I promised myself I would not inflate this ridiculous situation, but Jereme’s comment really pissed me off. (Fuck off Jereme.) He is suggesting that I’m remaining reticent out of ‘publishing diplomacy,’ being that I have 4 pieces in TJ, and have established ‘friendship’ with Mark Baumer. And obviously, I’m friends with Blake and Justin and the rest of Htmlgiant. I’m not being a coward dickshit, I’m being (trying) civilized.

I will admit, I was put in a strange situation because a) I didn’t provoke this situation, b) mutual overlap of ‘interest’ cited above. Matt and Blake provoked this situation, and Justin and the loyal commenters inflamed it.

This is what I think:

Matt did two shitty things: 1) Out of nowhere he posts a passive aggresive comment basically calling Blake Butler untalented and suggesting that out of pettiness did not link TJ. 2) The shittiest thing, the shittiest thing of all, was he deleted Blake’s story, which is just tacky and small, and kind of stupid.

Blake did one shitty thing: Instead of just fucking linking TJ, he tried to publicly humiliate Matt with the ‘how to get linked post.’ This just inflamed the situation, to which Matt over-reacted by deleting Blake’s story.

Justin’s post about ‘unpublishing’ I actually really liked. It really made sense. When you delete a story due to personal matters, you implicate editorialship as being what it’s often accused of being: a favor-nepotist bank of who you like and who you don’t. The problem with Justin is he’s really smart, and his post seemed like an objective argument (which it ‘objectively’ was), but really Justin–weren’t you just backin’ up your buddy Blake? Isn’t it obvious everyone is/was on Blake’s side?

Mark’s email to Justin was not neccessary, and it was also not neccessary for Justin to post Mark’s email.

As for the comments–I get sad when I read them, because it’s so self-absorbed. It’s basically the same 6 people going on and on about nothing. Somebody attacks king Butler, and the troops go out for the kill. PH Madore, Matt, and Mark never had a fucking chance with all you fucking clever people.

And who wins? Christ, who cares. Everybody has acted like a little bitch. People are starting to shit-talk Htmlgiant, the same way they shit-talk gawker, McSwnys, N+1, or any solipsist ‘in-crowd’ that self propogates its own ingrown rhetoric. You know, I bet you for every comment that is left, there are 30 that aren’t–just people who stumbled upon the madness. And those people think: “Christ, what a bunch of self-absorbed assholes.” I really think they think that.

So, um, Matt: I like my 4 peices in TJ, and I try to always send you my ‘better’ shit. If you delete my stories, that’s okay. The internet is not real and I have a day-job.

Blake: I like being a contributing writer here, but if my sentiments are viewed as dissent, fire me.

Justin and Mark: Hi, thanks for playing.

Fuck you Jereme. Htmlgiant has become too important in your life. Your rhetoric is transparent, I know you just want attention.

pr, barry & co.: go outside, turn off your computer and just go outside and the sky is blue and there was a cloud or something and I will destroy this relationship today.

Tao always wins.

Jesus Christ you people, you forced me to write this.