Leftist trainspotting and 90s HTML, for your edification and enjoyment

[sabotabby]

Hey, I haven't done a leftist sectariana post in forever. Let's change that. Check out Cause Pimps. (Warning: If you are prone to seizures, don't check it out.)

It was brought to my attention courtesy of two people who seem to be among the author's primary targets. (They're both lovely people, incidentally.) Once again, I was insulted that I have not been included in the directory of Bad People—as Wilde put it, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about—and it occurred to me that perhaps I should join the SPO just to warrant a mention. But I don't like their logo. Anyway.

Cause Pimps is an interesting site for a few reasons. I mean, the most obvious is the hilarious animated gifs and unfortunate colour choices. But politically, it's interesting because it seems to be an attack from the left, or at least from someone who was on the left at one point, but doesn't hesitate to use right-wing talking points, and occasionally swerves right into full-on conspiracy theories. I can almost guarantee that I'd know the author by face, if not by name. This is someone who has been on the wrong side of either an OCAP schism or a CKLN schism, or both. Not a hard thing to do, and however much I respect the work both groups do, it can be a painful, isolating thing, so I might have a little sympathy for our mysterious webmaster. Except, well, he's wrong, and also the site is really terrible and eye-watering.

A few highlights:

The control system seems to work at three levels. The rawest is the police/judicial complex which is widely said to be run by the Masons. The Toronto police headquarters is surrounded by Masonic symbols.

Anyone who has tried to get justice done through either the civil or criminal courts has become aware of a seamless system of denying justice. It runs from the cop on the beat through the legal aid system to the court staff to the judges to the attorney general's office. If the Masons are not the coordinating system in this, then it is some group much like them.

I can think of many, many reasons to hate Toronto cops and cops in general. The theory that they are Freemasons is not one of them.

The kind of people and organizations who you will be given intelligence about on this site are really, really not going to like it. We expect intense efforts to try to take this site down. Let them try.

If, by "take it down," you mean linking to it on their Facebook pages and directing everyone there for a good laugh, yep, that's what they're doing right now.

Should we complain to google? Anyone hitting Andy Lehrer" and "pimp" can find this page due to cross links with other pimps pages. The truth will come through despite all the efforts of the liars to throttle it.

This quote, admittedly, is a hundred times funnier if you know him. Still, I think he'd be pretty amused if people were actually Googling "Andy Lehrer" and "pimp."

The world is also full of people with unresolved mental problems, or who have serious mind circuit problems. The true crazy refuses to accept that there is something wrong with him, not with the world around her. Generally, they think the world is slighting them and sometimes they become violent.

WHAT

Toronto activism is so weird, you guys. So. Weird.

Comments

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

I really feel that site deserves a lolwut pear.

[sabotabby]

An animated lolwut pear.

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

Why is it that you can always tell a crazy person by how often they say ' a crazy person never accepts that the problem is with them and not the world.'

[sabotabby]

The thing is, I almost didn't post this because it seems that this person suffers from serious mental health issues. But then he said that so I figured I was in the clear to mock away.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

Go away from anyone;

1) who tries to tell you that the cause pimps and people working with them are the only people available to work with, the only thing going, and so you have to work with them no matter how crazy and abusive they are.

2) who tries to tell you that you are responsible for other people's feelings. People are in control of their own feelings and they cannot demand that other people have to make them feel good.

3) who comes and claims that he or she wants to 'organize' you or 'help' you to do things. You do not need anyone to organize you. You have to have the confidence to learn to do things for yourself.

I think the first one is fair, but the next two are the kind of Ayn Rand bullshit statements that are just warning signs in themselves. Nothing quite screams Idiot like someone who claims that they can do everything themselves.

# 2 is just weird. I can see not dealing with alcoholics and FB profiles that whine in order to get attention, but this seems to be a red flag that this guy doesn't care that he's an asshole. And other people should not demand things like "apologies" or "sensitivity" because their feelings are not HIS problem.

[sabotabby]

1) is good advice. And it's true that OCAP, at one point in its history, tended to present itself as the only game in town if you are a Serious Activist about Serious Issues. (They've subsequently gotten much better at cooperating with smaller organizations and individuals.) I've still managed to be an activist in Toronto for 12 years without joining them. And since there are very few actual OCAP members (as opposed to people like me who will show up at their events but never joined) it stands to reason that most activists don't believe that you have to either be in OCAP or not be an activist.

2) sounds like AA advice taken in entirely the wrong way.

3) sounds like the ravings of an egomaniac.

[dustyasymptotes.livejournal.com]

whoa! bonus Truther material. and Sue Ann Levy! That site is a rabbit-hole of gifts that keep giving. Though it did lead me to an interesting position paper about the CFS...

[sabotabby]

I don't think he's entirely wrong about the CFS. They're pretty fucked up.

[dustyasymptotes.livejournal.com]

oh for sure. the paper's description of the student unions from the 60s and 70s is hilarious!

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was thinking, the CFS totally doesn't belong on this list. Or it's the only thing that really does, whichever way...

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

HOW DO I GET ON THIS LIST

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

I have to say, given my experience of half my family being freemasons (though I'm not), I don't think they could organise their way out of a paper bag, let alone take over the court system.