I’m sure it’s been a fun weekend for you, examining every liberal blog to see if anybody makes mention of Armando. Attention! Attention! Attention! Armando is getting lots of attention!
On March 30, 2006, at MyLeftWing, you said:
Speaking for me at least, not only have I never complained about abuse, I take matters into my own hands and leave my combatant whimpering.
As for bannings – one person has been banned at my reques[t], Madman in the Marketplace – for spewi[n]g lying smears about me, Markos and daily kos.
I don’t need to ban anyone – I’ll outargue and outabuse anybody in the blogs.
Armando, the short explanation is this: You reap what you sow. When people say you had it coming, that’s what they mean.
You heaped abuse, ridicule, profanity, scorn, and vigilantism on poster after poster after poster. Meteor Blades tried to intervene and persuade you to behave decently, but to no avail. Now that somebody’s found a way to make it hurt for you, like you made it hurt for them, you become a world-class whinybaby. Cowboy up, dude.
You were not outed because you are a prominent left-wing blogger. You were outed because you are an unrelenting asshole. You’re attempting to make yourself the victim here by drawing a bright line between the abusive behavior you’ve perpetrated for years and Jiggy Flunknut’s behavior in outing you.
Guess what? You’ve got it backward. Your behavior is far worse than his. He simply told the truth about you. Big fucking deal. Newsflash: you’re not important enough for people to track you down and do harm to you. You must view yourself as John Lennon at the Dakota. LOFL.
Seriously, Armando, your behavior has been far worse than Jiggy’s on many dimensions. Perhaps overarching all of them, though, is the fundamental disconnect between your public calls for a sense of community, decency and fairness in society on the one hand and the horribly indecent behavior you exhibit toward your fellow travelers on the other. The sin is compounded by the fact you occupy a position of leadership in the blogosphere.
Read this post carefully, and if you are as self-reflective as you claim, perhaps you’ll begin to see yourself as so many others see you. [Pause . . . nah, won’t happen]. If it’s necessary to silence your analysis in order to stop your abusive behavior, it’s a price worth paying.
When you come back, and you will, here’s a suggestion. Find a milieu where you can post articles only. Refrain from commenting. That way, whatever value you offer won’t be outweighed by your personality disorder.
UPDATE: link crossposted to swordscrossed.org. The comment system would not accept the whole diary.
You couldn’t be more wrong.
No deserves this, no one. Armando put words on a screen, nothing more. Sorry, this doesn’t qualify as abuse. Even getting someone banned doesn’t live up to that designation.
In an uncaring world where those with means refuse to assist those without despite their dire circumstances, Armando’s behavior doesn’t even register on the scale. I’ve known abuse as a child, this isn’t it.
I have no great love for Armando, but that isn’t relevant. Could he be an asshole? Obviously. But his actions all fell within the framework of blogtopia. Words on a screen, nothing more.
Armando put words on a screen, nothing more. Sorry, this doesn’t qualify as abuse. Even getting someone banned doesn’t live up to that designation.
The words you put on the screen matter. If you abuse enough people for a long enough time, somebody will escalate. Whether it appears abusive to you is quite irrelevant. The relevant metric is whether it appears abusive to the recipient of it. Obviously, enough people experienced Armando as abusive, inasmuch as it became a common joke, being attacked by Armando, as some kind of rite of passage.
I agree with you, boran2. While it’s honestly surprising something similar hasn’t happened sooner, nobody deserves to have something like this happen to them for simply posting words on screen.
and nothing has really happened to Armando.
The words we all choose matter.
I recently had someone post my real first name here without my permission, in an effort to intimidate me for disagreeing with her. While it caused me no lasting harm, it gives me immense empathy for someone who has their entire identity exposed.
I have never been a fan of Armando’s screaming comments, but his SCOTUS converage was absolutely excellent, and there have been other times I’ve found myself appreciating what he had to say on a particular subject. And so, I really don’t care for the whole crop of “Ha! You got yours for being an a**hole” diaries, although I can understand how some people might feel that way. It just seems like people are being unnecessarily nasty, much like what they don’t like about Armando’s attitude. Maybe a little hypocritical?
Just my $0.02.
Although I don’t think his SCOTUS coverage was all that great, the point you make there agrees with one I made in my diary. He’s better off just posting articles and refraining from commenting. Commenting brings out the very worst in him.
So far as the hypocrisy of being nasty toward him is concerned, it’s all he understands, so it’s a necessary price to pay.
Armando seems to suffer from Tactlapsia. Sometimes certain people have very severe cases of Tactlapsia and they have to call in sick for life that day so they can allow their tact systems to recover. Tactlapsia reoccurrence can often happen during periods of stress. It’s genetic and chronic but not always progressive for those who sway towards progressive. It’s like gout, it flares up off and on when some of us feel overindulged or maybe it’s overimbibed or even a bit of both. According to Cabingirl they don’t make a pill yet for Tactlapsia, if they do Newt has already signed on to market it! Don’t ask me how I know about these flare-ups, it’s complicated.
