Friday, February 14, 2014

Are The Amazon Bullies Eternal?

I think I just had an epiphany. A recent comment made by "Deltaforce 12" on STGRB has hit me like a ton bricks dropped from a passing aircraft overhead.

The comment deals with why these Amazon trolls are doing what they're doing on the Amazon Forum Boards and Goodreads. I have to confess, while I may have heard this said before, never did it strike me in the manner of which "Deltaforce 12" has explained it. The way "Delta" puts it, is that basically, the trolls and bullies are eternal. Their activities will NEVER stop. No matter what we say, or what we do, or how many people get involved in the fight against these bullies, the war will never end. And why will it never end? Well, read the comment yourself and let's see if you can see what I saw.










Did you see it?

According to this comment by "Deltaforce 12", the reason this bullying, and attacking of authors is going on is because Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, is allowing it to go on with his permission. In fact, according to "Deltaforce", Jeff Bezos is the true ring-leader. 

If what "Deltaforce" says is true, and I have no reason to doubt it as it makes perfect sense, then what does this mean about the efforts of so many who are trying to end this kind of behavior or practice? I mean, if it's really all in the hands of Jeff Bezos, then this means he would be the only one who could stop it. Period!

And while Anne Rice has gotten involved to help spread the word, my question is, what if the word is already spread?

It seems to me that the word is already out there. I believe many more people are aware of what is going on by now than what we might think. If this is the case, then why won't this bullying just stop already? 

I'm already at the point where I believe a majority of book readers are already aware, to some degree, about the bullies. Those outside the book reading community may or may not be aware as much. Maybe because they probably don't care. They're not readers. They're not writers. It's like, do I care about the bullying going on in the online gaming community? I mean, I have a friend in real life who is a die hard gamer, and he is all the time telling me about the bullying going on in that community, but I just grin and shake my head. In truth, I'm not in that community so to be brutally honest, I don't care. 

But we are talking about the book community here. 

Then "Johnny" from STGRB leaves a pretty good response for "Deltaforce".





He brings up a good point here. It's not just indie authors getting trashed by the bullies. Well known, well established authors are getting targeted too. So this is kind of like a monkey wrench in the machine. 

Still, I can't discount "Delta's" explanation. Seeing how I think we have reached about as many people as we can, and the fact that now Anne Rice is involved, maybe there is no more people to reach. Maybe this is as far as we are going to go with it. And as we stand at the end of the road, we see a sign that reads, "Bullies are eternal". 

Maybe the best we can do is the place where we are right now. An email I recently received from Anne Rice also assisted me in getting to this epiphany. Or at the very least, supported the epiphany that "Delta's" comments led me to. 

The epiphany is this: Internet bullying is never going to stop. At least, maybe not in my lifetime. Our lifetime. Maybe not until the world finds a way to eliminate the dreaded "anon". Perhaps only when we reach the point where technology allows us / forces us to sign in under our true identities, will cyber bullying ever stop. Even then, I believe there are plenty of people out there who wouldn't mind using their real identities to bully someone. Probably because, if we listen to the bullies themselves when they say, what they are doing isn't bullying, then reason suggests that ultimately, it never will truly stop. There will always be those who will go to their death beds claiming that what they are doing is not bullying. The reason for this is; they actually have convinced themselves that they have every right to attack authors on a personal basis. That posting fake ratings / carpet bombing, or writing fake reviews of books they never read or attacking authors is actually legitimate. That lying is some kind of constitutional right they were born with. And until these people face the truth about the shame of lying, they will never have / feel any such shame in their actions. None! And that to me is a mental / emotional issue that if goes untreated, can never be cured. 

So no matter what we do now, no matter how many more people we spread the word to, no matter how many Anne Rice's of the world join in to try and help, the bottom line remains the same, that Jeff Bezos is the only one who can probably truly stop this kind of bad behavior on Amazon. 

This leads me to think that perhaps only after Jeff Bezos passes away, and somebody else takes over Amazon and changes it, that these bullies will continue with their horrid activities. There will always be a new young and up and coming bully to take the place of a previous old timer bully. It's just the circle of life. 

"Deltaforce" concludes with this comment. 




The dreaded "bottom" line. 

If Jeff Bezos is benefiting financially from allowing this bad behavior to take place on the Amazon Forum Boards, then it never will stop. And if Jeff's successor continues to benefit financially from it, they won't lift a finger to stop it either. The only chance outside of Bezos and or his successor is if the government steps in and passes laws that eventually puts an end to this adolescent behavior by the bullies.

This is disturbing. 

So this is where we are. This is the end of the road. And this is me standing before the sign that reads, "Bullies are eternal". I stand there dumbfounded and scratching my head. I take a look around at the nothingness surrounding me. I breathe in a heavy sigh of frustration. 

"Son of a bitch!"



I'm Carroll Bryant .... and this is The Looking Glass.



8 comments:

  1. I had this same epiphany long ago and have written about it in my blog. This is not a new theory. But that trolls are eternal is bullshit. There is a very simple way to stop them regardless of Bezos and the big publishers. Remove internet anonymity. Take away the aliases and the whole house of cards falls down. It should be a crime to use an alias to cause any sort of damage to a small business person's reputation, career or livelihood and sooner or later legislation will be passed to make it a crime. After the first suicide or two happens by writers driven to it by anonymous persecution there will be a public outcry for this to be stopped. Just the other day I got a post to my blog by a writer who said she was close to suicide because of online persecution after being bullied her whole life. The trolls can be stopped and will be. The deltaforce post is just disinformation with enough truth to make it believable. That Bezos, Chandler and big publishing are behind this I have no doubt. But to use that as an excuse to accept the troll attacks as unstoppable is bullshit. I intent to see it stopped.

