Phil Mason, better known online as Thunderf00t, is a scientific researcher and YouTube bloviater who’s turned his hate-crush on video game critic Anita Sarkeesian into a surprisingly lucrative part-time job; his seemingly unending stream of YouTube videos attacking Sarkeesian, many of which have drawn hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, have without a doubt contributed mightily to the harassment directed against her by the online mob known as #Gamergate.
Now Mason is trying to defend himself against charges that he has become the de facto leader of a vast hate mob that harasses Sarkeesian and other women … by encouraging his followers to harass a woman who charged him with exactly this.
And a good number of Mason’s 400,000 YouTube followers have taken him up on this challenge, flooding the Yelp page of the business the woman runs with her husband with fraudulent one-star reviews and besieging her and her family business with angry and harassing phone calls (at least one of which the perpetrator has put online).
The story of this particular debacle began this past January when the YouTuber who calls herself Laughing Witch sent a letter to Mason’s employer, accusing the YouTuber of harassing Sarkeesian and other women and repeatedly suggesting that he and his followers were a bunch of Nazis. Her email was part of a letter-writing campaign by a number of feminist Youtubers who hoped their letters would get Mason fired from his research job.
Mason, who apparently faced no repercussions from the letter-writing campaign, decided last week to retaliate against Laughing Witch — real name Jennifer Keller. He posted a video about Keller’s letter, following up with a second video posting her name as well as screenshots from the web page of Porcelain Tub Restoration, the company she runs with her husband.
While Tunderf00t didn’t explicitly command his army to harass Keller and her husband, he suggested to his supporters that they post their thoughts about her on the business’s Yelp page — and they did, cratering the company’s rating with literally hundreds of fake one-star reviews.
Yelp has been removing the most obviously fake ones, as well as those referencing her letter about Thunderf00t, but many remain up as “not recommended” (in other words, questionable) reviews, including a number of clearly trollish ones accusing Keller of being a Nazi.
These negative reviews, as ludicrous as many of them are, have apparently hit the business hard. Keller and her husband have set up a FundAnything page in an attempt, they say, to make payroll in the wake of the attacks on their and their company’s reputation online. On the FundAnything page Keller’s husband, Paul Burns, writes:
We are getting slanderous lies about our services and people posting deplorable images on review sites, as well desecrating our star ratings and customers calling. No one clicks to a service company with 1 star rating.
According to Burns, the 26-year-old “family based service business with 14 employees” may be forced to close “because of a brutal mob attack on our social review sites.”
Mason’s response to this campaign being waged in his name? Another video, in which he declares that “Karma [is] ONLY A BITCH, if you are one!”
Except that this isn’t “karma,” a supernatural force that Mason, a self-avowed “skeptic,’ presumably doesn’t believe in anyway.
This is an organized harassment campaign, instigated and encouraged by Mason himself.
While I’ve enjoyed Laughing Witch’s videos in the past, I think the letter writing campaign was wrong. Writing employers is a low blow. And despite Mason’s many flaws as a thinker and a human being, he’s no Nazi.
But the wave of harassment he’s brought down on Keller — and which he has not made even the slightest attempt to rein in — is indefensible.
And it’s getting worse by the day: 8chan’s Baphomet forum, a haven for malicious doxers and harassers, has now jumped aboard this harassment train, targeting not only Keller but her supporters as well. They’ve doxed one other YouTuber already, and are working on doxing others.
In a Baphomet thread, one anon happily reports that the attacks on Keller are causing her great distress:
While Mason at first suggested that he would call off the attack if Keller apologized to him, he has since refused to accept her apology, and seems positively gleeful about the pain he’s caused her and her allies.
The internet has officially hit another new low.
I’ll post more on this as it develops.
NOTE: Thanks to Daily Kos blogger idlediletante (Margaret Pless), who provided me with a number of tips on this story. She’s written three posts on the subject so far:
Family Business Brigaded on Yelp by MRA YouTube Stars
Phil Mason is Working With Baphomet to Ruin DC Business
How it Feels to Be Targeted By An Internet Hate Mob: One Man’s Story
“I’m reacting accordingly by submitting a report to Patreon of Mason using his platform as a Patreon creator to dox and mobilize a hate mob – Something that is very clearly breaking the Terms of Service of Patreon.”
By all means, attack the platform he’s standing on to spread his reprehensible views. Patreon is directly supporting the things he’s saying and benefiting materially from his doing so. You’re attacking him in his role as a public figure via the means he’s using to spread that message. That is 100% appropriate.
Sending messages to his research lab claiming that he’s a Nazi, though, is wrong.
