I’m all Desmond Tutu this morning
The story partly told in Flaming Out was concluded yesterday. The “Will” who did a truculent notpology on Sunday evening, and then spent the next three days reading the reactions of the people he had targeted, gave it up and did a real apology, and answered questions, and explained without trying to explain away or evade or blame. He feels extremely crappy about it, crappy enough to abandon all the defensive self-justifying other-blaming nonsense he did before.
So that’s over. And he’s obviously nothing to do with Kees/Bernie Ranson. And he’s not “Signal,” either, so I got that wrong, so I apologized to Signal. I apologize to Ben Nelson, too, for interrupting his conversation with Signal as well as for being wrong about him. By that time I was feeling very targeted, and paranoia took over.
I’m very glad it ended this way rather than the way it appeared to have ended Sunday and Monday. Truth and Reconciliation kind of thing. It really is better. I don’t mind being permanently furious at the pope, because that’s right and proper, but I mind very much feeling furious at some Unknown on teh internetz, because that’s just nonsense.
The other thing is that I get to stop thinking there is some malevolent obsessed agent out there with a sustained project of maligning me. There’s just a young guy who got carried away and feels crappy about it and sees how the wheels came off. What a relief.
Okay; that’s the end of me being all reach outy.
Nice to see that some people still know how to apologise. Not that that’s an excuse for having much to apologise for, of course…
No, it’s not, but when someone does it in such a complete and obviously-remorseful way…well it just isn’t possible to do anything other than accept. Not for me anyway. Though we’re not talking Rwandan genocide here…
AHAHA Did you hear that folks? Ophelia says the Rwandan genocide is bad, but I guess that means all the other genocides are OK with her!!!! That she said “Rwandan genocide” instead of “genocide” proves this.
Also, I have it on good authority that Ophelia’s PDF-exporting skills are deficient.
Years of jokes await us.
I already plan to make “I agree with PollyO!” one of my catchphrases.
Sorry, Will, but it can’t be helped.
This post is far more gracious than it needed to be. Thank you.
Thanks back. Now that I know I was wrong – well I can easily see how baffling and irritating it must have been!
Frankly I thought that the name Polly-O! was brilliant. As if it sprang straight out of a vaccination debate. It was disappointing to learn that Polly-O! really was Brandon. How pedestrian a name.
I’m glad Will came out the way he did, because he saw that people care. Noone was really after him. We were concerned about what was going on. But what people do and what they are, are separate things. And he did some stuff that was too much, but he’s OK in fact me made himself better by his choices. Didn’t even need us. He could have stuck with his first choice. He chose better and saw that really all it was is that we care about honesty and we welcome anyone to participate. That’s how it should be.
“How pedestrian a name.”
I can feel your admiration for Hitchens, and I feel that it is a beautiful thing.
Sidenote: Still hope Will comes back. If he reads this, I’d like to ask him to email me at zachvoch@gmail.com
See, I always thought that Brandon was chosen for a reason. I probably wouldn’t have thought that if there hadn’t also been a couple of uses of “Ramsey,” after the real J J Ramsey had commented there. It instantly struck me that that was meant to suggest that it was J J Ramsey commenting, while still retaining deniability. I always thought Brandon was meant to suggest Brandon of Siris. (I think that’s what his blog is called.) Both of them are serious, and careful arguers. I thought YNH was covertly borrowing some of their credit.
Thanks. It’s all ancient history now in my book.