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#GetSilent: The Anatomy of an Ignored Issue; Part One: “MAGA Martha”

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If you missed the prologue to this story, you need to read it before delving into this part; there’s simply too much to sum up to get us to this next point. All of the information in this post has come from people involved, either directly or peripherally. If they’ve asked me to obscure their identities, I have.

Also, please note: the information here is presented without screenshots. The reason for this is that there are so many, the posts will become too image heavy and frankly, difficult to read. These screenshots can be produced at a moment’s notice via email or social media if any of the “Sassies” or their supporters feel they are being slandered and need to take any of the legal action they’ve baselessly threatened others with.

In January of 2019, a reader known as Nikki was temporarily suspended from Twitter as a result of an argument with some of the “Sassies” (now consisting of M.R. Rutter, Paula M. Hunter, Gloria Geiger, and K.N. Blackburn). Nikki, it should be noted, was an early critic of Santino Hassel. As a result, she had changed her Twitter display name to “Nikki C. Fisher,” a play on “catfisher,” the popular term for someone who lies about their identity for personal gain on the internet. When Lissa Gromley blogged about her experience with the Sassies, she handed over three-thousand pages of the Sassies’ private chat to Fisher, who posted details about the Sassies’ treatment of Gromley on Twitter. As support for Gromley grew among the readers and bloggers associated with Fisher (and as another, unrelated author scandal unfolded), the Sassies employed a tactic they had congratulated themselves about in their private chat: they “discovered” information about Fisher and exposed her true identity: author Nikki Fisher.

Blackburn attacked Fisher, accusing her of “lying, and looking for notoriety.” Fisher denied lying about anyone; she’d recently unfollowed a large number of people due to their association with another author and tweeted about it, but she genuinely had no idea about Gromley or the Sassies. Still, they piled on, with Geiger boasting:

“One should use their names investigative skills when going after someone especially for they claim to be a writer. As we do investigate and research EVERYTHING! The targeting was not only inappropriate it was truly immature and deserving of the loss that followed. Meg we got you!”

Fisher responded:

“What targeting? Everyone is talking about it but no one wants to tell me where this targeting is?”

Geiger insisted that Fisher had deleted a tweet slandering Rutter, demanded an apology, and warned that her actions would harm her career. Blackburn also alleged that Fisher had deleted a tweet and also demanded an apology, going so far as to say that the people who unfollowed Fisher did so because they knew she was spreading misinformation. Yet, Fisher still insisted she had no idea what was going on.

Because she didn’t. Because Nikki Fisher, author, and Nikki C. Fisher, blogger, weren’t the same people, despite Geiger’s crowing about their extensive research. Their shoddy detective work had caused an innocent author to lose followers and readers, and they refused to back down, fully convinced that Nikki C. Fisher and Nikki Fisher were the same person.

Later that month, Gromley wrote her blog post about her experiences with the Sassies, and conflict ensued between (the real) Nikki C. Fisher and the group. Blackburn referenced her alleged career success and swollen bank account several times to imply that the “trolls” were jealous (a quick check of her Amazon profile on March 18, 2019, showed her as being the author of one book, currently ranked lower than #25,000 in each of its categories and #996,984 overall) and threatened that Gromley would be served with a lawsuit the next week (she was not, and has not been, to date). As the Twitter spat went on, a suspicious account popped up in defense of Blackburn.

Reader Angela says:

“One morning Nikki told us in a chat that she was in twitter jail for something involving all those authors. I don’t remember what tweet was reported though. So we starting being funny on twitter and doing this #FreeNikki stuff. I decided to check the mentions of the people involved and saw some random person tweeted KN and said she was looking for a series to read and found her on twitter and sorry she has all these trolls. I clicked on her and it’s just all maga. She supports the maga hat kids and said the elder was guilty of “stolen valor” and just all the crap maga people say. There’s no way this person is a romance reader in my mind. There’s also no damn way you could use any general search terms on amazon and have KN’s book show up. So I know this is all set up. So you can see what happened after that.”

“MAGA Martha” had created her account in January of 2019, very close to the time that Nikki Fisher, author, had been incorrectly doxed. Her bio claimed that she’d been locked out of her past account and that was why her current account was so new. Martha rushed to Blackburn’s defense, stating that she should block trolls and that Martha, a new account who’d only ever tweeted vitriolic conservative talking points before and nothing at all about books, was excited to buy Blackburn’s novel. When blogger Darien Moya saw Martha’s “stolen valor” remarks about Nathan Phillips, she tweeted her objections; Martha fired back, accusing Moya, a black woman, of racism against white people (though at one point, Martha, whose user pic was of a white woman with blonde hair, accuses Moya of incorrectly assuming that Martha was white).

