Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada
Can you imagine what it would be like to deliberately choose, instead, to inhabit a dreary world of continual ugliness, mockery, and malice?
(Wikimedia CC; click on image to enlarge it.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The internet is a place where rumors can be presented as fact, anonymous accusations can be leveled and spread publicly without the slightest evidence to back them, and unethical actions can be made up out of whole cloth and freely (though falsely) imputed to named individuals.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been a victim of this sort of thing for many years. \u00a0Most notably, but not solely, at the hands of the dedicated defamer whom I\u2019ve labeled my \u201cMalevolent Stalker.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I just came across a false accusation a few minutes ago \u2014 apparently it\u2019s yet another of his \u2014 that\u2019s apparently been percolating on the nasty little message board where he holds court since at least sometime in early- to mid-August.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The accusation\u00a0says that I was apparently so angry about somebody\u2019s criticisms of me that I contacted the college or university with which he\u2019s affiliated \u2014 I don\u2019t know which one it might be, though I think I recall that it\u2019s in Illinois, and I don\u2019t know whether he\u2019s a student or a member of the faculty, though I think he\u2019s in philosophy \u2014 and tried to create difficulties with him there. \u00a0(Perhaps I was attempting to have him fired. \u00a0Who knows? \u00a0I surely don\u2019t.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lie,\u201d goes the famous maxim, \u201ccan travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all too true, I\u2019m afraid \u2014 whoever may originally have said it. \u00a0(The saying has been attributed to Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, and several others.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, for what it\u2019s worth, I want to publicly deny the accusation.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s entirely false.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It simply didn\u2019t happen. \u00a0I didn\u2019t do it in this case, and I\u2019ve never done anything like it in any other case.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I would consider such an act entirely inappropriate, and perhaps \u2014 if this fictional case were as it\u2019s been described \u2014 even unethical.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Such is the demonology, though, that\u2019s grown up about me in certain circles. \u00a0It\u2019s made them very, very gullible \u2014 indeed, overeager, insatiably craving more and more evidence of my unspeakable depravity. \u00a0No evidence is needed. \u00a0In fact, each new false accusation immediately becomes plausible because the previous fabrications have been swallowed hook, line, and sinker. \u00a0Thus, of course, there\u2019s been much clucking in response to this latest fiction about how \u201cdespicable\u201d my supposed action was, how it fits my general modus operandi<\/em>, and so forth.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not irrelevant, I think, that the Greek\u00a0\u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03b2\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2<\/span>\u00a0(di\u00e1bolos<\/i>) \u2014 from which our words devil<\/em> and diabolical<\/em> derive \u2014 means \u201cslanderer,\u201d \u201ccalumniator,\u201d \u00a0or \u201caccuser.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 The internet is a place where rumors can be presented as fact, anonymous accusations can be leveled and spread publicly without the slightest evidence to back them, and unethical actions can be made up out of whole cloth and freely (though falsely) imputed to named individuals. \u00a0 I\u2019ve been a victim of this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Moraine](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/09\/800px-Morainelake.jpg\")
<\/a>