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For context, here's Freddie's contemporaneous apology, which he has not only deleted from his website but from the Wayback Machine as well (sorry for the weird

For context, here's Freddie's contemporaneous apology, which he has not only deleted from his website but from the Wayback Machine as well (sorry for the weird site, only copy I could find): https://www.falserapetimeline.org/false-rape-5950.pdf https://www.falserapetimeline.org/false-rape-5950.pdf Some excerpts: "Crucially, despite my mental state at the time, I knew when I sent those tweets that they were untrue. I am responsible for having made those false allegations, and that makes me a liar, it makes me guilty of slander, and it makes me someone who undermined the profound seriousness of rape allegations." ". I have abandoned all social media permanently. I have stopped freelance writing. I have in general tried to permanently remove myself from online life and from the world of political writing in which Malcolm resides and I once resided. These changes are not attempts to make up for what I’ve done, really; they are just matters of self-preservation as I try to build a life where I do not cause harm to people anymore. I have fully committed to constant treatment, and I have fully committed to going away. I am so profoundly sorry" I remember reading this at the time and feeling the pain through the screen. He seemed genuinely ashamed. Here's Freddie's more recent explanation for why he tried to remove his apology from the internet: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/statement https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/statement He says he doesn't care if we find it on the wayback machine, but someone had to go out of their way to exclude it (https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://fredrikdeboer.com/2018/10/02/statement/ https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://fredrikdeboer.com/2018...) Here's Harris' contemporaneous reaction: https://twitter.com/bigmeaninternet/status/1047129631697047552 https://twitter.com/bigmeaninternet/status/10471296316970475... My feeling is that the initial apology has been undermined by a) trying to memory hole it and b) writing all these blog posts quasi-defending himself. Would be nice if Freddie and his IDW friends displayed such forbearance and grace for the college students and journalists they make their living attacking. Perhaps those people are going through some mental issues as well. The good news is, Freddie seems to be doing better than ever. He got a fat advance from Substack and even just had an op-ed published in the liberal New York Times.

Veen 5y ago
> Would be nice if Freddie and his IDW friends You're wide of the mark there. De Boer was never part of the IDW. He might criticize some of the things they do, but he's coming from a different starting point entirely.
- weeblewobble 5y ago
  Fair enough, maybe anti-PC is a better label?
watwut 5y ago
And here is Malcolm Harris now - he retweeted that recently. https://mobile.twitter.com/BigMeanInternet/status/1372530096406474760 https://mobile.twitter.com/BigMeanInternet/status/1372530096... He is not appreciating what DeBoer does now and don't think he follows amends he promised.
- zepto 5y ago
  Malcolm Harris doesn’t say what commitments DeBoer is breaking. He would be more credible if he did.
  - chipotle_coyote 5y ago
    The linked Twitter thread includes Harris saying, > I would def settle for never having to think about it again, but clearly Freddie isn't going to "go away" like he first promised he would, so I'm sorta stuck here with that while he cashes in on self-pity. And, if you click on the 2018 link, Harris quotes DeBoer writing > I have abandoned all social media permanently. I have stopped freelance writing. I have in general tried to permanently remove myself from online life and from the world of political writing in which Malcolm resides and I once resided. [...] I have fully committed to constant treatment, and I have fully committed to going away. So, I mean, yes, Harris absolutely says what commitments deBoer is breaking. That you had to take the extra 60 seconds to follow the links is not a failure on Harris's part. :) Now, there are all sorts of questions this raises about "how long of 'going away' is enough" and "is expecting permanent exile from public life reasonable." As near as I can tell, though, deBoer decided that the correct answer to "how long is enough" is "about 12 months." It doesn't seem unreasonable to me for Harris to be looking at that a bit askance.
    - weeblewobble 5y ago
      It's worth emphasizing the specific commitment to "permanently remove myself from online life." Rather than live up to that commitment and allow Harris to move on, Freddie has decided not only to remain Extremely Online but to keep re-hashing the situation over and over again. It certainly undermines the original apology, and make Harris look like a chump for being so graceful about it.
trgn 5y ago
I love deBoers writing when it's about _something_, but the navel-gazing gets old really quick. Yikes! If he truly feels sorry, he just needs to move on. He seems to understand what he did was foul. Well then, move forward, be a good man to all the new people in your life. Instead, he craves absolution (and, reading between the lines, acceptance). No human being can be cajoled into extending that. It's truly foolish to expect people can be argued into extending that. In fact, what he really needs to do, is that he himself needs to forgive the people being mean to him, who have rejected him. When he can do that, only then he can free himself from this burden. Good luck Freddie!
- gopher_space 5y ago
  Can you hit me up with your favorite examples? I'm just hearing about the guy now and the first article of his that I found was kind of a pseudosciencey wall-o-text that I won't be finishing.
  - AlanYx 5y ago
    He's pretty passionate about education policy; this article is one of his better ones on that topic, IMHO: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/you-arent-actually-mad-at-the-sats https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/you-arent-actually-mad-... The discussion of Robertson et. al.'s 2010 paper is worth reading the article just for that. But it's true that his writing seems to drift between extremes -- some sober, well-researched and very interesting, and others almost as if a different person was writing it.
    - gopher_space 5y ago
      > But it's true that his writing seems to drift between extremes -- some sober, well-researched and very interesting, and others almost as if a different person was writing it. The article you linked is bizarre. He's actually arguing against himself in places. Interesting, and thanks for the link.

