[You may well use your imagination as to what it is I'm replying to here.]
Please just re-read the emails I've already sent you.
Yes, I understand you may have been skimming them in haste (you may not be semi-literate or an imbecile)… but you seem to be genuinely unaware of the extent to which I've already answered the questions you're raising here.
Or, in light of the answers I've already given, you may be unaware of the extent to which your questions and arguments are utterly absurd.
And if you are, instead, insincerely pretending to be unaware of the answers I've already given, then my advice is the same: please just re-read the messages I've already sent you.
Re: "You have a questionable perception of what you feel people need. You don’t know what they need, because you aren’t them."
Yes, you know, I received similar messages from supporters of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders when I criticized them, too. You can hardly imagine what an emotional wreck Donald Trump was after I put together that video about those allegations of statutory rape.
Do you see the absurdity of discussing these things with me as if I had ever agreed to be Erin Janus's therapist?
My role here is neither to be Erin's psychiatrist nor her nursemaid, not any more than I'm here to give succour to Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump.
I could now go back to the earlier messages and provide block quotations of all the things I said before, and all the things you ignored before, that stated this quite well.
———[Block quotation begins]———
I stated very clearly that I regard the critique of Erin Janus as important precisely because she's a public figure and an important leader in the vegan movement (JUST LIKE Paul Bashir, Gary Yourofsky and Durianrider). The critique of Erin Janus is, in this sense, important.
…
You're trying to make this about psychology and obsession, because that's how YOU think about her, and that's how YOU see this situation. I neither think of Erin Janus as a sexual pawn nor as a psychological plaything. I talk to her as an adult, and I talk about her as an adult: I treat her with the dignity that any public figure who has taken on a leadership role in a political movement deserves —and I criticize her just as harshly as I've criticized Bernie Sanders…
…
Would you like to argue against this point?
Would you like to argue that the MORAL thing for me to do is engage in a conspiracy to cover up the reality of who Erin Janus is?
Perhaps you also think it would be MORE ETHICAL for me to conceal who Durianrider really is, who Paul Bashir really is, and who Gary Yourofsky really is?
Perhaps you think it would be emotionally healing for Gary Yourofsky if I were to delete the video clips I have of him talking about holding people at gunpoint (etc.)?
You see, you think you're helping, but you're not: you think you're doing something morally positive, but what you're actually doing here is evil.
And I mean that in the strictest sense of the term evil.
Daniel, think about it: it is genuinely evil for you to try to censor me in this way. It is genuinely evil for you to try to entice me into joining in "a cover up".
And it would be for any other political figure in any other political movement, too.
And that's what Erin is: she's a public figure who is (or was) one of the most prominent (and well funded!) leaders the vegan movement ever had.
Just like Durianrider, Gary Yourofsky and Paul Bashir.
It is really important (REALLY) that people know the truth about Erin Janus.
It is really important (REALLY) that I don't delete those videos.
———[Block quotation ends]———
You're asking me to infantilize Erin Janus.
You're asking me to treat her as if she were a child, instead of an adult.
Do you suppose I get email of this kind in relation to any of the male youtubers (male leaders in the vegan movement, or male political figures unrelated to veganism) that I've criticized? Some of them have been committed to mental institutions, too. Do you suppose you'd feel ashamed of yourself if you were offering the same arguments on behalf of the hurt feelings of James Aspey, for example?
Perhaps this is worth thinking about for you, perhaps it isn't.
Really, the only thing you need to know is that you've long since lost this debate, and you're not making any progress with these maudlin and emotionally manipulative tactics.
Indeed, this next sentence I quote from you is another tragi-comic example of just that (maudlin and inept attempts at emotional manipulation, tut tut old chap).
Re: "Poor Eisel is more concerned about his channel and being censored than a persons life."
You say these things as if I'm motivated to have an olympian struggle with you, to establish who is the better person, of the two of us. You say this with the assumption that I've been trying to "pull myself up" to the moral high ground. On the contrary, I've been trying to drag your abstractions down to the earth, and show myself as being "grounded" here at the very bottom.
Indeed, it suits my purpose for you to believe I'm a tremendously evil and malevolent force in this world.
You really can't imagine what a terrible person I am, Daniel.
