QAnon Connection to "Company of Men"

[nynakedtop]

1 minute ago, Latbear4blk said:

Yes. The mods locked a thread where the debate around trans issues got hot.

what forum did that exchange happen in?

[njf]

1 hour ago, Latbear4blk said:

Yes. The mods locked a thread where the debate around trans issues got hot.

Well, they either have to ban those people eventually or revive the Politics section lol. I doubt that the moderator’s job will be easier as they hoped.

[stevenkesslar]

6 hours ago, njf said:

Well, they either have to ban those people eventually or revive the Politics section lol. I doubt that the moderator’s job will be easier as they hoped.

Poor things!

This is an optimistic generalization.  My favorite organizing phrase is, "The action is in the reaction."  So I view this reaction through that lens.

First, it may be another tiny little sign that people are just sick of Trump's Divide And Conquer America.  He never really conquered, anyway, even in 2016.  The most MAGA-like posters over there are the ones who reacted with a pity party.  The posters I consider the most thoughtful all hit the "thanks" or "like" button.  

Second, same goes for specific LGBTQ issues, like transgender.  I personally think that some of the medical providers may go too far.  And there is a need for oversight.  Whenever there is a system for getting insurance claims when you do expensive therapies, oversight and accountability are issues.  That said, mostly the culture war attacks on The Gays or The Blacks or The Trannies or The Baby Killers has playing out in our favor, over a long period of time.   It is a battle of hearts, not minds.  And progressives like me are winning.  And it's hard to keep talk about the political dimensions of The Gays or The Trannies off an LGBTQ website.  So it will be interesting to see where this goes. 

But, for now, they get a nice vacation from conflict.  Hopefully the moderators are out at some strip club in South Beach, celebrating.  😉

[Latbear4blk]

9 hours ago, nynakedtop said:

what forum did that exchange happen in?

https://www.companyofmen.org/topic/139177-hiring-straight-guys/page/10/#comment-2096310

[nynakedtop]

1 hour ago, Latbear4blk said:

https://www.companyofmen.org/topic/139177-hiring-straight-guys/page/10/#comment-2096310

thank you for sharing this shameful chapter in the story of that site - clearly the mods are perfectly comfortable giving a safe platform for those who do the work of the ultra-right towards destroying our community. i was purged in a matter of moments -- the mods let fascists, racists, and homophobes have a safe secure and comfortable platform for their hate.

shame on them all.

[stevenkesslar]

7 hours ago, Latbear4blk said:

https://www.companyofmen.org/topic/139177-hiring-straight-guys/page/10/#comment-2096310

Quote

You're all basically "bridge and tunnel gays" who never expended any effort to secure our rights, never raised awareness, and are likely still closeted to some degree. And without people who are femme, gender-bending, kinky, "stereotypical," etc., you'd have absolutely zero queer rights. 

So stop your nonsense. 

Quote

Cooper locked this topic

That thread proves @njf's point.  The only minor surprise is that the "apolitical" tone of the forum didn't even get through one week.

Note the warning at the top from one of the moderators to to take a deep breath and tone down the rhetoric..   That moderator is someone I know personally to be a really sweet, thoughtful guy.  Then Cooper locked the thread yesterday. Which arguably made sense, since the "debate" was essentially about how a right-wing brick thrower is "spot on" arguing that the goal should be to "defeat and humiliate" those Queer types who want to "wage war on the foundations of human society, and truth itself."  Damn!  Who knew?  

You can take the boy out of the country.  But some boys are just going to be cunts, anyway!  Oops!  Did I just call Matt Walsh a name? 

Someone in that thread argued that the T part doesn't belong in LGBTQ.  The interesting thing to me is how many guys over there don't even relate to the G part.  Just because they like to have sex with men, and have their entire life, that doesn't mean they are Gay, right?  Or, it certainly doesn't mean they relate to any political movement based in something like "Gay Pride"  or "Basic Rights" or even - what's the word?  Empathy?

And, honestly, I don't blame them.  One, I'd be a hypocrite to, since escorting was profitable for me.  Two, it all does speak to an era when Gays were viciously discriminated against, or "cured," or whatever.   I spent enough time being an escort for pay and being a volunteer for same sex marriage that I just got used to thinking about these as two different and compartmentalized things.  Thankfully, we won our political fights in part because there are so many Straight allies with vision and values.  Who are willing to go to bat - and go door to door - for us.  Even if we are not all willing to go to bat for ourselves.  

