Jack Barnes, the notoriously hotheaded Men’s Rights Activist and longtime contributor to A Voice for Men, has escalated his attacks on me. In a post on AVFM, Barnes addressed me directly:
I’m a junkyard dog with no owner and no collar. …
Didn’t anyone ever tell you that you shouldn’t piss off a redheaded country boy from the backwoods of Tennessee? I promise you David that for the rest of your life there will be nights you cry yourself to sleep in anger and frustration over me.
In a followup post on TwitLonger, someone claiming to be Barnes — and it seems abundantly clear that it is in fact him — threatened to drive from Tennessee to Chicago to confront me in
a face to face in person discussion … No cops. No lawyers or prosecutors. No judges. No jury. No hiding behind a computer. Just me and you. …
I don’t know of any parent that would blame me for stomping a mud hole in your fucking ass and walking that motherfucker dry for what you have done!
What I have done is, in fact, nothing — nothing beyond letting the world know of some of the disturbing things Barnes has posted online.
But as Barnes sees it, I am responsible for putting his family in danger. How? Well, not long ago, someone apparently doxed Barnes, posting personal information about Barnes and his family on Twitter.
Of course, I had nothing to do with the doxing and only learned about it later from an AVFM video. I don’t know who did it, and I have publicly condemned it several times.
I will condemn it again, right here: the doxing of Jack Barnes and his family was wrong and a deeply shitty thing to do; whoever did it is a shithead and no friend of mine.
But Barnes is convinced one of my “cult followers” did the deed and bluntly warns me that ” I hold you personally responsible for this occurring.”
Even though I did not dox him, don’t know who doxed him, did not tell anyone to dox him, and have publicly denounced doxing in general and the doxing of Barnes and his family specifically.
The TwitLonger post declares:
You have crossed a line David. This is no longer about the MHRM vs feminism. This is no longer about AVFM, which I have no affiliation with, and your website. This is no longer about Paul Elam publisher of AVFM vs you as publisher of your website. You have made this personal. This is now about me vs you.
I don’t care that your little cult follower doxxed me. But when he/she doxxed my wife and little girl it became personal.
The author of the TwitLonger post, almost certainly Barnes himself, says that he will only come to Chicago for the promised “face to face in person discussion” if his family members come to harm.
But I do not have the luxury of seeing the threats as conditional ones. There are no conditions listed when he writes:
I don’t know of any parent that would blame me for stomping a mud hole in your fucking ass and walking that motherfucker dry for what you have done! Hell, I bet even Gondi would be like “he did what to you family? Fuck him up!
He is not saying that he would only be justified in “stomping a mud hole in [my] fucking ass” if something were to happen to his family; he is saying he is justified in doing so now.
Because some person who is not me, and who is unknown to me, did something I only found out about later and that I have publicly denounced.
And a possible “stomping” is not all I have to worry about: in his AVFM post, Barnes made sure I know that he
live[s] in a state with more guns than people, where a side arm is as common as a cell phone and where it is legal for 10yr olds to hunt with high powered rifles and without adult supervision.
So I can only assume that if he ever decides to pay me an unwanted visit he will be armed.
The author of the TwitLonger post — almost certainly Barnes — declares that his obvious threats against me are not in fact threats but “simply a statement of fact.” I think any reasonable person reading these posts would see them as clear threats, and I am treating them as such.
And it is plainly obvious to me that Barnes intends to terrorize me into silence with his threats — as his “promise” on AVFM that “for the rest of your life there will be nights you cry yourself to sleep” thinking about him makes abundantly clear. His threats are consistent with the threatening language he uses against feminists online, particularly on Twitter, which are clearly intended to shut his opponents up. As he put it in one notorious Tweet
https://twitter.com/Jackbarnesmra/status/559761561028669440
Adding to the surreality of this all, Barnes and his allies at A Voice for Men are so committed to their bizarre caricature of me as some kind of cartoon supervillain that they not only blame me for things I haven’t done but for not doing things that I have done. In this case, their eyes seem to have blurred over when they’ve come across the things I’ve written condemning the doxing.
In his AVFM post, Barnes wrote that while other feminists had denounced the doxing,
there was one person who has remain eerily silent about all this. That person is David Futrelle. Seems odd since all of this doxxing was done to avenge him. There is not a peep from Futrelle about this on his site or on social media anywhere that I could find. As a parent I know my kid is up to no good when she is quiet. Wonder if the same goes for adults (assuming the word applies)?