I'm really someone you should keep your distance from. You seem to be unaware, for example, that I've already shared all of this correspondence publicly.*
* [This is untrue: I've arbitrarily chosen to respect his privacy, and have only shared my replies to his messages, disclosing very little of what he's said about himself and Erin (in part because I have no reason to believe that anything he's said is true!). My purpose here is to get him to desist from his moral crusade against me, which is indeed pointless. He'd have an easier time getting me to convert to Mormonism.]
This is imperfectly parallel to the case of Brian Turner. Both Turner and Aspey claimed that they put a tremendously large portion of their money into just one, special financial opportunity (although they were different opportunities, in the cases of the two men)… and then had remarkably little to say after that financial opportunity proved to be a tremendous failure.
[I'm using bold italics to distinguish the two speakers in the dialogue for the sake of simplicity. As you'll soon surmise, the pattern of the conversation is not always one message from one side, followed by one message from the other. Conversely, I suppose, the difference in vocabulary and rhetorical style is striking enough that you could guess who "the speaker" is, for any given message, even if I didn't use the bold italics.]
[I have left the misspelling of "Crohn's disease" intact, so that the emails aren't modified in any way.]
—————
[Tue., Feb. 1st, 2022]
As Ive always offered jump on my podcast/livestream bro if you want to share your opinion on things.
I dont appreciate your slander and defamtion of me in the past but I DO APPRECIATE you having my back when others have tried to slander me.
You need to state --clearly and definitively-- that the stories you made up about me were nothing but lies.
Every single claim you made about my sex life was a lie: I wasn't romantically involved with Julia Boer, and I wasn't romantically involved with anyone else --young or old-- either.
I never was a pedophile. I never was a predator. Those are lies you made up about me, out of the blue: they didn't have any basis in fact whatsoever. Even Richard said, simply, they were just stupid stories you made up about me.
Julia didn't make them up. Lauren (the anorexic in Scotland) didn't make them up. You did.
I never scammed anybody. I never committed fraud against anybody.
Everything you said about my sex life, my education, my career, my marriage, my divorce, my daughter AND MY MOTHER was a lie.
You must* made these things up to hurt me. And you know it.
* ["Must" is an autocorrect error for "just". The message was written on a mobile phone, while I was at the gym.]
And you know it was wrong. And you know it would have hurt you, if I'd said any of those things about you.
And I never called you a rapist, I never called you a sexual predator, I never called you a pedophile --not even when Norvegan and two of your ex-girlfriends carried on a campaign against you, claiming all of these things.
Harley, more than one million people heard the lies you made up about me. A huge percentage of vegans heard those lies. People who live in this apartment building heard them, and believe them. It has fucked up my life, it has made it impossible for me to get a normal job again.
You need to say, clearly, in a YouTube video, that it was all false: it was nothing but a bunch of lies.
You know: I never did anything like this to you. A disagreement about the cure for Chron's disease is nothing like claiming you've got proof that somebody is a pedophile, and then threatening to beat them up, and drag them to the police station, to show the evidence.
You did that, Harley. You did that to me. And I never jumped on Norvegan's bandwagon against you.
I did the right thing, just because it was the right thing to do, at every stage.
You have had YEARS to take the initiative, figure out what the right thing to do is, and then try to make this right. There are hundreds of thousands of people like "Fruit Angel" who still believe those lies you told, and they need to hear from you, "this guy is not a creep, he never did anything wrong with any 16 year old, nor with any other woman, of any age, it was all a lie."
And they need to hear it again and again and again, to reverse YEARS of defamation, that came at the height of your fame.
E.M.
—————
I never called you anything bro but I do remember you calling yourself a pedo etc I think.
You have made this all up for clout bro. Can you point to one video etc where Im calling you a pedo etc? Exactly you can't because I never did.
I mean REAL footage not some troll account that you or someone made up to defame me like you have done for views hehe.
I dont have any hate towards you bro. I honestly dont. When you came to CM to fight me in 2016 then sure I was pretty pissed after all the shit you said about my gf at the time but past is the past and I forgive you. I think you are a good dude because you have displayed good qualities I admire and I hope we can work as a team because you trying to war with me means we just lose time and energy and look like drama queens to anyone of value dont you think? I mean how old are we? hehe.
I mean look how many vids you have made about me? It is clear as day you are doing this all for views and clout. A better way would be if we did colabs talking about chicks, thailand, vegan stuff yeah? How many vids have I made about you? I can't see any at all.
You don't have amnesia. Amnesia as it's depicted in soap operas doesn't exist.
