About Clark Being "Purged" From Popehat

You may recall that we had a co-blogger named Clark. Clark left us at the end of 2015. Since then, Clark has stood by, approvingly, while others have asserted that he was kicked out/expelled/purged from the blog. Recently, he said so himself:

Clark's being deceitful. I've put up with it for some time, but for whatever reason, today I decided I wasn't going to tolerate a dishonest person lying about me in service of his political agenda any more. Clark has invited me to post the proof. I'm doing so.

I became increasingly unhappy that Clark was writing for the blog in 2015. That unhappiness was a result of a number of factors, including the content he wrote here, which I felt reflected badly on the blog and on me, both in terms of quality and content. I was concerned, for instance, that if my clients encountered the blog they would question whether I was hostile to them based upon their ethnicity or religion. I became embarrassed he was a co-blogger. For philosophical reasons, I was reluctant to tell him to leave. Part of that was a remaining feeling of cordiality towards someone I had previously regarded as a friend. I run and pay for this blog; it's my speech, and my free association, and there would be nothing wrong with kicking his ass to the curb if I felt that keeping him here thwarted my speech and association. But right or wrong, rationally or not, I didn't. I'm responsible for my actions.

However, I made it pretty clear I was disgusted with what he wrote. Eventually he wrote a post that brought the issue to head. I will not characterize the post or Clark's fairly typical behavior in the comments. But when Clark addressed commenters who had suggested I should kick him off the blog, I made my feelings clear: I wasn't going to make him a bogus free-speech martyr, but I hated what he was doing with my blog.

That was blunt, but honest.

Clark's response was perfectly honorable — at the time. He acknowledged that he understood that I hated what he was putting on my blog, and resigned. I've redacted his email and picture to protect his confidentiality:

We later posted Clark's farewell about two days earlier than he wanted.

Clark characterizes that as being "purged." I call that a lie. Alternatively, I suppose you could characterize it as a sincere but pathetic pathology of the alt-right: the conceit that their freedom of speech entitles them to be liked, free of criticism, subsidized, welcomed warmly on the private platforms of people who find them repugnant, and generally granted special dispensation from anyone else's exercise of free speech or free association. Even if you indulge Clark in such a pathology, though, he's deliberately cultivating the false impression that he was expelled. That's dishonest.

Incidentally, Clark seems miffed that I referred to his new blog, Status451, as Status1488. He attempts to characterize that as wronging his co-bloggers there. Clark knows perfectly well that the joke is a reference to a time he gave a Twitter #FollowFriday to a white nationalist's post reading "1488." Clark pretending not to remember this is, again, dishonest. Clark later explained he didn't understand what 1488 meant at the time (which, given the circles where Clark swims on Twitter, I find rather amazing), and it was a mistake. Personally I avoid these nomenclature mistakes by not giving #FollowFridays to white nationalists; Clark's methods may vary.

(Addendum by Patrick): I've reviewed the emails and this post. Ken asked me (even though I barely blog here any longer) to have a look at the post and say whether I think his characterization is fair. I do. Personally I became very upset with Clark after his weird attempt to "reconcile" Ken and notorious racist scumbag Vox Day after Day began referring to Ken as a defective or something of the sort because Ken suffers depression. I stand by my friends. Ken was nothing but a friend to Clark, in ways I cannot mention.

And I do wonder what sort of person considers Vox Day a friend. Edited to add: Clark disagrees with the characterization of his words in a Twitter string you can read ending here.

He also wishes us the best, in his own inimitable way.

Edited again to add:I appreciate and accept Clark's apology for saying that I purged him.

Copyright 2016 by the named Popehat author.