Dunn’s demented demands for debate designed to duck dissent

Well, yesterday was a whirlwind of activity around the Hampstead hoax. Actually, it started late Monday night, when Thomas “Join us or die!” Dunn made an appearance on the YouTube Channel, “The System is Down”.

Funnily enough, when he was not on his home turf, Dunn managed to be downright civil. He didn’t claim that RD is a “baby-eating baby-sacrificing head-chopping-off maniac molester”; nor did he threaten that anybody who disagreed with his loopy campaign must “join him or die”. Granted, he was still spewing nonsense and disinformation about the Hampstead SRA hoax, but we expected no less.

The hosts of the show, one of whom was inexplicably dressed in a clown costume, accepted Tom’s foolery holus bolus, and seemed genuinely flustered by the negative back-chat they were receiving from commenters like Flo Destroyer, Redbill Phil, Grobnob the Troll, and others.

However, once Dunn was safely off the air, they did accept a phone call from Grobnob, who was very well-spoken and put across the case for sensible things such as “doing research” and “informing themselves”, which apparently had not previously occurred to the hosts of the show.

Dunn on the run: Flo Destroyer’s challenge

As we noted yesterday, Flo Destroyer had issued a challenge to Dunn: Flo promised to donate £100 to a children’s charity if Dunn would debate him face-to-face on Flo’s channel. Now, anybody who knows Flo should be aware that he is a very reasonable and reasoned host, who doesn’t indulge in abuse or deranged histrionics, so this ought to have been an easy win for Dunn: appear on the show, talk civilly to a person who holds a different view, and ensure a children’s charity receives a donation.

Instead, though, Dunn put up this piece of piddling prevarication:

These are my terms. If you want a debate, if you want something from me, this is the way it’s gotta be. Other than this, I will ignore you, okay? And I…you’re gonna be blocked. Because we have no more time. We have no more time, we’ve wasted too much time on this, you’re done. You’re done, okay?

Here’s what you have to do. You see this? This is me. This is a video. You respond to me. You respond to me in a video, okay? With your face, and you identify yourself. You identify who you are, you say your name that’s on your birth certificate. Okay? And I don’t even know if they got birth certificates in the UK, I’m gonna assume they do. Okay?

So. You say your name, you identify yourself. You don’t have to say where you live, okay? I’m going to assume from the accent that I heard last night that you live in the UK. Whatever. I don’t care, okay? Um…

You don’t have to give us your address. But you have to give us some way that we can verify that you are a real person, that you are not using a fake name. This is me, you see here? [holds up his driving licence with all but his face and name blocked out] This is my face. This is an Ohio driver’s licence, my name is Robert Thomas Dunn. Okay? I’m a real person, I have nothing to hide. …

You verify who you are, in a video to me, I’ll take you seriously. One, okay? And then I’ve got people standing by in the UK that can verify your identity. 

This was a bit puzzling, to say the least. If Dunn thought there was a chance Flo wasn’t a real person, then what did he think he was?

A cat (or possibly two) in fancy dress?

Two mice and a giant robot suit?

A criminal penguin cleverly disguised as a rooster?Perhaps they do things differently in the United States, but Dunn’s demands struck us as faintly ridiculous.

As commenter Smut Clyde noted, “Doxxing is an obsession with Truthers and stoners. It’s a kind of ‘Rumpelstiltskin delusion’… they are convinced that when you learn the Real Name of something, you gain Magic Power over it”.

But Dunn’s demands didn’t stop there:

So, uh, once we verify that you’re a real person, and, uh, then we can move on with step two. Step two is show up, face-to-face, just like this, this is how I deal with 99% of my interviews. This is just the way that it goes. I been doin’ this for, uh, a year and a half, okay? There’s been like two people that wanted to uh, hide themselves. And I think maybe only one, and that person came out later. …

So, anyway. Face-to-face interview. On a third-party site. I think maybe we both agree that ‘The System is Down’ forum, video show, would be something that would work. I’m open. I wanna have a conversation with you, okay?

So. Just so we’re clear. Identify yourself, face-to-face, third-party, be civil. 

Dunn seems to have a different idea of “face-to-face” than the average person, who might be forgiven for thinking that it means “in the same room (or on the same YouTube channel) at the same time”.

His version, it seems, means, “You make a video about me, and then I make a video about you, and I never have to be held directly to account for my delusional and/or harassing statements; nor must I answer any uncomfortable questions you might ask. Okay?”

In any case, Flo is a very reasonable chap, and decided to go along with Dunn’s bizarre conditions. Yesterday evening, he was interviewed by one of the hosts of “The System is Down”, and we think you’ll agree that he acquitted himself extremely well.

Thanks to Flo for putting himself out there, and for standing up against harassment and hysteria.

As for Dunn, so far there’s been nothing but silence. For which, we think you’ll agree, we can all be profoundly thankful.

Could Dunn be just a bit chicken? Photo by Brenda Timmermans on Pexels.com