In fact, I had condemned the doxing two days earlier in a post that Barnes has publicly acknowledged reading.
On Twitter, AVFM’s “Chief Public Relations Officer” Suzy McCarley did Barnes one better, somehow managing to miss my denunciation of the doxing in a Tweet of mine that she was literally quoting at the time, leading to this rather surrealistic exchange:
It is almost as if they are so committed to seeing me as a monster that they cannot handle it when reality defies their expectations.
Another longtime AVFM supporter, so-called “Honey Badger” Hannah Wallen, has added a decidely Kafkaesque series of Tweets to the Twitter dogpile, including one that puzzled me greatly until she explained her “logic” in more detail:
Reading "If you X, I'll Y" as "I'm gonna Y!" = admitting to planning X. What have you planned to do, doxing Dave? https://t.co/93hT4Dlsaj
— Hannah Wallen | Professional Smartass (@Oneiorosgrip) November 9, 2015
Eventually, I was able to understand that she was taking my concern over Barnes’ threats … as proof that I was planning to harm his family.
She explained her “logic” in a blog post I discovered later. Utterly ignoring my denunciations of the doxing, and of doxing in general, she declared that if i didn’t immediately “admit”that my worries about Barnes’ threats were “a completely irrational overreaction to being held responsible for the effects of his dishonest shit stirring on his followers” I was essentially admitting that I was planning some sort of attack on Barnes’ family:
[H]is current response indicates .. that he intends for harm to come Jack’s family as a result of his shit stirring, that he DOES encourage his readers to engage in this type of behavior, and that he DOES intend for one or more of his readers to respond to his writing by engaging in violence against HIS political opponents.
After all, “If X, then Y” only infers Y on the condition of X… so responding to “If you X, then I’ll Y” as if the individual has only stated “I’m going to Y” is an admission that you’ve planned on X happening.
This, I have to admit, is pretty ingenious. Kafka would be proud.
But just in case anyone thinks there is anything to Wallen’s sophistry: I do not support doxing in general, and have made this clear on numerous occasions. I did not, do not, will not support the doxing of Jack Barnes or his family, nor do I have the slightest idea who did it. I do not “intend … for harm to come [to] Jack’s family” or to him. (Indeed, I don’t even know where they live; not only did I have nothing to do with the doxing of Barnes and his family, I didn’t even know about it until after the doxing tweets were deleted.) I do not support violence against my political opponents.
All of this is obvious to anyone who actually reads what I write on this blog without their perceptions distorted by MRA-induced prejudice or preconceptions.
That said, I will not apologize for taking Barnes’ threats seriously.
Nor will I apologize for exposing misogynistic Men’s Rights activists to the light of day — not by “shit stirring” or engaging in Wallen-esque sophistry, but by quoting their own words and reporting their real deeds.
And when people harass and threaten me — whether that’s Barnes, those at AVFM who have aided and abetted his threats, or anyone else — I will take every legal step I feel is necessary for my safety and the safety of others.
This post is one of those steps.
I’m in Chicago, if you need something I could help you with, btw, not that I expect you to need help from strangers but just in case.
I just don’t agree that it’s being hyperskeptical to assume this never actually happened. They’ve lied every step of the way in this whole fiasco. If he was doxxed then I think that’s terrible. But I’m happily convinced that he made the whole thing up.
well @kale made a very good point, the person who set up the original twitter account, should hold themselves accountable and make clear just who they are.
Let me add my 2 eurocents…
David: I’m sorry that assholes are proving how much of an asshole they are. Stay safe, and I will stand with you, as much as I can do so from where I am right now.
MRA/Redpillers/whatever: Doxxing is not OK, and only assholes do doxxing (aka distributing Real Life information such as addresses, phone numbers, family details, etc with the intent to harm people — quoting their visible online posts verbatim is not doxxing, just so we’re clear about what we’re talking about). It is not OK when you do it, it is not OK when anyone else does it.
And again, David has condemned the practice of doxxing with his every breath during the time I’ve been here.
He has actively removed comments that veer towards that direction (such as “look at here this link, info therein”, which has happened once or twice?), and he has removed comments wishing for physical harm, and he has a comment policy in place.
I wish I could say the same thing about y’lot, MRA folks.
Jack Barnes:
1) I’m sorry that someone is an asshole and has done this to you. It is NOT okay, but your info does not float in mammothsphere, all of us are baffled about it, and looking at this convo thread, the mammothsphere condemns doxxing loudly.
