The Attempted Character Assassination of the Virginia Flaggers

Between the two of them, Brooks Simpson and the cowardly anonymous blogger at "Restoring the Honor" are doing their level best to character assassinate the Virginia Flaggers, particularly their founder and leader. Occasionally, these two are joined in their character assassination efforts by other bloggers, or by readers/visitors who leave comments. One method they all use is the despicable "links and ties" method practiced so expertly by the Southern Poverty Law Center (also top drawer character assassins). But it doesn't stop with that.

Wikipedia's entry on character assassination includes, in part:

Character assassination is a deliberate and sustained process that aims to destroy the credibility and reputation of a person, institution, social group, or nation.  Agents of character assassinations employ a mix of open and covert methods to achieve their goals, such as raising false accusations, planting and fostering rumors, and manipulating information.

Character assassination is an attempt to tarnish a person's reputation.  It may involve exaggeration,  misleading half-truths, or manipulation of facts to present an untrue picture of the targeted person. It is a form of defamation  and can be a form of ad hominem argument.

In practice, character assassination may involve doublespeak,  spreading of  rumors, innuendo,  or deliberate misinformation  on topics relating to the subject's morals, integrity, and reputation. It may involve spinning  information that is technically true, but that is presented in a misleading manner or is presented without the necessary context.

Three features of character attacks are important to understand. First, their intention: character attacks are by definition deliberate. Second, the public nature of the attacks: private insults do not lead to reputation damage. And third, the importance of the public perception of the attacks, which means that the truth of allegations is irrelevant.

 Some examples of attempted character assassination against the Virginia Flaggers that has taken place over the last five years include: 

• the public accusations (via blog entries) of child abuse leveled against Tripp Lewis by people who are not trained in child welfare or law enforcement, based solely on a few moments of video that didn't even show the children in question ... accusations made from sheer personal animosity for Tripp ...(If these people really believed child abuse had taken place, why did they not notify child protection agencies in Richmond? That they didn't verifies that they knew no child abuse took place, and they were attempting to character assassinate Tripp with lies even they didn't believe.)
• the deceitful term "Virginia Flagger favorite Matthew Heimbach," and the false claim that they "embrace" Heimbach which is to imply that they "embrace" white supremacy ...
• the implication that Susan Hathaway was involved in, or had knowledge of, the kidnapping of a child ...
• the suggestion that the Flaggers had stolen a backhoe belonging to one of them, in an attempt to claim insurance money ... 
• the implication that the Flaggers had foreknowledge of an acquaintance's false claim of thwarting a vandalism attack on historic monuments in Richmond
• the claim that two Flaggers had put the home address of a Flagger opponent on the internet, when she did that herself, and the namecalling of the two Flaggers as "Susan's henchmen"
• the implication that the Flaggers agree with or approve of negative statements spoken by someone they do business with
• the implication that the Flaggers approve of or agree with negative behaviors or events simply because the accuser has not heard them disagree with or disapprove of them.

And, as I said, these are just SOME of the attempts at character assassination of the VaFlaggers. I will look at others in the future, particularly with language manipulation as the weapons -- exaggeration, misleading half-truths, manipulation of facts to present an untrue picture, innuendo, deliberate misinformation on topics relating to the subject's morals, integrity, and reputation -- and especially spinning information that is technically true but presented in a misleading manner or without the necessary context.

Unfortunately, what I cannot do is explain WHY these two bloggers, and everyone who joined them, would do this ... what motivates them to target people they don't even know, people who have not harmed them in any way. It is truly mystifying. What do they hope to gain by the smearing of people who've done them no wrong...  

I hope to get started on this study before I have to take the blog dormant again... if not, I'm sure the opportunity will still be here when I come back.

Fun with the Loony Left

Rob Baker thinks because I've taken a break from blogging that I've hidden in the woodwork, and Simpson's most recent attacks on Susan and the VaFlaggers have brought me out of it.  To which Simpson replied "Dance, puppet, dance."

LOL! I'll bet he stands on the corner in Gilbert, blowing a trumpet to keep the elephants away, too.

Simpson knows, and has known for a long time, that it is supremely possible that I will defend or counterattack when people of his ilk attack. For a number of weeks he's been posting a bunch of stuff about history at XRoads. Although I don't agree with a lot of what leftist bloggers claim about the South, the Confederacy and the war, my primary concern is the lies and attacks on Southern heritage. If he's not attacking that, I will likely leave him alone to mangle history as he sees fit.