I don't believe you're "in denial" and, frankly, I don't believe that exists outside of romance novels, either.
I think you're aware of when you're telling lies.
You know exactly what lies you told in the past, and you know what lies you're telling now.
Well, that's what the court system is for. It's for people like you, Harley.
That's what jail is for. It's for people like you, Harley.
I guess you're never going back to Thailand again.
And Harley, you know: we're less than six degrees of separation apart. I've talked to men who were your closest friends, and I've talked to women who were your lovers. And I've never used anything they told me about you --privately-- to defame you. But you know: I'm aware of what you've said on and off camera, on and off the internet.
You get to decide only one thing, Harley: you get to decide what kind of person you're going to be.
You don't get to decide who loves you and who hates you. You don't get to decide who trusts you, and who refuses to believe you.
You just get to decide what kind of man you're going to be. You get to choose the code you live by.
You know I lived by a code. I didn't lie about you, and I didn't lie to you.
You've become the very thing you hated the most: you've become "a fake", no different from Vegan Cheetah, Richard, Norvegan and Bonny Rebecca. You, also, are living a lie.
E.M.
—————
Bro you did lie about me and defame the fuck out of and still do to this day lol.
Looks like we will be cell mates! I reserve top bunk and wifi from 6am to 9am.
Dont be a hypocrite hehe. Remove your slander videos about me back in 2016 etc please.
Im back in a few weeks. Just waiting for the quarantine to ease up. Are you still there?
Want to be on my podcast? What days times work best for you?
—————
Because you are taller you can be big spoon btw.
—————
Can I ask some questions about your allegations boss?
Did you ever contact a 15 year old girl with initials JB in 2016 about her trip to my event?
Did you ever ask her where she was staying?
If someone sent me cached links and screenshots of something like that from a young girl with the initials JB would they be true or false?
—————
The court case is real.
The evidence has been submitted to the court (showing exactly what you said, etc.) and there is absolutely no doubt that you'll be found guilty.
It really doesn't matter if you now want to pretend you have amnesia: what you said (and what you did) has already been entered into evidence on the court record (etc.).
Your opinion doesn't matter. Your memory doesn't matter.
You have two options: hire a lawyer and show up in court (something you've never been willing to do), or else run away, never go back to Thailand again, and assume that the crime won't result in your extradition from Australia.
So far, your strategy has consisted of (1) running away, (2) pretending the problem isn't real, and (3) loudly and repeatedly defaming me, claiming that the fundraising I did was a scam (claiming the court case doesn't really exist).
Yes, people who know you personally have described to me how ("in real life") you tried to insist the court case was unreal, even when they knew it was real, and told you so (face to face).
I don't think you have amnesia. I don't think you're hallucinating. You're aware that you're lying. And you're lying to yourself and others.
You never have watched the videos I made criticizing you: none of them lie about you or defame you in any way. If you'd watched them (or if you took the time to watch them now) you would know this.
The videos I made defending you (against Norvegan, and against Cheetah, BTW) also did not defame you in any way —on the contrary, they defended you against defamation (that was a long time ago, and you probably didn't watch those videos at the time, but I actually defended you against defamation from Cheetah, even long before the Norvegan scenario started).
Here's an example (under 10 minutes long) that shows me defending you against (unfair) allegations about your sex life:
That was BEFORE Norvegan: at that time, people were saying YOU had sex with Julia Boer.
I had nothing to gain from defending you against these allegations: in that video, I did the right thing just because it was the right thing to do.
I have always said, "Do not do to Durianrider what he did to me" —i.e., just because Durianrider defamed me doesn't mean it would be morally acceptable to defame Durianrider back.
If you go back and listen to what I said about Chron's disease (etc.) you'll find that I'm truthful and reasonable and fair in those videos, too, when I'm criticizing you.
I said in my most recent video: you and I agree about many, many things (for example, we're both anti-marijuana, anti-video-game, and anti-anti-depressant, etc.). There are other people I've criticized much more harshly than you, believe it or not. (I am much more cruel to Jaclyn Glenn, for example: if you watch some of those videos, you'll see what I'm like when I'm really being savage --and I never spoke that way about you.) My critique of you has always been balanced and reasonable; you don't know this, because you've never watched the videos.
Conversely, what you said about my mom: was that fair and reasonable?
Were your motivations "good" when you said those things?
What if I had said the same things about your mother?
