Just a quick update on the case of Arianna Pattek, the recent Georgetown graduate targeted for harassment by A Voice for Men and others, including the white supremacists at Stormfront. As I pointed out in an earlier piece, the “detective work” that led A Voice for Men’s Paul Elam and the other Pattek-bashers to target her was incredibly inept and sloppy, and it’s clear beyond any possible doubt that she has nothing whatsoever to do with the misandrist blog they accused her of writing, which increasingly obviously seems to be an utter hoax.
A Voice for Men, which hasn’t yet acknowledged much less apologized for its obvious mistake, has made much of the fact that information about Pattek was pulled down off of a Georgetown website after various websites started targeting her — attributing this to some sinister conspiracy. “[I]t now appears almost certain,” Elam wrote in his error-riddled post on the matter,
that individuals at Georgetown, perhaps even university officials, are purging their online records of that thesis, and her identity, in order to protect the interest of the school against what will almost certainly result in a massive amount of litigation.
Last night Mark Lance, director of the Justice and Peace program at Georgetown, left this message in the comments here on Man Boobz. (I confirmed his identity through email.)
Hi. Im the director of the Justice and Peace program at GU, though I was not directing when Arianna graduated. I just wanted to let folks know that her information was removed from some web sites at to protect her. This story was first picked up by Stormfront.org and the white supremacists have been harassing and threatening her, including posting her home address, picture, etc. It was probably pointless, but the person who directed the program last year decided to remove the info. So, sorry, no conspiracy. Just an attempt to protect a young woman from vicious hate groups.
That explanation makes sense to me, and certainly he’s got more credibility on this matter than Paul Elam. (A ham sandwich has more credibility than Paul Elam.)
Lance’s comment raises an interesting question: Did Stormfront in fact start harassing Pattek before the MRAs got to her?
Here’s what we know: Stormfront — incorrectly — named Pattek the author of the feministconservative blog a little after 3 AM Eastern time on the 18th, the same day that Redditors in the Men’s Rights and Conspiracy subreddits (and a few others) picked up the story. Timestamps on Reddit aren’t precise, but I’m guessing they got to it after 3 AM. The phony news also began spreading around Tumblr that day as well. Elam posted his piece trashing Pattek later that same day.
So, yes, it does sound like the white supremacists got to Pattek first.
Does this also suggest that the bogus information published by A Voice for Men came — directly or indirectly — from Stormfront?
That seems much less likely. Though I can’t confirm it, it looks like the whole thing originated not on Stormfront but on 4chan, and that their bogus theory about Pattek spread to all the other sites out there. (I find it hard to believe that all the other sites arrived independently at the same patently false conclusion.) It’s certainly possible that Elam got his info from Stormfront, but it seems more likely he got it from 4chan, or, even more likely, 4chan via Reddit.
If anyone has evidence that 4chan picked up the theory from Stormfront, let me know.
In any case, the whole event says a lot about how bad information spreads on the internet, and just who is getting information from whom.
It also says a lot that A Voice for Men, which likes to pretend it’s at the vanguard of a great 21st century “Men’s Human Rights Movement” was nearly as quick to jump on the Pattek-hating bandwagon as the literal Nazis at Stormfront — that is, the leftover stragglers from a 20th century hate movement.
And it’s quite telling that both Stormfronters and AVFMers think that doxing and harassment of individuals are justifiable forms of “activism.”
I would say something about strange bedfellows, but these bedfellows aren’t strange in the slightest. They’re two hate movements, just made for each other.
But what if Lance is in on the conspiracy? THE CONSPIRACY?
Really, we’re supposed to believe that this entire blog is a fabrication; but it’s impossible that it’s some terrible MRA satire/wish fulfillment piece.
I say wish fulfillment because it seems like MRAs are basically hunting for shooting stars so they can grasp onto something that will justify all of their hateful conduct.
4chan is like the sewer of the internet.
4chan is the sewer of the internet and Elam is that icky grate with all the crud coated on the side that makes your stomach churn worse than the honest flow of crap.
Stormfront and AVfM should just merge, they’d be perfect for each other. Too bad the MRAs think the neo-Nazis go to easy on white American women.
No, I’m not making that up.
A person with more credibility than Elam.
Meanwhile, MRAs are still commenting about her guilt. And everyone mildly knowledgeable of feminist groups read the blog just like a hoax (i.e. sounds like an MRA strawfeminist).
Thing is, there are hateful feminist groups online who are for real. One characteristic they have is that it’s not a monologue, they have group presence. I condemn doxing or harassing anyone regardless of their beliefs, no excuse. Men, women, MRAs, conservatives, people who hate kittens: no one should be doxed. But there’s no need to invent fake terrible feminists. (Yes, I’m referring to hateful transphobic radfems a la Cathy Brennan, who succeeded in disgusting me more than Paul Elam today)
Next step, when will AVfM recognize their pretty blatant error? I’ll be waiting here.. zzz
The National Coalition for Men and Marky Mark also still have the allegations up on their blogs, even though they’ve been thoroughly debunked by this point.
I really hope she sues them. If for no other reason, to make sure it gets on the record that they are lying asshats who are willing to sacrifice the reputation of a completely innocent person in order to get their hate on.
