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I want to give you some sense of what it’s like to spend a lot of time under threat. Hopefully it’s not something you’ve experienced. I have, for almost this entire academic year, and I’d like to let you in on it. So here’s a thread:
Basically, since October, I’ve faced a series of threats from prominent members of the Nebraska Republican apparatus. It began with a threatening phone call from @JeffFortenberry’s Chief of Staff, which led to national media exposure, but has continued to the present.
At the moment, IT professionals from @u_nebraska are searching my email, going back to August 2017, looking for any mention of a person’s name or @TPUSA. This is in response to a public records request made by a lawyer representing that person, not that organization.
The threats have all *felt* the same to me. It’s a nasty combination of adrenaline, anxiety, and paranoia. And it doesn’t stop, which means it’s very difficult to sleep or to focus on work. And knowing I haven’t done anything wrong doesn’t change those feelings in the slightest.
Even though there isn’t anything to find in my email, the fact that someone is willing to pay a chunk of money to look is deeply unsettling. It’s also unsettling because I don’t know *exactly* what’s in there. And I know the propensity to twist words to construct a narrative.
That’s what Reyn Archer wanted to do by saying I “like vandalism” & it’s what Breitbart wanted to do by saying I believe “my conservatives students” have the same ideology as the New Zealand terrorist. I didn’t say or do those things but false narratives power the outrage machine
So I’m living with the knowledge that there are people out to get me. People with serious financial resources. People in or with incredible access to power. These people want to embarrass me or to get me fired from my job. They’re harrassing me and actively disrupting my life.
And it’s not just me who’s affected by this. My colleagues have to deal with it; it’s a constant topic of conversation. My university has to expend resources dealing with it. And, of course, my family is effectively being terrorized. For months. I don’t use that word lightly.
Why is any of this happening? The least nefarious (but terrible) reason is retaliation for speech. But the fact is that, as a state employee, I’m a target and, even though I speak as a private citizen, each threat has been specifically crafted to threaten my employment.
This won’t be the end. Finding nothing in a search of my computer won’t satisfy, given my sins of refusing to shut up about white supremacy and of refusing to sit idly by when people in power abuse that power. I’m not the only target either, that’s for sure. Could be you next.
A note after reading the many supportive comments. In case I wasn’t clear, the open records request harassment isn’t coming from Congressman Fortenberry but from someone I don’t personally know who is very involved with the Nebraska GOP and Turning Point USA.
This person has a lot of connections and appeared in a 2017 photo in which several people (including a TPUSA staffer who was later fired for posting racist tweets) were making the a-ok hand gesture and I pointed out that this gesture has been appropriated by white nationalists.
As a result, the people in the photo twisted what I wrote in my post and sent Breitbart after me (including trying to drag the university into it). But that story fizzled because I posted () what they were trying to do before Breitbart published the story.
So, yeah, I think that’s some more context. Hopefully helpful.