But the recent attacks by Simpson at his own blog, and at a hate-and-attack blog I call Destroy the Honor, deserved responses, so I responded. Pissed him off, too. He got pettier and meaner with every comment at Destroy, and, at his own blog, succumbed to his usual cowardliness in not posting a comment from me. There are certain comments by heritage folks he is simply too scared to let his readers see....

Rob "TuQuoque" Bakur, I am only taking a break from blogging -- I'm still online everywhere else.  I will resume my recess in a few days, probably, and hope to return full time in early 2017.  But meanwhile, why don't you get some hate on and see if I stomp on-- I mean, "dance" for you.

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Found at XRoads:

Mr. Ortensie is an academic ... or he used to be.  Presumably he still is. But like so many leftist, antiConfederate academics, he either has terrible reading comprehension skills, or else he assassinates his own intellect in order to wield the put-down.

Below are two paragraphs from the VaFlagger blog post Ortensie is referring to.

I have, sadly, come to expect a steady stream of slander, baseless personal attacks, defamation and libel from several leftist, amateur historian bloggers who just can’t stand the fact that we won’t sit down, shut up, and believe exactly as they say we should. Shamed by their own repeatedly incorrect predictions, childish accusations, immature posts, and utter failure to accomplish anything other than drive more and more folks to our side with their antics, they had, for a period of time, retreated and attempted to refocus their blogs on their twisted view of “history”.

In recent months, a new crop of bloggers has made their presence known. These folks are made of leftist extremists of the “social justice warrior” nature. Their hate blogs, (or at least the ones we know of) are written anonymously, so there is absolutely no accountability, and are apparently authored by folks who have nothing else to do all day besides sit in their parents’ basements and look for “gotcha” moments on social media… and finding none…choose to fabricate their own, all the while hiding behind a fake identity.

Note in the first paragraph the reference is to, "amateur historian bloggers" who, for a while "retreated and attempted to refocus their blogs on their twisted view of 'history'."

The second paragraph refers to "a new crop of bloggers..." who are leftist extremists of the “social justice warrior” nature and whose blogs are anonymous.  These are the folks who are described as sitting all day in their parents' basements looking for "gotchas" on social media.

My question is, what do you suppose is the case with Mr. Ortensie? Does he have terrible reading comprehension skills, or is he assassinating his own intellect in order to wield the put-down?

This isn't my first experience with Mr. Ortensie's put downs ...  Let's go for a stroll down memory lane...

http://mybacksass.blogspot.com/2014/09/ray-ortensies-debut-at-trashing.html

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Hope I can be around for a few more posts, but it depends on other things going on in my life. Time will tell....

A Little Digging...

What I've learned the past few hours looking into the tempest in a teapot created by the heritage-hatin' bloggosphere.

1. Contrary to an anonymous post at yet another hate-blog, the Virginia Flaggers have not been "rocked" by the news about Sulser.

2. Sulser never was a VaFlagger and never claimed to be. He has never been a "prominent face" or a "regular fixture" at Flagger events. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of photos taken at Virginia Flagger events and posted online that show neither hide nor hair of Jason Sulser.

3. The second anonymous blogger posted this grammatically convoluted false accusation: Despite pronouncements that they are not a hate group, it is Sulser, along with his friend League of the South’s Dennis Durham, who organizes the rallies in the state of Virginia that the Flaggers attend.

Who's pronouncements? The Flaggers themselves have no need to make such pronouncements about themselves; one need but look at their activities to see they are no hate group.  Sulser and Dennis Durham did have a group called S.O.U.T.H. They did organize rallies in Fredericksburg. For the most part, Flaggers stayed away. Most events Flaggers attended were their own, or those of groups like the Heritage Preservation Assocation, the Tomato Festival and other such venues.

The anonymous blogger who made this accusation needs to list all the Virginia rallies Sulser and Durham organized, and identify the ones the VaFlaggers attended. But I won't hold my breath while waiting.

