My friend and fellow prog-blogger Meg Lanker-Simons in Laramie was attacked online this week. Here's what an unidentified person said on the Facebook page UW Crushes:
I want to hatefuck Meg Lanker-Simons so hard. That chick that runs her liberal mouth all the time and doesn't care who knows it. I think its hot and makes me angry. One night with me and shes gonna be a good Republican bitch.This is verbatim. There are so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start. Would this person countenance someone saying this about his sister, wife, girlfriend or mother? If not, why is he saying this about someone else in public? He must think that such comments are OK. Where did he learn that? At home? From his UW pals? Talk radio? These attitudes are in plentiful supply on the web and on conservative talk radio. Sure, some of these words are not allowed on the airwaves. But hateful anti-women messages spew regularly from the big mouths of Limbaugh and Hannity and even women commentators such as Ann Coulter.
The UW Crushes site no longer exists on Facebook. The attitudes, alas, continue. After the story broke, Meg received a barrage of hateful anonymous comments on her Tumblr site, Cognitive Dissonance. I won't repeat any of them here. For the first time ever, Meg had to block anonymous posts. That's saying something for the most outspoken liberal blogger in the most conservative state in the U.S.
We always want to know who's to blame when these things happen. UW Crushes was not an official UW web site, although it carried the university's name and featured its logo. The UW administration had distanced itself from the site that posted "crushes" involving university students. That made it a throwback to the original Facebook at Harvard, if the "Social Network" film can be believed. It seems a stretch to blame UW for the transgressions of one person who may not even be a student. The site's administrators confessed to being engineering students too busy to monitor every status update. One wonders if they will be too busy to monitor the computer systems, nuclear plants and bridges they will be building after graduation.
We could blame Wyoming's conservative culture. Conservatives have had a particularly tough time keeping their prejudicial attitudes to themselves. Remember all of the dumb things Republicans said in the most recent election cycle? Remember Akin's "legitimate rape" and Romney's "47 percent?" Even big-time conservatives like Bobby Jindal have told their colleagues to quit being so dumb in public. That didn't stop some of our Republican legislators for saying stupidisms about the LGBT community during the civil unions debate at the 2013 session. Women in the Equality State continue to experience inequality in the workplace. And they continue to be slapped around at an alarming rate by their menfolk. Violence, alas, is an American as apple pie and is served up often to women.
Wyoming is not the only place in the world where some men profess a need to rape women into docile, compliant serfs. But it's the place I call home and this kind of attitude must stop. I have a wife and a daughter and some day will have grandchildren and I don't want any of them to be subjected to violence.
Simpson's Plaza at the University of Wyoming is the site of a demonstration against UW Crushes and rape culture in Wyoming. It will be held on Monday, April 29, 11 a.m.
22 comments:
The site's administrators confessed to being engineering students too busy to monitor every status update. One wonders if they will be too busy to monitor the computer systems, nuclear plants and bridges they will be building after graduation.
Don't be such a dink... just because you didn't get a real degree (unlike these engineering students) doesn't mean you understand how demanding their school schedule is.
I'm always impressed on how brave you Anonymous commenters are. You might have the courage of your convictions if you went to a real university.
If these people were anything other than bullies and cowards, they would not choose to remain anonymous. Cindy Lange
Where is the follow-up on this story now that Lanker-Simons is shown to be the one responsible for the anonymous post about herself?
http://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2013/04/uw-student-cited-in-facebook-post-investigation.html
The plot thickens. All the facts not in yet. There will be a follow-up.
A quick look at her pinterest shows us that she finds the tweet "Tebow loses long-held viriginity after being screwed by Broncos" entertaining enough to pin on her board.
Not only that, but she posts "BURN!" Underneath it to show her support of the classless rape joke.
Oh no, it is so terrible how evasive a deceptive person can be when they are motivated by pride and ego. Someone misses the five minutes of fame, so make up a new story to promote your agenda. It's no wonder being that she is a fan of Bill Ayers, her deceptive ways are characteristic of such people. Lie to get your way, increase your importance and power at any cost. The psychological aspects of this notwithstanding (insane narcisistic need to be in the spotlight, and prove yourself "right). What a load.
All the facts were not in when you started blaming conservatives. What's got your tongue now? Face it: You got suckered by a lady who played on your own bigotries, knowing full well that you wouldn't question.
Anonymous (if that is your name): It appears that you spend a lot of time and effort pondering Meg Lanker-Simon's psychological state. And you don't even know her! Maybe she posted to UW Crushes and maybe she did not. The police who questioned her say she did. Meg says that she did not. In fact, she has pled not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of interfering with a police investigation. We won't have a definitive answer until May 13, although we may know more at the end of this week. You will hear more from me then on this issue.
That still doesn't explain your U-turn from "Forget learning the facts, let's blame conservatives!" to "I don't wanna talk about it until we have more facts."
I think you're embarrassed that you got suckered so easily. She played to your own bigotries and having your bigotries stroked felt too good for you to question anything you were hearing.
Yeah, let's hear it for your "tolerance and diversity." Yeah.
Not everything is yet publicly known about this case. You conservatives aren't known for your patience, but you'll just have to wait.
