Link: On Crypto-Fascist Grifter Caitlin Johnstone & Why She Refuses to Shut Up About Me – New Facebook Update

So for reasons I can neither understand, nor want to understand, crypto-fascist grifter Caitlin Johnstone has my name in her mouth (or rather on her keyboard) again. I have until now largely avoided writing about this subject because inviting several hundred black helicopter crypto-fascists who call themselves “anarchists” or some such into your mentions online, is pretty much always a losing proposition.

Ok, so who is Caitlin Johnstone? An Australian independent political and media analyst who has been hanging around the internet for closing on twenty years and got her big break when Mike fucking Cernovich of all people retweeted her call for the anti-establishment left and right to join together or some other completely vapid Strasserist bullshit. Cait’s former grifts include writing black helicopter 9/11 conspiracy material for twitchy reactionaries and folks who now call themselves “patriots”, as well as shucking Astrology books with cut and pasted material from Astrology.com inside – that’s plagiarism, and you’ll want to keep that in mind for the next paragraph.

So how do I know Caitlin Johnstone? Because throughout 2016 and 2017, she repeatedly lifted analysis, methodology and source links from my articles; particularly those debunking Russiagate, discussing the Trump administration’s machinations to create a war with Iran and some of my analysis about the DNC’s open cheating, and behind the scenes media machinations against Bernie and the left. In fairness and the interests of full disclosure – Johnstone denies this, claims she’s never heard of me and has repeatedly called me crazy; as she did last night, which in turn is why you’re reading this today.

I am however quite certain that Johnstone plagiarized analysis from my articles; not only are the (as far as I know and have ever read) unique conclusions I reached in real time, repeated (uncredited) in her work but the actual logic process by which I reached those conclusions is also replicated. In addition, it must be noted that the plagiarized analysis always appeared a day or two after I’d published my work or written long threads outlining my conclusions on Twitter; and this phenomenon was observed by not only myself but dozens of other readers who (at the time) read articles written by both of us. Finally of course, every writer recognizes their own analysis in much the same way as every inventor recognizes their own work and every philosopher recognizes their own theories – it just sort of comes with the job because you spend a lot of time intimately thinking about the subject before you put fingers to the keyboard.

Frankly Johnstone has been doing this for a while and she’s good enough at it to reword the analysis enough to pass a text matching scan; but as anyone who has ever stolen an essay and reworded it for submission at school no doubt found out, that’s still plagiarism. Furthermore, I’ve spoken to a couple of other small bloggers she’s lifted materials from over the years, and then there’s that part about selling an Astrology book online directly plagiarized from Astrology.com – there’s a pattern here if you care to look at it.

I have published all of my work online, without a paywall and I can’t afford a lawyer to protect me from these kinds of things so the simple truth is there is really nothing I can do about it if Johnstone, or anyone like her wants to plagiarize my work. I’ve come to accept that, what I will not tolerate is this woman continuing to tell people I’m crazy because I had the nerve to point out she’s stealing from me – I can’t, and won’t, just roll over like a chump in response to this behavior.

I’ve said nothing directly about Caitlin for well over a year, until last night when she typed my name again. I don’t know if Johnstone is still plagiarizing my work, I stopped paying attention to her at all after she flooded my mentions with crypto-fascist try-hard white knight types – as I said, there’s not much I can do about it if she is still lifting my work anyway so why would I drive myself crazy responding to dogshit reactionaries who think they’re left wing because they read dogshit reactionaries like Johnstone?

So at this point you have three choices I think:

A) You can do the research, read both of our Russiagate/Iran articles and decide for yourself.

B) You can assume that I’m not lying to you because I’ve never lied to you and a cursory examination of my work will reveal that I give credit to every single writer I’ve ever borrowed even half an idea from by hotlinking their relevant articles in my work.

C) You can believe the twitchy reactionary crypto-fascist grifter who used to push 9/11 conspiracy theories, plagiarized astrology books, gets published on noted left wing sites like… um, Zerohedge, and once told you that you needed to join forces with Mike Cernovich and the Alt-Right.

That’s your choice. I’m done with Johnstone, I’m done with her fans and I’m done being angry about this.

That is all.

– Nina Illingworth