Lou Antonelli and the Attack of the Schizophrenic Cat

So I'm pounding out blog posts for next week on the works in progress, and up comes this little gem.

For the love of God, are these people insane?

Sigh. In case you're unaware, recently, Lou Antonelli unveiled that Camestros what's his name is actually Foz Meadow's husband, Toby Meadows, a PhD in philosophy at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.


If you don't know Camestros Felapton, he's an odd duck who posts over at File 770, and his own blog. I've never really been able to pin him down as to if he's crazy or if he's just got a public persona. And his posts are so all over the place, some look schizophrenic, and some look perfectly lucid. Some are straight numbers crunching and reasonable, some are head-tiltingly "WTF did I just read?" In particular is his "talking cat" reviews, where he actually reviewed Honor at Stake ... still not sure if he liked it or not.

Lou, being a newsman, has sources with a good idea that Toby Meadows is Camestros. I'll be happy to take him at his word.

But it is just so FASCINATING to see the insanity that these people have gone to in rewriting the laws of reality, and history.

I think I first mentioned Lou on the blog in relation to his being banned from WorldCon, and the fuckery involved there. 

Author Lou Antonelli, who I follow on Facebook, is a nice guy. And I don't mean that in my usual, dismissive New Yorker sort of way. He's a good guy. He's a funny author. At one point, he'd been driven around the bend by Gerrold and his band of misfits, to such an extent that he sent a letter to the Spokane police informing them that Gerrold and the Puppy Kickers formed a credible threat to his life. Given fellow puppy kicker Arthur Chu and his bomb threatening minions? I don't think that's particularly out of line.

But no, it was used as evidence against him. A short story contract had been revoked. Gerrold won't shut up about it and has thrown every act of friendship and apology back in Lou's face.

Their version? As seen above, "Heh heh he. Lou tried to SWAT someone at WorldCon."

Um... no. SWATting someone at a hotel or a convention is A) a cute trick and B) never done, to my knowledge. Don't you just love how the story went from "He wrote a letter to Spokane PD," and became "EVIL LOU WAS GOING TO SWAT SOMEONE!!!!"

Sigh. Such lying sacks of crap I have never seen before. And the lies are just so obvious it's really painful. The stupid, it burns.

It gets better, because when you look at the link cited above -- which is right here, click on it -- you will notice no one used the word "dox," even in the comments. Go ahead. Check. I'll wait.

The entire post is about how Lou uncovered Mr Meadows' online identity. He's busy practicing good investigative journalism, as these pimps are practicing ... I wouldn't even call it tabloid journalism, since some tabloids have had to put in an honest day's work from time to time.

But no, going after Lou for outing someone as a glorified annoyance is bizarre, stupid, and their accusations are delusional.

Even in Lou's own post, he dismisses Felapton as a snob and a jerk. That's it. The reasonable response should either be to confirm or deny. If Felapton and Meadows deny -- truthfully or not -- they should laugh it off and move along. If he confirms, he should confirm and move on. Since there is no call to dox them by anybody I've seen, what's the problem here? Hell, no one doxxed me, no one seems to have doxxed 770.... so why would anyone dox this relatively minor figure? The biggest insult I've seen about him is that he's a troll. So... what? Seriously, what's more embarrassing here? Felapton as a philosophy professor, or Meadows as an internet troll?

I've asked several of my Australian friends. There are apparently no real world consequences for a professor to go off the reservation online. So his job isn't even threatened.

I'd tell these jokers to grow up, but that would require they stop playing in the mud.