In that usual "blaming the victim" style that makes the average American as lovable as he is, somebody is likely to say at this point "Joe, you just shouldn't go where you're not wanted". Personally, I have little problem with that idea, within reason, but how is one to determine where one is not wanted, if one is not even allowed to ask?

Case in point: This all began when somebody announced an event for Bop Camp, an election night party, including (among other comments) one that

"we could topple a Bush statue- if he wins- we can topple it anyway... or if you are a Bush fan we can tar and feather you..."

Even before the outrage of New Orleans, I was at most lukewarm toward Bush the younger, but I still considered myself a conservative, and the message I was getting from the post was that Conservatives would not be welcome at Bop Camp events, tarring and feathering usually not being regarded as being a friendly gesture. But had I misunderstood? Having no desire to walk into a hornets' nest, I wrote to the author and asked him about who would be welcomed at Bop Camp events, expanding on this query as I wrote to the list:

"Should I take it that those of us who are not politically liberal are not welcome at Bop Camp events? If so, I'll have to reconsider my decision to attend at the event at Foster Beach tomorrow night, and so would appreciate a little feedback on this point.

I hope that you will pardon me for any confusion that I may have on this point, but when I heard about people swatting the helmets off of each other's heads using teddy bears, while being referreed by somebody with a plastic duck on his head, it never occured to me to ask whether the duck was a Democrat or a Republican, or if the teddy bears had registered to vote. The whole thing sounded kind of apolitical to me.

Was I missing something?"

"A curious monkey" assured me that my nonliberal status would not be a problem, Oliphant seconded this, and I said that I was glad to hear that, writing

"That's cool. And no, I won't be holding one of those. Anything I hold is going to be fairly apolitical. Even the Unofficial Burning Man Republican list (BurnFree) is not that political; it's mainly just a place where one is not going to get hassled for being a conservative or for being politically incorrect.

I did have to ask, because I've encountered groups before, where there definitely was a political litmus test for membership, and another evening of being glared at because I wasn't in favor of whatever I was supposed to be in favor of, was not something I wanted to sit through. Or stand through, in this case."

being sure to respond to Mr.Oliphant as well. As you read this, do you have any problem with what I had just written? Could you picture anybody who was not in dire need of medication that he had just gone off of, having a problem with it? In short order, two people did. Ciaran Cooper played the ever popular unsubscription notice blackmail game, asking to be removed from the list because of this massive flood of five letters (two of them having travelled by private e-mail, not going to the list)

"please remove me from the Bop Camp mailing list. I can't keep up with all these e-mails flooding my box, especially discussions going out to all and sundry that only involve one or two folks"

Really? I and that curious monkey fellow were the only conservatives on earth? We must have been terribly busy during the election the next night, don't you think, seeing as Bush won by a landslide and I didn't even vote, meaning that the monkey had to forge some tens of millions of ballots all by himself. But read between the lines and you'll see the game - "if this person isn't silenced, I'm leaving". It's a method for playing on the frustrations of a moderator who is trying to get people to participate, in order to get him to censor another poster. No need to read between the lines with the next post, however. Pure, uncalled for, borderline psychotic flammage from Andy Spencer followed.

Joe -

The truth is, nobody gives a shit if you show up to anything. Please do not troll on this list. I watched you destroy the first Chicago list with this kind of childish crap. If you feel you need to get attention, go to the zoo and break into the polar bear exhibit or something. There is no political litmus test here, but it might as well say on the door, "we don't like Joe Dunphy" Since most of these people are just too friendly to tell you to go fuck yourself, I'll be the mouthpiece.

Go fuck yourself.

I can already predict your behavior after this. You will go out and sign up for 12 or more bogus accounts on yahoo, hotmail, or some friend's mail server and proceed to spam this list with your contrary-to-contrarian spam. If anybody wants to see Joe's work, I have a fun archive of his material.

Observe the fact that the only trollage that had occured in the entire exchange, at that point, had come from Mr.Spencer, and maybe to a lesser degree, from Mr.Cooper as well. At about the same time Brian Ellison was sending me an e-mail telling me that he saw my point, to my amazement, I found that as the person being flamed without cause, I was being treated as if I were one of the troublemakers and being silenced by Mr.Oliphant, in a decree sent to the list. (Mr.Oliphant was apparently one of the moderators). I expressed my disgust with what had just occured, writing

"Oliphant, Michael" wrote:

> .. I'm calling a moratorium on this issue.

> .. No replies, no counter-replies, no last

> .. words. It dies here.

No, it dies here, and so does my membership on this list. No decent person could look at the exchange that just took place and feel that Andy, aka @ndy, was even remotely justified in posting that flame. It was a rude, trolling response to a civil inquiry than came out of a reasonable concern. After that explosion of bile, I can see just how reasonable those concerns were. And frankly, after what happened a few days before the Meetup, I'm a little reluctant to let burners into my home, period ...