Meanwhile, Blackburn received a one-star review on her book, a review which she blamed on the blogger Fisher, calling it fake and telling another Twitter user that she had contacted Amazon to take it down. They did not take it down, likely because the review was highly detailed, including plot points that one couldn’t know without at least skimming the book. Blackburn bragged on Twitter that she had only positive reviews and therefore this one must have been fake. One of those reviews came from “Phil.” Shortly after Gromley’s break with the Sassies, Phil posted five reviews on the same day: two five-stars for Geiger, one apiece for Hunter and Blackburn, and a one-star for Gromley that read only “badly researched. DNF.” Before that, the Phil account was occasionally reviewing the odd electronic item or books about horticulture. Phil’s passion for indie romance appeared to spring up just in time to one-star bomb Gromley and praise the other Sassies.

Except for Rutter. Because according to Gromley and others, Phil is her husband. Rutter allegedly used her husband’s account to five star her friends’ books and one-star Gromley. These actions are consistent with the Sassies’ policy of “when we do it, it’s okay.” Though they screamed down a valid, if critical, review as fake, they’re fine with fake reviews tilted in their favor.

Blackburn also accused Angela and Moya of “going after” MAGA Martha simply because Martha had stated she would buy Blackburn’s book. In Blackburn’s world, it was inconceivable that someone would be more concerned with white supremacy than with Blackburn’s books and career. She continued to insist that a personal vendetta was the only reason anyone cared about the contents of MAGA Martha’s racist tweets. Blackburn piled on Moya, mocking her for using African-American Vernacular English and demanding that Moya “use proper English” when speaking to her. When several people pointed out the racism in her tweet, Blackburn doubled down:

“Asking someone to speak proper English isn’t bigoted. If I went to Spain, I would speak Spanish. If I was speaking to a Frenchman, I would speak French. I speak proper English. I would like the same courtesy, please. 🙂 “

She goes on to taunt Moya by asking if Moya dropped out of high school and advising her to get a GED. As her racist insults escalated, Blackburn accused Moya of hiding her identity to “[…]smear others without fallout[…].”

Again, this group of authors privately bragged about bringing their sockpuppet accounts into Twitter arguments to fight on their side. When they do it, it’s “sassy.” When others tweet from their actual accounts, they’re dishonest and probably tweeting under an assumed identity.

Despite MAGA Martha’s continued abuse of Moya, Blackburn didn’t step in to shut it down, even when other readers appealed to her to do so. Nor did Geiger, who stepped in to defend MAGA Martha in a series of Tweets from her author account:

“As an author I DO NOT control the views, be it political, religious, or otherwise of my followers or readers. And I do not care it’s their right to those things. If they want to read my books then good I’m glad. But if someone else has a problem with these things, too damn bad!

“I will not follow the hypocrites and be rude or nasty to someone just because they like a politician who everyone else despises. Or because their religion is one where they worship in Mosk or are Wiccan. I will not put MY own personal views on anyone who wants to read my work

“And neither should anyone else. I watched as 2 people trashed an author and a new reader because the reader supports a politician that is EXTREMELY unpopular. Neither deserved the attack at all. And furthermore this reader is actually a very nice per who, after reading my

“Friends book posted it to HER Facebook page and told all her friends, also book readers, to get my friends books. As authors we do not want to put our feelings/views upon others shutting out those who don’t fit in our little cookie cutter life. To this reader I want to say,

“Thank you for being an awesome person and reader! You didn’t deserve that attack and neither did my friend. But I am glad you stood your ground and defended your right to be an individual. Authors do not control their audience.”

To Geiger and Blackburn, white supremacy was simply a difference of opinion that should be lauded. MAGA Martha was a brave, noble figure. Meanwhile, Martha began assembling photoshop collages of Moya’s tweets to “prove” that Moya was the real racist. These tweets included telling Blackburn that no one cared about who read her books, that nobody needed to create sockpuppet accounts, and calling Martha “Becky” and telling her to watch Fox and Friends. The strongest racial statement Moya makes in any of the screenshots is to say “AMEN!” in a quoted tweet about white people needing to assimilate into the human race, a tweet that had nothing to do with any of the Sassies.