I'm glad that the problem today is that Chasten is perfectly willing to talk about the stories he hears from Gay politicos about how challenging it is for Gay men to have careers and kids.  While his hubby probably still just wants to internalize it all.  Since most people just want the trains to run on time.  It's so fucking ............. normal!  I guess that means The Gays are now gonna be for subsidized child care, too.  God damn it!  😉

[Suckrates]

Hi Guys,

Its been a hot minute since I've been here, but just wanted to post a quick comment about THIS topic.   I posted on the OTHER site as jjkkrkwood, but its been about a year now that I walked away after being BANNED for commenting in a post on children and GUN legislation.  The BAN was for talking about children.  WTF ???  how can that be avoided when the topic is gun control and kids dying in schools ?   Anyway, after the Ban was lifted, BEFORE I could be allowed back, I had to sign a proclamation that I AGREED I WAS WRONG in posting and wont do it again....   Since I didnt see it that way, I offered them my finger and never looked back.   But before that I had become disgusted with the degeneration of that forum, what they allowed to be posted and seemed to SUPPORT, and the people they were tossing out for pushing back against the lunatic ring-wing fringe members and election deniers.   I didnt care that they had their own views but they were aggressive and in attack mode all the time, and were ALLOWED to say a lot of shit that other members were being tossed for.  

So..............  as far as the Q connection, it never crossed my mind since I know many of the current mods and I would NEVER believe that of any of them.... But ya never really do know people, DO YA ????

Well it is nice speaking to ya'll again, and enjoy your Sunday/Funday.   

(A special Hi to my lover /sister Stevenkesslar)    

[Lucky]

I noticed a post authored by "Guest." At the bottom it said it was edited by BnaC, so I assume that he has quit the Company of Men since the Politics Forum was his favorite.

[nynakedtop]

1 minute ago, Lucky said:

I noticed a post authored by "Guest." At the bottom it said it was edited by BnaC, so I assume that he has quit the Company of Men since the Politics Forum was his favorite.

funny and sad....

as i recall BnaC bragged about his heterosexuality...

he exhibited bizarre obsessive/compulsive disorder traits in his postings but i guess we should add to his list of atypical behaviors Identity Crisis 101!

i wish we could bid good riddance to that particularly disagreeable person, but, like the man who came to dinner he seems incapable of knowing when and where he is not wanted!

[Suckrates]

5 minutes ago, nynakedtop said:

funny and sad....

as i recall BnaC bragged about his heterosexuality...

he exhibited bizarre obsessive/compulsive disorder traits in his postings but i guess we should add to his list of atypical behaviors Identity Crisis 101!

i wish we could bid good riddance to that particularly disagreeable person, but, like the man who came to dinner he seems incapable of knowing when and where he is not wanted!

If he continues to surface, its a matter of time before his "amigos" will follow.....   I suppose "if you cant disrupt One website, just find another to do it".....  Activity at the other site is pretty non-existent.    While there are many logged in members, few participate in anything, so the site is Quiet for the most part.  Its a shame because it once WAS a fun place to hang out.

[Suckrates]

14 minutes ago, Lucky said:

I noticed a post authored by "Guest." At the bottom it said it was edited by BnaC, so I assume that he has quit the Company of Men since the Politics Forum was his favorite.

Just watch for the Klown Kar.  The 4 amigos are on a road trip HERE....

[Pete1111]

This thread discussed further back the no-hijacking rule over at the other site and also discussed the recent thread being locked.  I just looked at that thread.   The OP wanted to discuss hiring straight escorts.  Sadly, members chose to be triggered by it rather than focusing on what the OP wanted to discuss.  One can see where that ended up.  Generally there are enough scatterbrained members alone as well as those that have zero empathy (let's talk about everything I know and fuck all what you want) that the "no-hijacking" rule was a worthy guideline.  I used to try steering back to the OP to help out.  I guess I have at least an ounce of empathy.

But I was one of the boycotters last year and like Sukrates did, I ultimately dropped off that Forum.  I spend the time that I used to burn over there by listening to political blogs on YouTube such as Bryan Tyler Cohen; Ben Meisales on MidasTouch; and a lesser known but very clever guy from NYC David Feldman.  If not for David Feldman I wouldn't know Ann Coulter's term for Nicky Haley, "BabyCakes". 

