Share your right-wing hate mail/death threat stories! [View All]

I was saddened to see the front page story about Ava's email correspondents, though I wish I could say I was surprised. I have gotten some fairly choice hate mail myself, though not in that quantity and intensity. I always wondered why anyone bothered. Like I make a difference? Half of it was so generalized you couldn't tell what they were responding to. I think some of these people must have hate form letters they just mail out to everyone.

I ran into an acquaintance a couple weeks ago who had been interviewed in the media about something relating to the Muslim world. He said he had been getting all kinds of hate mail from people attack him, his credentials, his morals, his patriotism, etc. etc. etc. He sounded so shocked when he was describing it that I finally told him, look, you have to understand, it's not about you personally. You got yourself noticed by some right-wing blog or website and they pointed the attack dogs in your direction. They probably haven't read the interview, they know nothing about you or what you stand for, they spew the same shit at everyone regardless of the context and they'll have moved on to a new target in 2 weeks.

Anyway, I invite all of you who have hate mail stories to post them here so that Ava will know she's not alone, and perhaps get some tips on dealing with the menace. Here's my advice based on my limited experience:

1. DO NOT ENGAGE. Never respond to hate mail. You will not make a new convert, you will only let them know that they got to you, and encourage them to torment you further. Plus, your time on earth is precious and arguing with someone who'd send you an email like that is a complete waste of it.

2. DO NOT post anything that makes it easier for people to find your phone number or street address. It also helps to set up one email account for general contact info and another for personal business, so that you can shut down the general info one if it's vandalized or if it's collecting too much abuse.

3. Death threats are serious and should be reported to the proper authorities.

4. However, you should also realize that most of the crap they spew is just bluster designed to scare you. These are people who are basically using the internet to make themselves seem bigger and scarier than they actually are. Who knows. Some of the assholes emailing Ava about all the sick things they want to do to her and her family may be younger than she is. The number of people who feel comfortable sending a threatening and/or obscene email from the safety of an anonymized edress is much, much, much larger than the number of people who would be willing to expose themselves to legal action by stalking or hurting you.

5. There are only three things you can do with hate mail: 1) Delete it; 2) Forward it to the appropriate law enforcement authorities; 3) Post it in the DU lounge and invite people to mock it.

Anyone else have stories they want to share or advice they want to give Ava and our other DUers who are on the public radar screen and therefore in the line of fire?

The Plaid Adder