Since I started trying to piece together this story, I’ve had several people theorize to me that MAGA Martha is Blackburn’s own alt-account. Some claim it’s Rutter’s or Geiger’s sockpuppet. But it’s generally agreed that MAGA Martha is the outlet for one of the Sassies to air her white supremacist grievances. Why else would they rally around MAGA Martha? Why else would they risk their careers by standing up for a proud white supremacist?

In a tweet, Blackburn says:

“Woke up to record-breaking sales! [star eyes, mind-blown emojis] I sold the most copies I’ve ever sold in one day yesterday, including release day. Considering yesterday’s events, I’m super grateful to everyone who voiced support or gave HMH a shot. [heart emoji] Thank you all! [heart emoji].”

Perhaps they view vocal white supremacists a crucial part of their reader base? In any case, the Sassies now sought to spin themselves as victims of a vicious attack, frequently implying that Blackburn couldn’t have committed any degree of racism due to Blackburn being “more native than not” (she is a self-proclaimed descendant of Pocahontas.) In a February Tweet, Blackburn stated:

“[…] I have an oddly large bone structure for a woman too, courtesy of the cross breed between my German/Irish father and my very Native mother (Apache, Algonquin, Cherokee, Creek, Pueblo, Blackfoot, Comanche, as far as we know).”

Some Twitter users doubted this claim, as in the past she’d talked about the love story between her Nazi-with-a-heart-of-gold grandfather and her Jewish grandmother who fell for each other in a concentration camp. Her use of the term “cross breed” and insistence that there was no racial component to telling someone not to use the language of their culture also raised eyebrows among a few Native readers; at one point in the conversation, Blackburn says:

“LOL, how dare I ask someone to speak my language!”

Later, she tries to deflect another Twitter user’s accusation of racism by claiming that English isn’t her native language at all.

People also became concerned over an unearthed tweet in which Blackburn stated that the Vikings were the original inhabitants of North America. As the latter is an oft-repeated white supremacist talking point, it led some to believe that MAGA Martha was Blackburn’s account, after all. This rumor gained traction the more Blackburn tweeted to defend her anti-black racist attacks on Moya’s speech:

“The act of speaking the language most spoken and taunt in our country is not racist. Can people use the language to say racist things? Sure. Your friends here have done it plenty. [shrug emoji]”

Blackburn now cast herself as the true victim of racism, despite continuing to argue that mocking AAVE had no racial connotations.

“Proper English is that derived from William Shakespeare, responsible for most of the modern words that we use. No, it isn’t a racial concept. It’s a literary one. Like there isn’t a big enough racial issue, let’s make words one too!”

When other Twitter users continued to point out that there absolutely is a racial component to language, especially in the United States, Blackburn leaped to a new tactic: accuse anyone who mocked Geiger’s spelling of “mosque” as “mosk” of being ableist due to Geiger’s history of traumatic brain injury.

Mocking spelling errors can arguably be deemed ableist depending on context; namely, whether or not the misspelling is intentional or a mistake. But there was no context for Geiger’s brain injury. Geiger had explained her “mosk” tweet as being the result of using speech-to-text. After people pointed out that they were unable to elicit “mosk” in place of “mosque” with their own speech-to-text programs (and because the word was used in a series of tweets defending and praising a white supremacist), they assumed Geiger’s typo was a satirical misspelling aimed to the eye dialect of the alt-right. When Geiger’s condition came to light, several of those mocking her acknowledged their mistake and called for others to stop pointing out the misspelling. But now, Blackburn and her defenders felt her anti-AAVE screed against Moya (which began before Geiger’s tweet was mocked) was somehow justified:

“Doesn’t matter. You all took place. Silence is compliance. When you don’t speak out against it, you are guilty of it. You posted it with the intent to have her mocked for having a traumatic brain injury. Seriously, think about how that makes you all look.”

Blackburn felt that Angela, who had tweeted screenshots of Geiger’s rant in defense of MAGA Martha, had done so with the sole purpose of creating an ableist dogpile. Blackburn also began tweeting that those calling her out for her racist campaign against Moya would be sued for deliberately and maliciously harming Blackburn’s business, a claim that seemed difficult to prove after all her public gloating over her success and the great sales the controversy had earned her. To date, no one has been served, though several sockpuppet accounts have emerged threatening to investigate parties involved in order to file suits.

