Just What, Praytell, is a “Hate Blog”

Over at the lovely  Artisanal Craft Blog, a certain someone was remarked as saying this:

http://imgur.com/s9s6tRA

(Edited to highlight the phrase in question)

This is a phrase that this particular poster throws about every now and again. I have read from him in the past that he considers Hogewash a hate blog. A variation on that descriptor – right-wing hate blogger – was a term he used to describe a twitter account in an email he sent to me in December. He uses it as a pejorative to paint something as awful and simply “not fair.”

It seems that for Bill Schmalfeldt, a hate blog is any site that he doesn’t like, mainly because they don’t treat his wisdom with sufficient respect and gravitas. Basically, if they make fun of his stupidity, if they point out that he behaves in horrible awful ways and says horrible awful things, if they say ANYTHING that shows that something reflects badly on him, that’s a hate blog. And because he seems to think that anyone who disagrees with him is on the opposite end of the spectrum from him politically, he adds the term “right wing” a lot of times.

Now, I went and scoured teh Interwebz to figure out what a hate blog actually was. Turns out it’s exactly what I remember it to be.

Bing returned as it’s first hit the I Hate Blog which seems to be a cutesy blog about random things people submit to the blog that they hate. It hasn’t had posts on it since 2007. But the next blog down was a Muslim anti-hate blog run by Muslim Advocates. I know that one of Aaron Walker’s old blogs that was dedicated to posting pictures of Mohammed in defiance of the Islamic tradition that Mohammed not be depicted is frequently described as a hate blog by Brett Kimberlin. But that’s not quite what a hate blog is.

The pay dirt came up when I went to Google. The first hit there is three years old, from the website The Awl. In it, they discuss actual hate blogs – which usually develop as a sort of anti-fan reaction to someone who is wildly popular.

I’ve been on hate blogs before. One of my favorites to read was called Violent Acres and it was a horribly original blog written by someone who was absolutely disgusted at Heather Armstrong, one of the original mommy-bloggers, and one of the longest-lived blogs out there. Now, I liked, and still do like Dooce, but reading Violent Acres was a whole lot of fun because this gal actually turned her visceral dislike of Dooce into a high art. Her stories, while sparked by something Dooce did and then blogged about, were more of what I would term “revenge blogging,” as in the best way to get revenge is to live well. And VA really and truly lived well. And interestingly!

Other internet personalities such as the Pioneer Woman, the Duggars and the Alaskan Bush People have all had hate blogs written about them. There are huge international hate blogs dedicated to this one girl who photoshops herself to look like an anime character. And those same people photoshop *themselves* to look like anime characters. Ummm, say what?

A common theme, however, is that a “hate blog” is dedicated to someone who is popular, successful, and who has a very large following. More often than not, it is hate for a FEMALE that is being expressed. There is also a theme that those doing the hate blogging want the ones that they are blogging about to change.

In respect to this blog, while I can see the superficial brush that one can use to paint what I and others do here as a “hate blog”, I disagree with it.

First off, Bill Schmalfeldt is not popular, successful, etc., in any measure of the word. Not for lack of *wanting* that, but he’s not. It’s not a stab, it’s just life, you know? Heck, I’m not popular except in my circle of friends. That’s the way it is for most people in life. But I don’t know that popularity or lack there of of the focus of a “hate blog” actually makes it a “hate blog.”

Secondly, while I very much *do* want Bill Schmalfeldt to change, this site is more dedicated to preserving and calling out the things that he wants swept under the rug – his bad acts towards others, the tactics he uses to “investigate” things. We try very hard to catalog and highlight all of those bad acts that horrify ordinary human beings and that he just *loves* to memory hole. I want to make sure that they don’t disappear.

Why?

Because he keeps trying to do the same things over and over and over again to real, live human beings. He does it by reaching into their world and affecting their lives in some evil way, and he thinks that people should just have to put up with it because he has *reasons* for doing those horrible things. Well, now we won’t have to simply tolerate him. Now there will be a record of his bad acts and evil intent for those who have to face him down the road.

Thirdly, “hate blogs” will write something snarky and awful about the most innocuous thing that the subject decides to share with the world. For example, if this was a hate blog, I might gleefully tear into the couple of articles that were put up today. One certainly went on my radar for the disgusting oversharing (dude, you really really really need to read Dooce to understand *how* to overshare in a less creepy and disgusting way that is actually entertaining, mmmkay? Heather is really good at it. Trust me!). That is not to say that parodying or satirizing the work in question like happens on other sites is “hating” on it. That’s a whole other category IMO.

Fourthly, I will not put something on this site that isn’t directly sourced to something Bill Schmalfeldt actually said. Because I’m not here to deal in “well he might have said this or that.” I want exactly what was said. I may have comments and critique about it, for certain, but that’s not defamation or harassment in any sense of the word, no matter what he thinks.

In the end, no matter what I say, Bill Schmalfeldt will say this is a hate blog. And for those who haven’t been following along or those who want to believe him will probably think that that’s true. However, there’s a reason why the header says what it says.

We here at Billy Sez really and truly can’t believe he just said that – because who in the hell says (and does!) that sort of thing! And always know that Bill Schmalfeldt wants you to know that if only you will come out of the closet and give up your anonymity (so that he can hound you in that *special* way that only he can), you, too, can be proud of the filth in your head.