Strangely, I don’t see “automatically assumes contrary points of views of strangers to be true” as the definition of freethinker.
Also, I’m not sure “hit piece” means what you think it means. Neither David’s post, nor the majority of commenters here, have come out in support of the attempt to get Thunderf00t fired (or jailed).
If Thunderf00t’s position is that LW must not only apologize for her letters, but also for any criticism of his highly disproportionate “let loose the dogs of war” response, before he will call off said dogs, then he is behaving like a dictatorial five-year-old, as are any of his supporters who agree with this behavior.
His (and your) “Karma’s a bitch” stance are not so freethinking, and shows that neither of you understand what the idea of karma is: the universe paying people back for their rights or wrongs. I.e., a person trying to trip a stranger for fun ends up spraining their ankle through no effort on the part of their victim. What Thunderf00t is calling “karma” is actually just revenge, and incredibly cynical and disproportionate revenge at that. Calling it “karma” brings to mind those lovely “Christian Marine puts stupid college professor in his place, proving God is real by knocking professor on his ass when professor says, ‘If God is real, then let him knock me down'” tropes.
NOTE TO THUNDERF00T FANS TRYING TO POST HERE:
Really, would it kill you to actually read the post and some of the comments here before posting your pronouncements? Seriously, if the comments you try to post reveal that you clearly haven’t read either the OP or any previous comments, why on earth would I let you into the discussion? If you want to go around yelling at people for things they didn’t do, you’ve got pretty much the rest of the internet to do that on.
Nor is “defends assertions with tribalism.”
(I don’t believe I’ve seen you around much before, littleknown, but maybe that’s just because I haven’t been around much. Welcome to the Mammoth! Have you had your welcome package yet?)
Here is thunderf00t, free speech activist, threatening to sue someone on Twitter for spoofing him.
https://twitter.com/thunderf00t/status/334045090383278080
Remember: bombarding someone with messages saying she’s a bitch isn’t harassment. But making a spoof account to make fun of someone is.
@ Milkshake
DEAR THUNDERDR0NES. IT WAS I, NOT LAUGHING WITCH, WHO CONTACTED MR. DARK OVERLORD HERE ABOUT THIS STORY. STOP SAYING IT WAS HER, IT MUST’VE BEEN HER. I DID IT. I CAN SHOW YOU THE GOD DAMN TWEET.
God, really? Yeah, I’m totally not a free thinker for deciding, ON MY OWN, that thunderd00f did something horrible to a feminist for shits and giggles because he stated that he and his coworkers got a great laugh out of the letter that, as far as I know, did no financial damage to his thunderd00ferness because he makes more off of youtube anyway.
Ugh.
Laughing Witch isn’t the only person in the world that thinks the thunderd00fus is a fatheaded moron.
I know the prat’s already banned, but I’m’a gonna take this one, anyway:
First off, there are a large number of MRAs who do not identify as such. Thunderf00t’s talking points, positions and MO are all so MRA that we can safely assume that he is, indeed, a aquatic foul of some sort.
Secondly, for the love of everything, stop displaying your ignorance as a badge of honor. Not only is your comprehension of the notion of ‘karma’ pathetically facile, even once we agree to use the bastardized Western version of it, but you very clearly have no concept what it takes for something to be libelous, or as you call it, “LIBELLOUS”. First news is that it doesn’t just mean “false”, though I note you present no evidence of falsity other than your quasi-literate bleatings. It would also mean that she knows (or can be reasonably be expected to know) that she’s telling an untruth, and that said lie is, in some way, defamatory and capable of causing substantial harm to T-f00t’s reputation.
That last one, for the record, would require additional proofs, as I see nothing about baphomet that would indicate it is not perfectly in line with The Foot’s stanky-ass opinions.
@David Futrelle,
Ohmigosh, if there are good attempted-posts being thrown at you, can you make a follow-up post so that we can see them? If they’re good and that there are enough of them, of course. That sounds gleefully fun.
I perversely love the South Park Atheist Libertarian way of talking about freethinking.
It means saying things that you think most people don’t agree with. It has to. Because if you say things people DO agree with, then you might get socially rewarded for it, and then you weren’t purely being a freethinker; your motives were tainted by the external reward.
It also means that being caring and compassionate is NEVER being a freethinker, because not only are those emotional to people who don’t know what “emotion” means, they’re also things that are GOOD and so people might think you’re good for doing!! TAINTED.
“You must agree with everything I say, or else you’re not a freethinker!”
Much STEM
Many logic
Wow.