Considering the Sassie’s previous attempts, it won’t be surprising if their stellar detective work leads to Blackburn suing the wrong individual.

In February, a screenshot of a 2016 rant from Blackburn’s public Facebook account cast more doubt on Blackburn’s motivations for mocking Moya’s speech:

“I have kept silent for the most part, but I’ve had it up to my eyebrows hearing about how the Oscars are too white and that black kids don’t have enough role models to look up to. This is my question: why are you teaching your children that in order for someone to be a role model, they have to share your skin color or heritage? My husband and I watch UFC. We still haven’t missed a fight in over two years. It’s likely that [redacted] is going to grow up watching the sport, liking it, maybe even wanting to participate in it himself. I would never limit my son by only pointing out the white fighters, or the only Irish title holder in the UFC’s history, just because we’re white and have a lot of Irish ancestry. There are some seriously gifted fighters who are black. If my son came home and said that he wanted to be like Demetrius Johnson or Jon Jones, I would tell him to go for it; work hard like they do, put your heart and soul into what you love, and one day, you’ll be as good as they are. Because when I look at people, I don’t see the color of their skin. I see their personality, their drive and devotion, their work ethic and their accomplishments. That’s what makes someone a role model, not the color of skin they were born with.”

 

Come back for Part Two: Down The Toilet

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51 Comments

  1. Small jar of fireflies
    Small jar of fireflies

    I was very baffled by the tweets that didn’t seem to get that AAVE is a dialect. I didn’t realize the kindest thing that can be said about that author is that she thinks she’s speaking Shakespearean English.

    March 20, 2019
    |Reply
    • Larissa
      Larissa

      Because Shakespearian English was correct at the time? Noooooo. Man loved his low-brow peasant talk slang.

      March 20, 2019
      |Reply
      • Small jar of fireflies
        Small jar of fireflies

        Historians have long been aware that the devolution of early modern English into its current form ended the possibility of the linguistically perfect genital joke.

        March 21, 2019
        |Reply
    • Riea
      Riea

      When she said that if she went to Spain she would speak Spanish and if she went to France she woukd speak French as a defense I was like wtf? Like does she not realize that in different parts of these countries their languages are spoken differently. Does she not know what a dialect is?

      April 1, 2019
      |Reply
  2. One point I’ve seen made about people who assume everyone else is lying/ganging up on ___/-ist, and make a big stink about it only to demonstrate those same abusive behaviors themselves is that they make that assumption that everyone else acts the same fucking way they do, and can’t fathom that it’s possible not everyone is a complete asshole.

    I’ve seen this shit happen with MAGAs, with BernieBros, with anti-vaxxers, with vegans, with survivors of ___, in fandoms, academic groups, writing groups, and it’s its own kind of privilege. People see and experience the world in different ways, and it’s not a fucking contest for one way to be right and all the rest to be wrong, and anyone who disagrees is a hater, and ____ is JUST LIKE rape/the Holocaust. (No. Fucking NOTHING is like rape/the Holocaust.) If you are not with us, then you are with the terrorists, and “us” never makes mistakes, ever.

    And it leads to bullshit like what these assholes are doing.

    March 20, 2019
    |Reply
  3. Larissa
    Larissa

    I’ve seen this behavior in most online communities. Remind me to tell you about Meanie Jeanie and her bullshit bullying/gatekeeping over waterfowl.

    Anywhoooo, I said it once, but it bears repeating: these are garbage people.

    March 20, 2019
    |Reply
  4. I was trying to follow and got a lot of the info from others but BOY, these blog posts are showing how detestable these ladies really are. Thanks for doing the Lord’s work here Jenny.

    These jerks on Twitter are lying through their teeth with all the sock puppet accounts, Kay Blackburn’s ancestral appropriation, Rutter’s claim to be a forensic anthropologist, etc.

    This making me ill. I feel for all the people these Sassy ladies have hurt. And are still trying to do so. Now they are going after Nikki’s children. I’m not lying and it’s disgusting.

    March 20, 2019
    |Reply
  5. shadowmaster13
    shadowmaster13

    Boy after all that I think she night have lied repeatedly about her ethnic heritage. Apparently she’s a massively Irish descendant of a concentration camp guard and a Jewish victim AND all the First Nations she’s heard of?

