It's like watching a train wreck - you just can't stop!

[layla]

So it turns out that LJ advisory board candidate legomymalfoy received actual death threats urging her to drop out of the race. Rather than let the bastards win, she's staying in.

Former candidate (and buddy of jameth) cambler, who was losing anyway, dropped out yesterday over a rumor of death threats against an unspecified LJ-er. Now that it turns out he's not the target, rather than offering sympathy to legomymalfoy like a decent human being, he's accusing her of not caring about her family's safety and whining like a five-year-old that he was unfairly forced to drop out of the race [ETA: post is now locked] and that LJ should invalidate the whole election on his behalf. (Wahhhhh! Mommeeeeee! They made me drop out! It's somebody else's faaaauuuult!) And the commenters, who are pretty much the same group of Jameth-supporting trolls who have been acting like fuckwits all over every OTHER election post, are quick to claim the death threat's a fraud and any rise in her vote count at this point must be due to sockpuppetry. (Please note in regards to that last comment thread, the only "flak for cheating" that she's been getting, that I've seen, is from Jameth's camp's unsupported claims that she's been cheating, which is rather a different thing.)

I'm alternately horrified at these people's utter lack of human decency, and horrified at myself because I can't seem to leave it alone.

Here's a link to the voting page again, because god, I do not want to see this batch of scum win this election.

EDIT (5/30): The election's over, I'm about snarked out for a while, and so, I'm stepping away from this discussion for the moment. Non-friend comments are still screened, and I may be (very) tardy to unscreen/reply.

Comments

[burned-rose.livejournal.com]

I'm not here to troll, but I am here just to mention that C Ambler is a rather good internet friend of mine and I know him on other communities. he is very well respected in all those communities as a professional photographer who produces amazing work. In my multiple correspondences with him, both as a model and a make up artist, he has been nothing but professional and polite. I know that won't mean much coming from me, but he is not the "asshat" that people make him out to be.

I am a friend of Jameth, via online, for several years. I can testify, and would testify in court, that he has never, ever, in ym entire time on his friends list, asked for people to troll.

He will post a link, and the most that he will say is "Oh boy, I don't know what is going on here!" or "Can someone help me clarify these rumors? They are writing libelous statements about me."

With a friends list of over 1300 people, you can guarantee that someone will, of course, troll. However, I have seen Jameth ask them not to troll and ask them to be nice. But again, it is hard to control a crowd of 1300 from a keyboard and computer screen, as you have seen in this post.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I appreciate that you feel the urge to defend your friends, and appreciate very much that you've done so politely; thank you! (And actually, I *do* think cambler's photographs are appealing. I don't always find them in the best taste, but he's unquestionably talented.)

However, it's absolute bullshit that you (generic "you") are not encouraging trolling if you know your flist is prone to trolling, and you point them in the direction of a link anyway. If Jameth chooses to surround himself with that sort of people, it's his business. But if he directs known trolls to a post, he is absolutely encouraging trolling, and it's extremely disingenuous to pretend he's not. And if he shows up in a troll-infested thread specifically to point out that he's amused by it (as he does above) he is obviously condoning and encouraging that behavior.

If I know a guy beats his dogs, and I give him a puppy and later smile and call out encouragement when I see him beating it, I may not have control over his actions and I may not have told him to do it, but I definitely bear some moral responsibility for it.