A few of us have been joking about making plagiarism bingo cards so we can check off the predictable responses to any discussion of plagiarism. It is jaw-hang depressing to see the same repeated responses, patterns and excuses, but we really could fill a bingo card at this point.
AnimeJune rounded up a perfect list of responses to the clarification and comments at The Story Siren's page, and I want to focus on this one:
7. Plagiarism is not less wrong than BRINGING UP PLAGIARISM
Clearly, this blogger tried to go the “silent but deadly” route but misjudged the amount of clenching required to pass a bubble of rights-infringing flatulence. But the ones who smelt it are not the ones who dealt it. But tell that to this commenter on the blogger's “Apology” post:
This, dear readers, is what is known as victim blaming. The people who had their CREATIVE CONTENT STOLEN are depicted as being hostile and unreasonable when the plagiarist “gave them what they wanted so they demanded more” – more being the demand to have their rightful creative content, which had been taken without their permission, off the website. What divas!
Worse, this commenter flogs the plagiarist's victims for being so unclassy as to “create drama.” It's bad enough you were so ungrateful as to be angry when a popular blogger stole from you – but you had to make a stink about it, too? Why can't victims just shut up and be quiet? Why do they have to speak up and make us think about bad things when we'd rather be thinking about Hugh Jackman on a unicorn?
B. from Beautifully Invisible forwarded me some of the email she's received since Jane and I started posting about Kristi Diehm's plagiarism at The Story Siren last Monday. The sad irony is that B, Vahni, Jane and I were accused of bullying because we exposed and discussed Kristi's plagiarism. I'm not including the email addresses of the people who sent these messages, because I do not know if they are minors. I do know that they're ignorant.
Name: Kristi's Friend
Message: Dear B, I hope you are proud of yourself for ruining the reputation of one of the nicest people I have ever known. And for what? A few extra hits on your pathetic blog?
Kristi has done more for the blogging community than anyone I have ever known, and now you and your friend have started a witch hunt that will tarnish that forever. She didn't do anything wrong. Your posts weren't worth stealing. She is a better writer and human being than you could ever hope to be. So back the fuck off and call off the dogs that are out to get her.
B at Beautifully Invisible and Vahni didn't do anything to ruin Kristi Diehm's reputation. Kristi Diehm did that all on her own, by plagiarizing two people who run excellent sites about fashion and their own interests.
Name: Amy G.
Message: Get off your high horse and leave Kristi the fuck alone. She didn't do anything to you so stop making shit up.
Kristi did do something to us. Her behavior made the book blogging community look like a bunch of idiotic hypocrites who holler when we find authors plagiarizing but ask for forgiveness and receive it when one of us commits the same act.
Kristi also plagiarized six entries from two blogs, lied about it, asked to have it hidden, and then only acknowledged the matter when we started talking about it four months later.
Name: book blogger
Message: You=bitch. Kristi=awesome.
Me = 0_o?
Name: YA READER
Message: i know everyone is trying to make u 2 seem like the victims here but its clear that you & gg are just jealous of kristi. shes smart and cute and people look up to her and appreciate her and imm and she works w/tons of authors. you blog abt fashion because you arent smart enough to blog abt something important. get a life.
Check your scorecards, everyone. Smart and cute trumps dishonest theivery, and book blogging trumps fashion blogging in the rock-paper-scissors of douchebag.
Name: anon
Message: I think I need to buy you a dictionary because you clearly don't know what plagiarism is. Plagiarism involves original content and what you posted is anything but. Blogging tips? Really? My 5-year old could write those and she would do a better job than you did. So what if Kristi used your posts as a template? THAT ISN'T PLAGIARISM!!! In order for it to be plagiarism your post would have to be UNIQUE and ORIGINAL. You spent what 5 MINUTES? on those. Maybe 10? ANYONE COULD DO IT. Do a google search and you'll see what bullshit this is. Need me to spell it out for you? G-O-O-G-L-E-D-O-T-C-O-M.
Loser.
I am very concerned for this person.
Name: Lauren S.
Message: I just wanna say that you should be ashamed of yourself for doing this to Kristi. She's a sweetheart and you are just a bitch! Why don't you crawl back into the whole you came from and leave her alone?
I believe the word Lauren is looking for is “hole.” As in, “asshole.”
It sucks to bring up plagiarism, talk about it, discuss what it means and what the consequences are, because then there's hate mail from truly ignorant individuals who, as AnimeJune put it, would rather think about Hugh Jackman on a unicorn that acknowledge that someone they admire has fucked up royally.
