For Pseudo-Activists, Lying About Rape Threats is OK if its "for the cause"

The funny thing isn't so much that Pseudo-activist Swine would lie, even to the point of accusing someone of making rape-threats when he never did such a thing, no.  The funny thing is that THEY would be the ones who are outraged at a "witch hunt" when someone else dares to point out they did it.

What am I talking about? Well, quite a few months back, Ben Lehman, noted Forge/Storygame author and Pseudo-activist, called out James Desborough (noted sophomoric writer of vaguely erotic rpgs and hated target of the pseudo-activist swine), publicly condemning him for having threatened to RAPE his "critics".  This is a serious charge; but he made it quite public, and got some 80 or so "+1"s on the the G+ post where he made this accusation. Many of those who +1ed were actually fellow-luminaries and storygame-authors at Storygames or known personalities from that forum or the "Tangency" forum.  They were all patting themselves on the back for shaming the awful "Rape advocate" and calling for Desborough to be banned from the hobby, his works censored, any company who hired him to be boycotted.

Except, it was a lie. Someone named John Stavropoulos, himself a Storygames guy and by no means a notorious ally of Desborough (I believe its been claimed by Desborough that Stavropoulos has him blocked on G+), nor by any means one of these horrible rape-advocates or anti-feminists who would have cause, chose anyways to do a lengthy investigation into the subject, to find out just what it was that James Desborough said or didn't say.  Some ten months of investigation in fact, and he ended up proving that Desborough had NEVER threatened any critic with rape. That in fact, Ben Lehman is a filthy liar.
When Zak S (of "D&D with Pornstars" fame, and another famous enemy/target of the Pseudoactivist Swine Outrage Brigade) decided to name names and post the name of everyone who +1ed Lehman's accusation, calling on them (note: link will only work if you are in Zak S.'s circles) to apologize and retract their +1, the Swine went apeshit.

First, several of them attacked Zak on his post. How DARE he expect them to be HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR LIES?
Note that no one was demanding that people LIKE James Desborough. No one was demanding that anyone stop criticizing him for things he ACTUALLY DID, whatever those may be.  The only thing that was being asked of people was what you would think is a no-brainer: to withdraw support for proven FALSE STATEMENTS (i.e. Libel) about him!

But apparently, while a tiny number did withdraw their +1, and a tinier number also apologized to Desborough, for the vast majority of the Swine this was just not going to happen.  To them, apparently, Truth is just an incidental issue when it comes to "the cause".  To paraphrase the old Garofalo meme "Your Rights, and even your right to the TRUTH, ends where my 'feelings' begin".

Incredibly, many of the Swine involved have since doubled-down in public statements, and others came along to add new +1s (including RPG.net Moderator and SA Troll-stooge Ettin!), as if to say "We know that the libelous statement was totally false, but we just don't like the guy so we're going to keep on pretending he made rape threats".  It shows what we're dealing with here when it comes to the pseudo-activist Swine.  They have ZERO problem with lies, as long as said lies fit their "narrative".

They also, of course, turned on the messenger.  In John Stavropoulos' G+, we learn that even though he did NOT suggest, endorse or support Zak S' post, and even though ALL he did was to report the TRUTH, he has since been (in what he elsewhere describes as  " a bombardment") "receiving horrendous harassing messages, personal attacks, and threats".  He's shared some of these attacks and accusations (I'll go into some of these below), including someone outright saying to him "YOU should be raped!".

So, let's review.  In the world of the Pseudoactivist Swine it is:
a) perfectly OK to engage in a witch-hunt against an author they don't like for "rape threats" he never made.
b) Absolutely horrible that someone would engage in a "witch hunt" against them for standing by the "rape threat" accusation after it was proven to be a LIE.
c) Totally ok then support that original accusation with MORE +1s, this time being made from people who could in no way claim they "didn't know" it was an OUTRIGHT LIE.
d) Outrageous and terrible that people who they thought should be sympathetic to them would endanger "the cause" by actually wanting to stand up to what's TRUE.
e) Absolutely alright to tell such people that THEY ought to be raped.

And once again, Ben Lehman is a filthy fucking liar; and has not apologized for it. He did, however, modify his original post to try to hide the evidence of his lies.


So, in closing, I wanted to address some of the bombardment of attacks, insults and accusations leveled against John Stavropoulos from the Swine (note that this is just a tiny tiny selection of the list he posted, which in turn were just highlites I'm sure):

"You hate feminists!" -
I would suggest that fucking posers willing to end up damaging the credibility of feminism by promoting and then cleaving to proven lies are the ones who hate feminism.

"You only defend the powerful"!-
This one made me laugh my ass off. In which fucking Universe is James Desborough the "powerful" one in this? He has been harassed and attacked, to the point of extreme distress for him and his family; a cabal has worked ceaselessly to try to ruin his career and personal life. He has been threatened, his family has been threatened, attempts to defend himself have met with censorship, companies that hired him years ago were threatened with being driven into bankruptcy just because they once associated with him.  Where, in the RPG hobby, is Desborough the one wielding or enjoying the advantage of "power"?!!

"who gave you the authority (to accuse)"-
WHO THE FUCK GAVE YOU THE AUTHORITY TO LIE IN THE FIRST PLACE? By what "authority" did Ben Lehman and his cohorts decide they could JUST MAKE UP the story that Desborough was threatening people with rape?!
I'll tell you where MY authority comes from: it comes from being a member of this civilization.  Its not an authority, its a DUTY to call lies what they are and to oppose them when they harm another person's life.

"You are saying we don't take rape seriously!"-
I don't know if John Stavropoulos is saying that, or if Zak S. is saying that, but I SURE THE FUCK AM.  If you assholes took rape seriously, you wouldn't do something that helps to damage the credibility of real rape victims.

"you want a witch hunt and to shame people!"-
The people who wanted a witch hunt (in the very classic sense, of making FALSE accusations and then trying to destroy the life of an innocent person) were you.  What's going on now in response is not a witch-hunt, by strict definitions; this is a motherfucking Reckoning.
And yes, if you haven't removed your +1 and apologized to James Desborough, then you SHOULD BE ASHAMED.  The fact that so many of you clearly have NO SHAME when it comes to BLATANT LIES is a sure sign of how fucking degenerate you are.


So there you are.  Really, if you thought "brain damage" was bad, this thing, where the Pseudoactivist Swine just decided to publicly defend their right to LIE, where they've said for all intents and purposes "lying about rape threats is ok as long as its our side that does it, and we do it to someone we don't like", and have decided to be utterly shameless about it; well, it makes Ron Edwards and his 'literal brain damage' elitist bullshit seem like a moral paragon by comparison.

But now you're all warned: This is what we are dealing with in the hobby. Why should you ever believe anything that anyone who has +1ed that post ever claims again?

RPGPundit

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