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Kat Sunlove's avatar

To think that this insanity has made its ugly and despicable way to YOU, my dear, is totally appalling. Not that you're not famous enough ... b/c, of course, you are. But to think that these weasels find satisfaction in trolling you, demeaning you... well, it just puts my drawers in a pinch. You are a national treasure, Susie Bright!! And I applaud every word you write, every podcast you make and every cool memory you share! Sending you love and words of comfort and courage!!!

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XCoe's avatar

God, I'm so sorry. The crazy is out of hand now, getting scarier and scarier. We must bear with it as resistance takes hold. Resistance will take hold. It must. I don't know what it looks like. But the spirit of human dignity and courage has not been completely eviscerated by foaming-at-the-mouth viral viciousness. That is the thin string to which I cling.

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Susie Bright's avatar

XCoe, thank you for sharing your thin string with me!

or as my surfer family would say: “Keep paddling”

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Susie Bright's avatar

Hey dear pals: Just a reminder, the ONLY reason I paywall my Comments, is because otherwise I would get *swarmed* by trolls.

I can’t keep up with blocking them all day, and it’s so depressing and unnerving — their entire aim.

So! If you’re a regular reader and can’t afford to subscribe to my newsletter, email me for a free subscription: <office@susiebright.com>. No questions asked. Then you can come blab away here, too. I miss you!

OR, I have a “pay-what-you-want” option, where you can just pay me one amount, one time, and that’s it. I’ll sign you up for a newsletter, just email me after you put the penny in the can: https://buy.stripe.com/28o8zm7tt5nffRK9AB

Meanwhile, thank you to my regular paying subscribers, I think you’re aware you’re keeping me afloat. Onward!

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Jane Sooby's avatar

Sorry I missed that post of yours and the subsequent posts. I make a point to troll trolls, however it's never led to anything close to death threats. WTF is wrong with people? Thank you for continuing to speak truth to power, Susie!

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John Miller's avatar

I try to cope via my usual diversions, vegetable and fruit gardening, home canning, sourdough baking, and an occasional Vieux Carre. But the dread lingers.

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Susie Bright's avatar

I think your “wholesome” strategy is actually key. I actively use that word now, as in, “I have to do something wholesome before I bite down on the cyanide tablet.”

Yes, the basic beauty and moral goodness in life is a tonic. Yet knowing how the crazy people get aroused by propaganda is chilling. You never know when some nut is going to pop up. I do not walk around with a gun over my shoulder and I am repulsed at the thought of living that way.

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Martha Miller's avatar

"I was born in an American post-fascist artists’ renaissance — what shock to see how brief it was..." Well said.

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Susie Bright's avatar

Yeah, I amended it too, to “What a bourgeois shock…” I’m all too aware of the stupid boomer bubble I grew up in.

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Celia's avatar

Wish i could wrap my arms around you! Or stand shoulder to shoulder with other friends and supporters, surrounding your house and daring the world to so much as touch a hair on your head. It's ugly out there. I feel lucky I'm not a public person these days, but several friends have reported similar stuff this week, including letters to their employers. Nothing to do but soldier (carefully!) on. The only alternative is to give up/give in. I feel like we're in a movie where Fascism is hurtling toward us getting bigger and stronger as it gets closer and we are all just going about our lives, picking up the kids at school, going to the movies, having dinner with friends...

I think a lot more people will lose their jobs and a lot more than that will shut up. My goal these days is to do as much as I can without going to jail. And to walk in the woods and sit in my garden as much as I can.

P.S. Why did you think one more year before the stalag?

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Susie Bright's avatar

I want to hear about your friends’ shit at work. Damn. White collar, academic?

I need MUCH more woods-walking instead of ruminating. I have no excuse, the woods are minutes away!

My stalag joke really is inside baseball joke to myself. I always said I really had no interest in living beyond 70 (I said this in good times, not bad!) and that part of me, is “goddammit, fascism is ruining my 70th goodbye party!”

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Celia's avatar

One friend, academic, who posted strong opinions on K's death got a number of death-and-destruction threats, and has had letters sent to two of their bosses, urging that they be fired. Another works in a health care facility and is suspended because of "disrespectful" social media comments (they don't know if their employer got an email about their comments or found them some other way). If I know a couple, there must be thousands of examples out there.

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Celia's avatar

You'll be a very young 70 - you can't say goodbye that soon - fash or no fash!