Armando put words on a screen, nothing more. Sorry, this doesn’t qualify as abuse. Even getting someone banned doesn’t live up to that designation.
I don’t appreciate this diary which is also somewhat abusive but I feel rather strongly that the activities of several DK moderators including Armando frequently can and should be legitimately classified as abusive. In the clinical sense, I mean.
I’ve been distressed for some time that so many people think that sort of behavior is perfectly natural and acceptable as long as it isn’t directed towards them. To me the interesting question is why Kos selects and enshrines abusive personalities in moderator positions.
I don’t think Kos has made a point of enshrining a lot of people with difficult personalities. I think there’s only one other personality who could fairly be characterized as abusive.
I agree with most of this. But you should be aware that BooMan has a specific rule that diaries can’t call out members from other blogs unless the diary is also cross-posted at the other blog.
I’ll post it at sword crossed if and when Armando puts up his swan song.
I’m not the diary police, just passing along something I just had a discussion with BooMan about. If you post at Swords Crossed, I would think that’s okay.
LOL. He never went away. Never stopped commenting. Extended no-host bar pity party.
The eternal GBCW routine that so many self-obsessed bloggers have employed. The list is long… In/out In/out.
It’d be comedy, but it never really rises, not even to a guffaw.
One thing is clear, that sort never got enough attention as children. Awww.
Well, digdugboy, haven’t seen you since the old days at dkos where you were an asshole. Nice to know some things never change.
Why don’t you take your fifth grade name-calling back over there. I question why this post belongs here at Booman.
Never seen a diary or comment from you in the year I’ve been here. Why today?
Not interested in Booman Tribune becoming the AntiKos, not interested in the Democratic Party becoming the AntiBush, not interested in my blog community becoming the AntiArmando. It doesn’t serve a purpose, and as has been pointed out above Armando hasn’t really “left” the blogosphere yet. He was just on a Wes Clark thread on Kos.
Because I’m actually quite happy that Armando is promising to leave the blogosphere. If only he really would fade away . . .
The cost he exacts is far greater than the contribution he makes. JMO.
I’m pretty sure he would have done so by now. I know that he said he was going to leave, appears that he thought it over and decided to stay.
Not only why today, but why here? Are you a little reticent to post it at dkos?
Or how about as a comment at Swords Crossed? Seems like that would make more sense than here.
for his promised swan song post to come up. I haven’t seen it yet. I hope he didn’t lie about that.
Well, maybe you should find something else to do while you’re waiting, instead of trying to stir things up here.
Because I can, unlike at DKos.
Are you banned or are they deleting Armando diaries?
For the record, I never lied about, or smeared, either him, his master or that pathetic trojan horse of a blog. I posted comments alluding to their apparent close and cozy relationship with Sen. Reid’s office, and offered the assumption that they were taking orders and/or direction from his, Emmanuel’s and Schumer’s offices. Judging by the highlighting of the “we stand for nothing but electing former Republicans” spin that I see coming out of the Yearly DempubliKos, I think my suppositions stand the test of time.
I always stood by what I wrote. I always linked back to my original statements when Armando misquoted me, which he did frequently. I never went back and scrubbed a diary. Sadly, now, it’s damned near impossible to get to the threads of my diaries at dK … links often go back to the front page. Stalinist, that place has become, rewriting and cleaning up and censoring history to suit their dishonest agenda as digital ward heelers for a thoroughly corrupt corporate party.
They have betrayed what they claimed to be building.
that better suited my needs
oh, I really don’t either, though I must admit to nurturing some warm and fuzzy schadenfreud over this whole affair. I offered this comment here because it quotes Armando’s unsupported charge that I’d “lied” about him, the Little Martinet and the DailyKlark.
I’m finding the whole thing kinda funny and also plenty sad. I’d been so happy, excited and felt so much less alone when I found my way there in 2003. It’s too bad all of the former-Republican front-pagers destroyed it as a truly open and dynamic forum for center, center-left and leftist debate. It’s been colonized by the center-right and a bunch of fratboys.
“Stalinist, that place has become, rewriting and cleaning up and censoring history to suit their dishonest agenda as digital ward heelers for a thoroughly corrupt corporate party.”
Yup.
“…digital ward heelers for a thoroughly corrupt corporate party.”
Gonna use that one.
With attribution.
Thank you.
AG
feel free … it’s all about a truly free-market of ideas.
I’ll be interested to “hear” your riff on this idea … I’m sure you’ll add in a little bit of rhythm!
You want some rhythm added?
Make it two sentences and take out the second “and”.
So it reads:
“Stalinist, that place has become. Rewriting, cleaning up and censoring history to suit their dishonest agenda as digital ward heelers for a thoroughly corrupt corporate party.”
It swings a little better. To my ears, anyway.
Other than that..I couldn’t even THINK of saying it any other way.
You da man, here.
Da Mad Man.
AG
Can everybody knock this shit off please. Take your shadenfreude someplace else until your back to normal. I am damn well hope this diary is cross-posted in orange or it will be deleted.
