Muriel, the Ben Barnes Threads are Bullying People

Here is the most recent Ben Barnes thread which has caused the woman on Twitter above to not want to live anymore, thanks to their bullying her.

If only those bullies had not forced her onto the Internet and to participate in the threads.

Look what they've done to her:

Oh, dear.

Well, let us say that they have all apologized to her and that she has been mocked in reaction to this tweet of hers. Which was not okay, as everyone admits.

What's wire hangers doing in this closet when I told you no wire hangers ever!

Also, just to be clear: the hate we have been accused of refers most of all to us denouncing him for traveling to Montana over New Years Eve with Julianne Hough, after possibly having spent christmas in the UK at the absolute worst time of the pandemic, without self-isolating.

Again, making fun of that girl was very wrong.

Hey, as long as we're reporting people, how about the multiple people sharing an account who harassed the this person?

I propose a moratorium on all threads about young twinks until the fraus no longer feel the need to post here.....

That's a shame, y'all!

OP, you have not done that girl a favor by exposing her to the general DL. People have apologized. Why expose her like this?

Ben Barnes is neither young, nor twink. And, yeah, you should stop fucking with obviously unstable people. The rest of DL is kind enough to ignore you fuckers most of the time.

is this serious?

R14 you can all read it. It‘s in the thread indicated above, posts 299 to 313.

OP makes a habit of reposting women on these threads as a form of harassment, and unfortunately the girl here is just the latest case of one he won’t leave alone. Apologies were made to this girl and agreement that she should not be discussed, so why make a whole thread dedicated to harassing her?

I find it particularly telling that the OP here is the same as the poster that brought up her tweets in the first place, and is the very same poster who went after and bullied a real life ex of Ben's a few threads back. Spent an entire evening calling her a slut and making fun of the way she looked and, despite repeatedly being asked to stop by the regular posters at the Ben threads, kept reposting, and reposting, and reposting the links/screenshots to this woman's IG. We found out that "someone" started harassing this woman by sending her screenshots of the hateful things this thread's OP was repeatedly saying about her. I wonder, who could have done that?

And now, Ainhoa, the girl referenced in the tweets above, suddenly gets sent things being said on the Ben threads. She rightly and understandably gets upset by them, and OP makes a Very. Big. Show. of just how upset she got.

Considering what we know happened with him and Ben's ex, is it a stretch to believe it was in fact OP who once again wanted to cause some random girl a great deal of pain and so sent Ainhoa (this time) screenshots of what's said here on DL. It was clearly how he got his rocks off with Ben's ex. Now he's at it again.

I wonder if he'll send her screenshots of all the apologies to make up for it? Or is that too much to ask..

Here I'll add mine now. I apologize for anything I've ever said that hurt you Ainhoa, no matter what it was. It was wrong and I'm sorry. I won't ever do it again.

So I figured out that OP is named Cunt Pig, but is "Ainhoa" pronounced "Asshole Drama Princess Nutjob"?

I don't want to get anything wrong and drive someone off that ledge that's level with the ground.

R18 Ainhoa is a Basque name meaning Virgin Mary. Can you be any more ignorant & redneck?

Ainhoa is a minor. You are absolutely DISGUSTING. She is a school aged teenager who is nothing but a fan Ben Barnes. I’ve seen the attacks on this site. Bullying her and other fans for Ben noticing them, for fans making nice fan videos for him, him liking them etc. there is no longer a discussion happening here. It’s bullying. It’s harassment and it’s fucking gross. Not just her, but other fans. Pulling up in their fucking notifications with your bullshit tags about Julianne posting 11:11 (it’s old news. Her and her ex have fuck all to do with Ben’s fans). DMs too. I’ve seen them circulating around. You could have easily made discussions based around things you weren’t happy with Ben for, but you all chose the wrong path and turned to harassment. And I don’t care if it’s “only one or two ruining for those having genuine discussions”. Some of you guys need to do better by telling those people in these threads to STOP. Ainhoa, Cindy, welovebenbarnes, benbarnesaus, benbarneshq… it’s absolutely ridiculous these fans (and others) have had to fall under this harassment with some getting it 10x worse. This isn’t an innocent discussion anymore. OP and others engaging in this, stop hiding behind computer screens to be assholes. No doubt you’re all adults. It’s time to stop.