Veen 5y ago

> Would be nice if Freddie and his IDW friends You're wide of the mark there. De Boer was never part of the IDW. He might criticize some of the things they do, but he's coming from a different starting point entirely.

weeblewobble 5y ago
Fair enough, maybe anti-PC is a better label?

watwut 5y ago

And here is Malcolm Harris now - he retweeted that recently. https://mobile.twitter.com/BigMeanInternet/status/1372530096406474760 https://mobile.twitter.com/BigMeanInternet/status/1372530096... He is not appreciating what DeBoer does now and don't think he follows amends he promised.

zepto 5y ago
Malcolm Harris doesn’t say what commitments DeBoer is breaking. He would be more credible if he did.
- chipotle_coyote 5y ago
  The linked Twitter thread includes Harris saying, > I would def settle for never having to think about it again, but clearly Freddie isn't going to "go away" like he first promised he would, so I'm sorta stuck here with that while he cashes in on self-pity. And, if you click on the 2018 link, Harris quotes DeBoer writing > I have abandoned all social media permanently. I have stopped freelance writing. I have in general tried to permanently remove myself from online life and from the world of political writing in which Malcolm resides and I once resided. [...] I have fully committed to constant treatment, and I have fully committed to going away. So, I mean, yes, Harris absolutely says what commitments deBoer is breaking. That you had to take the extra 60 seconds to follow the links is not a failure on Harris's part. :) Now, there are all sorts of questions this raises about "how long of 'going away' is enough" and "is expecting permanent exile from public life reasonable." As near as I can tell, though, deBoer decided that the correct answer to "how long is enough" is "about 12 months." It doesn't seem unreasonable to me for Harris to be looking at that a bit askance.
  - weeblewobble 5y ago
    It's worth emphasizing the specific commitment to "permanently remove myself from online life." Rather than live up to that commitment and allow Harris to move on, Freddie has decided not only to remain Extremely Online but to keep re-hashing the situation over and over again. It certainly undermines the original apology, and make Harris look like a chump for being so graceful about it.

trgn 5y ago

I love deBoers writing when it's about _something_, but the navel-gazing gets old really quick. Yikes! If he truly feels sorry, he just needs to move on. He seems to understand what he did was foul. Well then, move forward, be a good man to all the new people in your life. Instead, he craves absolution (and, reading between the lines, acceptance). No human being can be cajoled into extending that. It's truly foolish to expect people can be argued into extending that. In fact, what he really needs to do, is that he himself needs to forgive the people being mean to him, who have rejected him. When he can do that, only then he can free himself from this burden. Good luck Freddie!

gopher_space 5y ago
Can you hit me up with your favorite examples? I'm just hearing about the guy now and the first article of his that I found was kind of a pseudosciencey wall-o-text that I won't be finishing.
- AlanYx 5y ago
  He's pretty passionate about education policy; this article is one of his better ones on that topic, IMHO: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/you-arent-actually-mad-at-the-sats https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/you-arent-actually-mad-... The discussion of Robertson et. al.'s 2010 paper is worth reading the article just for that. But it's true that his writing seems to drift between extremes -- some sober, well-researched and very interesting, and others almost as if a different person was writing it.
  - gopher_space 5y ago
    > But it's true that his writing seems to drift between extremes -- some sober, well-researched and very interesting, and others almost as if a different person was writing it. The article you linked is bizarre. He's actually arguing against himself in places. Interesting, and thanks for the link.