"There is only one thing in life that is worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about" said Oscar Wilde, so perhaps I should be flattered to find myself the subject of someone's obsessive attention and to discover the extremes that they're prepared to go to in order to vent their bitter, malicious spite against me.
This saddo, who clearly has too much time on his hands, has created a Twitter account in my name, with my avatar, filled with lies, distortions and various absurdities, in the hope of convincing others that I'm not a very nice person. I'm disappointed, as I thought I was doing fine on my own in that regard, and it's a bit of a blow to my pride to learn that I seemingly require some assistance in the matter.
Take a look at his tweets so far: (Click to enlarge.) To read them in sequential order, start at the bottom one and work your way up.
And look - he's even got two followers.
He talks about irony, but seems unaware of what the word means. I post my opinions on my own blog, so how does that qualify me as a troll? And whenever I comment on another blog, I always do so in a civil manner. Yet here we have someone who's disturbed to such an extent that he's created an account in my name, using my avatar, not for satirical purposes as he claims, but for no other reason than to malign me. Isn't that the epitome of 'trolling'? And that's the only time I ever use the word - to point out the irony of someone doing that which they (falsely) accuse me of.
Further, as any fair minded person can see, I welcome debate, discussion and disagreement on this blog, and have never 'banned' anyone for it. I recently told someone calling themselves 'The Source' not to bother responding further after he insulted everyone with a different view to him by describing them as stupid, which I wasn't prepared to allow. Disagree with me all you want to, but don't resort to rudeness just because others don't see things your way.
Every one of his assertions is a distortion of the truth. I've never once said that I chose lettering because it 'paid more' than art (per page obviously); what I actually said was that I stuck with lettering because I was able to do more pages of lettering in a day than I'd have been capable of producing as an artist (and thus earn more). When I lettered a regular, one-page strip for LOADED mag back in the mid-'90s, it paid £30 (update: actually it was £50) for what amounted to no more than around half an hour's work. So you see, I didn't quite say what he claims I did. (Truth is obviously just not his thing.)
It's interesting that the lies in these ridiculous tweets are the same as ones expressed on another blog by one of a very small group (you could squeeze them all into a 'phone box) who seem determined to bad-mouth me. Twitter inform me that the account no longer exists or has been suspended, so perhaps it won't be very long before the source (see what I did there?) is identified and publicly exposed as the lying, twisted, odious little scumbag that he is. Incidentally, if my doppelganger can provide one instance where I've ever blamed others for not working in comics, I'd like to see it.
At least now you can see for yourselves that when it comes to lies, distortions, and obsessional, petty, small-minded behaviour, if anyone deserves to be called a 'troll', it's pretty obvious that it isn't me. No doubt this sad individual will have another go at this kind of thing, so if any of you become aware of it before I do, I'd appreciate you letting me know. Some people, eh?
And in case you were wondering, yes, I do have a pretty good idea of who's behind it all, but I'll wait until I have conclusive proof before saying anything. Perhaps his internet pals should be asking themselves if they want to be associated with this sort of behaviour, or, indeed, such an unpleasant, unbalanced individual. Nice to know that I'm the cause of such vexation to him though - I almost feel a sense of achievement. After all, some @rses deserve to be roundly kicked.
I honestly don’t know if I should laugh at this or not (ok I admit it I did have a wee giggle, sorry) - that person is such a d*ck seriously there is nothing else to say about him on the matter. Good to see its been deleted although it could have been fun to monitor it for a while. Your certainly getting to someone Kid.
ReplyDeleteSuch infantile tactics reveal his desperation to 'do me down', McS. And the lies and distortions are so blatant, one wonders what he gains from it. It only proves that he's a liar and fantasist. I'm having a good laugh too - at HIM!
ReplyDeleteI'm just thinking that perhaps the person responsible is, you know... suffering under some stress because it comes across as a slightly strange preoccupation. There's also a certain feebleness about it, the assaults being confined to somewhat genteel topics, albeit with an incongruous level of vitriol: e.g "see [his scurrilous] views on homosexuals [et al]" er yeah I wonder if there's any controversy to batted around over the price of muffins? It's almost as if the perpetrator hasn't quite got the juice to go full on loon.
