Hey kids. Just a really quick post.
Yes, I am aware of this new facebook page.
Yes, I am aware of his mentioning me multiple times.
Yes, I am getting increased traffic and nasty comments.
But most importantly, I am okay.
I have had this kind of targeting before. Mainly from Neo Nazis, but from other hate groups as well. I have never met this particular person before, and don’t know what is motivated him. It may be just good old fashioned hatred. But we don’t know. The following post is written after some pretty close observation, and experience with certain kinds of mental health issues.
I have looked over the page, and yes, it is misguided and nasty. However, and this is said without knowing or ever hearing of the man running this page (in fact, the first I ever heard of him was last night), I don’t know if it is. I think he seems mentally ill, and although there is some good discussion to be had about the problematic nature of his little venture, I think we need to be a bit more cautious than some people have been. I am not saying the people commenting on his page and trolling him, or even just trying to get a genuine discussion going are wrong. But I do think we need to step back and look at the wider picture. I think by focusing on this we are letting go of wider issues. And I think he is getting increasingly distressed and in a worse mental state. Which is dangerous for his targets and people around him.
So I’m suggesting people to take a step back until the wider motivation becomes clear. But more importantly I am am asking people to support allies and friends. To help anyone who needs it. To keep being the kick arse feminists you are.
xx
Maus
The Ivory Tower 
I’d be inclined to agree with you in regards to the possibility of this man experiencing mental health issues. I’ve followed closely the RB’s story and the ongoing information and discussion. I’m one of the few people still taking an active interest in where this story is going, and discussing the wider implications of not only the RBs themselves, but of societal attitudes that condone, encourage or simply ignore or excuse this and other anti-social behaviours.
I’ve seen his many posts with my own eyes in the pages where he was previously posting. He had the idea that Jade Shuttle, Ash Hilton and Tolousain Andreu were pseudonym profiles. Where he got this idea, I am unsure.
I witnessed myself his sometimes vitriolic and sometimes plain irrational and inane comments and posts.
Despite his claim to the contrary, he did in fact state that he was “going to support the roastbusters.” The context of his advocacy for these boys is unclear. A friend of his has gone to great lengths to say that the individual did not really “mean” to support or excuse sexual violence and that it was taken out of context, and that he just got ‘wound up” and “reacted without thinking.”
To me, this supports your questions around the stability of his mental state. I too have wondered this for some time.
At the very least, I would expect more mature behaviour from a middle aged person who has had involvement in local body politics and who has supposedly undertaken a degree in Women’s Studies. This makes his attacks on women whom he perceives to be “feminazis” and women or those who condemn the RBs in general all the more baffling.
He appears to be totally incensed by a great deal of topics which would, at the most, mildly annoy or exasperate others. Criticisms of Lourde, Expressing outrage when a restaurant in which he was a patron played a Christmas song sung by Beyonce, Condemning and criticising the government one day and steadfastly praising the Monarchy the next (where does he think our Government stemmed from originally?), insinuating that Stephie Key is promoting “rape culture” by modelling in france as part of an artistic expression. His page is, in a word, fascinating. And slightly disturbing in terms of his… I’ll use the word “intensity” here.
He appears to have his little pack of groupies who follow him around the internet, all agog, and agree enthusiastically with virtually anything he says. I imagine that if he took it into his head to declare that the moon is in fact made of cheese, said cronies would loudly proclaim “Oh____, you’re SO right! We always knew it was!”
To hell with him and his band of merrie followers. If he does indeed have mental health issues (and I reiterate for him or any of his band that may be stalking the posts of this blogger and the responses – yes I agree with the blogger.) I hope someone gets him the help he needs before his extremism gets out of hand.
Firstly..its quite a fascist call to suddenly start to call someone mentally ill when they challenge what is a so-called superior norm that you are trying to set…I have known this character a very long time..and you have no idea the immense contribution he has made to education and politics within the Wellington region.You are afraid of him because he knows how to intelligently challenge your sexist hysteria..thats what it is…calling him a rape enabler is just simply so ridiculous your whole argument goes down the gurgler..in fact..its defamatory..also…expect any pro –feminist males to start walking away from your absurd claims and movement…you and your slut walk intelligentsia..who now have to start exposing their breasts to be taking seriously are at risk of becoming easy prey for the term feminazi..because..to go back to my original point..you are accusing a rational and astute philosopher of insanity.Shame on you,
Hello. My name is Tolousain. I know Mahara Tahuhu through our engagement on a Facebook page focusing on the Roastbusters teen gang in Auckland.
