****First off, these insults are racist, ableist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-fat, etc. Please be warned going into this that they are deeply upsetting and triggering.****
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A few points upfront: not tagging anyone in this, as I don't want to add trauma to those who were targeted. I am not discussing every one of the insults/slurs, as some contained private information that shouldn't be shared.
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Finally, *I am not making accusations about who might have done this.* This is just a presentation of the stuff I've seen so far, in hopes others might have more info.
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[All timestamps in what follows are in my time-zone: CET/Central European Time.]
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First, this seems to have likely been one person, almost certainly someone in the US, most probably on the east coast. They're not active much from about 1 am EST to 8 am EST, and *never* active from 3:16 am to 7:50 am EST.
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There's lots of insults uploaded in the middle of the night for Europe or for the west coast, and the pattern is basically someone with a standard EST schedule.
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Secondly, I went through the twitter feeds of each person who was insulted, around the times they were insulted, to see if there was something that seemed obvious. There's a pattern.
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Generally speaking, a lot of the insults happen within 24 hrs of the insulted person tweeting support of Dr. MRO and/or criticizing Mistress Snow. There's a handful of unclear cases & 2ish times where someone criticizes the alt-medieval.
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There were 25 insults in total. 8 seemingly in response to support of Dr. MRO. 7-8 seemingly in response to things said about Snow. 4 seemingly in response to things said by/in support of Prof. Dadabhoy.
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A lot of the insults are references to details of fights, sometimes from months ago, suggesting someone who has been heavily involved in medieval twitter drama for months & who has been following drama with Snow (refs to accusations Snow made, etc).
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Finally, one of the insults contained personal information that few people would have, info that suggests the person sending the insults is the person who was behind the sock puppets attacking Dr. MRO & her family.
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So, let's break down some of the individual instances, in chronological order. Prof. Caliendo: RTs the open letter in support of Dr. MRO. Gets insult.pic.twitter.com/kk53iW9tbd
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Dr MRO: RTs open-letter and makes a “clique” joke. Gets insult 2 hrs later accusing her of doxxing sex workers.pic.twitter.com/G3AMmpLS23
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Prof. Dadabhoy: this one is striking, bc she vague-tweeted about racists sending letters to her uni and then got an insult 4 hrs later. At this point, almost no one knew Snow had sent letters of complaint to unis.pic.twitter.com/5x1M3O88Y8
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Dr. Halsted: RTs Prof. Dadabhoy's vague-tweet about the letters, gets insult.pic.twitter.com/fPudDfbBAo
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Prof. Kim: a little unclear, but it seems like she got a racist slur because she had RTed a status of Dr. MRO's about the "alt-medieval" less than an hour before.pic.twitter.com/VCEsZ1eAgM
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Tom Holland (not spiderman): a weird one, bc he's not involved in this. However, this was uploaded less than an hour after Dr. MRO tweeted about him (a suggestion of how closely this person is watching MRO).pic.twitter.com/OV2bOZSoDZ
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Prof. Clines: QTed a tweet of Caliendo's about Snow & criticized Snow himself. Got an anti-Semitic insult an hour later. [Note: Clines has deleted the tweet, so I'm not posting screenshots]
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Dr. McCarthy: RTed a tweet of Dr. MRO's criticizing Snow for sending letters. Is later RTed and called out by a supporter of Snow, and sent a homophobic slur within a couple hours.pic.twitter.com/hmoeXTOJAP
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Prof. Hall: RTs Prof. Caliendo's thread about Snow & criticizes Snow (without naming her). Snow jumps into her replies to argue with her. Hall received fatphobic insult a few hours later.pic.twitter.com/O4dw5iNQAy
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Dr. Hamlet: replies to a status of Prof. Dadabhoy's that is (seemingly) a subtweet of Snow. Is insulted three hours later.pic.twitter.com/SdpItnT6yX
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Dr. Santos: comments on Prof. Dadabhoy's status about the slurs, is insulted less than three hours later. This is the last insult received.pic.twitter.com/V2jW254kG5
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Dr. Levelt gets one for RTing the open letter; I got one (seemingly) for discussing the term "Anglo-Saxon" in Dr. MRO's mentions; C. Bromhead replied to MRO about the open letter; Prof. Hendricks posted in support of MRO a few days before & in support of BIPOC the day before.
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A handful didn't have a clear pattern that I've identified yet, other than that they'd spoken up in support of Dr. MRO in the past: Gearóid, Prof. Boyarin, F. Scott, Dr. McHugh, Dr. Joy, and Dr. Young.
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Two are not people on twitter, including a signature in the name of Rachel Dolezal, one of two signatures that seem to be references to race-faking.
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Tl;dr: the slurs were likely by someone in the eastern half of the US, attacking ppl who supported MRO (duh), & targeting ppl who criticized Snow.
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It's someone who seems to have been deeply involved for months, was aware of details of altercations between MRO & alt-medievalists, & who may have known early that Snow sent letters to unis.
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I've been in touch with several of the people who received slurs, and have provided them with info. If you were one of the other people who got insulted and would like info for your unis, plz let me know.
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Finally, if there is something I'm missing or have gotten wrong, or if you have more info, please let me know.
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Since people are asking, you would know already if you were one of the people insulted. I would have let you know if you were named.
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End of conversation
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[TW: racism, homophobia, ableism] So, for the last month, the open letter in support of Dr. MRO has been flooded with slurs & insults aimed at people who've supported her.
I've spent a week working through these to try & figure out a pattern. Here are some initial thoughts.