(By the way, I spent some time on ProQuest yesterday, and there is no 2012 PhD dissertation that even remotely matches the one described in the feministconservative blog post, in case you need even more evidence that the blog was a complete fabrication.)
A Voice for Storm. Voicefront. Eeewww.
Yeah, Cathy Brennan is just as bad as these guys, truly a disgusting human being. I think she even visited here once as a commenter, though I might be mis-remembering. I think she is one of those people who obsessively searches for her own name on the Internet and swoops in.
The closest I’ve seen to an acknowledgement that they might have gotten it wrong is a few hints that maybe they identified the wrong person, but clearly this is something feminists do all the time so they just have to keep searching to find the culprit. Sigh.
@ hellkell
Yeah, but how will MRAs give up their refined taste for an inexistant submissive mail order bride/slave from Cold War-era Eastern Europe? Technically, some white supremacists might think it’s OK, but lebensraum is lebensraum.
Some of my friends wonder why I get upset about the existence of organizations like the ones mentioned above. After all, I don’t have to deal with people like that in my personal life…usually. They do not seem to understand that OTHERS have to far more often, and that unchecked hate and bigotry will eventually affect each and every one of us.
cloudiah: her awful self did show up her once, she was shown the door with a quickness. I hope she doesn’t show up again with her awfulness.
MaudeLL: True, true.
Cloudiah, thanks for doing that search. So the blog is clearly a hoax. I’ll update the post accordingly.
Cloudiah-
*shudder* Well, I hope me mentioning her won’t attract her here.
Her group is actively harassing people and it disgusts me that she even uses the word “feminist”.
I woke up this morning with her crap all over my twitter, and I found these intense harassment campaigns and rape threats against transwomen and people of any gender who dare to think of transwomen as human beings.
And I thought. Hm, I guess AVfM isn’t alone in their lunatic rage.
And I went to pet my cat, who is completely zen in front of human idiocy. I still need to learn. 🙂
Uh…so I didn’t know what 4chan was, ever…I thought it was like imgur, or something? I opened just the front page and it was some hentai looking just weirdness immediately. Can anyone explain what 4chan is about? Imgur coopted by creeps? Created by creepy Redditers?
Good reporting david and cloudiah!
I’ve never really understood what 4chan was, but from what I hear it makes Reddit look positively humanitarian.
ugh so many cesspools everywhere i’m gonna fall in
@hellkell, i’m no expert on neo nazis or anything, but i watched a documentary featuring a husband & wife who left the movement together, trying to make peace with what they had done & all that, and one of the things they pointed out was how the group preached that they had to protect their white women from rapist black men, but a lot of these guys were alcoholics who beat their wives, and since they were alcoholics they couldn’t hold down a real job and provide for their families. and how a lot of them prey on aryan teenagers. so i guess they do have something else to bond over. the doc is called erasing hate for whoever’s interested. it’s on netflix.
i actually live in dc, so if this gets really bad it could find its way into the local news. i’ll send a link to you, david, if there ever is anything. i’m not holding my breath though.
can georgetown women get a breather from fanatical misogynists, please?
maybe they just hated the student because her senior thesis could have been about the MRM?
This is a long-ass thesis for an undergrad. Just read the abstract to see what’s up. I feel so bad for this young woman!
Holy hell. I didn’t know who this CB person was and googled her name … she really is a disgusting human being. 🙁
Maude, we will never be as zen as cats, because cats! 🙂
4chan came before either of those. It’s an English-speaking imageboard that’s based on Japan’s Futaba Channel. It’s primarily anime culture and has about 50 different boards based on different things, but the most well-known board is /b/ – Random. Basically, anything that’s not illegal goes. Also: Reddit and imgur basically steal all their jokes and culture from 4chan. The origins of most modern-day Internet memes can be traced from 4chan.
Now, most users of the site aren’t (or weren’t) prejudiced, but they had this way of speaking: slang that you wouldn’t dare use outside of the site. Early on, no one was being serious, they were just making fun of every ignorant person in the world. However, as a lot of you may know, when you’re not being politically correct, those who actually do think like that think that means you agree with them. So the racists, misogynists, and all scum basically started coming there a lot, and now, they seem to run a lot of the discussions. Hell, the entire /pol/ (politics) board basically thinks that every bad thing in the world is caused by Jews.
just gonna throw it out there while the thread is active, apologies if derailing, but i am writing a paper about a woman following an atypical life trajectory, if anyone has interesting articles/pointers about baby boomers tending to opt out of traditional family patterns, effects of serving in the military pre 1980s on women, or anything like that, it would be great. ooooh except i’m not super coherent.
So at this point 4chan is basically NWOslave, digitized and uploaded to the Web.
Ick.
Also, they aren’t primarily composed of Redditors. They actually hate Reddit a lot- but for a different reason. Basically, they came up with rage comics and the like first, but subreddits like /r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu took them, and made really bad ones. Just using the word “le” will cause anger on 4chan.
Also, stuff like this no longer surprises me: That AVFM is just as rational as Neo-Nazis. Neo-Nazis vandalized my friend’s house and caused her to move, and I can totally see the MRM doing something similar.
@ intern – i’m questioning your narrative there…”politically correct?” anyone using that term is a little suspect to me…the story also speaks to why people should not say stupid, discriminatory crap on public forums all the time if they aren’t trying to lure in a whole bunch of terrible jerks.