To the very few who have actually stood in here to say it’s not okay and to defend what’s happening here and even apologised for ever saying anything bad about Ainhoa and the other fans who have been harassed, Thankyou. It means a lot. People might actually listen to you if you have a gentle approach. Remember, it’s just fans. It’s really easy to just be a decent human being. Have the discussions you want, but leave the nasty stuff to yourselves. Any accounts that continue to go after fans on other platforms will continue to be handed out among fans and reported.

Enough is enough.

My reply was to those who have made Instagram and twitters accounts to harass fans and to those who have (unapologetically) said nasty things in past threads on Ben. If this isn’t or wasn’t you or you’ve made a genuine apology, this wasn’t for you. I don’t care that you’s want to have a discussion on Ben. I won’t stop you. But anything past a discussion isn’t okay and I hope that as adults, we can all agree on that.

I agree it’s not ok to bully fans. But if she’s a minor she should also have her account and tweets set to private. It’s just common sense technical literacy to avoid exactly this type of situation that minors may be less equipped or prepared to handle. This is an open public forum so the people who are more innocently participating in these threads can’t control what kinda of public content gets posted to them by others and don’t necessarily deserve to be attacked for the actions of a few, but she does have control over what content is made public.

This OP is Gap Playlist Guy. He's well into his 40s.

R23 Wow. A man in his 40s making a habit over harassing women? Hope Muriel bans him. He's obviously psychotic and dangerous.

Twitter is also not a closed forum so if you make public posts you are accepting the risk that they will be read, interpreted, reposted, etc on Twitter and other parts of the internet. Yes it would be nice if all adults acted like responsible and respectful adults on the internet but that’s not reality so the best thing you can do with harassment/trolling is use the tools available to report it and then ignore it. Hopefully Ainhoa has learned from this situation that posting threatening tweets about opinions she disagrees with is not productive even if she didn’t deserve to be attacked.

She doesn’t or shouldn’t have to go private. What should have been said was “you’re absolutely right, grown adults should not be harassing a 15 year old girl”. That’s all there is too it. I’ve seen her account and know her and she doesn’t do anything to hurt anyone. She doesn’t post inappropriate stuff, ever. In fact, she’s the most placid fan Ben has.

These adults need to go find jobs and try and make a life of themselves.

OP seems to be known then. Someone should reach out to this grown us man and pull his head out of his ass.

You’re right! Everything you put on social media is indeed at risk of being put on other platforms and also at risk of targeted harassment (what’s happening here). The truth is that we should be saying more “we need to work towards stopping those who harass”. I’m glad you agree with me that it’s nothing short of fucked up. And I agree, I hope this OP is banned and exposed.

R21 I have never seen any IG or Twitter accounts that were in any way focused on harassing fans — only ones focused specifically on BB and JH. Also, comments regarding the mental health or stability of content in the stan accounts is not the issue. That is a fair observation to make, just as anyone is free to make similar observations regarding the posters in the BB-critical threads. The issue is that one fan wrote threatening comments to those critical or insulting of BB, and comments in response to that got a bit unkind. Both behaviors were unacceptable. Apologies were made by several for the hurtful nature, unkindness of those comments. But if someone’s a minor, and especially of they are of a fragile/vulnerable state, their online activity should absolutely be supervised by a legal guardian.

You keep pointing out her age and that she’s a minor so she should be treated differently but unless she posts her age on her profile there is literally no way of knowing that. The point should be that it’s not ok for anyone of any age to bully anyone else regardless of their age, but in reality life isn’t fair and that’s not how to world works, so it’s also the responsibility of each internet user to either take steps to appropriately protect themselves online or expect that this is the risk you are taking by creating a public persona and content online and the best thing to do is report and ignore

The other threads on here involving Ben need to also stop bringing up names. Ainhoa and Cindy included.

Adults need to learn to be adults. It wouldn’t of taken anything to just tell her “hey this tweets not okay, here’s why”. It’s really easy to communicate, everyone just chose not too.