But back to the OP, I agree with NYNakedTop, that forum was fertile ground for members coming from conspiracy sites to spread QAnon (and Kremlin IMO) talking points.  What good does it do to engage them? Little or none.

[nynakedtop]

20 minutes ago, Pete1111 said:

 

But back to the OP, I agree with NYNakedTop, that forum was fertile ground for members coming from conspiracy sites to spread QAnon (and Kremlin IMO) talking points.  What good does it do to engage them? Little or none.

True on a "macro as well as micro" level -- the Evil Sisters practiced this weird form of discourse in which they never engaged in any sort of exchange with anyone who did not ape the same talking points as themselves. They would respond to one another with a congratulatory word or two and then go on as if they were simply reading a press release authored by Steve Bannon (which, come to think of it, their words were so interchangeable amongst them that they probably were!)

They never answered questions directly posed to them

The only exchanges they had with anyone outside their cult was Trump-style name calling and attacks

They had the weirdest style of posting .... just compulsively on and on and on in a vacuum of their own making.

A dear friend of mine organized the Politics forum boycott before he was summarily banned. He did some good work I would say because it exposed the fact that the evil forces there seemed to barely even notice!

[Suckrates]

The thing is that without the Politics Forum, that site is now pretty much a wasteland.  The mods made a bad move that has jeopardized the traffic on that site.  and for what ?    They didnt close it down BECAUSE OF the hate speech... they shut it down because they didnt want to deal with the complaints ABOUT the hate speech which they had no intention of addressing......  They had already Banned all the prolific members who posted there.   There was not much left....  The Klown posse was running the show. 

[stevenkesslar]

3 hours ago, Lucky said:

I noticed a post authored by "Guest." At the bottom it said it was edited by BnaC, so I assume that he has quit the Company of Men since the Politics Forum was his favorite.

I actually enjoyed Bnac's posts.  He illustrated the difference between reality-based conservatives, which he is, versus clowns who seem like Steve Bannon cultists.  Who are just going to keep blaring the same shit out of bullhorns, ad nauseum.  Auggie repeatedly challenged me on facts (e.g. we now have the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years.)  Then he'd support his argument with a CNN (!) article that confirmed what I said, and added more facts to support my argument.  To me, at least, much of it did seem like what Trump and Bannon learned from Goebbels.  Tell a lie long enough, and it becomes the truth. 

My adorable BTC was particularly good at being Bannonesque.  Plus, they even look like sisters.

Arguably, as you have said, @Lucky, people like me should have just kept our mouths shut, and not engaged them.  But I think this discussion has illustrated that would have also left them more space to fill with propaganda and lies.

It's a good question whether any of the posters there came off QAnon conspiracy sites.  Or Russian troll farms.  I decided a long time ago it doesn't particularly matter.  I do think Putin's goal is to do anything he can to use democracy and free speech to divide Americans.  Arguably, he has succeeded.  And Trump's whole MO is that he has to divide Americans to maybe win a minority of the popular vote and an electoral college victory.  If it is on a day he is lucky.  So now most Americans don't want to marry or share dorms with members of the opposite party any more.  Something like 1 in 5 Americans say it would be better if members of the opposite party just died.

All that said, that which does not kill us makes us stronger.  So I'm viewing the glass as half full.  And taking what happens over at Company Of Men as reasonable people just getting sick of it.

Besides, over there I get friendly fascism.  Over here I get fashion, in the form of my dearest and most darlingest long lost sister, @Suckrates.   Who always was better than me at both fashion and fellatio.  I'm okay with that.  Like Kamala, I don't mind being #2 to The Big Guy.

 

[Marc in Calif]

1 hour ago, nynakedtop said:

They never answered questions directly posed to them

The only exchanges they had with anyone outside their cult was Trump-style name calling and attacks

Like all social media trolls, they refused to accept clearly proven facts and evidence that didn't support their opinions.

They'd simply say that a quoted or cited source was "notoriously liberal" or "lying media" to indicate that it wasn't true. All trolls do that rather than engage with proven facts.

