Copied below is my response to the "Deboycott Me!" post over at
Agent Swarm blog run by Terrance Blake (
HERE). In support of Terry don't let your voice go unheard. Encourage him to blog more at his new and productively improved place of blogging,
Xenoswarm.
Hi Terry,
Gosh no, you shouldn’t stop blogging. Remember, not only you but folks like Jason Hills
(of the blog Immanent Transcendence) and the gang, have been dodged *for years*
– and I am not sure why anyone would be oblivious to those very easy-to-find critiques
through Google. In fact, Google any of the names, critiques, arguments
involved, and you are the *first person* who comes up! Even in academia.edu! So
what you are saying has an impact, believe me. But, actually, that isn’t
besides the point. I think the go-to defense these days is now something like,
Troll: “Hey, YOU, you *troll*, you are critiquing my work with pretty good
arguments online. You’re a troll!”
Blog: “Ummm, why don’t you address my arguments?”
And of course, you’ll never get a response. Cowards won’t address you
directly. I’ve learned that long ago.
I won’t pretend to offer arguments here, only to call the show as I see it.
If that’s offensive to anyone, then folks don’t have to read beyond this point.
***
The fact is, there are only a handful (and by that I mean literally two or
three) officially approved interlocutors in this game who – for political
reasons – aren’t listed as “part of” the club so it looks like there *is* a
club. Yet when it comes to critique from outside of the club (or better, “the
tribe”) sadly not you, nor I, nor Jason, nor anyone *except* those approved
will get response. But, that’s just a rhetorical strategy of running if you
keep engaging them. You’ve done everything you’ve been asked to do: “Oh, oh… Well
you haven’t read my books.” Or, “Oh, oh…Well you have to publish it first.” One
excuse after another. You’ve jumped through every single hoop they’ve put in
front of you.
Now that these *goons* and *kingpins* (yes, that’s what they are) can no
longer stand up to the heat of the kitchen, i.e. the critical voice of blogs
(ironically how they made their claim to fame to begin with; they just can’t
stand competing voices of critique in a democracy), and now that the
publications are there (Theoria, anyone?; Mute magazine anyone? Cosmos &
History, anyone?) – the last resort seems to be to hide in one’s own vanity
publishing shops of *books*…it now has to be *books*…and why? Oh, well that’s
easy: the thought is, because if you aren’t in the academic fold then your
critiques couldn’t possibly follow anyone there. But look at the publishing
houses they are using. I am just left shaking my head. You could easily publish
in any of those houses, which is why “you-know-who” has to stand guard over at
least one of them. I’m surprised he hasn’t grabbed more. Actually, that would
be too obvious.
Of course, then they had to go the route of attacking the weakest argument
link in the chain (Galloway) *again* (didn’t
that happen *last year* or even further back…my God) saying that they did so
only because it was a major publication. Right. I think Pete Wolfendale had a
70 some page critique that has for a year or two now gone unanswered, your
Theoria piece, unanswered, your 100 Theses piece, unanswered, and so on and so
on and so on. Hell, you won’t appear in any “forthcoming” book answering
criticisms, trust me. It’ll be an intentional slight by omission (and I’ve done
that to THEM when it’s counted, in return. They’ve hit me, like they do you, by
omission plenty of times, but when a bully hits me I immediately hit
right back, just as hard if not harder). It’s all just an excuse,
Terry, for someone to hide.
Ah, to boot, by the INSANE TROLL LOGIC involved, yes, on their behalf, they
can just resort to saying, “You are a troll!” Please. As if the “You are
attacking me personally!” line wasn’t enough. They say one thing, do another.
Look at the now famous “re-writing of the abstract” move to include
you-know-who; the massive threads over at AUFS (several of them); the Jussi
Parikka debacle (remember that?), the ridiculousness that’s shown *time and
time and time again* that these people can’t be trusted and are self-serving,
sociopathic *monsters*. The slight against Caputo was the straw that broke the
back for me: totally unnecessary and uncalled-for dickishness to extremes that
I’ve never before seen. So that was it for me. Seriously. No need for that, but
it was said. So the fact that they are monsters is pretty well established. And
it’s just too easy for any of those fools to hide behind a keyboard because
I’ve already established that *none* of them – NOT ONE – would behave that way
to someone’s face (another rhetorical strategy: *chuckle* “We aren’t like this
in person!”). Of course not. *Smile.*
You can only push around so many graduate students, you can only badmouth so
many people behind their back, you can only intentionally ignore so many folks
who are trying to engage you, all purposefully for so long, before your true
colors show. So, newsflash blogosphere: the word is out about these creeps. And
that’s what they are: internet creeps.
What this boils down to, and please take this seriously, is that the folks
in question – and this isn’t trolling because it’s not opinion, it’s fact – are
losing their power essentially because their fad is passing and good arguments
and critiques – such as yours – will never be answered. BUT, on the other hand,
at least your critiques stand. There is no longer prop-up support afforded by
mere enthusiasm available for the other side. So you win. This has been true,
for, oh gosh, I’d say at the very least two years now. No one hardly even cares
about those guys anymore. It’s passé. What’s more interesting is the insane
troll logic they play to folks who still think that they matter. They don’t. I
mean, if you have to publish an article convincing yourself and the world that
what you do “still exists” – then there is a problem. When that happened I knew
that it was “game over.” And we move on.
Don’t stop blogging, but don’t stop fighting back to what essentially comes
down to as bullying, either. You have SO much more to do than worry about folks
who not only are bad philosophers and couldn’t get a position off the ground
after the wave of faddishness washed over, but who also still cling to the hope
that someone, anyone, would take such bad philosophy seriously by turning to
publish books through vanity houses so it *seems* like they have something
rigorous to say. Please. So lame. And so boring. I mean, if anything, publishing
that way is more like trolling than calling people out on a blog.
Terry, just do your own thing. Cream rises to the top. You have a great
following, your blog is awesome and alot of folks read it. Most importantly,
people take what you say seriously. Your brand has “trust” – which the other
side doesn’t. There’s a reason big players like Mackay, Brassier, etc. etc.
(never mind small time players: you, Hills, me, Oyama, basically the entirety
of P.E.S.T.) have “nothing but contempt” for them. But we’ve all moved past
them long ago because, well, they have nothing important or substantial to say.
As I just read the other day, “it’s not even worth trying to comprehend
rigorously.” So let them – all whatever 12 of them – go play the violin for
each other. I hardly think that the world is listening.
Keep blogging. Do your own thing. You have much more interesting and well
argued *philosophy* to offer.