This kind of bullshit makes it more intimidating to bring up plagiarism, and if we don't bring plagiarism up, it won't stop. But we also have to discuss the intimidating and haterating that follows any revelation of plagiarism, because those reactions also seem to follow a predictable pattern, and probably do plenty to convince those who have been plagiarized, or who have discovered it, to keep quiet because have mercy, it is not pleasant.
I do not think Kristi Diehm is responsible for the ignorance and poor decision making of anyone who reads her blog and sent hate mail to B and Vahni. I would very much like to believe that those who sent these messages have, at other times of the day, the ability to make rational decisions. They are responsible for their hate mail. This kind of response is not acceptable. It is not ok. I hope these people step on a Lego in the dark, bless their hearts.
I do blame Kristi for not being stronger and more clear in her response, but all of Kristi's edited apologies make the entire thing about her and her hurt feelings, and about hiding the fact that she did exactly what she said not to do in a now-deleted blog post about plagiarism.
I hate that there is plagiarism bingo.
But I hate that there's plagiarism more than I hate playing plagiarism bingo. If we don't talk about plagiarism, it will continue.
To quote Hubby as we were discussing this over lunch: among writers, plagiarism is like treason.
I think he's right about that. It is a betrayal of our work, our effort, and our community. Responses like these make it more intimidating for people to report plagiarism when they find it, and support that betrayal more than they support any friendship. Responses like these also make it seem that within our community, some are very forgiving of, and ignorant about plagiarism, including Kristi Diehm herself.
What more can those of us who understand plagiarism and its consequences do about situations like these?
Keep talking.
Refuse to back down when we're told we're mean and cruel for saying that plagiarism is wrong.
Keep talking and keep talking some more. Otherwise, the theft continues.
“Why don’t you crawl back into the whole you came from and leave her alone?” I could run with this one. Whole. Nice.
This is shameful, sad and an honest to god WTF to the ultimate degree.
Jeez—you can’t fix stupid, can you?
Like it was stated earlier, it’s not that hard to mention where you got some information from. Not doing so, is indeed plagarism. Again, not hard to fathom. Doing something wrong (and we all do something wrong at times) does not make you a bad person. Harping on someone who has done something wrong does not mean you think the person is bad. It simply means you believe what they did is wrong, and that they should cop to being responsible for doing said wrong. It’s not a personal attack. Saying that you did something stupid does not mean I believe you are stupid. There’s a big difference here, which people tend to gloss over far too often.
I doubt this Kristi person was being malicious in her intent. I expect she’s a perfectly nice person in general. I can believe she’s nice and still think what she did wasn’t. I can understand the panic and embarrassment over being caught doing something that wasn’t. Do I think she is all craptastic for doing this? No. I think what she did is pretty craptastic. It’s craptastic to try and cover up for doing the craptastic. However, lack of intent doesn’t excuse the fact that it was wrong. Embarrassment doesn’t excuse trying to cover it up. Apologizing for DOING something shitty is a first step. Making no excuses is a first step. Owning your actions is a first step. You don’t recover from doing wrongs by attempting to sweep it under the rug. Doing wrong is a failure of trust that you will do right when you know the difference. When you lose trust, it doesn’t make you a bad person. It means you have to take action to regain that trust. Pretty simple really.
Kristi, if you’re reading this, WHAT you did was crap. YOU aren’t. Rebuild the trust. Don’t plagarize. Cite your sources. Not hard. Show that you know this and can do it. Like any relationship, trust can be rebuilt. You can’t simply ask for it. It now requires that you show it. People forgive if you’re willing to prove you’re worthy of it.
For those bitch-slapping everyone who has expressed their outrage and opinion over plagarism, get over it. It’s an important issue that deserves attention. When it happens it deserves to be brought to everyone’s attention. It’s not, “Ooo, Kristi is evil.” It’s, “Ooo, Kristi f’d up and needs to deal with this.” BIG difference. In my opinion of course.
Wow. Some folks must have mirror glass on the backs of their corneas, coz they sure ain’t looking at the real world….Where does this sense of entitlement originate? And the adolescent pack behavior? Just because you write for teens doesn’t mean you need to revert to their worst behaviors. Sheesh. These gals need to remember they are grown ups and act accordingly.
Good god. I am so disappointed in my fellow YA bloggers right now. That’s just fucking insane. I hope they all find a ‘whole’ to crawl in.
