Open Offer: I’ll Publish Your Take-Down of This Site

You can be as mean as you want to be

I’ve noticed one regular commenter, in particular, is very critical of the editorial choices I’ve taken since March 2020. (Actually, he says he is no longer a regular, but I seem to be reading the same comment from him every several days.)

Specifically his most often stated complaints are that I am “covfefevirus obsessed” (the exact opposite is true), and that I hold up Bolsonaro as a hero in the context of public health totalitarianism (which is exactly right). Choices such as these have supposedly made this once good site into a “sewer pit” and a “cesspool”.

I encourage him and any other visitor, regular or just occasional, who has a critique of this site, to lay out your case in a longer text where you really flesh it out. If so, I’ll be extremely happy to read your take-down and reply (hit back) with a piece of my own. I’ll run it here directly on AE if you want.

In the piece, you can be as courteous or uncourteous as you want to be. That’s totally beside the point (actually a good flame gets extra points for style).

The only ask is that your takedown is of a decent length (say 500 words) — so that I know you put some effort into it, and also so that you’ve laid out your position enough that I have enough material for a take-down of my own. 

I’ll also publish your reply to my reply, if you want to make one — again, as long as it is of a decent length.

I won’t be goaded into defending myself from low-effort hit-and-run remarks, but if you’re willing to upgrade your attacks to something beefier I’m happy to debate anything and meet you for a good ole flame war duel.

 


This offer is also extended to Yuri who is another commenter who was very critical of the site. He is banned from commenting until January (for impersonating another commenter), but I don’t see that as an obstacle to submitting a critique to the editor — as long as he upgrades his critiques from his usual 5 words to 500.

23 Comments
  1. Annr says

    Great challenge idea!!

  2. Ragheadthefiendlyterrorist says

    “do you want me to run this comment as an article?”

    Yes of course you can.

    I am commenting from an alternate (yahoo) email since your site is suddenly claiming that my gmail address is “invalid” (though it was fine an hour ago).

  3. ken says

    It’s your site Marko… Put up what articles you want. If a reader doesn’t like it they can go to another site or start one of their own. Your never gonna please everyone and besides some of these folks are actually paid to cause trouble on sites that publish articles contrary to current gov narrative. They trash the site,,, call commenters and editors names in order to make the site appear as a far right neo nazi rag to run off any new comers. Rarely do they have any decent input.

    What the hell is “covfefevirus” anyhow? From what I gather its some anti-trump bs put out by immature kiddies with a third grade education,,, equivalent to today’s college grads.

    Now Trump was about as bad as it gets until the Biden thing was selected. There hasn’t been one decent President since the coup of the Articles of Confederation. The first post Articles president (Washington) signed a central bank law and waged war with the American people. (Whiskey Rebellion)

    No,,, I wouldn’t give these uneducated brats the time of day…..

    1. Ragheadthefiendlyterrorist says

      I can guarantee you that, as a medical professional, I’m more educated than Marko, and from your response in all probability more educated than you.

      1. Maiasta says

        What kind of medical professional are you? No doubt one that is indifferent to medical fascism, since it bothers you so much that Marko understands the gravity of what is currently happening.

        1. Ragheadthefiendlyterrorist says

          If you think that, then you obviously didn’t read what I wrote elsewhere.

          Marko is an infantile hypocrite sabotaging the anti imperialist movement, and his sycophants are willing dupes or active co-saboteurs.

          1. Maiasta says

            “infantile hypocrite” eh?

            Bold words. Not sure where the ‘hypocrisy’ comes in, but he is evidently not so infantile as to respond in kind when you come here every other day and diss his site.

            And not so infantile as to respond like most website owners would: by banning you. He’s even been gracious enough to agree to publish your rant about the X million transient events that he hasn’t covered over the past month, year or whatever.

            Honestly, you come across as very young. When i was young, i also thought that investing my energies in far away conflicts also made me an “anti-imperialist”. But the truth is that there is very little you can do to influence any of those events. In the West (where i assume you are) we can barely influence our own governments, let alone the course of distant conflicts whose roots and dimensions we don’t truly understand.

            If it’s so urgent to you to back the Houthis or defend the Syrian government against Israel or whoever, then i sincerely suggest you volunteer with Medecins Sans Frontiers or some similar type of group. That way, you can put your medical profession (whatever that happens to be) to some practical use. And maybe even throw in some “friendly terrorism” while you’re at it.

      2. ken says

        Then why are you here? Apparently there is something Marko is doing right bringing you here.

        As for education,,, there are two types of people,,, the educated and the doers. The doers built this nation then the educated took over the last 50 or so years and have done a really good job of tearing it all down.

        And no,,, I did not downvote you.

        1. Ragheadthefiendlyterrorist says

          “Then why are you here?”

