Anonymous Internet Dogs

9/05/08 - 6th Day - After Breakfast. Preparation of the Sabbath. Just a quick note to comment on something that is an absolute plague in the internet world. Some of you are just ignorant and just don't know better, and therefore you might think it is harmless. Some of you might thrive on it, because you can become something you aren't, say things you would never say, and amplify yourself beyond your ability, honor, courage, or integrity. What is it I am talking about?

ANONYMITY

Specifically I am speaking of anonymous comments. Now, don't go thinking I am talking about the quick drive-by posters who want to encourage or ask a question and don't want the whole world to know who they are. I understand that some of you do not want to leave a large internet footprint in the blogosphere, and this I understand. I guess I don't really have a problem with those quick, positive, or inquisitive posts where someone posts anonymously.

I am talking about the dogs and cowards who prowl the internet and attack, rebuke, or pretend to chastise people anonymously. I have more respect for a rabid, slobbering dog than I do for one of these cowards. So, I am posting an article I wrote two years ago when I was being attacked by an internet coward/dog named "scorebored". But before I do that, I wanted to mention a second pet peeve in this modern, anonymous, cowardly, ignorant, world. That is the use of "ad hominem". I have to tell you that in the past few years of having a fairly prominent internet blog, I have come to hate this term. Not because of any serious problems with the term, but because a million-million internet morons with no knowledge or intelligence have adopted the term in order to defend themselves against the truth when it is told to them. So, here is a very quick primer on the term "ad hominem"...

The term "ad hominem" means " 1. appealing to one's prejudices, emotions, or special interests, rather than to one's intellect or reason. 2. attacking an opponent's character rather than answering his argument.

The term has come to mean "to attack the person", and really ignorant know-nothing internet gnats have taken it to mean "any time anyone says anything I don't like, or tells the truth about me". So, to review. It is not automatically "ad hominem" to tell the truth about someone, call them names, or point out some obvious fact concerning them. It is not "ad hominem" to point out that a man who is wanting a position as a child's teacher is a pedophile or a man-buggerer. It is not "ad hominem" to point out that a huge fat preacher is a glutton and loses credibility. It is not "ad hominem" to tell a wolf, fox, dog, or snake that they are what they are. It is not "ad hominem" to point out that a preacher who claims to be rebuking the rest of the "church" for missing the gospel, is only preaching a part of the gospel himself. Here is how a modern conversation would go if Jesus were preaching on the internet:

Jesus: "Mat 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matt. 23:33)

Pharisees: "See, nothing but ad hominem attacks!"

So, I can't fix stupid, but I can tell dogs the truth of themselves. Anonymous internet dogs and blog attack commenters are lower than the Pharisees, because at least the Pharisees had the courage to show up in person. Their punishment will be far less than will the anonymous internet dogs.

Ok, so here is the article I wrote two years ago. I use the term "ad hominem" in it, and I use it properly to describe what goes on with these people. I think there is a great lesson in this for everyone, and I promise, as much as is within me, to root out these scum wherever they may be found... amen.

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11/01/06

Internet Cowards: a Sign of the Times

09:53:08 am, Categories: 1363 words

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come. William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

When I was traveling the country on speaking tours, I encountered about every kind of professing "christian" you can imagine... Papists, Arminians, Charismatics, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists and those of a hundred other sects. I have stood for hours answering questions from hostile crowds of over 300 people. In hundreds of speaking engagements I encountered 10's of thousands of people in over 80 cities in America and several foreign countries. During that time I received dozens and dozens of anonymous death threats that continue to this day; I have had people drive thousands of miles to show up unannounced at our farm just to "look me in the eye", and I have had organized campaigns designed to keep me off the radio, or to cancel my speaking engagements. I have had "churches" who had invited me to speak - subsequently kick me out and disfellowship their own members because I taught on the Doctrines of Grace openly. I have been assured that if I ever travel to Northern Ireland that I won't live through the first day (by the way, I'm still looking forward to an invitation to Ireland so I can take them up on that). In Australia our enemies anonymously canceled our meeting room at a Perth University, and plastered professional "cancelled" stickers on all of our posters. When we carried on with the meeting, they smashed out windows in several of the vehicles in the parking lots. I was told in an e-mail that if I ever came back to Kansas City, I would regret it. The next meeting I had in Kansas City was attended by over 400 people, including about 20 FEMA employees who videotaped my accusations against them. The man who made the anonymous threat didn't show. I was publicly threatened with bodily harm in front of about 40 people in Denver, Colorado by a fire-breathing maniac who threatened to end my meeting if I dared go on... but he left in a huff without doing anything.