When you said that I was "asking teenage girls for money", was that fair and reasonable? (Still to this day, I have no idea what you were thinking with that statement: you claim I'm a multi-millionaire, but apparently I have to beg teenage girls for money?)
When you claimed that I have "…tried to manipulate underage girls AND in the community we have built…" that indicates that you know of some plural number of girls who were, in your words, "underage and they are in Chiang Mai". That is a very specific allegation, but you did not know about even one underage girl, anywhere in the world, and you did not know about even one underage girl in Chiang Mai, and you clearly did not have multiple complaints from multiple underage girls who were in Chiang Mai.
That was a total fabrication on your part: that was a lie, or an elaborate fantasy that you invented, along with the claim that you had enough evidence/proof to take me to the police station, right at that time. When I offered to meet you at the police station, inexplicably, you were NOT interested.
Imagine how you would feel if our positions were reversed: what if I had said those things about your sex life? You know how devastating Norvegan's campaign against you was. You know how devastating (to your career and reputation) it was for that one teenage girl (the fat, blonde one) to make a youtube video complaining about what a lousy boyfriend you were (even though she was not underage, and there was no allegation of rape).
The reality is, that was a woman you really had sex with, and she has the right to complain that your relationship was lousy; I think Norvegan's campaign against you was dishonest and malicious, but he wasn't inventing fictional relationships out of thin air.
That's what you did to me: you invented a completely fictional sex scandal, claiming that I was involved with multiple, under-age girls, all in Chiang Mai (who were all vegan) simultaneously. You have never had a single shred of evidence (not a single email, etc.) to back up these claims. None of those women ever existed; none of those complaints or allegations against me ever existed --you just fabricated and imagined them.
And then you made everything worse by inventing lies about my education, my career, my situation with the fundraiser to pay for the lawyers, and lies about my family (my mother, my wife, my daughter, etc.). If you watch every single video I made about you, never once will you find me engaging in this kind of defamation. I do not say anything like that while discussing your claims about curing Chron's disease.
If you really can't remember what you said in Chiang Mai, at the start of this controversy, this is a three minute video (you'll have to press pause to read it all) showing the screen-shots of exactly what you said: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRLbgCzJHyM
If you want to claim that you can't remember saying these things, or claim that "it was a troll account", etc., that's irrelevant: the evidence has already been vetted as admissible in a court of law in Thailand. Whether or not you believe it (or anyone else believes it) the facts of the case have already been established (at a level of certainty sufficient to secure a criminal conviction).
The details about Julia Boer, and the lies you told about her, and the further lies that other people invented, on the basis of your lies, you'll find summarized (with screenshots) in this video, that's fully 22 minutes long, but is relatively entertaining to watch.
Some people have integrity, some people don't. I was writing to offer you the choice, and the option: what kind of person do you want to be? Evidently, you've made your choice.
You pushed around a lot of people for a long time, and you thought you could get away with it. I am not Brianna Jackson. And I am not Jack Francis, either. This time, you were fucking with the wrong guy. You said that I kicked the hornet's nest, but you were wrong: it's you who kicked a hornet's nest when you decided to fuck with me. And there's nothing for you to win anymore: your career, already, is over.
You were discredited by your own words and actions. You are never going to be an influential voice in veganism again. Everyone knows that you are (in your own terms) "fake as fuck", just like the people you reviled and hated on youtube for so many years: now, you're just another Brianna Jackson, you're just another Bonny Rebecca, you're just another Vegan Cheetah. Because. You can't. Tell. The truth.
E.M.
—————
Bro I appreciate your help. You know that.
Jump in my podcast like I've offered and share what you rent to share. Why not?
You started all this man. Didn't you turned up to CM and offered to fight me right?
Seems like you don't want to find a solution and just want to make things worse for both of us by creating more drama?
Imagine if you never made bad videos about me and where in support of me from the get go. We are on the same page bro. Jump on the podcast and say your bit man.
All you are doing now is inviting one of my fans to dig up screenshots about you and post them up everywhere and I don't think that's going to make you look good in my opinion. You are poking the hornets nest again now lol. I'm not going to do anything but I strongly suspect someone could make a video series or website about you etc and that's impossible to defend against. I've had it done to me after I pissed off someone. Because I'm a bad boy it didn't matter that much but for a professional like you I don't think it would be good for Google SEO etc. Right now you're Google searches are good yeah? Let's both work together to keep them that way. Lots of crazies in my fan base with to much time on their hands lol
—————
(1) There are no screenshots of me flirting with underage girls to be dug up: this is a fantasy of your own invention. There never was any evidence to support your defamation campaign against me before, and there still isn't any now. And you know this.