          I’ll not answer that
          But say it is my pleasure; art thou answer’d?
          What if the Internet is plagued by a prat
          And I be pleas’d to write comments
          To see him flam’d?
          What, art thou answer’d yet?

        2. Ragheadthefiendlyterrorist says

          Oh, and what “this nation” are you going on about? I’m fairly certain I don’t share any nationality with you.

      3. Voz 0db says

        Ah… a scoundrel and fraudster!

        1. Ragheadthefiendlyterrorist says

          Wow. For your own sake I hope you never fall seriously ill.

      4. Cap960 says

        “Ragheadthefiendlyterrorist”
        Hey, Doc! Can you find the mistake in your name?

      5. Raptar Driver says

        Smart, smart, stupid.

        1. Ragheadthefiendlyterrorist says

          You didn’t seem to think I was stupid on Southfront. No wonder I don’t see you around there any longer though.

          1. Raptar Driver says

            I am not in South front very much but I’m still there.
            The comment section has gone to hell.
            Clearly you are not stupid.
            It’s just sometimes over educated people can do or say the stupidest things just like anyone else.

  4. Harfang67 says

    Congratulations. For one, I really like your site and it’s varied content. Continue your excellent work.
    These “acid” commentors should ne considérés as modern “special Ops”.

  5. Raptar Driver says

    You’ve got some sand.
    Good old-fashioned one on one, circle around, last person standing.
    Love it!

  6. XSFRGR says

    Marko, it isn’t worth the hassell. I don’t agree with everything you write or everything on Anti-Empire; or, for that matter, everything I write. I’ll admit that it took me a long time to realize that assholes gravitate to sites like this because they can be obnoxious, and insulting without incurring hazard. Gutless pukes who can’t debate with decorum, and intelligence are the norm in the U$, and the best thing to do is recognize them for the clowns that they are, and then go about your life. You do good work, Marko, and you have no reason to defend your honor or the content of Anti-Empire.

    1. Maiasta says

      Amen. Best comment on this thread.

    2. Field Empty says

      Thanks for the vote of confidence. I read that MoA deletes “misleading comments about Covid-19” and Saker bans commenters for dissent, as well as posts articles with the comment section closed so he can have the final word. 

      I’ve never deleted comments for their opinion or banned commenters for the same, and so I had the thought that I would do the exact opposite, and would actually offer a byline to critics and debate them for the terraces as long as they put in real effort.

      It’s not coming from a place of defensiveness, but on the contrary from a place where I want to show that when your conscience is clear then dissenting and critical commentary is nothing to be feared.

      It might actually be useful to see if there aren’t any aspects of my argument that I haven’t emphasized enough during this crisis and that could have led to honest misunderstanding from readers who are well-intentioned but didn’t consume every single article that was ever posted.

  7. Cosmic Sheepman says

    Look it’s your site. Post and write what you want. However, when I first was drawn to this site, and I have been reading it since at least March 2020; it’s Anti-Empire (Anti-Imperialist) tone is what drew me to it. Everybody is writing and posting about Covid. IMO stick to the Anti-Empire niche. Very few are doing it and there is plenty to write and post about. Follow your heart. If you decide to continue to write about topics other than Anti-Empire, change the name of your site. Of course, if you do that how much traffic will you lose? Will you become just another site in the crowd of sites? Damn dude we still need someone attacking the imperialist governments of the US and everybody else. How about getting after Klaus Schwab and the Davos ilk they are worth attacking. Stick to your site. It’s time to get back to your original intent. So, you veered off for a while. F Raghead, though he did make some good points on topics I thought. ~Cosmicsheepman~

    1. Field Empty says

      More and more indy media outlets and personalities are coming out as at least moderately critical of medical fascism (and as a rule doing so without ever having acknowledged and tackled their prior silence or the backing of it), but in the early days it was an extremely lonely position to have, yet AE was there right from the start alongside a few other good sites like Off Guardian and Swiss Policy Research that were few and far in between. 

      Vacating the fight against the global technocratic confederacy of medical fascists and trusting that the weak-kneed Johny Come Lately’s can successfully bring it to a close could easily prove a mistake.

      Now, I would be happy to continue to cover the American Empire with the same depth as before (albeit in truth there is considerable overlap between its infrastructure and that of the mind virus) in addition to that — but I just don’t have the resources for that. 

      And it is my assessment that in the timeframe since 2020 the hegemony of virus fascism has killed even more people than the DC empire and caused more misery, so that is what must take precedence for now. I would love to live in a world where the virus fascism has subsided to the point where it is no longer the premier cause of man-made deaths and I can go back to primarily covering the DC Empire but sadly we aren’t there yet. Hang in there for now and we’ll get there I hope. 

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