These are all signs of the times. But there is no more evident sign of the degradation of man and his hopeless condition than the proliferation and even exaltation of cowardice via the Internet.

I get beat up on the Internet almost every day, and I expect it and don't lose a bit of sleep over it. Most of the time I don't even take the time to reply, because simple ad hominem attacks are usually the last refuge of those who are bereft of ideas and who cannot win in a debate over the actual things that I teach, write, or say. The Internet is an interesting phenomenon in history because for the first time literally MILLIONS of anonymous and honourless gnats have the opportunity to puff out their chests and wag their fingers in public without the threat of having to face the men they attack. Once upon a time a man, during his formative years, had to actually choose whether, in his life, he would be honourable or a coward, a man or a mouse:

"I would rather be a coward than brave because people hurt you when you are brave." E. M. Forster (1879 - 1970)

Honour once was the sign of manhood and defined who was, and who was not, worthy of our time and energy.

"Mine honour is my life, both grow in one. Take honour from me, and my life is done. Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try; In that I live, and for that I will die." — William Shakespeare, Richard II (1.1.182-18)

The formation of the American Republic involved a bunch of outmatched but brave white guys who pledged to one another their lives, their fortunes and their "sacred Honour". The warning I have given to some is echoed by C.S. Lewis who said, "We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst."

In the South, particularly, where chivalry and honour were not dead, men were raised to never say behind a man's back, what you will not say to his face. Three of the most oft' quoted "rules" of chivalry were:

- Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born.
- Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.
- Thou shalt never lie, and shall remain faithful to thy pledged word.

These "rules" have been replaced by the new code of the Internet:

- Thou shalt fake they name so thy enemy cannot smite thee.
- When charged with a crime, thou must hide, make countercharges, and mock... but stay hidden.
- Thy manhood is preserved if thine enemy grows tired of calling you out.
- Lies are fine if they harm an enemy I cannot defeat with logic, reason, or Scripture.

The great Southern General Robert E. Lee said,

"There is no more dangerous experiment than that of undertaking to be one thing before a man's face and another behind his back."

To that I would add that the only man more scurrilous than the one who speaks daggers behind a man's back, is the one who does so but is afraid to show his face.

Some will reply that anonymity is necessary, because "the cause is important, and to speak out puts our families at risk", which is to say, "bravery, honour, and courage are great, so long as they don't get you hurt". Defenders of the anonymous want honour without suffering, and war without risk. "I think it better to do right, even if we suffer in so doing, than to incur the reproach of our consciences and posterity" (Robert E. Lee). The problem is not that these men are concerned about the safety of their families, because even brave, honourable and very public men have these concerns; the problem is that these men are without conscience, and desire to lie without repurcussion, and slander without risk. It is laughable and sad (and a sign of the times) that any man would dare put "Confederate" on a website that defends lying, slander, and anonymous bomb throwing without responsibility.

"What is life without honor? Degradation is worse than death." (Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson).

"Never take counsel of your fears." (Stonewall Jackson)

"Duty is ours: consequences are God's" (Stonewall Jackson)

Unhappily there are neo-confederate movements afoot that lack the honour and integrity of Jackson and Lee. It is easy to post the word "confederate" on your blog, and to sprinkle it with copious pictures and quotes of the honoured dead, but a thorough review of many of these sites wouldn't uncover a teaspoon of testosterone in the lot.

A man should apologize and repent when he is proven wrong, stand up when he thinks he is right, hold up his head even when many want to take it off, "never do a wrong thing to make a friend or keep one" (R.E. Lee), and if a man is willing to repent, then he that has been wronged should "not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He can not only forgive; he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which imparts sufficient strength to let the past be put the past." (R.E. Lee)

I am convinced that the Internet will be the downfall of many souls who otherwise would have never been willing to voice their lies and slanders, slanders for which they will one day give an account; and I am further convinced that many others are being led astray in honouring or following the anonymous siren songs of comfortable cowards who, in another age, would not have dared to lift their heads or their voices before real men of honour. Sadly, today's honoured confederate poet is but a teenaged Star Wars dreamer, lost in fantasy, wielding a light-sabre on YouTube.

It is a Sign of the Times, and it is sad to behold.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Michael Bunker