John Scalzi had a troll infestation from someone he’s now calling the Racist Sexist Homophobic Dipshit; Scalzi is one of those notoriously liberal egalitarian people, and RSHD would whip up his Racist Sexist Homophobic followers and send them off to rampage through Scalzi’s comment threads.
So what he’s done is announced that he’ll donate money to non-racist non-sexist non-homophobic non-dipshit organizations every time RSHD issues one of his calls to arms against Scalzi. He encouraged other people to join in: he now has pledges for $26,000, all going to organizations RSHD hates.
It’s very amusing. It probably won’t silence RSHD at all, but at least all the hate gets churned into dollars for good causes.
Actually, I know it won’t shut RSHD up, because it’s easy to find out who RSHD is. It’s Vox Day, or Theodore Beale, and Racist Sexist Homophobic Dipshit is an extremely accurate title for the guy.
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Ing:Intellectual Terrorist "Starting Tonight, People will Whine"
3 February 2013 at 8:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
now every time you troll me it’ll hurt me financially too?
I appriciate the sentiment but I question the efficacy of this strategy. More likely to be seen as another way to hurt target
Ps if he doesnt mention jebus anyone one else have trouble telling him appart from certain atheists?
Beatrice
3 February 2013 at 8:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ing,
He will go up to $1000, plus $250 in the name of volunteer(s) who will monitor troll’s site. The large sum of money comes from all the other people who have pledged to donate too.
It seems like a good idea to me, with the caveat that it can (obviously) work only for those who can financially afford it and have a large enough following that the commentariat can join in and also give the finger to the trolls.
hyperdeath
3 February 2013 at 8:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Vox Day’s insults are less sexual in nature. That’s about it.
Becca Stareyes
3 February 2013 at 9:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ing, Scalzi mentioned that he already regularly donates that kind of money to charity. It’s just this year, he’s earmarking it to go to charities that will especially piss RSHD off and make it contingent on how much RSHD talks about him.
So, it’s more that he is encouraging people who regularly give to charity to do it to spite RSHD and his followers and give to organizations that assist women, racial minorities and QUILTBAG people.
jnorris
3 February 2013 at 10:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
A similar ploy was used once against a Westboro Baptist Church protest. Donors pledged x dollars per minute the WBC continued to protest. I do remember they had a very large clock to record the number of protest minutes and a counter for the amount of pledged money. Sorry I can’t remember who did it, where, or when.
poxyhowzes
3 February 2013 at 11:06 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
One day soon, someone will meet VD* in a Real-Life social situation, only to be told, with much self-satisfaction:
“I’m a free-lance writer, and I’m proud to say that all the money my writing earns — every last dime — goes to charity.”
pH
*In my younger days, “VD” meant something other than Vox Day.
DLC
3 February 2013 at 11:10 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hm. . . So RSHD won’t stop the madness either. He must have one huge-ass ego.
PS : how many of his “friends” live at the same IP address as him ?
Bronze Dog
3 February 2013 at 11:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It makes for an interesting (though unscientific) experiment. Wouldn’t be widely applicable if it did work, of course.
Tony the Super-Duper Queer Shoop
3 February 2013 at 12:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ugh. Just read who Vox Day is. Gah! Such a vile man.
Xanthë
3 February 2013 at 1:00 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
As inventive commenters at Scalzi’s blog have already discovered, for best effect the term RSHD should be prepended with ‘Narcissistic’, since ‘Narcissistic Racist Sexist Homophobic Dipshit’ shares the same scansion as ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’.
Janine: Hallucinating Liar
3 February 2013 at 1:49 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Tony, there is a reason why PZ and many of the long time members of the Horde are familiar with VD. VD used to send his minions here on a regular basis.
mikel
3 February 2013 at 2:34 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think PZ needs a kitten setting for his banhammer. Especially useful for MPAs.
crowepps
3 February 2013 at 3:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Several Planned Parenthood clinics, including the local one here, have had “Sponsor A Protestor”, where people pledge to donate $1 to $10 to the clinic for each day a particular nutjob shows up. Then they post a big Thank You poster showing how much each protestor raised for the clinic. Apparently it’s effective, the guy with the most pledgers here stopped showing up altogether.
ChristineRose
3 February 2013 at 5:53 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@jnorris
http://www.autbar.com/fred_phelps_press_release.htm
Others have done it since though, so maybe you are thinking of somewhere else.
lpetrich
4 February 2013 at 3:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Cute strategy. An alternate would be go the Something Awful route and charge for unbanning someone. Some small sum like $10 or $20.
David Marjanović
4 February 2013 at 11:17 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“Huge”? There’s room for an entire god in it!
deborahbell
6 February 2013 at 8:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hmm, well at least I feel a little happier about liking Redshirts so much…
(that’s the only Scalzi book I’ve read, but I bought it new so it paid a little to him)
Tony the Dancing Telegram Queer Shoop
6 February 2013 at 8:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
A kitten setting for his banhammer? Nah. I like cat idea, but would go the saber tooth tiger route. Or maybe a puma. Something hardcore and ferocious that says ‘you’ve been cut’