I did all that work on tactlapsia and now it’s going to be all gone! All my research…..gone
Copy it now, tracy before it disappears. I think I may have caught it and I want to know if there’s a cure.
taking pleasure in another’s suffering.
you’d better go look up “snark.”
think this is in orange. But I did learn a new word that means A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others……it’s the longer version of Butthead.
I can’t wait for your book on the subject.
I was banned shortly after MSOC outed me. The best I can do is post it as a comment at SwordsCrossed once Armando’s good bye post goes up.
post goes up?
It seems like it would have no context at swordscrossed otherwise. If Booman wants, though, I’ll be happy to post it there as a comment in the most recent diary.
Shouldn’t Swordscrossed be the first place to post this and not an afterthought? What is your point here? Fine, Armando can be a dick, what a revelation.
well, why would you post this here in defiance of the rules. I don’t want people that are banned from dKos to use the diary feature here to continue their wars. We don’t deserve that.
Booman, I’d love to be able to crosspost this at Orange, but I can’t. The best I can do is post it at swordscrossed. I’m not posting here to defy your rule. I’m sure both Marisacat and Madman would be happy to crosspost their criticisms of Armando or Markos at Orange if they could.
So far as my diary is concerned, the community seems to be doing a fair job of weighing in on it, largely with disapproval. You have a fine community here, and I don’t mean to become a turd in the punchbowl.
and you won’t float to the top anymore. We have all needed a little composting time here and there. Thank you for pointing out that the community wants to be respectful but also wants to move on.
I am SO sorry to hear you say this.
Rethink your position here, I beg you.
Really.
You are setting up a Catch-22 situation that can have nothing but bad consequences for this blog.
And do not undervalue the antipathy of many of us to what is going on in the world of left blogtopia as simple schadenfreude. (“Enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others” as defined by Merriam-Webster.)
It is SO much more than that.
It is a real fear that this nascent movement is about to be totally co-opted.
Nothing less.
And a heartfelt resistance to that possibility.
AG
Silence is very imporant. The silence between the notes are as important as the notes themselves. – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart …
Thank you MT.
You are right. And so was Wolfie.
I retire from the field now.
AG
What is the Catch-22?
If you want to post a diary that says Armando is wrong about x.y,z, or even Armando undermines his credibility by his online behavior in the threads, or something like that, fine.
But taking satisfaction in his comeuppance, gleefully contemplating the damage to his career, crowing about his decision to stop blogging, calling him names, questioning his ethics and competence as a lawyer? All of this falls into the category of a personal attack. And even this isn’t banned provided you can cross-post it where it matters. And believe me, this personal stuff doesn’t matter here (or there, really).
If you can’t post because you’re banned then you can’t use this place as shitboard to carry on your fight. Get over your banning and do something more productive with your time.
I’m tired of hearing about Armando…he should just change his name and stop using his real first name. Why, are we wasting anymore letters on him?
actually, you are almost right on one hand, but very wrong on most of the other hands.
armando did bring this on himself, but not because he was mean to you (and me, and dozens of other posters).
he brought it on himself by thinking he could not only be a shit-stirrer, but a shit-stirrer who worked across non-partisan levels with the other side, and remain pseudonymous.
someone at the fdl breakfast (and since i’m paraphrasing, i shan’t attribute it to her by name, in case i get what she meant wrong) concluded that “if you lie down with dogs, you get fleas.”
it was her opinion that armando brought it on himself by naively trying to cooperate with rightist bloggers, whom never should be trusted. in her opinion, the “other side” was out to get even for our “destruction” of ben domenech. so when armando set up crossed swords with trevino, but the other side (be it trevino, or someone at nro) pounced at the chance to take one of ours down.
and it is my opinion that, in this day of <whois>, cell phones with video cameras, isp records and google, nobody has a reasonable expectation of remaining nonymous online, be it an- or pseudo-.
and especially if someone makes it his/her “schtick” to be confrontational, can they expect to remain unknown.
now, i would disagree that it was either “karma” or specific retribution for a specific “slight,” real or imagined, which lead to armando’s outing. it’s more a serrendipity of coincidence that those who nurse wounds and grudges latch onto to justify their own feeling of powerlessness, which, considering it takes place in cyberspace, is downright pathetic.
the best you can enjoy is the irony of the situation. but it’s certainly not the foundation for a diary, unless it’s one that is more thoughtfully done, as i did with this comment.
but it’s just speculation. It does, however, bring up another example of Armando’s hubris. After criticizing MSOC for going on Gibson’s show and cooperating with wingers, he decides to cooperate with them himself. The one true invincible progressive voice?
As for the rest of your analysis, I tend to disagree, and side more with Peeder’s analysis. Armando wrote an inflammatory diary calling out Jiggy Flunknut. The diary was subsequently deleted, but the insult could not be retrieved. Jiggy Flunknut retaliated. This explanation has the benefit of parsimony and does not require the invention of unknown conspirators.
i believe armado was outed in nro, by the write wing.
not a smoking gun, but more compelling circumstantial evidence than the jiggy flunknut theory, imo.