    But then a white person claiming any heritage they can to excuse white supremacy sure isn’t tracking their lies to keep them consistent

    March 20, 2019
    |Reply
    • Her Fb narrative about her ancestry changed mysteriously too. She’s more full of shit than an outback dunny.

      March 21, 2019
      |Reply
    • Anon
      Anon

      There is absolutely no way that a concentration camp guard fell in love with and married a Jewish woman. The people working in the camps were the most vile, evil, cruel true believers outside of Hitler’s closest circle. They most certainly did not fall in love with their victims. They may have raped them, but they never loved them.

      I’d like to stick some hot pokers through her eyes for that statement alone.

      March 21, 2019
      |Reply
      • H
        H

        Not to mention the idea that one of the women being TORTURED and seeing loved ones, friends and others of her faith KILLED by these horrible guards ~fell in loooove~ with one? What. The. Fuck. There are some things you just don’t say when you’re trying to come up with the very most star-crossed lovers ever for your fictional grandparents.

        March 22, 2019
        |Reply
        • Was she the romance author who tried to write this story recently, and it got slammed by various online communities, from other writers to survivors?

          I’m only half-kidding. Was that her, or is there more than one oblivious white asshole who thinks the horrors of history = romance inspo?

          March 24, 2019
          |Reply
          • Small jar of fireflies
            Small jar of fireflies

            This has been a thing. Usually its in online fiction, I doubt it’d easily find a publisher. I’m not sure if it’s Holocaust denial or just… A problem with perception in general. I’d suspect the first has to be involved, but I’d rather not do a dive to confirm.

            March 25, 2019
          • Amber
            Amber

            Unless it happened multiple times recently, I’m thinking of the cancelled YA book A Place For Wolves. Takes place in a foreign country during a war that had a giant helping of ethnic cleansing, centered around a couple American boys. It was run off the face of the earth by YA Twitter, but if it hadn’t been, apparently it was mediocre-ish and would’ve fell flat on its own.

            March 31, 2019
    • Riea
      Riea

      Also the I can’t be racist because I’m a non-white person is so dumb. Anyone can be racist

      April 1, 2019
      |Reply
  6. “Nikki Fisher, author, and Nikki C. Fisher, blogger, weren’t the same people”

    they… they actually thought someone trying for a secret pseudonym would put this little effort in? I question these investigative skills, I really do

    “. Blackburn bragged on Twitter that she had only positive reviews and therefore this one must have been fake”

    I wouldn’t want all positive reviews. I assume that just means no-one’s read your book. All positive reviews means only friends and relatives have posted one

    Thank you for bringing this together. I have seen edges of this on Twitter but have generally been lost i long long threads of “who are these people?!”

    March 20, 2019
    |Reply
  7. de Pizan
    de Pizan

    So, she’s a direct descendant of Pocahontas, but not one of those many tribes she listed is one that Pocahontas came from.

    March 20, 2019
    |Reply
    • Well, to be fair, all them red-brown people look the same, right? *eye roll*

      March 21, 2019
      |Reply
    • Small jar of fireflies
      Small jar of fireflies

      If you zoom out, I think she’s considered Algonquian?

      Since her marriage to Rolfe was dubiously consensual (and, uh, it looks like she was kidnapped away from her Native husband…) It seems a bit awkward to claim in a discussion on diversity. There are surviving descendants of hers.

      March 21, 2019
      |Reply
  8. jj
    jj

    I just can’t over the tribes she listed. Like how does she think tribes work? Or is she suggesting every white ancestor in her maternal lineage married someone from a different tribe? That seems very geographically complicated.

    March 20, 2019
    |Reply
    • Shiloh
      Shiloh

      She did a random google search on Native tribes.

      March 22, 2019
      |Reply
  9. Bodnoirbabe
    Bodnoirbabe

    Holy shit. I have no idea who any of these people are as I’m not on Twitter and I don’t really follow authors, but man this is all insane! How old are these people?!

    March 20, 2019
    |Reply
    • Anon
      Anon

      In the original post about this, at least one of them has an adult child. I looked them up (I’m also not familiar) and they seem to all be about late-30s/early 40s or so.

      This behavior is fascinating.

