My most recent diary was a rant trying - rather desperately - to overcome the well-earned revulsion I felt toward some commenters who spent all their time demanding other people rescue them and zero thought to being transformative citizens. I was, in other words, trying - admittedly without much success - to turn that revulsion into a positive message. But along the way I happened to mention an "offensive" internet meme, and linked to a Wikipedia article about it. You may have seen Youtube videos of people's reactions to watching it - their revulsion at it, in other words, which was sort of the point of making the reference.
Those reactions are the meme being referenced, not the video that caused them - a video whose creator was successfully prosecuted under federal obscenity laws, and its content thereby banned. In the comments to the diary in which I passingly referred to the Youtube reaction meme, multiple users began posting repeated false claims that my link originally went to the banned video and not Wikipedia, which would technically have been a federal crime if it were not a bald-faced lie. They accused me of a federal crime, were instantly believed by dozens, and Recced repeatedly. Here in the reality-based community.
Technically, the actions of these trolls constitute libel - and might potentially be criminally culpable if their claims were credible enough to invoke an official law enforcement investigation, although I doubt that is likely given the insane comments that fly around the internet 24 hours a day. However, it does illustrate two very important facts: Trolls are completely out of control here, and potentially criminal actions are being encouraged on their part by some otherwise legitimate Kossacks who have gone so far off the deep end they essentially auto-rec negative statements made about anyone they deem to be contradicting their positions or criticizing their performance (which is ironic, since their own right to do the same against political leaders is their chief refrain whenever confronted with criticism in turn).
So I ask that the following steps be taken:
1. The pattern of the comments making those claims be examined for its very peculiar repetition by multiple users, and the record of those users examined for troll-like behavior patterns.
2. Everyone who is the least bit concerned with maintaining even the appearance of being a legitimate member of this community remove their Recs from those comments. The comments are not only false, but an apparently fully deliberate, libelous smear campaign and a possibly criminal attempt to make false accusations of a federal crime - the sort of thing I would expect more of Rupert Murdoch than Kossacks.
3. The comments be HR'd, and the users who made them asked for an explanation.
That is all. I expect and request no apologies, and no sympathy from anyone who is not disposed to agree with my positions. But I demand an environment where it is unacceptable to Rec comments trying to implicate Kossacks in federal crimes on the sheer force of rumor and repetition. I will be asking those who do not remove their Recs from those comments for a clarification of their continued support for Fox News-style propaganda smears against fellow Kossacks.