So This Happened

[Content Note: Hostility to consent.]

There is an organization called "Help a Reporter Out," known as HARO, to which reporters seeking sources can post queries.

This morning, someone who is a member of HARO (and who has given me hir consent to republish this anonymously) sent me the following listing zie found at the site:


So, basically, someone is seeking a psychologist to quote in order to do a write-up on Shakesville, in which I'll evidently be compared to Hug0 $chwyz3r and psychoanalyzed by someone who doesn't even know me, for a "well-known news and opinion site."

I don't know who the person is planning to write this piece, nor do I know what site intends to publish it.

What I do know is that I have not given my permission to be profiled, and I certainly have not consented to let a psychologist who does not even know me publicly diagnose me and/or discuss me.

One of the things that I and the other moderators of this space do not allow is armchair diagnosis of other people. We don't do it on the main page, and we don't allow it in comments. That is rank disablist garbage. There is a particular irony that someone writing a piece on "the many abuses committed in the name of social justice" would engage in an abusive behavior that is not allowed in the space I manage in order to accuse me of "toxicity" and "abuse."

As a side note, HARO includes in its "Rules" section the following: "5. Be excellent to each other. Violating any of the above rules will result in a first time warning, and upon a second violation, being banned from the service. HARO works on mutual trust and support."

I guess that doesn't apply to the people on whom their members are seeking to write hit pieces.