[Suckrates]

 

I've always been a believer that "everything happens for a reason"...   Sometimes it just takes a little longer to figure out that reason.... At the moment, I am trying to figure out the REASON that noone, not Garland, Smith or even Fani Willis has brought any charges against ANYONE at the top.     Sure there have been some foot soldier convictions,  but none of this can be resolved without holding TRUMP and all his accomplices accountable.   Perhaps thats WHY our 4 crazies are so emboldened,  because they feel those people CANT/WONT be touched ?     I dont believe there will be any top tier indictments.   Thats why things are moving so slow, hoping the American people will just FORGET about it and find something else to focus on....   And by then Trump will be President AGAIN or the clock will have run out on any possible resolution.   Those crafty DOJ people !   

[Latbear4blk]

I have already seen this movie, as it's been a few years of participating in both forums. Some posters are banned or stormed out from the other website and come over here to vent their frustration and predict the demise of the snakes' nest. It was the same with Daddy, and it is happening again.

Meanwhile, Company of Men seems healthy and thriving. There are posts every few minutes, sometimes several posts at once.

Those who participated in the Politics forum feel like the place is dead, but it is only us, a tiny little minority. 

[Suckrates]

56 minutes ago, Latbear4blk said:

I have already seen this movie, as it's been a few years of participating in both forums. Some posters are banned or stormed out from the other website and come over here to vent their frustration and predict the demise of the snakes' nest. It was the same with Daddy, and it is happening again.

Meanwhile, Company of Men seems healthy and thriving. There are posts every few minutes, sometimes several posts at once.

Those who participated in the Politics forum feel like the place is dead, but it is only us, a tiny little minority. 

You must be watching a different movie than I ?    Healthy & striving ?    That's a stretch..... more like barely hangin on.  Without the chaos and vigor of the Politics forum, its just another banal site for people to discuss nothing....   So be it.

About venting......hardly.   I havent posted HERE is over 2 years, and over there its a year.   If I wanted or needed to vent, there were plenty or earlier opportunities.....  I saw the discussion here and decided to comment as I had some related experience to share.    And what's with the drama ?    People storming out ?   Hardly.   they simply left or were kicked out without fanfare.....Your poetic license is confusing .   

[stevenkesslar]

1 hour ago, Latbear4blk said:

Meanwhile, Company of Men seems healthy and thriving. There are posts every few minutes, sometimes several posts at once.

Those who participated in the Politics forum feel like the place is dead, but it is only us, a tiny little minority. 

Plus they are mostly just a great bunch of guys.  As you know from going to Oliver's pool parties, among other things. 

The site works well as a support system and source of information for people who hire escorts.  And, to some degree, escorts as well.  I've posted there on lots of other things.  And I will again.  Except I figured I should just avoid that for a while, lest I be perceived as trying to make things in other forums political.  There's a thread on Jimmy Carter's health right now.  It will be interesting to see if people can edit themselves to avoid it from getting locked down.

The idea that it's a group that just has to avoid talking about politics kind of fits.  My guess is that the typical "client" over there is center to center/right.  An older White guy who is relatively affluent, and may not even identify as Gay.  I've been in settings where I was with a group of them, some of whom I knew to be liberals and some whom I knew to be conservatives.  It was natural to just talk about other things, since politics isn't what really brought us together.

Which is what is a bit weird for me, being as political as I am.  If I'm volunteering for a LGBTQ rights group like EQCA, politics is what brings us together.  And in just about any other setting where it is a bunch of Gay friends it isn't unusual for something political to come up.  And it almost always seems to be left of center.  Because they're people who identify with LGBTQ as a political movement.

The one other thing that is obvious is that politics and escorting is not a particularly good match.  At least not in public.  I've gone to LGBTQ fundraising events with several people who frequent the board.  You don't bring up the fact that you hire escorts.  Or that you are an escort.  One of my close friends for many years was one of the top organizers of the same sex marriage movement, who happens to be Straight.  So coming out as Gay to people like her is like a celebration.  When I came out as an escort, I don't think she could ever quite get her mind around it.  There are of course politicians who hire male escorts.  They don't talk about it, either. Or, if they do, they're in trouble.

The awkward mismatch really came to the fore after the Rentboy raid.  It was almost shockingly divisive among a community that all uses sites like Rentboy.

What I decided at the time is that being someone who hires escorts is kind of the same thing that being Gay was half a century or more ago.  Better to be discreet and not talk about it.  There's no impulse to make things political.  If anything, the opposite.  Whereas with just about anything else Gay these days, you do try to make it political.  So you can lock down rights and freedoms.  