      March 21, 2019
      |Reply
  10. Emeraldbaynton
    Emeraldbaynton

    I’d like to take a moment to thank you for your extreme efforts in detailing all of this for the rest of us. I am a part of “writer twitter” and I missed all this entirely. When I read your first post I assumed that these were popular, big name authors like you causing drama.(big names like you, not that you are causing drama) I was shocked to discover that at least one of these authors is very close to myself in follower count on twitter. Which maybe doesn’t mean anything, but I had been naively assuming I had little to no reach in the community given my low follower count. Which may still be true but it’s made me really examine who my followers are and realize that my tweets do reach people, and I need to be responsible for that and pay attention to what I’m putting out there.

    March 21, 2019
    |Reply
    • Most of these authors have a lot less Twitter followers than they used to, after this behavior! Even people who are too scared to speak out (for fear of being doxxed like Nikki has been) are quietly backing away.

      March 21, 2019
      |Reply
  11. Anon
    Anon

    Our modern language is Shakespearean? Someone … actually … said … that …

    I just can’t with these women. Do they really exist? I’ve encountered some serious shit and nastiness in online communities, but even I’m a bit taken aback by this behavior from adults. What is wrong with these people?

    Also, “mosk” is not an incorrect spelling. It’s rare, but not incorrect. I’m actually currently reading a book where the author repeatedly spells it that way (he is NOT a bigot of any kind) and Google says it’s an archaic form.

    March 21, 2019
    |Reply
    • Yes, apparently we should all speak Shakespearean. However KN Blackburn I must deduct points from you as I am noticing a distinct lack of “thees” and “thous” in your tweets.

      Therefore it is not “proper English” I’m afraid and I must call you out on it.

      March 21, 2019
      |Reply
      • shel
        shel

        Do you bite your thumb at her?

        March 29, 2019
        |Reply
  12. MyDog'sPA
    MyDog'sPA

    Hmm. Grandparents’ old sayings come to mind:

    Pissing contest w/skunk, or

    Constipated folk can’t give a shat

    Yeesh. I’m having a hard time even following all of this. I think the lesson is to never get involved (like in a ground war in Asia) or on social media with writers that haven’t gotten out of the wannabe level . . .

    March 21, 2019
    |Reply
  13. Pre-Famous Indie
    Pre-Famous Indie

    At some point my inner monologue just turned into Bob Belcher muttering “oh my god” over and over.

    Aren’t we in the ~Authorpreneur Community~ supposed to be, like, hustling for mailing list names or building our brands or I don’t know, *writing* with the multiple hours every day that these folks seem to dedicate to being thorough shitbirds? I mean, people can do more than one thing, but… dang. I know I don’t have that kind of free time and energy. There are chapters to finish. Other people’s books to read. Animals to pet. Sunsets and TV shows to watch. Why spend your life being horrible? What’s missing inside you? I don’t actually care about their damage, except to steer others clear; it’s a rhetorical question.

    And I absolutely don’t mean talking about it now – that’s time well spent, if it keeps one more person on alert against this kind of abuse.

    Just… oh my god.

    March 21, 2019
    |Reply
  14. Anony Mouse
    Anony Mouse

    In all honesty, I feel like I need a conspiracy theory red string board with pictures and screenshots to keep up with all of this, so I’m not sure how Jenny’s managing. I am picturing her papering a wall in her home with all of this and seeing visions of complex mathematical equations as she writes.

    What bothers me the most, personally, is that I try to be very careful who I follow on Twitter, because I know the company you keep can be a reflection on who you are. I did end up following one of these writers BECAUSE when I checked her actual author Twitter page nothing looked weird. It was all positivity and encouragement and writer memes and stuff. Like almost every other writer I follow! When people started connecting the dots and proving she had sockpuppet accounts and was really a vile person I unfollowed fast, but my god how can you protect yourself from this?

    It’s made me really (even more) cautious on Twitter. And speaking out? It’s terrifying. I use a pen name to protect my family. But could these crazies get my real name and blast it all over the place?

    Thank you, Jenny, for speaking up and shedding much-needed light here.

    March 21, 2019
    |Reply
  15. jay
    jay

    oh damn. i don’t know how i’ve been missing all this, but thank you for putting it in one easy, fun place.

    it’s a little weird to see nikki’s name pop back up, especially since—if it’s the same nikki, because apparently this is something people have problems with occasionally—last time i heard about her it was regarding her ties to the misgendering and outing of cole mccade. yay, going after someone who actually deserves it this time?

    i can’t wait to read the rest of these. time to keep one tab open to periodically refresh for updates. 🙂

    March 22, 2019
    |Reply
    • Shiloh
      Shiloh

      That’s a pretty shitty take, Jay. Maybe you’re not aware, but the actions of these trolls have led to actual doxxing, not just of Nikki, but her mother is being harassed, Nikki’s *kids* are being harassed and it’s getting to the point that Nikki & her family’s safety could be at risk.

