“Evil report: When an individual maliciously injures, damages or discredits another’s reputation or character through the use of words or attitude.”
Sedler, Dr. Michael D. (2013-07-01). Stopping Words That Hurt: Positive Words in a World Gone Negative (p. 16). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
I listened to the entire 22:31 minutes of Monica Lewinsky’s TED talk (here) and several things struck me – first is she speaks with humility, grace and honesty. Lewinsky defines her purpose of publicly speaking about her past as an attempt to change the culture of “cyberbullying” and the brutal invasion of privacy that modern technology has facilitated.
Lewinsky chronicles the evolution of incivility, invasion of personal privacy and many other horrible offshoots of boorish and cruel behavior fostered online. Watching Lewinsky talk, it’s obvious she’s full of wit and charm, plus it’s obvious she’s smart too. Way back when, during this impeachment scandal, I recall writing a comment online about Lewinsky too. I remember some detailed description about her shopping for a gift, trying to find the right book, for Bill Clinton. I wrote that she was in love, but some much darker emotions drive Hillary Rodham Clinton. She is consumed with her quest for power.
A large part of Lewinsky’s public shaming, as she refers to it, was not just because of the internet. The Clinton political machine, driven by one, Hillary Rodham Clinton, fed stories to the media to trash Lewinsky as some psycho and they were quick to utilize the information superhighway to spread their lies. The man she opens this talk discussing as “falling in love with my boss”, well, he threw her under the bus to save his political career and he let his wife handle the damage control.
The need for a cultural change hits us in the face almost daily with story after story of young people using the internet and cellphones to engage in everything from “cyberbullying” to sexual exhibitionist behavior, filming acts of violence (brawling being the least of it) to post online, or in cases like Tyler Clementi, whom Lewinsky mentions. Clementi, a young gay college student, whose roommate used a hidden webcam in their dorm room to videotape Clementi in an intimate act, then posted the video online to share with other students stands as one of the cruelest personal acts of “cyberbullying”. Clementi, upon finding out about this gross invasion of his privacy, committed suicide. Lewinsky posits the question whether people can be shamed and humiliated to death and the answer is yes. Lewinsky speaks about how her mother sat by her side, day after day, in the wake of the 1998 impeachment scandal, fearful for her life.
People, in both their private and public lives, have found ways to use the internet and modern electronic technology to achieve real-time connections, where very quickly, with little time given to reflection and thought, they pour out their personal business, they run with spreading stories that are complete lies, with no concerns about the veracity of the information they pass along.
The Clementi tragedy highlights the callous, cruelty of some college students, but Lewinsky skipped over another huge change in our cultural landscape wrought by the information superhighway – our political elites and their moneyed supporters and the press have joined in the reckless, hit and run political attacks, where Lewinsky serves as a prime example of the roadkill left behind. While the past 17 years have been a struggle for Lewinsky to even find a job, the queen of the Clinton hit squad sits poised to run for President of the United States. The use of the internet to sway political opinion has evolved to the point where the current President of the United States, a man who lies more than the Clintons, has his administration writing “narratives”, replete with gross fabrications and distortions, to sell his policies to the American people.
Now, in light of all the things the public has come to know recently about Hillary’s private email server in her home and questions about her off the records intelligence-gathering via Sid Blumenthal, let me once again state that my story related in Messages of mhere (tabbed at the top of my home page) is the TRUTH. Is the idea that she sent some of her minions out to investigate an annoying conservative poster, whose comments were being borrowed by some right-wing pundits, so far-fetched as the details of her private communications network run from her home emerge? Alas, mhere didn’t belong to any “vast, right-wing conspiracy”, then or now. In whatever user id, I write under, mhere, libertybelle, or susanholly – I remain fiercely independent., with no political connections – a private American citizen.
I offered the real-life identities of every person mentioned to several reporters, as I stated a while back – no takers. Oh, the things I wrote about way back then on the excite message boards – I mocked the Clinton spinmeisters (professional LIARS), who invaded those message boards to spin the story. I pointed out the idiocy of their LIES. And in mhere fashion – I made sure that I had the last word in each debate.
Yes, alas, my story sounds so far-fetched and after all, while she gets feted and fawned over the more she lies, I am the person who was locked up in a mental facility for 18 days, unable to get even my own family to listen to me. Yes, my rights were violated repeatedly, and despite being able to shower, dress, talk coherently, someone(s) tried to have me permanently committed to a state mental hospital – something you’d expect in a communist country. All these records exist, the hearing that freed me – I was not ever advised of my rights or of the hearing. I had to throw a fit to even get legal representation. I want to expose every last person who aided in attacking me and helped spread the lies about me. Why? Because I believe that woman, the “co-President”, used an Army commander to attack an enlisted family based on LIES. She corrupted the chain of command and I will continue to try and expose why she is unfit to ever be commander-in-chief of the US Armed Forces, bequeathed to us by General George Washington. I don’t even have a speeding ticket. I’ve never owned a gun or belonged to any militia or “vast right-wing conspiracy”. I was a homemaker, by choice, with no political connections whatsoever.
On this BookBub thing online, you can get a daily email of book deals and along with that Amish Peace book I mentioned recently, I bought another book called, “Stopping Words That Hurt: Positive Words In a World Gone Negative”, by Dr. Michael D. Sedler. The book is written from a Christian perspective, rich with Biblical stories about the sin of spreading evil through lies, gossip, and what the author in general refers to as “evil reporting”. Well, having been on the receiving end of some potent “evil reporting”, hopefully someday I can publicly expose the source.
Sedler, identifies 7 types of “evil reporters” we may encounter: backbiters, busybodies, complainers, murmurers, slanderers, talebearers, and whisperers. He states identification as a powerful tool to unite people around an “evil report”:
“Identification: Emotionally, intellectually, physically or spiritually connecting with another individual.”
Sedler, Dr. Michael D. (2013-07-01). Stopping Words That Hurt: Positive Words in a World Gone Negative (p. 117). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Our partisan political factions feverishly work to gain support (identification) through spreading “evil reports”, with little regard for the TRUTH. Sedler uses the divisiveness of Vietnam to explain how politics can divide not only the country, but create divides within families gathered at the dinner table. America today is no less divided than it was during the Vietnam era, as evidenced by our polarized and paralyzed federal government. Lewinsky carefully sidestepped delving into the political corruption within our two main political parties and she has set a noble purpose for her public speaking. At some point, though, America will need to face up to the corruption attacking the very roots of our government – a breakdown and disregard for the rule of law by those entrusted to protect and defend The Constitution of the United States.
“Let us erect a standard to which the wise and honest may repair.”
– George Washington
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