That same thing went on in my high school. During my junior year (2003-ish), my health teacher wanted to cut and paste information from the internet (wikipedia included) into our abortion reports. i couldn’t believe what i was hearing, since in every other class I had ever been in we were told to cite everything. I knew someone who did that and ended up getting in trouble with the head of the department despite being told by the teacher that it was okay.
I just had a conversation with my cousin, who is a college freshman, about plagiarism and what it is and isn’t. she understood the main idea about not taking someone else’s ideas, but she didn’t realize that even when paraphrasing an idea you have to cite that both in text and in the bibliography. Luckily, I caught it before she handed it in to her professor.
What bothers me the most is Kristi’s lack of response. She gave two posts and then stopped responding. She should be out there telling her supporters to leave the victims alone. Her silence speaks volumes!
“She should be out there telling her supporters to leave the victims alone.”
You must be kidding. She’ll be exchanging weepy little emails and PMs with her supporters, decrying the ‘haters’ and telling people in private that of *course* she didn’t actually plagiarise but she can’t make the bitches stop.
When she finally emerges from her martyr’s tomb, it will be to either totally pretend the whole thing never happened, or it will be a quietly dignified (sniff) little statement to ask people to stop talking about it as it’s only encouraging the negative people in the community, and negativity will only harm the community. There will be much emphasis on how much *she* values the community (and by strong implication, how much she *represents* the community) and her critics will be cast as those who have done the damage.
And several of her sycophants will make careful blog posts about how they all need to pull together and stop attacking each other, and that those from *outside* the community need to keep their noses out of everyone else’s business. No names will be named, the core issue of intellectual property theft won’t be mentioned, but everyone will get the message.
You could do a bingo card for the aftermath of such scandals too. They follow the script unwaveringly each and every time.
This whole boondoggle is INSANE to me. I grew up in a small school (graduating class of 198), and EVERY YEAR we had to listen to the plagiarism talk. EVERY. YEAR. They were quite serious about it (this was the early 2000s, when the Internet made it oh-so-easy to cheat). I believe in my time there was ONE instance of plagiarism, and the student was expelled for a week.
Pretty sure these emailers never had to sit through the plagiarism talk at Linden. Otherwise they would understand that when you take something, no matter if it’s poorly written or a freaking work of art, it’s plagiarism. It’s a very simple concept. If a bunch of 16-year olds can get it, why can’t they?
My other favorite thing about these is the rampant spelling and grammatical errors. I love when someone is trying to put you down but instead makes themself look ignorant.
My interpretation of the responses you quote is that the readers have become emotionally attached to the blog in question, are hurt by the revelation of plagiarism and as their first reponse are hitting out at the person who revealed the plagiarism rather than the one who perpetrated it. In other words, the standard scenario in which the bearer of bad news gets the blame. It’ll blow over pretty quickly: there will be some people who continue to be invested in the plagiarist’s blog, some who leave immediately and more who will drift away over time.
The interesting thing this reveals is the extent to which readers are emotionally invested in the blogs they read, perhaps more than they (I?) realise.
Let me get one thing straight, you can love thinking about Hugh Jackman riding on a unicorn AND hate on plagiarism, and I enjoy a hefty dose of both.
I just think these things will catch up to you. Karma, google and plagiarism software have a tendency to spot these things. Plus one of the things I enjoy about writing is knowing that I’ve made something, that the reader is getting a piece of my imagination and not that I’ve learnt how to use the CTRL + C function on my computer with gay abandon.
There’s been no bullying here, just the simple request for someone to take ownership of their wrong doing and apologise like an adult.
Now back to dreaming of HJ riding that unicorn…..blimey…
This is some serious WTFery! The K.D. supporters are actually sending out hate mail to B and Vahni and you?!? Wow… I’m so sorry for all of you. You didn’t do anything bad. She, however, did! 🙁
Ah well, you’ve got to love it when people try to defend stealing by reasoning that the content in question wasn’t worth stealing. That’s always a good one.
@Faellie:
True that, writers and bloggers one follows for some time can become like imaginary members of the enlarged family (if they want to or not), and attacking them can therefore trigger our inbuilt defenses that often react with more self-righteous anger than logic.
How very sad it is that the people who were plagiarised are the ones who then get attacked for doing something about it. I find it a very disappointing situation, and a frightening one, for it seems to be what is happening in the political scene as well. If you are in the wrong, you do not admit it, but you go on the attack in a nastier way.
