

Sam

Steve - I don't mean to step on any toes, but I am making an effort to breath some life into a forum that hasn't been a beehive of activity lately. My understanding was that being asked to do something confers the option of  declining.

Sam - If you want to post this topic in OL, I'll gladly remove it here.

I was politely asked, and I politely declined. I suggest ignoring posts you don't like as an Objectivism-friendly alternative to censorship.

Steve - You've already said you're not a moderator, so let the moderator perform that function. How would you like it if I entered your threads and lobbied for their removal?