As for staying on this list, not only don't you criticize Andy's rudeness, but you're telling me that I can't even speak up in my own defense? Scr** this. There's no such thing as being neutral when one member of a list is being harassed by another member who just plain can't let go of the fact that he lost an argument three years ago. I'll be unsubscribing now, and removing Bop Camp from my list of Bookmarks, and I think that you know what you can do with your drum circle on Wednesday. Apparently, the same thing that somebody did with my soapdish last week.

True to my word, I then unsubscribed, getting the usual goodbye form letter from the system, which I then sent a reply to, out of well justified irritation.

bopcamp-admin@transamoeba.org wrote:

> .. See you on the playa

Not if I see you there first. Kindly inform your membership that posts regarding Bop Camp events are no longer welcome on the chi-burning list. They may stay if they wish, and post about anything else, but as far as we're concerned, your camp never existed.

Noticing my departure from the list, Ciarin then made sure to cc me a copy of his next letter so I wouldn't miss it, as he took his own trolling up a notch

PLEASE take me off this list! You guys are behaving like a couple of wet diapered little kids! I don't have time for all these silly e-mails...

Sometimes "fuck you" doesn't even begin to cover it. "Ciarin, we like the attention, don't we, but are you really unable to figure out how to unsubscribe on your own, or are you just trying to make throwing a tantrum look like an exercise in self-control?" might be a bit more like it. Liz Campanella then emailed me, sending a request to talk about this in stereo (1 2), a request which I then honored, only to discover that Miss Campanella had no intention of letting me speak. Liz cut me off in mid-sentence, unable to wait to start a filbuster she had clearly rehearsed, based on what has become the Bop Camp part line regarding the incident: that it centered on my intolerance of liberals! But that this is a complete inversion of what occured can easily be seen by looking back at my remarks, when Bop Camp was alleged to practice a level of tolerance that subsequent events showed that it was not at all serious about.

"a. curious monkey" <atman@neuron.net> wrote:

> .. No one seems to have any problems

> .. with my attendence. . . But seriously,

> .. Dan is just putting the word out on

> .. his event. If you want to do the

> .. same with for an "Americans for Bush

> .. and the War on Terrorism" event, you

> .. can. I bet it won't be as well attended,

> .. but that's democracy for you.

That's cool. And no, I won't be holding one of those. Anything I hold is going to be fairly apolitical. Even the Unofficial Burning Man Republican list (BurnFree) is not that political; it's mainly just a place where one is not going to get hassled for being a conservative or for being politically incorrect.

No honest person could read those words and see a complaint about the fact that liberals were airing their views. I had done nothing more than ask "am I welcome", and was abused in response to nothing more than that. Genuinely tolerant people do not manufacture a hostile environment, nor do they stand by and allow others to do so, least of all in response to the simple question "is it OK if I come?". But none of that seemed to matter to Liz, who continued to play the game of hearing only what she wanted to hear, until I got so tired of watching her play it that I hung up. She speed dialed me back, and I hung up again. This continued until I told Liz that if she called me again, I'd be in touch with the telephone company, at which point Liz tried continuing her rambling, repititious spin doctoring by e-mail, in an incredible attempt to BS one of the people who was present for the incident (namely myself), which I would respond to in a bit, recounting events you've already seen described. In the meantime, I continued to be abused in absentia by people who continued to feel the need to cc their garbage to me, like Andy, unwilling to let go.

Andy replied to my kissoff letter as one might expect - with a series of ad hominems, as he went trawling through the Internet in an attempt to dig up dirt, none of it having any relevance to the argument at hand, and all of it answered in editorial comments you'll see inserted if you go to that page. On this, Mr.Oliphant, the list's peerless leader, had not a word to say. Speaking of self-absorption, Michael Messagie wrote to me about his imaginary victimization by my remarks (hint, Mike: it's not always about you). Andy chimed in with a reference to one of his favorite authors, and shortly after I sent my response to Liz, David Jahn asked me to remove him from my list. Twice, in fact (1 2) I didn't even remember Mr.Jahn being on chi-burning, in fact I'm not sure that he was, but I was more than glad to ban him from it, and ban all of the other parties you've seen mentioned on this page as well. Their conduct had not merely been beyond forgiveness, it had been beyond explanation, and my own reasonable anger aside, no list benefits from the presence of a group of raving lunatics, or of those who empower them.

More to come? I'm afraid so, but not for a while, as I'll be out enjoying what remains of the always far too brief summer. For now, this is where we return to Bad Times on the Green Tortoise, unless you'd rather head straight back to one of the rings Tara Ball, Drugs and You belongs to.