times. they are interesting.

Because of a right-blogosphere campaign to silence me, I have been forced to commit Identity Suicide.  I have never supported or advocated violence for any purpose other than self-defense against terror attacks by the armed wing of the American Right.  I support peaceful, legal, nonviolent, creative direct action and always will.

Hereafter I delete all sites in my name anywhere.  Anyone who wishes to contact me can do so through my institutional affiliations or in person.

Ann Althouse and Meade advocate torture, attack against nonviolent protesters, police-state crackdowns on citizens exercising their constitutional rights, class privilege, race privilege, and basically the full spectrum of assaults against American democracy advocated by the radical, revolutionary wing of the republican party.  They are unkind, unChristian and anti-American.

I was quite angry about this, and drafted a letter expressing my just and righteous indignation over their so-called reporting on the events at the #wiunion rallies.  In it, I used foul language against, taunted, baited, expressed contempt for, denigrated, and threatened with legal forms of resistance the traitors Ann Althouse and Meade.  This I do not regret.  I do not regret for a second using militant rhetoric when we face a threat that is militarized through and through.  What I do regret is that in the agnotological, idiot right blogosphere this has been interpreted as a threat to initiate violence, rather than to respond in kind to the violence that they and their likeminded stooges so quickly rally to anonymously threaten me with.

I am not afraid of being named.  I am not afraid of being outed.  I am not afraid of being bandied around in thug circles as a bad little boy.  If they want my birth certificate, they know where to find it I’m sure.

However to defend all of my innocent friends and family who do not care one way or the other about operation:countertroll and Ann Althouse I will personally cease all activity related to Operation:Countertroll.  Althouse believes that it is illegal to organize against her, and she will enforce this imaginary law with threats against anyone who tries to do so.  She will see that we live and die through the forces of ideas, not individuals.  Operation:countertroll is out there.  A lot of people feel the same.  I didn’t write down a word that I hadn’t already heard in the streets.  I am not Operation:Countertroll.  And because Althouse has decided to make me prove it, I will.

I HEREBY COMMIT IDENTITY SUICIDE UNTIL THE RIGHT BLOGOSPHERE RECANTS ITS THREATS AGAINST MY IDENTITY.  I deny them this target.  I have destroyed all ID cards, mutilated my fingerprints, and now wear a mask whenever I appear publicly.  I will live only through my organizational ties until the right recognizes that it is the power of us together, not me alone, that shape my life.

———————————————Jim Shankman.