I'd argue that, in the bigger LGBTQ community, the people who utilize that website are the minority.  Not a tiny minority. Since sex and escorting seem to be popular among The Gays, for some strange reason.  😍   But it is kind of like a closeted part of a broader community that came out of the closet a long time ago.

But if my perceptions are accurate, all that is why that website has a good reason to exist, and is thriving.  It gives people a place to discuss something that doesn't flow easily off the lips in public.  Whereas if you are naked in private with an escort, it flows off the lips much better.  😉

 

 

[tassojunior]

Old men have serious arguing politics image problems. I decided, like cardigans and slippers, it's too much of a cliché to bear at my age. (& it doesn't matter).

 

 

[unicorn]

On 2/20/2023 at 1:19 PM, Latbear4blk said:

...Meanwhile, Company of Men seems healthy and thriving. There are posts every few minutes, sometimes several posts at once...

Depends what one means by that. I don't have the statistics, but overall I think traffic there has decreased by a good 3/4 since they took down the politics forum. The website should serve its members, not its moderators. Ignoring this reality will lead to members voting with their feet. 

[Mavica]

5 hours ago, unicorn said:

The website should serve its members, not its moderators. Ignoring this reality will lead to members voting with their feet. 

Web forums serve the business purposes of their owners and advertisers, first.  They're not operated in a democratic / communal fashion.  Obviously, the political discussions on that site were seen as disruptive, adding no value to satisfy the business purposes.  We see the migration here of people who posted there ... and it seems to me the interest in this collection of web forums for them is primarily for political discussion purposes.  I've participated in several forums at which the site owners curtailed certain discussions ... and though site visits dropped the owners were happy with their choice.

[Latbear4blk]

7 hours ago, unicorn said:

Depends what one means by that. I don't have the statistics, but overall I think traffic there has decreased by a good 3/4 since they took down the politics forum. The website should serve its members, not its moderators. Ignoring this reality will lead to members voting with their feet. 

We assume the mods over there do not know what they are doing. Time will tell; I may be wrong.

[stevenkesslar]

3 hours ago, Mavica said:

I've participated in several forums at which the site owners curtailed certain discussions ... and though site visits dropped the owners were happy with their choice.

I agree with your main point.   But I'll add a few qualifications.

Arguably, the interest of the "owners" is the community itself.  I'm not even sure who the "owner" of that website is.  Or whether there is one.  And it's pretty much none of my business, is how I view it.  That said, I don't think that site is a business in the sense that it makes money for an owner. If anything, the opposite.  As I said earlier in the thread, after Bill died a member of that community generously stepped forward and said he could help fund the operations of the site.  Basically because he hires escorts and likes what it does.  At least mostly.  Not necessarily, or perhaps not particularly, the politics forum.  So in that sense you could stretch the limit and malign it as a friendly dictatorship.  As in:  have fun!  But just don't talk about politics, or it's off to the gulag for you!  

My guess is the tension, or conflict, has more to do with different ideas of what "community" even means.  I agree with @Latbear4blk that the politics forum was a small, and often annoying, part of that community.  Which is primarily built around an interest in male escorts.  That would be very different than the broader LGBTQ community organized around groups like HRC.  Which sees the Gay community as a political community, and their mission as advancing the rights and political interests of Gay men. 

Having lived in both communities for a few decades, the spirit of Company Of Men goes like this:  let's have a pool party!  Let's go to a stripper bar!  What escort did you hire?  Was he cut or uncut?  Nobody much cares whether the cock is attached to a liberal or conservative.  If anything, the fact that the typical escort is younger and more progressive than the typical older and more affluent client who hires him suggests that it is best to keep your mouth shut.  Or, if you can't keep your mouth shut, then at least keep it primarily focused on other activities.  😛

I know Bill basically lived hand to mouth for much of the time he ran that website.  Hence  my involvement in helping him create a volunteer donor base for the site.  Much of his income from the review website was based on some percentage of the clicks from people who spent money on Flirt4Free or whatever webcam websites he had up there.  So to that extent, simply having less people who visit the website and can click on shiny objects, or shiny boys, that generate revenue is bad for business.  But I don't think the forum itself ever did, or does, operate that way.  That was the escort review website.