I would like to remind people, that yes someone lied. Unfortunately this means that you may not trust her for a while, but please as you are just as human and may yourself/ in fact probably yourself have also lied, do not wipe the person or the blog if you originally liked it. Also I would like to say congratulations to the bloggers who had the background to get the facts, to confront her.
Looking on I would say that all have suffered through this, the ones whose content was stolen, and the one who stole it. Wipe the slate clean, read the blogs and judge them on their own merits and go forward.
WTF? Seriously, WTF.
I thought for 15 minutes what I could say, and that’s all I could come up with.
Speechless.
OK. I don’t mean to dismiss the seriousness of this issue because it is one I believe deserves every bit of attention it can get. I think that the current matter is being dealt with in an extremely classy manner by the victims and thank you Sarah for keeping me up to date. Everyone who has commented above me has pretty much summed up my feelings and likely in a better manner.
But I have to ask why put Hugh Jackman on a unicorn? I’d much rather him shirtless on a harley with some bad boy sunnies. (And I should properly state that I read Kaliana Cole’s Good Horses, Fast Cars and Good Looking Men earlier in the day and one of her heroes was in this exact pose – it inspired me to borrow it for HJ.)
Excuse me…what?
Wipe the slate clean? Seriously?
Why?
Because Kirsti “has suffered through this”?
Please tell me you are not serious—that you are not saying that when someone steals and victimizes someone else, the slate should be wiped clean because, after they are caught the don’t admit wrong doing, they beg for the theft to be kept a secret, they offer non-apologies where they never admit they willfully stole from others, they cry about their own feelings, and, to top of the cake of whatthefuckery, they keep silent while the people who love them vilify and further victimize the people they stole from.
Is this what you are suggesting we do?
I’d honestly write something on my post if you hadn’t already said exactly what needs to be said. I am so tired of the response that “Kristi’s apologized and everyone just needs to move on.”. Um, no, I don’t have to move on, and really Kristi hasn’t apologized. I would love to have some of her blogging powers, because for the life of me I haven’t quite gotten the trick to mass brainwashing down yet. My favorite defenders of hers are the ones that read her apologies, didn’t understand them, but urged everyone to move on anyway, and for Kristi to stay strong.
And I’d be fine if the bloggers Kristi stole from, i.e. the real victims, did post the names and bloggers that are sending them hate mail. I don’t want to accidentally follow one of these jackasses.
Gah. This reflects not only on those people (and Kristi – They’re not doing her a favor there, really), but the blogging community as a whole, which MADDENS me. (Talking about wholes and holes.. I really hope the people who sent those emails weren’t native speakers. v_v)
2012 is so full of drama. Not sure if amused, ashamed or annoyed.
Wow. Those retaliation emails make me embarrassed for the human race.
I think, from a non writer/blogger standpoint, you’re looking at something that’s been brewing since the internets were created by Al Gore. *giggles to self*
The internet promotes so MUCH openness and free speech and has little to NO policing of said speech. With old fashioned publishing there was at least a gatekeeper (of sorts) to help control plagiarizing. They weren’t perfect but they did, perhaps, a better job.
Now, you have generations growing up with the internet, free content, and a *ahem* willingness to “SHARE” more freely of said content, if you catch my drift. The effects and affects of plagiarism aren’t taught nor are they truly punished. So, seeing people defend the one who has plagiarized isn’t really a shock.
I’m not defending the behavior or the responses to said behavior. Stealing is stealing and I’m sure if we chopped off a few hands as examples people would reconsider their actions. (or get upset and righteous) I just find it interesting where it has all come from and the reactions that spring from the actions.
I suspect these plagiarist defenders are most likely very young which would explain some of their amazing ignorance and wrong-headedness.
Not everyone who continues to participate in TSS’s In My Mailbox is necessarily aware of what has happened, but the blogs added to the list in today’s signup post is perhaps a starting point for being aware of which bloggers the plagiarism matters to (or rather, not).
I am appalled that SB Sarah and others have been attacked for being whistle-blowers. Nora Roberts said that plagerism is “mind rape” and she should know as she was a victim of several acts of plagerism of her books some years ago. And if she Nora can write 200 books that are all different, each one new and fresh, so that you never feel that she’s just rehashing old plots, then why can’t other writers or in this case, bloggers, do the same. Probably because they’re not overly talented or lazy or maybe they just don’t give a damn. It is really scary to think that some of our young people are okay when someone they admire is caught stealing and then have the audacity to blame the whistle blowers when it is uncovered. Where are our young people learning these values? If we’ve learned anything from the media lately, is that the cover-up or excuse for a crime is always worse than the crime itself.