Wow... I love this, the fact is the police have substantial evidence from her computer showing that she posted it herself, she also very likely left digital fingerprints all over the place which point to her as the messages origin. Regardless you stand with her, which I applaud your loyalty to a friend, however it's undeniable she is guilty and come her trial it will be proven.
Look who's talking, hypocrite. YOU'RE the one who rushed to judgment and blamed conservatives for what your pig friend has done.
Explain yourself, child.
Goodness, Anonymous. Does your mama or wife or daughter know that you refer to women as "pigs?" Shame.
Actually, the last anaomys may just be Meg herself...since we don't know all the facts.
Well, you didn't know all the facts but you said "We could blame Wyoming's conservative culture."
How could you blame the culture without knowing all the facts?
Yeah, everyone who pleads not-guilty isn't guilty......
Michael Shay, you're obviously old enough to know better, but you don't seem to. Why's that?
Absent any proof at all, you took it as fact that some conservative posted an inflammatory, vile comment to the UW Crushes Facebook page.
To all appearances, you've been had by your gun-toting "friend" Meg Lanker-Simons, aka Meghan Michelena -- the name she was using when she pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated assault in 2006.
We were supposed to hear more from you on May 13 or shortly thereafter, but we haven't. What's up? Have you finally started to follow the adage that when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is to stop digging?
Ah, well, what should I expect from someone I must presume has a hummingbird mind?
(I'm posting as Anonymous because my son and I have the same name. He's an officer in the military and I don't want some possibly intemperate comment I make to be easily associated with him. . . .
Interrupted by a phone call from my daughter, during which I happened to remember that a woman once threatened to call the police and tell them I had attempted to rape her. Fortunately, all I had to do was check to make sure my wife was still on the other end of a phone line Crazy Rose had been "trapped" on when she was making nuisance phone calls to us.
Funny, now that I think about it, that Crazy Rose had a Master's Degree in psychology -- and she also bore an uncanny resemblance to Michelina-Lanker-Simons.
I'll call your hummingbird and raise you two.)
Anon:
Not sure I understand everything you're talking about here. I often have that problem when trying to translate conservative gobbledygook.
Sincerely yours,
The Real Hummingbirdmind
My comment may have been rather long, Michael, but there was nothing unclear about it. Perhaps I accidentally submitted two versions and you opted to put up the first? You and The Shadow know. I don't. If that's what you did, I consider it to be dishonest of you.
Didn't you vet your "friend" Meg Lanker-Simons to learn that she had been sentenced to six years probation when she pled guilty to the felony of aggravated assault in 2006? Did she confuse you by changing the name she went by?
Did my inital ending confuse you? "I'll call your hummingbird and raise you two"? Just a throwaway because I held three hummingbirds in my hand one day after they trapped themselves on a landing and couldn't find their way to freedom. (That's because they have tiny, hummingbird minds, see?) Those suckers are smaller than they appear to be. What we see is almost all feathers.
Since you couldn't keep up, let me restate the key points of my inital post.
1. Absent any reliable evidence, you were happy to jump on the bandwagon and believe that Lanker-Simons had been "threatened with rape" by a conservative.
2. When news was released that made it appear as if she made the "threat" herself, you said we don't know all the facts; it's too soon to say Meg threatened herself. Surely that also has to mean it's too soon to say a conservative threatened her, doesn't it?
3. You continue to fail to acknowledge that your friend pled guilty to a felony.
4. I've had the personal experience of a woman threatening to accuse me of rape when no such thing happened.
Having had that experience, I'm inclined to think Meg Lanker-Simons (Meghan Michelina) is this year's Alexandra Pennell -- that she's lying about having been "threatened" by a post to UW Crush to get attention.
And, now that I've learned she claims to be a rape survivor, I have to be skeptical about that as well. Where's the evidence? Take her at her word? Not this woman's word. No reason to think she's telling the truth. Several reasons to think she's lying. Conservative or not, anyone with more than a hummingbird mind should be able to see that she's not to be taken at her word.
(Ran this by my word processor. The reading level for my previous post was 8.7. This one's is 7.5. Maybe that will be low enough for you to keep up.)
Anon:
Ernest Hemingway said that he always had a ninth-grade reading level in mind whenever he wrote something. Obviously you're aiming a little lower, but I get your drift.
Thank you for rescuing those hummingbirds. They obviously were in distress and you helped them out. Hummingbirds, as it turns out, have gigantic brains for their size. If we had the brain-body ratio of a hummingbird, ours would weigh almost three times what we have now. You can read all about it in one of my previous posts at http://hummingbirdminds.blogspot.com/2012/01/if-i-did-have-hummingbird-mind-i-could.html
As for Meg, we'll just have to see what happens during her day in court. I've read the rabid comments she's received since this all blew up and, if they do nothing else, they show that was I wrote about in my initial post was accurate.
I know many things about Meg's background and that hasn't prevented us from being friends. I would venture a guess that you have friends with checkered pasts and you manage to look beyond that to see their sterling qualities.
Please excuse me if this is a double post!
I believe that MSL has withdrawn her Not Guilty plea and has until Oct 30th to enter a new plea. I'm curious as to your thoughts on this development.
Thanks,
Jim Clayton
I heard that on NPR that Meg's lawyer entered a "no contest" plea. That was some time this week.
And what do you think about that? Is it an admission og her guilt or do you think it's more a matter of just trying to put it all behind her?
Jim C
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