Monday, June 25, 2007

POS puts DOS on Shakesville

The bullies are at it again.

It's no secret that a lot of right-wingnuts would rather resort to bullying than put up an honest argument, because, well, they don't have an honest argument. It's impossible to mount a coherent defense of bigotry, misogyny, rascism and the rest of their pernicious "family values". So when someone takes issue with their scurrilous beliefs and they're unable to rebut, they attack by intimidation, verbal or in this latest case, technological. Like any gutless bully: threaten those who disagree, and if threats don't work, silence them completely. Their latest bullying tactic: a DOS attack on Shakesville.

Blogs like Shakesville, Pandagon and others that speak truth to power are always in the crosshairs of the totalitarian fundamentalist assholes that they routinely reveal as scum. It's telling that the right-wingnuts' only option seems to be intimidation, but even further revealing that they think they can get away with it because lefties haven't got the jam to fight back. Mustang Bobby (a Shakesville contributor) at BarkBarkWoofWoof:

"Thuggery works on the theory that the victim will not respond or will curl up in the corner and whimper, "Please don't hurt me," and there's a certain element that thinks that liberals can be easily intimidated. That may be true in some cases, but most of those have apparently been elected to Congress, and this crowd is different. We all know how to fight back because we've been doing it all our lives, whether it's because we're queer, female, transgendered, a member of a minority, or just the kind of person that bullies seemed to think were easy targets. But we have all survived and even thrived because of these threats by the foolish and the dull-witted, and this attack on Shakesville is no different than facing down schoolyard bully. (Or in my case, a drunken frat boy who called me a faggot and threatened me with a piece of 1-by lumber. He found out all too quickly that I didn't go to the gym just to look good in a polo shirt. I may be a Quaker, but I know how to respond to an assault.)"

Interesting. This ties in with what commenter Ti-Guy said here, about how the right is so sure we can be intimidated, and how we feed this ourselves by neglecting to come out swinging. Well, that's changing and it's about time. I'm pretty sure the comment left by the (now infamous) "Zee" at this post was intended to intimidate; I responded by taking the road I always travel (Snark Street), but others responded in a more serious way. It was kind of a rallying call, an example of how we should always respond when the idiots go on the attack.

Shakesville will be back, and wingnuts will continue their tiresome bullying. But they may be starting to find out how cranky we get when we're tired. They're still calling us names, but for one bunch anyway, "elitist wimp" isn't one of them.

(h/t Rants from the Rookery)