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Monday, October 15, 2007

An Unhappy Commenter

It seems that not everyone is happy that "David T", proprietor and chief blogger of the "decent left" pro-war website Harry's Place, has been outed as City corporate lawyer David S.Toube, an associate with the US multinational law firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton.

Anonymous writes:

"Fact is, David T is a razor-sharp blogger, and immensely courageous to boot. He clearly gets under your skin, as evidenced by the abuse you totalitarian groupies have showered upon him.

Clark, i've been trying to think of an appropriate phrase to describe you, and I think I've got one. You're a fucking cunt. The best thing you can do is to go the way of your friend, Milosevic"


Perhaps anonymous, if he is so inclined, could let us know what he means by the phrase "totalitarian groupies"? And perhaps he could also explain how the word "courageous" can be used to describe a blogger, who under the cloak of pseudonymity, uses his website to smear and defame those with whom he disagrees?

8 comments:

Anglonoel said...

"Clark, i've been trying to think of an appropriate phrase to describe you, and I think I've got one. You're a fucking cunt."

Bloody Hell, I've met The Oscar Wilde!

Ken said...

I like the Oscar Wilde analogy...

Funnily enough, I have some wazzock who usually signs in as anonymous and sometimes as "Scott," but either way he comes out with similar nonsense.

My offence was to decline to take a certain short-arsed little fucker seriously. The said SALF answers to the name of Ollie, at least when addressed by me.

Ken said...

Staying on the theme of tosspots, I had no idea which college the SALF belonged to. I found out the other day that it's New - and I have so very many friends from New College!

The first reply arrived a few moments ago:

"I remember him. I think he matriculated in 1982 or 1983. He was a slimy little
shit...I remember him having some connection with the SDP/Limehouse faction in the Union...I can't remember if he was ever a candidate in the Union, but he certainly
visited the bar occasionally with his slimy friends."

Now if my friend's memory is correct, Ollie was in the Scabs, Defectors and Parasites Party at Oxford, so why does he claim he was in Labour?

Limehouse, by the way, was just the name of an Oxford Union faction...

Njegos said...

"Fact is, David T is a razor-sharp blogger, and immensely courageous to boot."

Ah of course, the courage of the neo-con blogger, that species of worm that demands that others die for their stinking wars of "humanitarian liberation".

Anonymous said...

Dear Neil,

The idea of everybody having the right to express their opinions sadly doesn't fit in with the way the real world's organised.

Many bloggers can't express openly how they feel about things because the companies they work for don't want an employee's opinions being interpreted as a reflection of the company's own agenda.

Therefore, in the 'blogosphere,' I think it's perfectly acceptable to write under an anonymous moniker.

Not everybody enjoys your
situation - being a self publicist who relishes as much attention (negative or positive) as they can get. I don't think that means their voice is any less valid.

David T appears to have maintained his 'blog' identity throughout his posts.

Therefore I think he played the 'blog' game fairly and with dignity and accusing him of cowardice seems unfair.

As for being outed - it didn't seem much of stretch to figure out his identity as his Christian name and surname initial were the same.

If his 'outing' was against his will, however, I think it's a very childish play by bloggers who were unable to 'best' him in debate and therefore tried to 'hurt' him in the real world. A VERY poor show.

What happens on the internet should stay on the internet.

Congratulations on your blog's two year anniversary.

Ronald Hulme
http://www.rolandhulme.co.uk/

Neil Clark said...

Hi Ronald,

Thanks for writing in. The trouble with David T, as I've explained before, was that while hiding behind the cloak of pseudonymity for reasons connected to his employment, he- and the blog he runs regularly tried to get those who write/express opinions under their own names into trouble with those who employ them. David T's blogging has always been very intimidatory in this respect.
There's nothing wrong with psudonymous blogging per se, so long as the pseudonymous blogger doesn't use his anonymity in order to try /smear/denigrate/character assassinate others, who at least have the balls to write in their own name.

You label me a "self-publicist", and of course you are entirely free to hold that opinion. But I note that on your blog you describe yourself "an aspiring writer and gratuitous self publicist"!

Good luck with the book writing and thanks for writing in.

Best wishes,
Neil

ps as for the line about not being able to 'best' David T in debate, I have a one-word response. Iraq.

Roland Hulme said...

Dear Neil,

Absolutely nothing wrong with being a self publicist!

By the way, my name is ROLAND R-O-L-A-N-D - as I'd originally typed it in my comment.

Regard

ROLAND

Neil Clark said...

Dear ROLAND!

Many apologies for the misspelling!
Regards,
Neil