The bottom line is that she was harassed and driven to the point of feeling harmful thoughts. Maybe an adult does need to support her when it comes to the use of social media. But there’s no argument to be made here. There are adults who have resorted to making fake social media accounts to go after not just a 15 year old but also other, everyday real life people and it’s not okay. It’s not okay. Fair call? I think that’s a fair call. Surely nobody will disagree with me over that

R29 Bullying someone would mean commenting on her account, to her directly; these disparaging and rude comments were made in a separate forum, that someone then alerted her to. Should they have included name-calling? No. Should they have identified her directly? No. But is it fair for there to be a discussion about parasocial relationships & those who engage in them? Yes.

R30 I don’t think the majority of people would disagree with you that that isn’t ok. But the truth is if someone is crazy enough to make trolling accounts to harass other people, their behavior isn’t going to be changed by other people on an anonymous forum telling them not to do it and attacking them often only fuels the fire, so it’s best for anyone who is a victim of that to block and ignore. This problem is going to be around as long as the internet still exists and all anyone can do is use the tools available to report and block and make sure they are engaging with the internet in a way they feel comfortable with knowing that they is a certain amount of risk and negativity that must be expected

I’ve just had a relative die a few days ago. Someone so dear to me. Covid has struck again and we are in lockdown. I can’t see friends or family or attend the funeral. My point here is that nobody will ever know what somebody is going through behind a computer screen. Ben, regardless of what he’s done that’s upset people, has been my coping mechanism to get through all this. The other day, I had 3 fake accounts replying to my stuff to cause a stir about Ben. I’m not the only one experiencing this.

The moral of what I’m saying is that it’s super easy to be kind. To me, to you, to everyone and anyone. It’s okay to be kind, even on an anonymous site. Just because people can hide behind fake names and accounts, it shouldn’t be an open door to create further negativity in an individual’s life. Obviously the reality is that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows on here and regardless, shit will happen. But working together to use common sense to stop the spread of hate is easy. It can start here, on datalounge and within the threads discussing Ben.

Discuss what you find, I can’t stop you. But do it with a sense of kindness. Even if what someone else did made you upset, mad or affected others.. you all as individuals can be kind and discuss. It all balls down to the individual and how they react and everyone has a choice in that. All I’m saying is; choose to be kind.

Surely this makes sense to everyone reading this.

Thankyou for the replies and having this discussion, I’m glad we came to an agreement that what happened to Ainhoa today wasn’t okay. Thankyou to those who apologised. Let’s make a choice to not bring Ainhoa, Cindy and any other fans just living their lives into discussions.

Wishing you all safety and better vibes right now. The world is dark enough.

The bullying of these accounts is not and will never be OK, first of all.

However, commenting on and sharing the posts that these accounts and people make publicly is something that shouldn't be avoided. While the actions that these fans take like doing embriodery or artwork, creating birthday projects or spending a fuck ton of time with tweezers and diamonds to create a "painting" are often done because they are making the people behind them happy ... they're also done with the ulterior motive of getting attention from whoever the subject of the project is. Getting noticed is nice. But begging for attention with repeated tags and multiple projects and a sense of superiority because so and so liked your tweet or IG post one time and you feel entitled is taking it a step too far. At the end of the day, Ben Barnes does not CARE about individual fans like this. Ben Barnes might recognize people from prior meetings or online interactions, but I can PROMISE that he has more important things to do than to sit around and smile about people doing art or making signs or creating memes about him. (Those better things do not include quality acting projects, though, which is unfortunate for all of us that are sick of YA drivel)

There are plenty of people whose accounts have gotten noticed by Ben or whoever before for whatever reason, and you don't see them changing their usernames to reflect this or gloating about it in post after post or ALERTING others that they received attention and acting like they're hot shit for weeks because someone threw an arbitrary like or emoji their way. There's a difference between "just living their lives" and obsession. I agree with whoever said it before that some of these accounts are worrisome in the fact that they seem to feel so entitled to his attention NOW without ever meeting him in person - what happens when/if they are face to face? I'm unhappy with a LOT of Ben's choices over the last 18 months, but that doesn't mean that I want to have to worry about his personal safety when he appears at a convention because someone might get upset that their bought and paid for time wasn't "good enough" or "long enough" or he didn't react in the way they expected him to.