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Donna Minkowitz's avatar

I'm so sorry this is happening, Susie. You don't deserve it! You deserve wonders.

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Susie Bright's avatar

Meow! Come by and let’s snack on some wonders sometime.

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Kim Anno's avatar

Horrid bots with wind up handles bloody fingers on them. Good to delete for now but keep going. Evil devours itself the bastards. Make haste cannibals! Leave brilliant Susie alone or you will be hexed

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Susie Bright's avatar

Go get’em, my dearest tiger. I would love to see them all self-incinerate.

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Amanda Nash's avatar

Ugh ugh ugh, I'm so sorry to hear this is happening to you. It is of no solace that these people, if they are in fact people, are the lowest of the low -- it's just a reminder that the lowest of the low are in charge now. Sigh. My deep sympathies.

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Susie Bright's avatar

Yeah. It’s very very very hard on the literate.

So glad to hear from you, always!

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Kathy  Andrew's avatar

OMG Susie, I’m so sorry this happened to you. I know it’s because of this week, but especially horrible to happen in this particularly horrible week. Sounds like you’ve done all the practical things you can do, and as you say they’ve likely moved on down the road. But it’s hard not to feel afraid right now anyway, though of course I keep reminding myself we can’t let the terrorists win. But seek out all the things that you enjoy and that keep you sane. They are what’s important, and need to be given extra time and attention right now. Let’s hope we creatives can prevail and keep each other close. Sending extremely big hugs and much love. ❤️

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Susie Bright's avatar

Love you, Kathy. I know you’ve seen this from both sides of the pond.

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Reading Off Into The Sunset's avatar

They have managed to make you fearful. That was their goal. The number of bot posts is wild. I block many every day. I haven’t your stature, and I mainly repost content rather than create, so I haven’t been targeted. Plus, even a WHIFF of something I don’t like automatically gets blocked, especially if it contains a scintilla of religious undertones or foreign sounding syntax. And yes, I have blocked a shit ton of them. You’re high profile, an easy target for a bot army. I tend to agree with Jon - you’re cutting some ice with the algorithm - so in a twisted way, this might be a badge of honor, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

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Reading Off Into The Sunset's avatar

High and bar? Works for me!

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Reading Off Into The Sunset's avatar

I would never criticize your cocktail recipes! 😉

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Susie Bright's avatar

Okay, so I set a high bar . . .

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Susie Bright's avatar

Aw, Sunset, you sage thing, you. I think the “whiff” test is something I’m never quite sure of. I always want to give people the benefit of the doubt — NOT the people who want to “cut me up” but those weird ‘semi-earnest’ whiners and nit-pickers. Like, where do they find the time? It doesn’t seem real. They’re sort of haughty and don’t have any manners— as I say, they would never talk this way in someone’s kitchen, which is my LITMUS test.

It also, as you say, is a “tell” if they snotty-criticize me for the first time, out of the blue, immediately following some media hysteria. If someone has already been here to criticize one of my cocktail recipes (I dare you) they have MUCH more credibility! ;-)

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Susie Bright's avatar

Some of you have been writing me via email, and I really appreciate it. Love to Mona, and Angela, Elizabeth, Wendy, and Bayla. Guy, and Jack, and Rebecca.

It’s so weird that while I was writing about the creepiness of being targetted by MAGA Stasi in my tiny world, Jimmy Kimmel was getting canned. Good grief. It just goes to show how the powers that be are into attacking on all fronts, high and low. Trump will be calling ALL of Stack and Blue Sky “antifa” in order to brand them as terrorist organizations, he’s so kidding about killing broadcast TV, the sky is the limit.

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Lori Selke's avatar

I'm sorry, Susie. Automated ghost hate is a special kind of unfun.

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Susie Bright's avatar

It really is! Thanks for the useful quick description!

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Lori Ubell's avatar

As a genuine red diaper baby, whose relatives were viciously attacked during the McCarthy era, I can only offer you the advice of my grandfather "Never cross a picket line, and never talk to the FBI." Or the wisdom of my other grandfather who, when watching the news, always muttered "Gonifs. They're all gonifs." And, of course, my sympathies for having to endure these insane attacks.

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Susie Bright's avatar

Scoundrels, all! I agree. I live on those stories of how we survived McCarthy.

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Guy Story's avatar

Companionship and comradely squeezing comin' atcha!

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Susie Bright's avatar

Feelin’ it!

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