ReplyDeleteI know it's natural to laugh at these things but to be serious for the moment,any kind of harassment is cause for serious consideration. You know, it's a case of do you let this kind of behaviour go and maybe that person responsible, goes free from any consequence, what happens down the road? There's an individual on the loose here, with propensity for inappropriate behaviour, I've seen enough of that to know how else such attitudes manifest themselves. Such decisions of course need to be considered in the light of the relevant context, that's something I'm not aware of. Maybe it is just a case of a bad day at the office but it seems to have been a recurring problem; that seems to me to indicate a nutter a work, someone who possibly should be having an interview with a person wearing a pointy hat or least having a the nurse make sure he's taking his medication.
There certainly seems to be an inordinate amount of them, C.
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It's obviously someone who gets disproportionately annoyed at someone holding a different view to him on certain topics, DSE. An inadequate person, who, publicly at least, probably claims that he isn't going to allow himself to be drawn into disputes (thereby pretending to take the 'moral high ground'), but who inwardly seethes at his lack of intellect and inability to put his perceived 'enemies' in their place. Therefore he becomes an anonymous sniper, weakly hurling pebbles from a distance in the futile hope that one might strike its target and inflict some damage, even in a minor way. So, definitely a nutter, but the fact that he so readily resorts to such blatant lies in an attempt to supplant the facts with his distortions, reveals that his armory is seriously bereft of any heavy weaponry.
His main achievement is probably to increase visits to my blog (which he follows with keen interest, and doubtless even gets updates of new comments to his inbox - making him traceable), which I'm sure is the last thing he'd want. More to be pitied than laughed at in all likelihood, but I'll stick to the latter. (He's probably consumed with self-pity anyway. Inadequates usually are.)
It's ok to disagree. I disagree with you. But i don't impersonate you and lie!
ReplyDeleteAnd I occasionally disagree with you, Phil, but there's nothing personal in it as you know. And the fact that you comment here fairly regularly puts a lie to the claim that I 'ban' people who disagree with me. And there are plenty others who comment regularly who don't see everything as I do, but we get on perfectly fine. The proof is in the pudding, eh?
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why those people who disagree with you, Kid, can't just comment on here (politely and non-anonymous)...
ReplyDeleteWell, as you know, CJ, people who politely and non-anonymously disagree with me are quite welcome to do so, and there are plenty of examples to prove the truth of that. It's curious that a blog such as this one, in a remote corner of the internet, can inadvertently provoke such hostility against someone like me who isn't (and never was) that well-known in the world of comics. The fact that some people seem to accord both me and my opinions a greater importance that my lowly status probably merits, says more about them and their insecurities and inadequacies than it does about me. And to lie about me, as some have done, demonstrates how desperate they are to diminish and dismiss my viewpoint on just about everything. Perhaps I should be flattered.
ReplyDeleteI've yet to read a satirical Twitter page that is actually funny. They always read to me as bitter, childish and nowhere near as funny as the poster thinks.
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm speaking to anyone, in person on online, I prefer to concentrate on what he have in common rather than looking for differences and taking them personally. For instance, Kid, I don't agree with everything you say, and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't agree with some of my views, but there's also things we would agree on- the quality of John Buscema's art for one, or the appeal of nostalgia- and I'd rather spend my time and energy having positive conversations with people- if there's someone I don't like spending time talking to, then I won't go out of my way to be with them. Seems to me that people could apply the same ideas online- if they don't like what someone says on a blog, then do the rational thing: don't read it.
I often think of something I overheard a wise old relative saying when I was a teenager: happy people don't hate anyone. Whoever wrote that Twitter account doesn't strike me as falling into that category.
Well, DS, as I'm sure you realize, the inclusion of the word 'satirical' on that account is merely an attempt by the perpetrator to cover himself. However, there's not even a hint of satire about it, it's just all hate, spite and vitriol by a sad individual who needs to get a life. Thing is, people can disagree and still get on perfectly amicably, and I don't mind people disagreeing with me on anything - it can make for an interesting exchange of ideas. It's when some people take umbrage at me for not seeing things their way, and when they become insulting because of it - well, that really takes the biscuit. That's what's obviously happened in this individual's case; he's read something I said with which he disagrees, and gone into an almighty strop over it. And rest assured, there's a handful of like-minded, so-called adults who approve of his infantile tactics.
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