I too have observed the person you guys are discussing enter conversations on Facebook. Generally speaking I have applauded his willingness to declare support for causes which may go against the grain of public opinion. I respect that.
However I do think there’s a fine line when it comes to online advocacy. I am all for robust debate. But when it starts to descend into obfuscation or insult then it loses whatever philosophical legitimacy it may have been built on. Even worse when the debate deteriorates in digital forums – because sometimes it can be all-consuming and participants find it hard to get off the keyboard and walk away into the Real World.
I don’t want to get into the mental health of this individual. I just hope that he can take a step back and perhaps reflect not on the content and substance of what he says. Rather, I would ask him to ponder, how he says it, and perhaps consider whether there’s room for improvement in his delivery.
To whom are you referring in your tirade of accusations and assumptions, Robert? You are unclear on this issue. 🙂
Im referring to Maus.Shes utterly ridiculous.If this is your advocate..u lose.
Hi Robert. I find your comment about “hysteria” remarkable. I mean, the tone of your earlier post suggests a rising sense of unmanageable emotional excess on your part – nobody else’s. Perhaps a movement away from the old class-based language of the 1930s-1940s might be in order? Fascism, capitalism etc It’s evolved into a much different beast that recognizes environmentalism, commercialism, freemarket and New Right liberal ideologies struggling for their voice(s).
Interesting, Robert. Would you care to elaborate on how you came to this irrefutable conclusion? And how, also irrefutably, you know who my advocates are and how that impacts on my ability to win?
Look forward to your insightful reply.
So..now Im hysterical..you would rather continue your mob mentality alongside Maus..rather than examine the fact thats shes being a little fascista….its interesting because Ive now seen other learned souls referring to you DC as a borderline fascist.If you actually knew what the word meant..its a state of mind..not a political party.And win..actually…no..your are losers.Your alienating any principled argument..your all clinging together as tho you are the emancipated supreme beings.The FB Misogyny page is proof by its censorious-cut off dissent.If you support this ..then Im amazed that you can even bother to argue any valid points.Have you any idea how many men are raped..how their abused by female partners…the amount of female sexual abuse against men /boys actually happens.But no…its all mens fault.Why not rally and bay like bloodhounds in the cases of women sexually abusing boys?Theres been enough cases in the media.But,,naw…to easy to blame men.
Oh dear, Robert… that wasn’t constructive at all. It amounted to little more that drivel, and vitriolic drivel at that. After reading and re-reading your reply several times to try and glean an insight into what you are trying to say, I see an interesting pattern. It seems you’ve decided to turn the RB saga and the issue of sexual violence into a gender war. As in, “Anything you can suffer I can suffer more, I can suffer anything more than you”. That’s not much better than a playground spat where you respond to someone’s critiscism with “I know you are, but what am I?”.
Several issues with that. First, those who tun it into a gender war and start spouting rubbish about how men are being ‘picked on’ unfairly and insinuate that men will persecuted by women is – and yes I use this word – hysterical. It is also terribly ironic but people such as you are so caught up in your own brand of self-righteous martyrdom that you simply don’t see it.
Second, I notice that, when you address the issue of sexual assault survivors, you only highlight men. What about children? What about transsexual people? what about gay/lesbian people? This is very biased and indicates intolerance at worst and plain ignorance at best. You and your friends harp on about inequality. But you reinforce that inequality by only addressing men as sexual assault survivors and their perpetrators as solely women. A truly equal statement would have read “Anyone, regardless of their age, gender, or sexual orientation, can be a survivor of sexual violence”. And yet, you chose to respond with the somewhat juvenile and petulant “You do it too!!”
I have to say, I was amused by your statement about arguing valid points, because I couldn’t for the life of me find any in your response.
The word “faschista” jumped out at me… so she (Maus) is part of the Italian fascist movement? A supporter of Mussolini? Really? Can you prove this? Or did you simply misuse the word, thinking it sounded ‘hip’ or ‘stylish’ or ‘original’ or ‘clever’? Maybe you thought it was a reference to a female who practices or supports fascism. If that is the case, then you only further push the gender divide.
Also, you say fascism is not a political party but state of mind. In fact, fascism is entirely political in origin.
Now, let me address the “Misogynist of the day” page and misogyny in general. I find this area of the issue particularly interesting because The Individual (I’ll now refer to him as “P” for simplicity’s sake) has done nothing to further himself throughout this saga and it would seem that neither have you, Robert.
“How can you say that?!” You ask, indignantly? Let me explain.
