As per my previous discussion regarding how I became the target of racial and antisemitic abuse has generated a lot of buzz, concern and needs further discussion.
I have been spending a lot of time on twitter and have made more than a few enemies.
Let's be clear. Calling me a "Jewess" doesn't insult me because I've always been proud of my faith.
I was added into a number of "groups" with neo-Nazis who legit want to kill all Jews.
After several months of tolerating this kind of ignorance, abuse and harassment I decided I had enough. I left the groups and blocked or unfollowed the offensive individuals because I wanted nothing to do with them.
This only made more problems as I came to learn that these individuals spend their days and nights stalking my timeline and posting comments on every aspect and minute detail of my life. I had to change my telephone number after one of them called and texted threats to my cell phone because they couldn't get the desired response from me on twitter or Facebook.
I set boundaries by responding with "Cease and Desist" and my boundaries and wishes for no further contact with these individuals have not been respected or honored.
There is a difference in responding to individual threats to you and your family and people who spend their days and nights researching and posting about your life rather than focusing on their own.
I'm sorry if my life is more interesting than theirs.
The first tweets that came to my attention were ones that said, "Gas all the Jews," "Get in the oven you stupid cunt bitch," "it's always the Jews" and hundreds of similar messages.
This further escalated as the accounts began getting suspended and even my own account was suspended multiple times when I addressed these vile and disgusting tweets.
Things have yet to calm down and now the insults have taken a new turn. Several people (the same ones who are stalking and harassing me) have started to call me "schizophrenic" as an insult in order to discredit and insult me.
I speak openly about my struggle with Depression, Anxiety and receive treatment for Bipolar Disorder. I have never been diagnosed with schizophrenia nor am I in need of any additional diagnoses. I have more than enough.
A friend sent me a video of a video of what it feels like to have schizophrenia and I contacted a friend who lives with the disorder. The video left a huge impact on me as I can't imagine living with anything as awful as hearing and seeing things or having other delusional and psychotic episodes.
Then I asked myself, would I be as forthcoming disclosing my experiences with mental health (both as a therapist and a case manager) if I had schizophrenia or whether my openness to discuss my illness was a reflection of being diagnosed with Bipolar II along with many other great artists and scholars.
I'm not sure I could be as I have seen people use and call people schizophrenic as an insult and a way to hurt people seeking treatment.
This is unacceptable to me and should be unacceptable to you. Of course I realize that none of these people have advanced degrees in psychology like myself or others who have come to dispel the rumors and stigma associated with bipolar, schizophrenia or other illnesses.
By pointing out that it is NOT okay to use a disability like bipolar or schizophrenia as a weapon against them, more and more people became targets of harassment.
The fact that these people spend more time worrying about my mental health than their own is a serious problem.
Their Timelines show that they feel the need to comments on the most minute details of my life and that they have been searching the internet on several platforms solely to find information that suits their agenda.
What is clear in the Terms of Service (TOS) on twitter is that targeted harassment towards any protected class is a violation since both religion and the disabled are considered to be "protected classes"
Of course I could report individuals for posting such things and have them either suspended or forcefully removed. I have never requested that my information or sites using my identity to post disinformation be removed, I've taken the opposite approach since I feel that such ignorance and disturbing behavior be judged on it's own merits. It says more about them than it does about me.
There are really only two scenarios here.
Either yes; I'm certifiably insane and no one should give a second thought to anything I say or write; or I am clinically insane and they are stalking and harassing a vulnerable woman.
Either way, they seem a little too concerned and demanding of my time and attention. Sorry folks. If you need to gain followers by posting intimate and minute details about my family and I because it's more interesting than your own, you need to spend more time worrying about your own life and less about mine.
And that's all I have to say about that.
Yours truly,
Chilly Penguin
^ed
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