The Hits Just Keep On Coming (Updated)

Some time ago, a group of people rallied for the Confederate flag in a park in Washington, D.C.  They were met by a pack of rabid social justice warriors who exhibited uncivilized behavior, provocation, thuggery and threats -- and also displayed extreme disrespect for the police, screaming in their faces, attempting to block their passage, etc., (behavior that would be echoed later by the paid thugs wreaking havoc at Trump rallies.)

When the rally attendees left the park, they were followed, surrounded, screamed at and harassed. Some had their vehicles keyed and at least one had his flag stolen.

One of the attendees was a Jason Sulser.

Subsequently, Susan Hathaway complimented Sulser in a Facebook post for his restraint in running the rabid "antifa, anti-racist, heritage-hating" gauntlet. This comment was screenshot and posted July 5th (about ten months later) on a hate blog called Restoring the Honor run by a cowardly anonymous blogger I call DeStroy.  Though he denies it, the purpose of the blog is to incite hatred for the Confederate heritage community, most especially the Virginia Flaggers.

Interestingly, DeStroy's screenshot doesn't show when the comment was originally posted, or where, except that it is obviously a Facebook post. However, the D.C. rally was September 5, 2015. Susan's comment to Sulser appeared thereafter. Apparently, DeStroy is using that comment to imply that heritage folks knew about Sulser's association with pornography but remained buddy-buddies with him because he displays a Confederate flag.

In fact, info about Sulser's arrest did not become public until June 23, 2016, about nine months after the D.C. rally. And since people who traffic in porn don't normally go around bragging about it publicly, it is likely that few, if any, heritage folks knew about it. I guess DeStroy thinks Confederate heritage supporters gaze into crystal balls or throw chicken bones they can read the minds of anyone who attends heritage events. And why not? DeStroy believes he can read the minds of people in the Confederate heritage community, so maybe he thinks everyone is so equipped.

Nevertheless, DeStroy does not know everything that happened in the heritage community after news of Sulser's arrest became known, regardless of his apparent belief in his own omniscience. This is typical.  Belief in miraculously acquired knowledge -- aka, mindreading -- carries some kind of mysterious and powerful mojo in the antifa, anti-racist, heritage-hating community....

In another interesting turn, DeStroy links to a report about Sulser in Idavox, a "news center" for the One People's Project. You don't have to read the site long -- just a few paragraphs -- to realize it's not a news site at all. It's just more antifa, anti-racist, heritage-hating clap-trap. I'll have more to say about Idavox in a later post.

It's interesting that I found this tweet from Simpson as I was composing this blog entry, because DeStroy's and Idavox's use of Sulser to attack the Flaggers reminds me of something else -- the child porn trafficker and the convicted sex offender who posted at Simpson's blog for years without a peep outta him. We can give Simpson the benefit of the doubt and say he didn't know ... but we all know heritage peeps can't expect that same kind of fairness and restraint in return from DeStroy, Simpson and their ilk.

Wanna read about Simpson's blog comment buddies?  You can here:

http://mybacksass.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-crossroads-carnival-of-malice-part.html
http://mybacksass.blogspot.com/2013/12/sad-simpson-and-schadenfreude.html

As you will note right off, the difference between my outing Simpson's sleazy blog buddies and DeStroy's attempt to smear the Flaggers with Sulser's situation is that I didn't do it with glee...

(Note: this blog entry does not signify the return to regular postings at Backsass ... it's just that one can remain silent for only so long in the face of lies and attacks from people who are no better than those they attack, lie about, smear, ridicule, harass and persecute. It may be that I will make a few posts here in the foreseeable future, but they will likely be quite infrequent.  --cw)

UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE 

Simpson  comment at XRoads:

Let’s just note for the record that Chastain says absolutely nothing about the victimization of children through pornography but a lot about the Virginia Flaggers as victims. Then again, she had notjhing supportive to say about Lilly Baumann, either. We next expect this expert on “false rape accusations” to defned Sulser as a victim as well. Maybe she’ll write a novel about him.

Just for larks, folks, go here:  https://cwcrossroads.wordpress.com/2013/12/17/some-sad-stories/#more-6930   and see if you can find anything about the victimization of children through pornography, or anything that even smells like sympathy for those victims. As I've already noted in the comments, Simpson's "sympathy" for those he deems to be victimized goes unfelt and unexpressed, unless he can use it to smear the VaFlaggers and other heritage folks.