I am not aware of the entire incident being referred to here, but can only say, wow… at the responses.
As one of the commenters above stated, I think there is room here for a healthy discussion of just what constitutes plagiarism, as sometimes in this era of free sharing of ideas that can become a very grey area.
One question I often have is in regards to artwork. Many bloggers include pics with their posts, and if you search yahoo or google you can find the exact pic they used. I also routinely use pics I’ve found online. Of course I always try to include a link to the original website where the picture was found, and I never imply that I was the artist- but am I doing all I can to avoid being accused of using someone else’s work?
I actually do think that people can and should be given a second chance. We’re all human, we all make mistakes and we’ve all done something that has hurt another.
Sadly, though, as emails that have surfaced.. ‘allegedly’ comign from the story siren where she’s been demeaning, belittling, or outright cruel to fellow reviewers, I believe one of them was 11 or 12, and she hasn’t acknowledged these, it makes hard to rebuild any sort of trust.
More, as she has many, many readers who very clearly attacking those who have stood up and addressed this, it’s perpetuating the issue.
She’s in a position of authority there and they clearly admire her, and listen to her.
She could take a pro-active stand here and publicly tell her blog followers that while she appreciates the support, she was in the wrong and she needs to take responsibility for it. That would be the wise thing, the mature thing…it would be taking ownership over it and it would be, in my opinion, the first step to truly rebuilding trust in the eyes of the blogging community.
I can tell you that I’m the mother of a young adult reader-she’s 13 and although she’s a diehard reader, she’s just now circulating online more and hasn’t starting visiting many blogs yet. I still watch her online activities and the Story Siren’s blog is offlimits to her.
We discussed what happened and if I don’t see the blogger take a more proactive stand about addressing her mistake, AND addressing how her readers are going on the attack, it will stay offlimits. I won’t allow anybody in my house to support her blog, not through page views or comments or anything else.
Some might think that’s harsh, saying she can’t control her readers action, and no, she can’t.
But there’s a difference between speaking out and saying, “Look guys, I was the one who screwed up. Please don’t take it out on them.” And just…radio silence.
Radio silence is, IMO, tacit approval.
I don’t think youth causes stupidity. Merely surviving doesn’t correct ignorance. Wrong-headedness doesn’t just wear off with age.
Georges Brassens had a song (which I will translate very poorly) about the youth thinking old folks are stupid, and the elderly thinking the young are stupid. He believed that if you’re stupid, you were born stupid and then stay that way for life.
I always check out what people are reading in my office. I’ve never seen a teenager with a YA book. Only adults. I suspect the authors of these emails are not children.
But it would be nice to be able to ascribe poor behavior to naivete in the hope that better behavior will be possible in the future.
I’m just remembering the whole (or hole) CE thing with authors standing up for CE and being okay with her plagiarism. Sigh.
Siiiiiiigh. This whole thing is a study in “doing the right thing isn’t easy”. Kudos to everyone and best wishes for the future. Here’s hoping that the people being hated on can keep up their strength and know that they are in the right no matter what ignorant people say. Here’s also hoping that the blogging community can take this and find some integrity and lessons through it all.
Part of the problem, I think, is that Kristi has a rabid fan base b/c she bought them. All you have to do is see the ratio of giveaways to actual book reviews and one + one = do whatever they have to do to make sure she keeps on “giving”. Most of my favorite blogs do the occasional giveaway and I still come back b/c I value the content over the chance to win a free book.
This is slightly off topic but it is a question that came up while I was tracking this whole mess last week. TSS is a YA blog correct? What age range is that actually geared toward? When I checked her site to read her non apology for myself I happened to see a publisher’s ad for a book with very graphic sexual language and situations. I sent an email to the author and haven’t heard back. It happened to catch my eye because it was by one of my favorite authors. Given the emotional maturity of the responses it has reinforced by belief that at least the majority of the audience are teenagers I’m somewhat confused.
It is an interesting question indeed, but I think that Throwmearope’s comment addresses it: while readers and publishers call these YA books, a good many of its readers are actually well past their teenage years.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of the reading YA demographic is made up by college kids.
(And now that I think about it, those are indeed young and adult, while our often imagined 13 to 18 YA readership are actual kids. Heh)
I don’t disagree with anyone who says plagiarism is an issue and that it should be addressed, but I was appalled at how badly this whole thing was handled. And that goes for rudeness on both sides.