The problem isn't what you reveal about me, but what you reveal about yourself, in the process of fabrication, framing and defamation. In your years of denouncing me, the public learned very little about me, but they learned who you really are: they saw you reduced to a ranting nutcase, sitting on the kitchen floor, making up one crazy story about me after another. And for them (the audience) that's who you'll always be.
(2) I am very open and honest about my sex life on the internet (as you also claim to be, but aren't). Anyone who watches my YouTube channel knows about every woman I've slept with, and every woman I've ever flirted with / every woman who ever flirted with me.
There are no skeletons in my closet, Durian. On some level, you know this.
Not even my ex-wife has any interesting gossip about me. And you know this, too.
(3) You didn't have any crazy fans to back you up in Chiang Mai in 2016, and you don't have any crazy fans to back you up now, either.
(4) I do think you'd feel better about the whole situation if you actually listened to what I said in my videos criticizing you, instead of just imagining I'd said the worst thing possible (or assuming that I'd say the kind of things you say, when you're criticizing someone).
Really, even the meanest things I ever said about Freelee wouldn't offend you. Most of them you'd agree with (for example, you've criticized her for getting plastic surgery and lying about it yourself).
There's a difference between criticism and defamation. If you listen to that video about Crohn's disease again, you might start to get a feeling for how different the style and substance of my critique is.
(5) Re: "Because I'm a bad boy it didn't matter that much but for a professional like you I don't think it would be good for Google SEO etc."
Nah, man, I actually live my truth and don't care who finds out about it. You made up all kinds of bullshit about my divorce, but you never realized that there were already way more honest descriptions of what happened on my blog (etc.) precisely because I'm not ashamed of any of that stuff --nor am I embarrassed about it.
And, no, I don't really regret that I'll never be an English teacher again.
I'll send you my C.V. as an attachment to a separate email (I'm at the gym now, typing on my phone).
I think you've probably never seen that, either (just the basic list of what education I've had, what jobs I've done, etc.).
I don't think of myself as "a respectable professional".
I think of myself as a political dissident. I'm an author, an intellectual, a zero budget filmmaker... but in every instance, a political dissident.
And a whole lot of people are going to have broken hearts and hurt feelings, if any of us are serious about trying to change the world.
A life without ambition can have very little suffering in it. Men with tremendous ambitions endure tremendous suffering, and enlist others to volunteer in suffering along with them.
The path I've chosen is neither quiet nor safe, and I feel no need to pretend that it ever could be.
You don't choose to be loved. You don't choose to be hated. You choose to be known or unknown. I choose to be known. Innumerable enemies and conflicts ensue, from this decision alone.
Apparently, Maya Angelou popularized a number of phrases along the lines of, "When people tell you who they are, believe them", possibly including the precise wording “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” The internet preserves a panoply of variations on the theme, attributed to her.
However, my cynical inversion of the intended meaning is apparently new: when people tell you who they are, don't believe them. And in this context, it's clear that there's an especially insidious sense ascribed to the difference between telling and showing, as I say, by contrast, when people show you who they are, believe them.
This aphorism certainly applies to my ex-wife. 哈哈哈😄 There was a big difference between "showing" and "telling" in her case.
I understand that sentiment but lets say it was a school project and you had to work in a group, save the fact that you would carry the majority of the weight, who in the YouTube Vegan community would best benefit from working with you?...(I promise this is the last question)
——————————
It's a stupid question.
——————————
[H. replies:]
How so? You spent 5 years with these people and none not nada have developed enough, via your "conflict model" of tutolage, enough to actually do serious work with the Vegan movement?
Is being humiliated a prerequiste to enacting meaningful change?
——————————
It is a stupid question, because you ask "…who in the YouTube Vegan community would best benefit from working with you?"
If you are asking about THEM (not me, [and not the audience, not about the future of the movement or broader political goals] but [just] the other person)…
Yes, of course I think Nina and Randa would benefit from working with me, and I said so in the video. My implicit point here being that even the least intellectually inclined of other youtubers would benefit. People who are MORE intellectually inclined (like ODS) benefit more, people who are more interested in politics benefit more, of course —but, as I said in the video, Richard would be better off today if he'd followed my advice five years ago, Henya, Erin Janus, etc., would all be better off if they'd followed my advice (if they'd worked with me in any way). I think it's demonstrable that all the people who did work with me benefitted from it, too (ModVegan, etc., and, yes, obviously, people who work with me now like ODS).