P made a range of comments and posts which were questionable particularly in light of his age, academic and political background. Prior to learning about him I actually thought he was either about to begin university or a first year student, most likely studying either law (with a lean towards criminal defense) or political science. His posts so blatantly smacked of youthful, know-it-all arrogance. But let’s move back to my original line of reasoning regarding the choices that started this whole internal debate.
As I said, P made a choice. A choice to be sometimes aggressive, sometimes inflammatory, sometimes obfuscating, and other times just plain juvenile in his comments and posts. In regards to the post regarding support of the RB’s, he really put his foot in it.
When the backlash invariably ensued, he only served to dig himself deeper by arguing further with his critics and trying to rationalise the choice he made in terms of his wording. A sensible person who was trying to make a point but perhaps didn’t clearly think things through would have acknowledged that their statement was inappropriate or could be construed as offensive WITHOUT trying to excuse or justify it, followed by a more well-thought out explanation of the point they were trying to make.
Currently P, yourself and your various followers are making a big fuss about MOTD and its content. P and his supporters chose to go onto these and similar pages and ‘flame’ admins and general contributors alike.
What was P’s knee-jerk reaction to the revelation that he and his behavior and choices were being discussed and dissected..? To make a challenge page AND a group, to keep changing the name of that page to avoid possible censuring, to announce on said pages the names and details of people who disagreed with him and open discussions about tracking their IP’s and finding out their RL locations and details (that’s getting into vigilante/mob mentality territory, interestingly)… it’s looking increasingly grim for your defense.
As an addition, MOTD is not the only page in which P’s actions and choices have been discussed at length. The implications of his choices have been far-reaching. His reactions and that of his supporters are only serving to exacerbate the negative view others are beginning to have of your group.
Attacking women and labeling any female who disagrees with you as a ‘feminazi’ a ‘fascist’ having a ‘mob mentality’ or as considering themselves ’emancipated supreme beings’ indicates misogyny – the very attitude you, P and supporters vehemently deny displaying.
I think your whole group needs to re-think your attitude and your approach.
Stop acting like martyrs, for a start. How arrogant and self-serving to act like this is the case. You are not martyrs. You are not being targeted for being “men”. If anything, you’re being targeted for being juvenile and somewhat irrational in your arguments and reactions, as well as creating an unnecessary gender divide.
Secondly, stop making the issue of sexual violence a gender war. It is not a gender war. Of course we are aware it can happen to men as well. Instead of making it all about female survivors Vs. male survivors and arguing about who has more right to acknowledgement or deserves more sympathy, or the statistics of male Vs. female survivors of sexual assault by an opposite-gendered perpetrator, make it the public against the perpetrators. All perpetrators against all survivors. Then, and only then, are P, yourself and your followers advocating true equality and true respect for all survivors. Until that happens, you are no better than all the people you label as “men haters”.
Yawn.I was on feminist frontlines in Sydney in the 1980s.Im gay.Ive been raped.My best female friend was raped aged 15..violently.At knivepoint.We’ve all ived thru this.My soul partner in NZ is transgender.Shes an artist and an intellectual.I basically still feel your pack mob mentality serves no justice.I see victimization from all sides here.Its not what the Roastboasters did..its that THERE IS NO CRIME!..and i stand by my point.You are all acting like cross burners.
Clearly you didn’t pay attention to any of my points regarding gender division and justification of your own and P’s own actions and choices.
In light of your own orientation and experience, I’m even more surprised st your level of intolerance and your obstinate insistence that two wrongs do make a right.
I reiterate again: stop making it a gender war. Accept that P made bad choices and reacted badly as well. Accept that none of you are blameless martyrs and stop acting as if you are.
You, P and your little group are exhibiting the very pack/mob mentality you accuse everyone else of.
That Facebook page was made entirely in retaliation to (and in defence from) the NZ Misogynist Of The Day Facebook page, by one of its victims. Unwarranted non-consensual publicity of non-criminal non-public figures is an invasion of privacy. The public posting of screen-drops of non-public posts from other peoples’ personal Facebook walls, is an example of this. Using this invasion of privacy as a tool for encouraging harassment of the victim, is an invasion of privacy with malicious intent. If you truly believe that he is mentally ill, then that makes your harassment even worse. If you don’t believe that he is mentally ill, then what you are saying is slanderous. Either way you are a terrible person.
Umm, just a point, before you call me a terrible person; I have nothing to do with either facebook pages.
They never posted anything he didn’t say, so it doesn’t count as slander.
I’ll ignore the rest of your drivel, but just clearing that up for you.