Kristi made a mistake. Probably it is a mistake she will never make again. But I don’t think she’s a bad person. If that makes me pro-plagiarism, so be it. But I don’t have what it takes to hate someone for all eternity because they fucked up once, even if they fucked up intentionally. And between the hashtags and the name-calling (“stealing bitch” comes to mind) and the ambulance chasing blog pimping and the branding of big red Ps on everything she did/does/will do in the future…that more than anything made me ashamed of the book blogging community, to be honest with you. It showed me how spiteful and envious and hateful some people could be. And again, that goes for both sides.
Plagiarism is wrong. There should be discussions about it. But that is not what this fiasco was, and I can’t see how it was constructive at all. Just my $0.02.
“It showed me how spiteful and envious and hateful some people could be. And again, that goes for both sides.”
Are you really, seriously suggesting that people are angry about plagiarism out of envy?
Elizabeth, you are part of the problem. I’d suggest you should be ashamed of yourself, but I think it would be better if you read Jessica Miller’s post here:
http://www.readreactreview.com…
Jessica is an ethicist at a large hospital, as well as a romance reader, blooger and reviewer. The entire article is pertinent (and I am completely serious when I say you should read it) but this is the money shot:
“I wish I could say that the opinion that women aren’t fit to identify ethical issues and make moral judgments — that is, act as full participants in the moral community — is a relic of the past. But I can’t, because I’ve seen too many times the way women’s legitimate ethical concerns are brushed off as … jealousy, hatred, pettiness, or some other selfish and nonrational phenomenon. How else to explain that when a male physician refuses to perform a procedure he thinks is unsafe or unwise, he is applauded for his conscientious objection, but when a female nurse attempts to do the same, she is reprimanded? The physician gets kudos, while the nurse “needs more education.” I’ll spare you many, many variations on that theme I have seen in my career.”
Plagiarism is a serious ethical issue, one which goes directly to the heart of trust and community in any group where ideas matter. To pretend there is the slightest moral equivalence between the self-serving faux apologies of Kristi and the anger, hurt and expressions of betrayal by those affected by her actions, is a dangerous and immoral act.
Your attempt to equivocate and dismiss what Kristi Diehm has done, and your attempt to deflect the conversation away from the sadly predictable pattern of reporting and discussing plagiarism makes me ashamed of your understanding of the issue here.
Your identification of linking and crediting sources as “ambulance chasing blog pimping” also causes me to question your understanding of what plagiarism means, and why we are angry.
It seems you are saying we should have been nicer when we were outraged and angry at Kristi for stealing from another writer, which, as was mentioned above, is like treason among writers. And we should have been nicer and kinder while we discussed what this meant, that someone who had been so outspoken about plagiarism then did exactly what she said not to do and tried to keep her actions hidden.
But because we were very angry and upset, this was a “fiasco?” And the best reason you can come up with is not that Kristi Diehm stole from other writers but that we’re “spiteful and envious?”
Your equivocation, deflection, and lack of understanding of the severity of the issue here is part of the problem.
Exactly. And in blogging, that positively benefits the original author. Quote and link to the original site. Everyone’s a winner.
Please can we be having more pictures of Hugh Jackman on a unicorn in future posts of this nature?
Here’s one: http://bit.ly/ICOChD
Happy to help!
I am no more the “problem” for pointing out that the issue of plagiarism was at times buried under personal attacks against the accused than you are the “problem” for proving my point about some people being disgustingly hateful and rude.
Because theft is not rude.
Because keeping silent while your victims are vilified is not rude.
Because calling those who bring attention to the matter of theft “ambulance chasers” is not rude.
Because calling deliberate, cold-blooded, repeated instances of theft “a mistake” is not rude, condescending and cruel to the victims of TSS’s actions.
” for proving my point about some people being disgustingly hateful and rude.”
How was I ‘disgustingly hateful and rude’, Elizabeth? Where did I ‘hate’ on you? Or anyone?
If you don’t want replies, I suggest you stop commenting on blogs where replies are enabled.
Your attitude that being nice is more important than being honest, is far more destructive than anyone being called a bitch for being a plagiarist.
I also notice you attacked me, and not Sarah, who said what I said only more forcefully. The difference is our relative status within the reading community.
Not only are you destructive, you’re atrociously sycophantic.
Wait, you thought Ann’s reply was “disgustingly hateful and rude?”
Really?