2) That said, while the urge to protect your family is OK, this sort of threatening you’ve been posturing and strutting towards David is not. This is not tone policing (such as “if you said this nicer way, we’d listen”) — this is “holy shit dude, you’re crossing the border between legal and illegal in such way that the police speed radar broke”.
3) And the terrorist tactic you’re levering at feminists? Fuck you, asshole. Since posturing seems to be the only way you understand anything: I will continue saying that I’m a feminist ’till fire goes out in my eyes and my dying breath rasps it out and my heart stands still. There, dramaz for you and please note that a) I never said what kills me or b) there’s no threat towards you either. Just in case.
For everyone else, in normal language: I’m a feminist.
@dhag
I hear you, and I understand where you’re coming from. I also understand why Bina is upset. I guess my point is that we know that the Internet is full of jerks who dox people, so it’s really believable that he was doxxed. And if that happened, he probably doesn’t know who did it and he’s either assuming the guy he’s been arguing with over the Internet is responsible or the person referenced an article of David’s. I think we’d be as likely to assume that gamergate was behind a similar attack against Anita or Zoe, and maybe even make that assumption without good evidence.
I’m not saying he’s in the right, here or that we shouldn’t continue to expose his lies when we find evidence that he’s lying. I’m not saying that we should assume anything that comes out of his mouth/keyboard is true. I’m saying that we shouldn’t engage in behavior that we recognize as poor when it’s done to our own, and I feel that we’re starting to do that here.
Does it really matter (from our perspective) whether he was really doxxed or not? It seems to me that the basic facts are the same either way: It’s wrong to doxx, it’s also wrong to threaten people, and David didn’t do anything.
@autosoma – Yay! I’m glad I wasn’t too unclear 😀
I’m having some medical problems that have caused some issues, so I haven’t been sure if what I’ve written makes sense to other people or just me.
@Bina, et al: I think it’s more than fair to assume, given past information and actions, to assume that this whole thing is something that the MRA crowd has stirred up themselves.
But I also think that, hey, this could be a time something’s actually happened. Hell, maybe even someone in the MRM or with MRM sympathies anonymously did this to Barnes knowing that he has a hair trigger temper – that he’s a useful tool.
We just don’t know.
All we can do is condemn any action that may have been taken, right?
Proud feminist, grateful reader, just wanted to add to the flood of support for David, who does wonderful work. I hope everyone involved, including Jack Barnes and his family, are able to be *and feel* safe.
Like a number of others in this thread I’m a fanatic lurker and read most of the comments. I’ve always known violence, harassment, and doxxing to be strongly condemned here by both David and the regular commenters. This is one of the kindest comment sections on the interwebs*.
*to non-trolls, obvs.
@kupo
The difference, of course, being that GG did nothing but dox and harass people, while Futrelle has never done anything of the sort. But yeah, I think we are in general agreement. I’m just saying, in my heart of hearts, do I believe he was doxxed? Nope.
@katz
Exactly. It makes no difference at all, except that if this asshole faked the doxxing it makes him even more of an asshole. I’d actually like to know.
I initially believed the doxxing had taken place. I always believe victims first, even if I dont think they are the best people or whatever. However when I went to find evidence of this doxxing to confirm (after reading the skepticism here) I found it a bit fishy. For example, one of the tweets Barnes is showing on AVfM has what is clearly a quote of Barnes’ blocked out as “personal information” (it’s kind of hard to explain in text form, but if you see the original post you will know what I mean I presume). That kind of thing strikes me as someone trying to manipulate. However, the fact is that someone created a twitter account named Jack Barnes Doxx. So we know that much. Secondly, as others have said, it doesnt really matter if it DOES turn out to be fake, our response – condemning doxxing in general – is appropriate. Do we really want to risk victim-denying, which is indeed what victims “on our side” experience. The victim of threats here, David, set an example himself by NOT accusing Barnes of making it all up. If it turns out to be a hoax we can be proud of ourselves for responding appropriately anyway by supporting the victim and more importantly his innocent family. No matter how awful someone is no one (and certainly not their family) deserves that. If we call it a hoax and it turns out to be real, we are going to feel like and be seen as assholes in retrospect. So even if we have reason to doubt we still should be saying that doxxing is wrong, period, and that if someone comes to us and says they were doxxed, we will support them, even an MRA who brags about abusing others.
