I would rather not return so quickly to documenting Dean Esmay’s ongoing internet flameout, but I feel I need to.
Esmay, as readers of this blog know all too well, has a habit of calling those who disagree with him “abusive” and/or “abusers.” He did this in the brief Twitter exchange with Raquel Willis I wrote about yesterday after she politely pointed out his white male privilege (and after he called her both a “privileged black girl” and a “rich privileged bitch”).
But in the case of one of Esmay’s recent targets, he’s gone beyond accusations of metaphorical abuse, declaring that the feminist YouTuber who calls herself Laughing Witch is a “violent” pedophile he knew “years ago … who liked to masturbate to violent fantasies involving children.”
Esmay has of course, provided no evidence whatsoever to back up this extraordinary claim, and Laughing Witch has not only denied it; she is contemplating suing him for libel.
I don’t know Laughing Witch personally, but I have been following her Youtube channel for some time and have exchanged messages with her. She seems to be a very straight-up, honest, decent person, and I absolutely believe that she is telling the truth.
My experience with Esmay has been rather different. Much of what comes out of his mouth — or from his keyboard — is patently untrue; indeed, so much of what he has said about me personally has been so grotesquely false that I have found myself contemplating filing my own libel suit against him. I don’t believe a word of his accusations.
Here are two brief videos Laughing Witch has made documenting and challenging what he’s said about her.
“Should I sue Dean Esmay?”
Probably not, I guess. Libel cases are pretty hard to win, to the extent it’s not really worth it for some shitbird on the internet. Even a particularly vile one.
Honestly? It’s only a matter of time before he learns that internet has real life consequences.
[As an aside, it’s really too bad that these folks cannot learn from each other, otherwise he’d learn from the MRA coffee shop that what’s said online doesn’t stay online and can have devastating real world effects. I’d almost feel compassion for him in that regard].
He libeled another woman about a week ago, Diana Davison, in the same way, calling her a sexual predator. The intimidation is systematic and deliberate. Has he left AVFM so he can engage in systematic harassment of women without exposing AVFM to a lawsuit?
I know that libel cases are hard to win, but as I understand it, the difficulty lies in proving that the libeler was intentionally and knowingly publishing falsehoods and not just misinformed. Hard to argue genuine misinformation when you claim to have known someone…
Probably not. But I do think that Laughing Witch should consult a lawyer to get very clear on what her rights are and what Dean Esmay’s rights are, Possibly her lawyer would want to write Esmay a strongly worded letter.
Esmay, Elam, and their ilk can’t seem to handle the fact that women have ideas, opinions, and voices of their own and will speak up. They want to be the only game in town. If your ideas are different from theirs, they will try to drown you out or threaten you until you give up.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that women in any significant numbers became DJs, talk show hosts, or reporters on the radio or reporters or news anchors on TV. I guess that MRAs, PUAs, and MGTOWs want those old days back.
P.S. Even now, I hear many more male singers and male bands on the radio than female singers and bands. Is this because men enjoy music more than women do? I just don’t think so.
Well, this makes complete sense.
Only someone who thinks of rape accusations as weapons to hurt innocent men would have no problem flinging them at people with impunity and no sense of hypocrisy.
Defamation lawsuits are easier.
@ShakeB I think she should. The fact that he’s keeps getting away with this is part of the reason he keeps doing it. Someone needs to hit his thick head with a lawsuit.
The biggest problem with suing Esmay isn’t that you would have a tough time winning. It is that Dean is notoriously inept at earning enough money for he and his wife to live on, let alone pay any judgment you would get.
I think she should sue him. Like Johanna Roberts said, the reason they keep doing this is that they keep getting away with it.
Should you sue him? If you can afford to, and if you can spare the time, energy and aggravation, I wish you would. People like Esmay behave this way because they are never held accountable. Even an unsuccessful suit could put him on notice. The internet is being ruined by loudmouthed bullies who never have to own their words. That needs to change.
Thanks for your support David and everyone here it is greatly appreciated
I think I would Consult a lawer and/or the police. Dean Esmay Is just….way out of line…
@Shalimar
The court could just ban him from using the net instead, no?
I don’t know what would stop Esmay from behaving this way. He seems a pretty compulsive character, so even losing a libel suit might only stop him temporarily. It’d certainly make him angrier, and I don’t see that ending well.
I suppose anybody confronted with this sort of thing online could consult a lawyer about whether or not they have any valid claims which would get anywhere in a court of law, (I’d try and get Popehat’s take on it just because I know they would view it with the highest scrutiny) but defamation judgments are notoriously difficult to secure in the United States of America (as they should be) and are an incredibly lengthy and expensive undertaking on both sides.
So I’d personally suggest that you, David, avoid trying to use the courts as a blunt instrument against Dear Ol’ Deano, long may he spew incoherent shit. It doesn’t seem like you’d find the result worth it.
What a large piece of scum! Esmay, Elam etc, really like the rule that whatever a dude says has to be The Truth.
They never consider the possibility that someone might not take thier word at face value- that would be outrageaous! Because Dude is saying so!!
Deanus’ attempt to smear shows just how vile he is, and also is laughably stupid: Who would believe it, except for his equally vile followers?
@laughing witch
Nice to see you here! You have all our support, as well as all of the hugs and the kittens!!
http://gifdrole.com/les_gifs_animes_des_chatons_les_plus_droles_et_mignons_du_monde/Chaton_dans_1_boite_en_carton.gif
@David
I would have loved to see some Deep Dream on that image…
I know DD’s time here has passed, but still….
What a shitty, horrible thing to do. What could he possibly have hoped to achieve?
I’d never heard of Laughing Witch until I read this post & now I’ve subscribed to her channel. I hardly think that was Dean’s goal though.
For some reason, I can’t help but think that Dean Esmay is flat broke. His toxicity makes him unemployable and all, and feeds into a positive feedback cycle of bitterness feeding into toxic behaviours and attitudes, repulsing people, increasing his resentment, leading to amplified toxicity of behaviour, so on and so forth. All this to say that if Laughing Witch wins, he won’t have the money to pay for damages. That being said, if that means that Dean Esmay has to sell his computer to pay for the damages, I’m all for it. Fuck him.
“Dean Esmay Makes False Rape Allegations”
This is brilliant!
MRAs really hate false rape accusations, don’t they? I guess they don’t count when they’re 100% deliberately untrue and done by themselves.
I hope Esmay gets better. I hope his health issues clear up, his mindset improves, and his life becomes far more comfortable and happier. I hope his every day is sunshine and rainbows and he never steps on any lego, ever.
I also hope he stops being an asshole to everyone he encounters because this shit is fucked up and unacceptable.
Aside from defamation cases being hard to win, I think they are even harder to win when it happened online, so it might not be worth it/ the state may not really view it as severe enough to make it worth it to sue.
Unless Esmay can show that he had some reason for believing his claim, I don’t think it would be all that difficult to win a case against him. “Reckless disregard for the truth”–ie, talking out of your ass because you’re furious at the person who criticized you–is libel.
The state prosecutes criminal offenses; A libel suit is a civil proceeding and the state doesn’t really come into it.
Dave: Have you or Laughing Witch consulted Popehat (Ken White)? He might be able to recommend a good lawyer.