L.A. Liberty

Documenting Ryking’s Vileness

“If you don’t like being insulted, then stop hurling insults at others. Or stop hypocritically complaining about it. But I guess asking you to stop being a hypocrite is like asking you to stop breathing.”

- Ryking, un-ironically

In another post, he claims: “for the most part I have never provoked any of the fights I’ve been in on Tumblr or anywhere else.”

Let’s review…

I do admit that I employ snark and sarcasm on occasion (I have been, after all, influenced by Bastiat), and I may lower my standards for civility a bit when faced with persistent dishonesty or particularly vile attacks; but I generally try to maintain a level head. We win more flies with honey, as it were. All my interactions with other bloggers are tagged “riposte” and I implore all to judge my typical demeanor for themselves.

This is the internet, the trolling grounds of obnoxious tough guys behind keyboards. But Ryking isn’t merely a random blogger; Tumblr has seen fit to include him not only in the spotlight page but also assign him as a curator of the #Politics tag.

As I mention in my post, “On Responding to Crass Fallacies”, the best response to those who peddle in childish smears is to never respond in kind, and if you can help it, not respond at all. But in light of recent events that have seen his usual scuffles with other bloggers bleed into what’s promoted onto the #Politics page, I thought it relevant to point out behavior unfit for anyone with the distinctions Tumblr has bestowed upon him (with special thanks to the followers and fellow bloggers who helped put this together):

So to recap: of the approximately 40 posts Ryking’s made to or about me, nearly every single one has been offensive - and most completely vile - in some form or another. Please find anything remotely resembling this behavior in the 25 or so posts I’ve made responding to or mentioning him. The totality of what may be construed as insults are as follows: I once referred to him as a “lemming”, I once wrote (after having been called a liar as a result of him misunderstanding something I wrote) that he was “as inept at grammatically deconstructing and comprehending a sentence as [he was] at simple logic and understanding what an ad hominem is”; and in another instance I made a “left-wing hive-mind” crack. And all of those were long after being bombarded with much of the litany of offenses listed above. That, I believe, is it. In fact, in most posts I go out of my way to note his tone and not respond in kind. Which, of course, belies his claim at the very start of this post.

Unfortunately, I am not the only target of Ryking’s puerile scorn. A small sampling:

To be clear: I have no desire to impede on Ryking’s right to speech, or to have his blog pulled (as one of Ricardo’s was once), or to otherwise “silence” him. The freedom of speech is not reserved simply for unoffensive speech. I, as well as many of those bloggers who submitted these links to me, simply find him unfit to help curate the #Politics tag and grace the spotlight section. That is all. I believe the above links, as well as the many unserious, irrelevant, and vile posts that are regularly promoted to the #Politics tag, make the case.

A few months ago, Jeff Miller offered his resignation as a #Politics editor if Ryking would do the same. I, too, make the same offer as Jeff… but I don’t think it should have to come to that.

Posted February 16, 2012 at 4:35pm in riposte ryking ∆ politics tag | comments || home