Bullying is a tactic used to silence dissent. It has been used by both IRI and its supposed opponents. The basic idea is that you throw unsubstantiated attack aka mud. Hoping it will stick or at least raise doubts about the integrity of the other person. Then the other person may be intimidated into silence or submission.
It is getting more common on IC. Some try to pass it off as jokes. Others seem very serious about it. I will give an example of it:
http://iranian.com/main/2011/sep/freed-hikers-…
The post basically implies that anyone who is disagreeing with the poster on IC may be an “Evin Guard”. When Iraj Khan protested the response was more bullying. I quote “There once was a Mola named Nasreddin…Well, you know the rest of the story .-)” . To me this is a threat meant to silence Iraj.
I see the admin taking no action to put a damper on this. Maybe it has become “in” to attack people. There are many other examples. All you need to do is say one good thing about “NIAC” and you automatically become an IRI agent. If the group doing this gets their way they will drive off all other voices. We end up with a site which represents one portion of the Iranian community. All others will either go or be driven off.
Another example is “putting words in people’s mouth”. A few days ago I mistook Anonymous Everyday for AO. Immediately a poster claimed I was implying that AO was using two IDs. Something I never did. Once I discovered my mistake I fixed it and apologized for an honest mistake. AE was gracious and AO said nothing. The other poster though went on to attack me some more for correcting my mistake! Am I to not correct a mistake? What does he want. I said I made a mistake; I apologized and AE accepted it. But the “other” poster still kept going on.
My question is “how will IC evolve”? Will it become a single voice or will it remain a place for open debate. For the latter to happen rules need to be enforced. Given anonymity of most people it is impossible to prove they are IRI or Mossad or anything. Therefore it these allegations are a waste of time. But they do serve the purpose of pushing people off; scaring them and shutting them up. Is this good.