Re: "Is being humiliated a prerequiste to enacting meaningful change?"
For a lot of people, it is.
Not for everyone.
Plenty of people supported the "Socmas" idea. There were atheist youtubers who opposed it. Did I humiliate my opponents in criticizing them, and stating my case so powerfully? (This example has spanned at least three years.) Quite possibly some of them did feel humiliated. Some were too stupid to feel humiliated. (I spoke to one, in a livestream, and I remember he did seem humiliated: he'd never retracted his video denouncing me, but I think he was aware, on some level, that he'd adopted a stupid and needlessly hostile position against me.) So, yes, SOME PEOPLE had to be humiliated even in advancing an idea that wholesome and helpful (and, frankly, "non-dangerous").
Well, we deal with a lot of dangerous ideas on this channel. And a lot of people are going to be shocked and humiliated to have their own ignorance, mendacity and malice pointed out to them in the ensuing discussion.
Do you think people feel happy when I point out to them that they don't know what they're talking about re: the politics of Thailand or Xinjiang?
But if you ask me --with any of these examples-- "Would these other youtubers benefit from working with you?", the answer is yes. Yes, they'd benefit from listening to me, they'd benefit from learning from me --and they'd even benefit if they just made the effort to disagree with me on a more sophisticated level.
The question is, simply, who has the strength of character (or seriousness of intent) to respond to that kind of critique positively.
Why wouldn't Mic the Vegan respond —with serious interest— to my pointing out that one of his scientific videos is factually wrong (in one case about marijuana, in another case it was about a dietary study that —in fact— had nothing to do with veganism, and he'd misrepresented his sources, as I recall)? Why wouldn't Vegan Gains respond —with serious interest— when it is pointed out to him that he's been publicly endorsing and supporting a white supremacist who wants to exile all blacks from the U.S. and Canada (i.e., Cory McCarthy)? Why wouldn't Nina and Randa want to have a serious discussion abut the future of the vegan movement?
Dude, there is NO TALENT there.
Talent is SCARCE.
I'm not missing out on anything by NOT helping those people, and they're not missing out on anything by refusing to be helped by me, because they're (1) stupid and (2) malign. They don't have the intellectual, ethical or emotional character to accomplish ANYTHING positive (Richard is a great example of that). People PRESUME good intentions, as if they're the most common thing, but good intentions (EVEN WITHIN VEGAN ACTIVISM) are really scarce!
Money, fame, power, respect, sex. Not necessarily in that order.
If Mic the Vegan were motivated by ANYTHING ELSE, why wouldn't he care about the scientific facts I'd pointed out to him? Why wouldn't he be fascinated, frankly? Jaclyn Glenn, same question? Unnatural Vegan, same question?
They're not even interested in scientific truth, vs. scientific falsehood —let alone the more dangerous and flexible kind of truth that politics involves. They're not interested in the difference between true and false, even when we're talking about the heavy cutlass that differentiates brain damage from a medical benefit —rather than the slim, flexible rapier that differentiates a useful economic theory (or an accurate interpretation of history) from dishonest political propaganda.
—————
[A follow-up question from JRM:]
Eisel, what do you think the solution is to someone who may have bad, evil or wrong intentions, but isn't aware of it themselves?
—————
[And I reply:]
Although NOT ALL EXAMPLES are equally positive, you get to see MANY, MANY examples of the type of "positive intervention" I've attempted myself on my youtube channel: even the most recent video about Brian Turner's stock market investment advice really is an example of this.
I think Brian is a great example [of someone] who is unaware of the harm he's doing, and who is unaware of his own motivations in doing that harm. And in that brief video, I am directly attempting to get him to reconsider what his own motivations are —in even plainer English, to reconsider what he's doing and why.
The videos about (i.e., AGAINST) ayahuasca are also excellent examples: I know the people promoting this stuff (and in one case, it was a PAID PROMOTION on a vegan youtube channel) are really unaware of the significance of what they're doing and why…
These are attempts —some more effective than others— to make people aware of the evil that they do —and it is, admittedly, a type of evil they cannot perceive themselves.