      I don’t know everything about SH/Xen but I don’t think she ever posted personal addresses/phone numbers etc.

      But… maybe it’s okay, in your world view, to doxx the people you don’t like?

      March 22, 2019
      |Reply
    • Sam
      Sam

      Nikki never outed Xen. Xen alleged that he thought they might maybe possibly be thinking about outing him. but said outing never happened, and even Xen wrote a retraction saying they didn’t, he just thought they might. for reasons.

      and this isn’t juicy gossip. Nikki’s family have been harassed – children, parents. threatening voicemails have been left. just the other night, the account that’s been doxxing her on Twitter posted her home address.

      this is serious & dangerous. a person’s life, her family’s life, has been put at risk.

      March 22, 2019
      |Reply
      • jay
        jay

        hey—i hadn’t seen the retraction and wasn’t aware the situation had changed. the last i had seen it was still up in the air whether or not nikki was involved, so thank you for updating me!

        you’re right, my initial comment was far too glib for the seriousness of the situation. i hadn’t been aware of nikki’s (and her family’s) current situation and either way i don’t want to imply that i’m okay with doxxing her. i realize my initial comment was made without enough knowledge on the subject, so thank you for your reply, sam.

        March 23, 2019
        |Reply
  16. Dor
    Dor

    I remember that “Proper English is that derived from William Shakespeare, responsible for most of the modern words that we use.” thing. It’s wrong.

    “Proper” English is actually, according to Adam Hart-Davis, derived from the fact newspapers were printed in London, thus perpetuating the Southern dialect around the country. The *printed* word is how languages survive – it’s why Welsh (protestant country with Welsh language bibles in the home) survived so much better than language like Irish Gaelic – not spoken word.

    March 22, 2019
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  17. SaintSithney
    SaintSithney

    Can I just say as a person with legit Viking ancestry, I hate how these twatwaffles appropriate my heritage to support nonsense?

    My grandfather emigrated from a small village in Norway that was the center of Tyr worship in the ancient world. The remains of the mead hall were still visible on the ancestral farm. My however-many-greats were Vikings and priests, and Vikings were the first Europeans to land on the American continent, but they didn’t stay very long. This is all really clearly laid out in the Sagas – there was a bit of contact, a bit of trade, but there were a lot of tensions between them and the already established tribes of First Nation people, so they moved back to Greenland.

    While there is some evidence that there were homo sapiens inhabiting the American continent before the land bridge migration from Siberia, there’s certainly no indication that these people were “white”, or that they would have had the slightest concept of race as a uniting factor. Pre-Ice Age humans or proto-humans were intensely tribal, but they certainly weren’t nationalistic, and there is also zero evidence that there was anything like a grand, advanced civilization that was wiped out.

    Tl;dr, Neo-Nazis and white supremacists need to stop appropriating my culture and heritage for their blatant nonsense.

    March 22, 2019
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  18. Shiloh
    Shiloh

    Again, as before, I knew a lot of this, but seeing it all laid out like this makes it even more appalling.

    March 22, 2019
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  19. Jess
    Jess

    I’m paraphrasing a bit because I don’t remember the exact quote, but I remember someone saying once “whenever someone says they ‘don’t see color’ that’s a red flag to me. It our society it’s impossible NOT to. A good person sees color. They just don’t care what color they see.”

    March 24, 2019
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    • Xebi
      Xebi

      I hate that phrase so much. It’s essentially a smug “I don’t consider myself racist” that actually means, “I choose to ignore all the struggles and oppression you (POC) face as a result of racism.” Which in turn means, “I’m in an advantaged position compared to you and I would like to keep it that way but don’t want to look bad so rather than actively harm you I’ll just passively allow others to harm you, and I’ll do nothing to help you get equal treatment.”

      March 25, 2019
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  20. Masha
    Masha

    All I’m getting from this is that I’m apparently too old to Internet (even though I’m theoretically the same age/younger as these people). I can sorta kinda see teenagers behaving this way, but the fact that these are supposedly adults just blows my mind. How do they find the time?!

