Photo by Erin! on Flickr
For the last few months I’ve been receiving a regular flow of emails and comments from the ‘anti common purpose’ conspiracy crew (I won’t link - you can google them), and apparently I’m now right in the mix with my own fun “File Under Evilz” four-pager document they’ve posted online.
The reference to ‘programming’ in relation to kids, for those who use that word in terms of ‘arts programming’ is I guess meant more in the more sinister sense of mind control. Like arts organisations have the time right…
Back story:
- I did a couple of talks for a charity called Common Purpose, for free, about entrepreneurship, because I believe that more people could be running their own destinies if they felt like it was an option.
- I blogged about it.
- Then I started getting crazy emails accusing me of being part of some kind of conspiracy.
- I did some research and found the usual conspiracy theory viral spread thing going on. Common Purpose is apparently an EU plot to take over the whole of the UK via the medium of a few management training sessions.
- Then I blogged about that in a pisstaking post about how we’re all doomed to be lead by 7ft tall paedophile lizards.
- The conspiract theory lot (who mostly seem to be on the BNP end of right wing) took it all a bit too seriously, and I hit the front page of google for “Common Purpose”.
- My loon to non-loon ratio on blog comments goes up, but much of it comes via anonymous email.
- I start to get pretty fed up.
What I have learnt:
- If you have Google rank, don’t mess around with tongue in cheek posts. Even if it’s obvious to you, some sort of loon will pick up everything you say as gospel truth. Saying “NO THERE ARE NO 7FT LIZARDS AND I WAS TAKING THE PISS” after the fact doesn’t help. You will be picked up on the front page of google no matter what, and from that you will get problems.
- No matter how honourable you think your actions are day-to-day, and the things that you do are, someone else will read into them whatever they already think. Then post those thoughts online, no matter what you say for yourself.
- Don’t comment on straight up idiocy - you will just attract idiots. I broke the unwritten rule of blogging and paid the price.
- If you get public with your thoughts (IE blogging, public speaking) there is no safety net. Nobody is around to help you out when scary people come calling/emailing. Want to say what you think publically? Get a thick skin fast. But more than that, if you’re concerned about your personal locational privacy, for whatever reason, make sure you keep your private address close to your chest. That means no domain names with your personal address, no geo-tagging things on Flickr near your house, and so on. That, in this day and age is very, very hard. If you have _ever_ published your location, you can’t take it back, and you can’t take it back for your kids either. Be careful.
- “Be transparent in whatever you do” has always been my rule, but no matter how much transparency you employ there will always be someone saying you left something out. Thus you are part of the conspiracy. There _will_ always be something left out. Unless you plan to write a blog like the ending of 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, then the writing of each word of your blog would require multiple words to write down.
- Giving your time away for free is a worthwhile act, but in so doing people will think you’re trying to get something. Of course you are. But generally not what they think. Why do people like me bother getting up and telling other people about things that they could do? Why do they connect people together via email (”you should chat to x because y - here’s her email”)? Because quite simply all of that stuff comes back on you tenfold. It’s purely ego-centric, but very beneficial to those around you along the way. A lot of people don’t get that.
- People naturally seek out patterns. All the time. Faces in burnt toast, voices speaking in the sound of the wind, randomly lined up coffee cups in a triange. Weird huh! No - out of all the randomness of the world, random things that fit a ‘pattern’ are recognised by the brain and flagged up for attention. Thus people tie together random facts, and you might suddenly get pulled into the mix. Nothing personal.
- Mental illness is sad, but scary thing sometimes. Don’t be too harsh on people who are acting strange, there might be a medical condition under the surface to consider.
- Carry on regardless? I’m considering closing comments on the Common Purpose post now, but I guess that would leave me open to ’see - he’s a lizard’ crap, so I’ll leave it open, but to be honest, if anyone has any advice on making these muppets go away that would be appreciated. I’m far too busy doing interesting, creative, push-the-world-forward projects to be bothered with these bizarre people.
Any ideas?
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8 Comments
I often wonder about the transparency and openness of the internet - that is, if one is transparent and open. There is the possibility of identity theft as well as the angle you are reporting. I have to admit to steering away from ever knowingly letting on where I am located. It seems to me to be always best to post travelogs and photos on Flickr after I have returned home or moved on to somewhere else. Just occasionally I break this rule and then wonder if I have done the right thing. It would be great to publish a real time travel diary but all that does is advertise that I am not at home!
My Google ranking is so low that I don’t usually have to worry about search engines grabbing my headlines. Even my “heresies” on the subject of global warming rarely get much hate mail (I was called an idiot last week but consider this to be something of an accolade given the rant of the “green” on the other end of the comment).
Most of your readers, Stef, are normal, upright folk who are not looking to condemn you out of spite, envy or misplaced politics. The majority will ignore this minority. But I do think it wise to be careful when approaching a topic that could burst into flames.
Nothing useful to say, Stef (so no change there), just commenting to give you a bit of moral support.
Thanks guys! Wise words Paul - ignore them and get on with my work is my rule of thumb at the moment.
Hi stef - I for one was VERY pleased to find your site. I have been puzzled for a couple of years about where all this crazy stuff about CP comes from, and found that when I googled Brian Gerrish it took about 3 pages to find a word of criticism of him.
You were it
Funnily enough I found his name from a really crazy online forum I read. Stuffed full of conspiracy nuts of all kinds. They particularly relish the idea that the McCanns killed their daughter and that a vast network of creepy tendrils has been employed to get them off.
This is where Common Purpose comes in, of course.
Seriously, I don’t have any ideas about how to shut them up. The best ting you can do in my own limited experince is to tell the truth, and then take the p*ss.
I think you have done that admirably and I salute you!
Stef your comment “The conspiract theory lot (who mostly seem to be on the BNP end of right wing) took it all a bit too seriously”
Can you back up your statement? How on earth do the comments received relate to the BNP?
That comment along with your efforts to debunk the anti CP ‘brigade’ by linking them to Icke and Lizards smacks of desperation and trying just a little to hard to defend CP. Your comments are a classic method of deflection of alternative opinion by linking them with organisations/people who in the public eye are seen as outcasts. This in itself says everything.
Being anti CP does not mean being a conspiracy nut and I think you know full well that the vast majority of anti CP people are simply trying to expose this organisation for what it truly is. Nothing more than that and not a lizard in sight.
Oh come off it - you’ve got Google haven’t you?
And for Pete’s sake - I don’t have anything to do with this charity. I have spent maybe six hours in total in a room them. I’ve spent more time answer dumb comments and seething over emails than that. It’s not me doing the linking - that’s all out there on the web for you to see.
It’s _all a bit silly_.
You still have not backed up your claims regarding the BNP.
Hey Stef - I feel your pain! I’m leaving Common Purpose soon - it’s been a great organisation to work for - the only down side has been having to read the inane conspiracy nonsense coming from - yes - the BNP, David Icke and Gerrish, etc. man, I won’t miss them! Partly I feel that if people like that are our enemies, we must be doing something right… But, really, don’t emotionally invest in their nonsense, and don’t let any threats wind you up. I get them all the time and it’s simply idiots with too much time on their hands getting a thrill out of believing they’re characters in a Dan Brown novel. Based on the threats, anti-semetic characters with little grasp of grammar.
Hit Delete and ignore their emails. And if you want to turn a negative into a positive: any links to you from their sites helps to your site ranking.