It may be worth noting that Judgy Bitch has also made a post saying that she will murder people who threaten her. I think that’s pretty fucked up. I mean, I get the whole self defense thing but these people arent talking about defending themselves, they are talking about killing people who they feel have made some sort of threat against them – in Barnes’ case, someone who was NOT The one making the threat, and in fact the person making the threat didnt even make a threat. If someone says “I know where you live” that doesnt give you a right to go murder them, and it certainly doesnt give you a right to murder someone whose work they read (who condemns their actions!). THis isn’t FAllout, we have ways of dealing with vague internet threats without resorting to murder threats as retaliation. It just seems like some of these people are seeking excuses to threaten to kill people.
Jack Barnes wrote in an article on AVFM in February of this year that several people had tried to doxx him. No evidence that time either.
I’m completely against internet vigilante justice against individuals no matter the circumstance. Be it the guy who killed a lion or an asshat like Jack Barnes, I’m not for it. It would have to special case involving a person in power, like a police officer advocating racial violence, for me to budge on that. In part because their family and others who are blameless may be caught in the crossfire, but in the end it’s just wrong.
This is why I have no patience for the asshole troll who made CPA comment.
I also have no patience for Jack Barnes’ theatrics over this. As far as I can tell, he’s pointing to one twitter account briefly posting public information. Is that info being passed around 4Chan or elsewhere by people trying to start a continued harassment campaign against him? I don’t doubt it disturbing see your info posted, but that’s one person. If this one person continues to harass him, I hope Barnes is able to protect himself in every legal way imaginable. This doxing isn’t a excuse for his ridiculously inflammatory rhetoric however.
I’ll just add my voice to those uncomfortable with doubting Barnes claims. I feel like its to close to the way that his ilk dismiss there own harassment. We’re better than that.
@Zeb
Honestly I think that’s false equivalence bs.
I agree with Katz that it doesn’t matter whether or not Barnes is telling the truth about being doxxed. Either way, David condemns it, almost certainly didn’t do it, and the culture in the comments is anti-doxxing as well. We really don’t have anything to lose by giving him the benefit of the doubt despite any reasons we may have to be skeptical. The veracity of the claim is for law enforcement to sort out.
JudgyBitch’s latest post is interesting – apparently this drama is all about her and she needs to threaten violence in case anybody comes to get her. The irony? She is a genuine victim of doxing – by her own team, who recklessly used her real name in a video.
I hit post before finishing my point. Which was that the story here isn’t that Barnes said he was doxxed. The story is that he’s harassing and threatening David without any evidence whatsoever that David or any of us did anything to him.
We don’t have anything to gain by arguing about whether or not Barnes was really doxxed. The bottom line is, we can’t know for sure. Despite all the reasons to be skeptical. Not unless the authorities get involved and there’s an investigation, which I doubt will happen.
@wwth
You’re right. Maybe I should’ve kept it to myself. It’s just so glaringly obvious to me, and it pisses me off to no end. I won’t discuss it further here.
dhag85: Why? Why can’t we just believe the victim by default? I’m not saying it justify’s any of the actions he’s taken. I’m not saying that he’s a good person or worthy of respect. All I’m saying is that casting doubt on his doxxing- especially since with David removed as a responsible party because of his repeated condemnation of the practice over the years meaning that there is no individual being accused- helps no one.
@Zeb
I do believe the victim by default. In this case I’ve left the default state for reasons that should be obvious. But like I said above, I’m not gonna discuss it further. My opinion has been stated for no good reason, and that’s enough.
I hadn’t read weirwoodtreehugger’s post or dhag85’s response when I wrote that. I’m not trying to revive the argument.
@Zeb
Don’t worry. I realized that. 🙂
– Janet Bloomfield
As for whether the doxxer was a WHTM reader or not, I’d think it would be pretty fucking unlikely for one of our regulars to attack someone for being a “fat ginger”. Not the kind of thing I usually see in the comments here.
Not caught up because holy shit guys, I go grocery shopping and a whole page happens? This is why we’re better than them — not just the stance on dox’ing, but our response is to circle the wagons, not go out shooting ourselves in the foot (feet?).
Thank you everyone for defining SWATing, I am indeed very glad I didn’t joke that of course we swat them, just like we would any mosquito cuz fuck, we use words, not threats to people’s safety! And anyone here who did that would soon find themselves pointed to the door, the one past the room of legos even.
Seraph — I feel you on the internet rage thing, good to see you around though 🙂
Kupo — nail, meet hammer, you hit the nail on the head with that one.
Mockingbird — thank you, I was beginning to wonder if we, as a community, we’re gonna slack on that one due to the truly outlandish behavior displayed in the OP.