    March 26, 2019
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  21. Lani B Goode
    Lani B Goode

    it scares me more than a little that between my own experiences, the comments of this and the previous post, and a conversation with my girlfriend, that this sort of thing is practically a universal experience. virtually no group seems to be safe from this sort of you-aren’t-one-of-us-so-therefore-you’re-evil thinking and later harassment.

    March 26, 2019
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  22. KN Blackburn’s heritage claims intrigued me so I did a little Twitter backtracking.

    Here are some screenshots. Enjoy.

    Granddad Nazi with a heart of gold: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ak0q2fwIWTtHadJBqh3GKNAYbT4

    I am ALL the Native Americans: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ak0q2fwIWTtHdL-vV0XumWHV54w

    But I am NOT WHITE: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ak0q2fwIWTtHdRDmXmFG1v0dkCo

    No really me of the white skin is SO NOT WHITE:
    https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ak0q2fwIWTtHdp7PIkgOzzizY3U

    I also got Detroit roots y’all: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ak0q2fwIWTtHd7QmGUBanwykJTM

    And I am ALL the colors of the wind..: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ak0q2fwIWTtHeOvET0clsFt6TMg

    Dad – German, Mom – half Native American so that makes me mostly Native American? Also I suck at math: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ak0q2fwIWTtHeW_FhFKF5PZth50

    Annd then there’s the “whites were slaves too” nonsense. Just for fun: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ak0q2fwIWTtHet4j11H9etBdWGY

    March 27, 2019
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  23. Chip Otle
    Chip Otle

    I still pronounce (in my head) the name “Appleton” as Balki pronounced it.

    March 27, 2019
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    • Chip Otle
      Chip Otle

      Whoops, wrong thread!

      March 27, 2019
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    • Jenny Trout
      Jenny Trout

      ME TOO! Causin Larry Applehtone.

      April 10, 2019
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  24. Autistic teen
    Autistic teen

    This is really disturbing, but not suprizing. It seems a really crappy pattern for racists. One of my friends directed me to you, Darien and several others, after hearing about the group of current doxxers and racist behavior.

    I’m a black teen, reader of romance and former book blogger. Something similar happened to someone in the book community. Julie was a book blogger, reader and aspiring author. (j*lie Lonewolf). She ended up dying by suicide. Before that happened several racists got her fired from her mentoring position (ficfest) and job(s) because she spoke against their racism publicly on twitter. One of the ppl Kaelan Rhywiol on twitter is friends with several of the ppl that were involved in doxxing, harassing and getting julie fired. The reason I bring up Kaelan, is because I noticed she responded to you and Bianca’s tweet, claiming Shara doesn’t know what she’s doing because she’s autistic. Kaelan also claimed the same thing about K. Todd Ramer, metaphoricallyk on twitter, one of the men who complained to Julie’s work to get her fired, tweeted horrible things to and about her etc. It’s a pattern with Kaelan too. Kaelan was given screenshot evidence of K. Todd’s racists comments on twitter about people of color and xe ignored that too. Please be aware, this is a pattern for xie.
    I feel bad for the ppl currently having to deal with the racists and doxxers, it’s not okay and more ppl should talk about it and stop it. Stop supporting racists, doxxers and especially the people who are friends with and/or support racists and doxxers. Ppl claim that autistic people don’t know social norms, but that doesn’t excuse racism, doxxing. It’s sickening that ppl say, ‘oh, that person is autistic, they don’t know what they did or said was racist, or doxxing. WRONG. Autism isn’t an excuse for racism or doxxing. I should know, I’m autistic too.

    April 11, 2019
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    • Oh my gosh that is horrible and my heart is breaking for that poor girl.

      Also I saw the Kaelan Rhywiol thread and I was giving her the side-eye to begin with but seeing your post makes me realize hey, she’s simply awful and terrible while trying to get away with being awful and terrible.

      Finally thank you for saying that autism isn’t an excuse. For people to use it as a crutch so they can be terribly is an insult to people with autism. I may not have it myself, but I know quite a few people who do and not one of them is a racist troll soooo…

      April 16, 2019
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  25. Andrea
    Andrea

    Has the next part to this been put up? I’m super interested in this toxic garbage dump of crap these people are creating. I’m curious if have reaped any consequences from their actions!

    July 5, 2019
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    • Jenny Trout
      Jenny Trout

      Everything on the blog went on-hold for The Mister recapping, for the most part. And this is still ongoing, but dying down, so I’m worried that posting another part will make things start up for these poor people again.

      July 5, 2019
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