A lot of the material on Buddhism (debunking meditation courses, etc.) and a lot of the material on Communism (debunking false economic claims made about MMT, etc.) has the same sort of quality: yes, you're dealing, in part, with "dry facts" —but you're also dealing with human motivations, dripping wet. And you can tell me, on a case by case basis, how successful I've been in challenging people to re-evaluate their motivations.
I certainly do know of examples of people who wrote in, letting me know that they broke down weeping, were shaken to their core, and suddenly felt that their whole life was a lie, etc. —and you can tell me if that's better or worse than someone having a detached, intellectual reaction, and thinking, "maybe this guy has a point".
Your personal trainer at the gym is never going to be this honest with you. Your professors and teachers are never going to be this honest with you. Your priest, pastor or Buddhist councillor is never going to be this honest with you. Your therapist? No chance. But I will.
Here's a reply I sent to someone who's in the 90% of people who are some combination of stupid and malign.
——————————
(1) Nobody is reading these emails.
(2) I have zero intellectual respect for you.
(3) I think you're a coward.
(4) I think you're immoral.
(5) I think you're an idiot.
(6) There are many ways to set up an email account: with my setup, it is quite easy to receive emails without reading them, and without seeing their content (in any way) before deleting them. If you keep sending email to this account, you should know: nobody is reading it. Nobody is even seeing it before it goes into the garbage.
(7) You want my respect? Earn it.
You want my patience, you want my interest? Earn it.
(8) Think about the next five years: think about the work you'd have to do —in the next five years— to be an intellectual on my level. Think about the quality of writing you'd need (and the depth of research and understanding your writing would have to reflect) for me to be excited to receive a message from you, and then interested in speaking to you via Skype (etc.), or just engaging in further correspondence with you.
Realize this: I despise you for all the right reasons. It really doesn't matter if you despise yourself or not: you can have as much or as little self-esteem as you like —because it's something you apportion to yourself. The question is, simply, are you going to do the intellectual work or not.
And… although I don't expect you to donate to fundraiser… you might be interested in reading the discussion of the issue (and "the point" of going back to Chiang Mai at all) that I've posted there:
———[Without any reply, I sent the following email roughly a day later]———
Harley,
Thousands and thousands of people believed the lies you made up about me.
And they've kept those lies alive, even after you've (privately) admitted that you were in the wrong.
You never did make any effort --publicly-- to set things right or make amends (not even on the scale of my efforts in debunking Norvegan --something I had no moral obligation to get involved in, as I'd done nothing wrong, and I had nothing to make amends for --I just knew Norvegan was lying, and did something about it, because it was the right thing to do).
She's a great example: she believed the whole phony narrative you made up. I assume it would be painful for you to listen to that video of hers now, but you're listening to your own lies told back to you.
And for the record, remember: your initial lie was that I was having sex with Lauren in Scotland (the anorexic known as "The Vegan Lass"), and then people mysteriously forgot that, as you started to claim that I'd had some kind of connection to Julia Boer.
Everything you said about me was a lie --and you knew it at the time --and you know it now --and you never tried to set things right (not even when Freelee and Richard twisted your arm to do so, etc. etc.).
Many thanks for approaching ______ Press with your [manuscript]. Our team has looked at your submission and unanimously agree that it is extremely well-written and will appeal to many. However, it is not a good fit for ______ Press and we cannot offer you a contract. [Our books] tend to be more "cozy" and cover subjects such as __________.
Forgive me, but with your background, I'm astonished that you are even seeking a publisher. It seems you have an impressive following already plus the knowledge and ability to forge your own way. When I wrote my first book eleven years ago, like you, I knocked on publishers' and agents’ doors and most didn’t even respond, and those that did weren’t interested. My book had won a professional (glowing) critique from [a mainstream publishing corporation] but even they weren’t interested. So I decided to self-publish and it turned out to be the best thing I ever did. Not only did my books hit the New York Times bestseller list several times […] but I also pocketed all the royalties instead of sharing it with agents and publishers, and continue to do so.
In those days, the competition was less fierce, maybe. However, self-published books were never even considered by most bookstores, whereas now our books can appear on all the big catalogues, whether self-published or not. And although thousands of new titles appear on Amazon every week, there is no reason why a good book can’t be discovered and perform well.
I highly recommend that you self-publish, […]
Good luck with whichever route you decide to take,