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    Replies
    1. Take away anonymity and legislation was mentioned in the post as perhaps the only way to do it because Bezos will not do it. Now that Amazon has GR, it's his call there too I would suspect. Although, even with the anonymity gone, I think it would still continue on a smaller level. Legislation will be the only thing that would stop it - combined with the anonymity removed.

      I disagree with Deltaforce spreading misinformation, he said the truth, that for as long as Bezos allows it, it will continue.

      Delete
  2. Take a close look at the Deltaforce post. The only new info in it is that the trolls cannot be stopped. Many have stated that Bezos allows the trolls and protects them. Everything in the post is old news except the myth that the trolls cannot be stopped. That is the disinformation designed to discourage people from even trying to stop them.

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    1. They can't be stopped, Rick. That is the truth. We have gun laws, does that stop people from killing with them? No. But we don't even have strong internet laws yet. And anonymity still exists. Not to mention, it hasn't been stopped yet. What plausible notion or knowledge / evidence do you have that would indicate any possibility that this could ever be stopped? I want to see it.

      The only thing I can see that makes you or anyone else believe this will stop is ..... hope.

      That's not a plausible deterrent.

      Delete
  3. The court ruling that forced yelp to reveal the identities of aliases making false statements to harm the reputation of a business is a very good start. I intend to use that case as grounds to force Bluehost to reveal who exactly is behind STGRB. That is unless they decide they don't want the legal hassles and remove the filth about me from STGRB. Then I won't have grounds to force the reveal of the identities so legal action can be taken against them. So I'll either get the filth removed or I get the true identity of the person behind STGRB. Win/win as I see it. Once the word gets out that the book trolls/bullies can and will be exposed so legal action can be taken against them I see the attacks greatly reduced in numbers.

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    1. I think where you and I differ Rick, is that you think Athena is evil, whereas the truth is, (and I what I know is fact) is that she just lacks integrity.

      Now, lacking integrity does not mean she is bad. I know a lot of good people who lack integrity. Likewise, I know bad people who have integrity.

      The problem with Athena is she is more concerned about what others think of her and how things "look" as opposed to what they really are. You can find this evidence in my post "The Athena Emails" where she admits to being worried about what the bullies think. Commonsense would tell you that if she is worried about what the bullies think and say, then she is also worried about what her friends think and say.

      I mention this because, I found out why she really cut ties with me. It was because I wouldn't cut ties with you. And Athena was worried how it reflected on her. She is worried about her "brand" more than she is about people. If you are an asset to her brand, then you are her friend. When you stop being an asset, she will no longer be your friend.

      People are not brands. Period. And I do not turn my back on my friends. I do not abandon them. I stick with them through thick and thin for as long as I can. And ever since you threatened to hire hackers and doc dropped, instead of your friends trying to talk you out of it, they turned their back on you. Some friends, right? However, I didn't abandon you. I stuck around to talk you in off that ledge if I could and what people seem to forget is that you never did go through with hiring hackers. And you never have doc dropped since. I'd like to think that by me standing by my friend, I may have had a hand in that. While others chose to take the easy road of abandonment, I took the tough road of being a friend.

      This is why I am not going after STGRB to take them down. I still believe in what they have done for the cause and what they're still trying to do. It's just that the way they are doing it lacks integrity. Athena is just a crowd pleaser. She merely tells people what they want to hear. Like a politician. That's all. She might be a leader to some, but she is bad leader. Not a bad person.

      Integrity is when you stand for something and you won't be moved despite what you're standing for isn't popular with the majority. That's integrity. Integrity is telling the truth, not telling a lie just to sell the truth. (Like Obama did to sell ObamaCare) Integrity is not just saying you support people, like gays and lesbians (as for example) but being friends and hanging out with your gay and lesbian friends and not concerned if others who see you hanging out with them might come to think that you're gay or lesbian too. That's integrity. Just because you're my friend doesn't mean I condone hiring hackers or doc dropping. Just as it is when I hang out with my gay friends doesn't mean I am gay too.

      And also, integrity is being a friend. Not a fake or fraud like all of those who turned their back on you. To abandon you at the time when it was the popular thing to do. My integrity wouldn't allow me to turn my back on a friend, but to try and help my friend from jumping off a ledge.

      But if people would rather have a friend like Athena who will turn on them when it's popular to do so or when it will hurt her "brand" over a friend like me who will stand with them with integrity and not just up and abandon them when times get tough, then so be it. At some point and time, they will come to learn the same thing I did, that Athena Parker hasn't integrity. You can't have integrity when you're worried about what other people think of you - when you're too concerned about protecting your "brand".

      But hey, if you want to take STGRB down, that's your puppy. You have your reasons. As your friend, I'll still be there to give advice and such. I don't have to approve of everything my friends do to be their friend.

      Delete
  4. There's a lot of truth to what you say, my friend. I never said I was going to hire hackers in the first place. I asked for their help in tracking down a particularly vicious stalker from Amazon. STGRB twisted it to say I was hiring hackers, another lie and attempt to demonize me by the website that professes to help abused authors.
    The docs I dropped were actually first published on the STGRB website, so I just reposted info they had first published and later deleted. But the SS of the original posts were still floating around in cyberspace. The info I published about Athena is all fake date. That's why it was never challenged or attacked by STGRB. Thus proving that Athena is not a real person, she is an alias as is stated on the STGEB "Who We Are" page. I do intend to find out who really is behind STGRB and take legal action against them.

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  5. Found this story today, looks like the trolls have had it in the UK. More proof the reign of the troll is coming to an end.
    http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/26/internet-trolls-warned-expect-arrest-if-you-abuse-people-online-4324660/

    ReplyDelete

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