Guys, you are forgetting something! Thunderfoot is a man! Therefore automatically right, no matter what he does! And Laughing Witch is a woman, so obviously she is lying out of her vagina or something.
Post contains sarcasm.
On another note, I hope that Laughing Witch’s business can recover.
Not lying so much. Facts just get all bungled when they go through the vagina filtration system.
Well, vaginas have all that bacteria to keep them clean. I’m guessing occassionaly they get messed up, and attack the facts! Can’t control those dang things. I now keep mine in a cage, since it was always trying to go out and steal sperm.
Well, you know, if it’s a legitimate truth the female body has ways to shut that whole thing down.
a) What sort of freethinker links to only a single source? Shouldn’t he present multiple definitions of freethinking in order to avoid potential source bias?
b) What sort of freethinker, if they’re only going to use a single dictionary, uses Merriam-Webster?
@EJ. Obviously we have to prove we are free thinkers by going out and finding our own sources. We must prove our worth.
I think I’m just going to go listen to music instead. That way I don’t have to think.
But then you’ll be supporting simple chord progressions!
Oh, no! I’m misandring too hard! I must seek help from the Wise Paul to find out which music does not oppress men… which will be hard with all the male artists out there talking about hot female bodies. Or is it Feeeeemaaaale bodies? My poor ladybrain can’t think about these things too hard, after all.
And, since I am new here, I will say again that post contains sarcasm.
Ok, on topic — is getting people to write someone’s employer questionable? Yep. Is getting a bunch of people all riled up to go after someone in whatever way they see fit remotely acceptable? Nope.
Seeing how it sounds like d00fus’s uni job and internet bigotry did intersect, writing his bosses about that seems perfectly fine — if you do something that threatens your employer’s reputation then it’s totally fair for them to know about that. I had a student job for my uni when I went there, and put together HR packets for incoming employees, and yeah, if he implied his uni supported his views he best be damned careful what he says cuz they’real totally within their bounds to go “no, actually, we don’t”.
Is asking people, publicly, to all write his employer okay? And does that depend on the size of the platform? I’d go for maybe, and it does depend, yes. Is making shit up and spreading it to a large platform a different beast? Yep. I’m not even sure it’s possible to smear a uni like it is to smear a small business — I could go on every forum imaginable and give the full name and position of rapist ex #2 and it would have fuck all affect on incoming students, whereas going around saying the tiny company I do web design for does any of the shit she’s being accused of would ruin them, and getting a bunch of people to do it… *shudder*
So yeah, asshole utterly fails at that adult thing known as proportional response, thus making the question of whether she should’ve done what she did irrelevant.
(And no trolls, I’m not saying d00fus is a rapist, I’m presenting an analogy.)
What an sad idiot he is, so much for men being more rational than women.
“Sarkeesian is such a silly internet con artist, I boner-hates her and her vile methods… which is why I too have become an internet con artist!”
Hypocrites too.
I did not even know what yelper was until the latest South Park episode.
Warning: Don´t watch if you are just about to eat.
I remember a little ways back when Thunderf00t and similar misogynists were insisting that the court of public opinion was bad and people over the internet had no right whatsoever to assume someone was a rapist or had committed any sort of sexual assault unless he had been tried and convicted. Sexual assault should only be examined and judged by the legal system, they said.
And now, Thunderf00t has seemingly decided it’s not so bad throwing someone and their reputation to the court of public opinion. All of his followers on YouTube can clearly dispense justice far better than a court ever could.
Why the change of heart, Thunderf00t?
@Falconer: I have only made four or five posts, I think, and most of them recent, after lurking for several months. I found the artistryforfeminismandkittens welcome post recently when I decided to start posting … I had always thought “Scenting Fucking Hard Candles” was such a random username, and I figuratively had a “spew chocolate milk all over the screen” moment when I read that post 🙂
This is just edrama bullshit. LW lied about TF and tried to get him thrown in jail. Then TF made a video about it (which im sure we would all agree is his right) then some of his fans did something stupid. But so what? TF doesnt control people and he never asked people to do this.
I dont see what right LW which has to feel like a victim here to be honest. Why is it okay for some people to try and fuck with peoples lively hoods but not others?
Also you make it seem like TF got famous for making video responses to sarkeesian, this is totally untrue. That may well be when he came across your radar but he’s been around ages.
I dont really take a side on this, its most that i just dont see why anyone would.
I don’t take sides, it’s just that Thunderfoot is totally right and Laughing Witch is totally wrong. Whoever thought if you doxxed someone and gave the info to a bunch of rage filled misogynists, they’d use it to harass! Totally out of nowhere, that!