As the Dust Settles....

So apparently at around 6 PM today the world is about to end.

Damn, couldn't it wait until Monday after the Miami Heat versus the Chicago Bulls basketball game? Come on man....

Seriously though, if you are even moderately involved in the RLSH community or the going ons of the "other community" then you should know by now that Zetaman has essentially called it quits. His departure was apparently galvanized by a recent blog in which some very unsettling details of his personal life were brought out in to the open. What came after that was nothing short of a grotesque debacle. Mudslinging insults, twisted truths, venomous lies, people dragged into the conversation without their consent, ect..in other words long laundry list of misery. The response from both sides was expected. Rage against the blog writer and some who commented in the most heinous and despicable ways. Sorrow for the loss of a RLSH who has been a major part of the movement and accomplished many good things. Confusion as to why this ongoing chess match from hell between both sides continues to play itself out and why people who wear the guise of heroes and those who say villainy is just for kicks would stoop so low. The aftermath has left alot of people commenting, each offering what they feel is their truth, their personal piece of wisdom to the matter. So since today the world is supposed to end far be it for me to let the world spiral into the dark crescendo of oblivion without saying a few words myself.

I do not hesitate to state with conviction that I have little or no love for the RLSV community. As others have mentioned before me, hate speech, even when it starts under the guise of satire or sadistic entertainment is wrong. It is wrong because of what it is and the potential it has of becoming if the right elements creep into its equation and turn words in weapons, dislike into raging animosity, harsh words into violence and physical suffering. It is my firm belief that the RLSV underestimate the potential hate that their words can breed. How many Tothian incidents do we need to see before we realize how dangerous it can get? How many Zetaman incidents (the tire slashing, his resignation from the RLSH) do we have to see before we realize that things can go too far in hurry? How many times must we work to temper the anger of a Krampus because they have spent years being villified and watching people he loves be villified in turn with hate speech? You can question his methods or his words as I have both publically and privately even as I have made attempts to push him away from edge but can you REALLY blame him for caring about the physical and mental well being of his friends? Can you blame his for being angry? Is that wrong? I hardly think so. Truth be told me and him, especially after the Tothain incident began to see that things were snowballing in a very bad direction and we spoke out on it but apparently it was not enough. In the aftermath of the Zetaman incident we shake our heads in disbelief, knowing that to ask the question "Why?" is a Pandoras box of it's own.

But the RLSH / costumed activists do not get a free pass. Apparently some of the informants for that blog information either gave half truths, lies, or egged on the blog writer. Apparently their are those calling themselves RLSH who are playing both sides, acting under the guise of a hero when it suits them but then donning the mask of villainy when they deem it appropriate. The comments supposedly made by these double agents on the blog were so disgustingly personal and venomously offensive that you didn't need a fortune teller to know how it was going to end up. Shame on those who carry the RLSH name and yet sold themselves out like cheap prostitutes in the name of getting some lulz out of watching a mans reputation dissected like some twisted sicence experiment gone bad and his personal life shredded life confetti for the blogosphere to see.

But just as I own this blog and am the final arbitrator of what goes on it and what stays off it so did the writer of the now removed blog. It was a poweder keg waiting to go off - I saw it and so did a few others. Casting blame on the people who provided the information used to create the blog, whether they were truths, exaggerated truth or lies, or blatant falsehoods is a cheap excuse. It's the equivalent of passing the buck when it comes to the ethical and moral responsibility that a blogger carries when something they write gets way out of hand and ends in disastrous consequences. As one RLSH who is respected in both communities told me in private "the blog was a hatchet job". As Knight Owl put it "regardless of whatever charities, humanitarian causes a person supports you do not do the world any favors by attempting to knock down a philanthropist." As Silver Sentinel said "Hate speech is not humorous.  Hate speech is not constructive.  Ultimately hate speech destroys and even kills..". Given how many times history had proven these words true on would think human beings would have gotten a clue by now but apparently for all our so called evolution we still have a ways to go apparently.

Both sides screwed up and my fear is that it will happen again. It will happen again because in this game of trying to one up the other side, in the game of ridicule/sadistic entertainment and manipulation of truth for cheap laughs, in the game of puffing out your chest and declaring "Hah!!! Did you see how stupid I made them look", we seem to have lost our way. We seem to have forgotten about the concept of human decency, or respecting ones personal life, and the growing trend seems to be fostering hate speech and animosity and treating it as a game or harmless humor when we should know otherwise by now. Everyone, even myself share blame in this ongoing senseless cycle of foolishness. We have not acted as we should. As a collective, we should have been better than this no matter what side you are one. Hate is not harmless. Words can be weaponized and if you don't believe me then you are a poor student of history.

And as a public declaration on my part I affirm my friendship to Krampus but I do not condone nor do I agree with any violent actions unless it is in absolute defense of himself or his loved ones. I do not believe it will come to this. I have worked tirelessly both openly and behind the scenes to bring things back to an acceptable level of sanity...sanity being scarcer than normal lately by both sides. I hold faith that my labor will bear fruit. But even as I tell Krampus and others with potentially similar thoughts to "sheath their claws" it's important to remember what brought us to this point. The signs were there that something like this would happen. I spoke out on it as has Krampus, Silver Sentinel, Crossfire, and alot of others. It was my hope that people would understand that things were moving in the wrong direction and change course but that was not the case. As we stand upon the ruins of broken wisdom and festering arrogance we have a choice to make. Do we continue along the reckless path of previous, giving hatemongering fertile ground for history to repeat itself possibly worse than before or do we learn from past mistakes and truly move forward.

Choose wisely.