Corrections: A Response to a trolls campaign against free speech

For the second time this year, in an egregious violation of my absolute right to privacy, Mr Mick Fitzsimons has taken it upon himself to broadcast on his Facebook Page personal details about me and my origins and profession. Not only that, he has yet again broadcast outright lies and innumerable defamatory statements about me, and encouraged others to participate in a hate-fest of derogatory attacks on me, personally. He has never made a secret of the fact that his campaign is aimed at silencing me, and denying me the right to hold and to express opinions about Kelly history that he disagrees with, on my own Facebook pages and Blog - yes truely, he thinks I should be stopped from posting my own thoughts and my own ideas on my own FB page and my own blog! Breathtaking!

Until now I have not made any formal response to the unending stream of abuse and vilification, or the accusations levelled at me by this individual, but this latest attack requires a response. However, it will be my only comment on the topic, and there wont be any comments posted in response. I want to talk about the Kelly story not internet  thuggery. This comment is  not addressed to Mr Fitzsimons or his supporters – they are only interested in directing lies and hate at me. No, this is directed at any fair-minded individuals out there who might believe in the time-honoured tradition of everyone being given a fair go, in the idea that in an honourable contest you attack the ball and not the man, and in the idea that everyone’s right to privacy should be respected. These are ideas that by his half-decade of attacks on me, Mr Fitzsimons has demonstrated he doesn’t believe in. His lies have ben repeated so often that people are starting to believe them. Fair minded people who read his posts need to hear the truth.

I am not interested in recounting in detail the tawdry history of Fitzsimons attacks on me; suffice to say that his version of it is nonsense. My first contributions to the Kelly debate were under my own name, in 2012, not anonymously as Fitzsimons wrongly claimed yesterday. But from the moment I expressed an opinion about the Kelly story that Fitzsimons disagreed with, I became a target for his personal attacks and unwarranted abuse, including the disgusting and offensive suggestion I had something in common with Dr Joseph Mengele, a Nazi criminal who tortured and experimented on women. Subsequently I rejoined the debate as Dee, so that my surname would not be a distraction, and soon enough made it quite clear to anyone who would listen that Dee was not my real name and the image I used was an Avatar, and not in any way indicative of anything in particular. Fitzsimons however is determined to promote his childish idea that I am pretending to be a girl, that I am hiding behind the identity of a girl and now we have people claiming I wear women’s clothes, that I am a ‘cross-dresser’ and today that I am a ‘Kiwi sheep rooter’ a filthy comment that several people found amusing.  Fitzsimons himself, in an act of blatant hypocrisy, participated at length  on a Forum using a womans name, and an Avatar of a baby sucking a dummy – but he was never accused of pretending to be a baby or hiding behind a woman’s name.  He participated anonymously in  many forums - further acts of hypocrisy. (I know this because I was the administrator of several Proboards Forums - the administrator can see IP addresses – and though Fitzsimons likes to disguise his address with a proxy server he is also lazy and careless)

Fitzsimons and others, as well as attacking me personally at every opportunity, also commenced a relentless campaign to violate my privacy and to find and broadcast my personal details on the World Wide Web, a campaign which resulted in Fitzsimons and others on several occasions confidently declaring they knew my identity, and then wrongly naming several innocent people.  Earlier this year he circulated images of me to his pals.  This offensive campaign continued right up to last week when Fitzsimons announced that I am Mr T, an anonymous poster to my Blog. This is what he wrote : “Mark you have to know that Mr T is David and like Bob, I don't know how you can associate with that scum”. Once again, Fitzsimons is dead wrong. I am not Mr T. I have no idea who Mr T is and I don’t care. Its none of my business who Mr T is.  But from Fitzsimons page we now have the sickening spectacle on Thursday of  a self-declared Kelly descendant supinely offering thanks to Fitzsimons and declaring, in reference to his violation of my right to privacy “you deserve this honour to disclose this information”. What kind of people think there is something honourable about invading someone’s privacy and broadcasting personal and private information about someone on the Internet? Its actually a crime!

In a time when everyone using social media is being constantly warned about hacking and the need to protect ourselves from identity theft and criminal activity on the internet, we all have an absolute right to determine how much or how little of our personal lives we expose on the Internet and on Social Media. That is why I have never objected to people posting on my Blog or on any Facebook page using a pseudonym or calling themselves ‘anonymous’. It is an individual’s right, theirs alone and not mine to determine if they want to broadcast their personal details on the internet. I am interested in what people have to say, not in who they are. If it’s clear they don’t wish to be identified, I give absolute respect to that choice of theirs. Not so Mr Fitzsimons, and his supporters – they have decided that THEY will be the ones who decide who gets to keep their personal details private or not! Who the bloody hell do they think they are?

So I am not Mr T, or any of the many other people who post comments anonymously or using pseudonyms on my Blog.  Even though I have for years repeatedly and consistently and truthfully denied it, Fitzsimons continues to claim they are all fake identities created by me.  So for the last time, I will say it yet again : They are not fake identities invented or in any way linked or related or known to me. I post to my Blog as Dee and nobody else. I have no idea who Ashleigh Broad is, who Cameron is, who Horrie and Alf are, who Roy or any of the other names listed by Fitzsimons are. They are people who post to the Blog with their own ideas and thoughts. They’re nothing to do with me and if they don’t wish to disclose their identity, that’s their right and I respect it.

I have never posted personal details online of anyone. I have never asked the police to investigate Fitzsimons or anyone else. I have never stalked anyone. I do not have multiple personalities. I am not a pervert or a criminal or a disgraced doctor. I am not fat or balding. I am not a psychopath or mentally unstable. I have never dared anyone to name me; No, all of these allegations that Fitzsimons has made against me are lies, blatant bullying by him and his gang of Facebook thugs who want to make me go away, to silence me.

But they have failed. I am still here, I am not going away and I am not going to be silenced. I will continue to exercise my right to have and to express my views on Kelly history on my own FB page and my own Blog. I will not allow my right to freedom of expression to be trampled on by these people.As always anyone who wants to contribute to the discussion in a positive way, anyone who wants to play the ball and not the man will continue to be welcome to do so, whatever their opinion is. But for Fitzsimons and his ilk, the solution is incredibly simple : if you dont like what I write don't read it. Write your own stuff on your own places about your own Kelly beliefs, leave me out of it, mind your own bloody business and stay the hell out of my private life.

That is my final comment on the matter.