People can choose to be kind - and they absolutely should - but we can all only go based on what we see in public posts, and some of these public posts are concerning. If someone is going to make the point that anyone who shit talks Ben will have to deal with her "being right behind them until they shut up", she should be ready to deal with the replies and responses to that. Glass houses and stones, no? If she really is a minor (which I had no idea about) then she (and everyone else doing it, too) she needs to learn that PUBLIC statements on a PUBLIC forum with a PUBLIC account dedicated to the person you're making it a point to defend can and will be seen and interpreted by others. Things don't ever go away on the internet. If you post something, be willing to back it up and defend it when you need to.

Basically, moving forward, Twitter accounts that threaten people because they hit the thumb’s down on a video or because it upsets their world order that BB has been criticized will get reported to Twitter. Will we shit talk them on DL? No, because that’s viewed as bullying. But we will report them to Twitter, who will handle it from there.

Even Ben has said that TV and Film are made to spark discussions and he prefers projects that ask questions not answer them. He also knows he has critics both formal and informal and he chooses not to read many of them because that’s a healthy boundary he has set to protect his professional confidence and mental health. He knows and wants people to discuss his projects and career (which is often the topic of discussion on DL despite what fans think) and he knows people will speculate on his love life especially since he stays so private, but he has chosen not to confirm or deny anything as another boundary he has set with the public to protect his private life and to have his public appearances/interviews be about his work. Despite what some people say here, it’s a sign of emotional intelligence that he chooses not to defend every little action people disagree with or engage with the trolls because ultimately it’s a zero sum game because there will ALWAYS be someone who doesn’t like what you do and it’s emotionally and logistically draining to try to convince them otherwise (particularly for the relatively minor things he’s criticized for) vs just choosing to ignore the extremists and focus on your work and life. He does not need his fans playing attack dog across platforms for any negative thing said about him or a person who happened to hit the dislike button because ultimately neither side changes their mind as people all have their own individual preferences and trigger points. But what could have been a few troll accounts/posts blocked and reported and drowned into all the other noise in the fandom suddenly becomes a much louder part of the narrative surrounding Ben once probably start bickering about it and for no reason. Why not take a page out of Ben’s book and just focus on the positive and focus on the work he’s putting out and ignore anything you don’t like. If you want to support Ben by putting your art work out into the public sphere then do it, but don’t expect everyone to like it, that’s not the purpose of art. If you want to run a fan page then do it, but don’t expect everyone to be as much of a fan as you are. And yes harassment is unacceptable but all these platforms have official ways of reporting and hiding that behavior that don’t involve users attacking each other. In addition to accepting the responsibility and liability of all your private and public content online, the main way to act like a responsible adult online is to choose how you react and what you react to because ultimately the only thing you can control online is your own behavior and you can’t expect all of your actions online to be free of consequences, particularly in a public forum and with the diverse fan base Ben has.

Also the human condition and social phenomenon of parasocial relationships and toxic fandoms isn’t an off limit topic just because you are in a different stage of the grief cycle of a parasocial “breakup” or on the inside, outside, or other side of the fandom. Yes it can and should be discussed without bullying and harassing individual fans and I think many people who participated in that have realized the mistake and apologized, but if you are going to align yourself with a group of people through your public content and go so far as to literally call yourself a cult, don’t expect it to go unnoticed and undiscussed. Some of the same people who have been complaining about the negative discussions on DL have also been singling out and harassing the social media accounts of Ben’s employers (i.e. Netflix) as well as the personal accounts of the employees who run those social media accounts and the personal accounts of other people involved in Ben’s projects like Eric Heisserer and Leigh Bardugo, ALL over trivial things like not getting your way with a COMPLETELY different ending from the source material or because their favorite characters don’t align with yours. If you want to support Ben then don’t behave is such a childish manor because everyone knows when they hire him they have to deal with his fans and not every employer or collaborator is going to have the resources or patience to put up with your shit the way Netflix does right now.

E36 relatively minor? He could have been the reason thousands of people died! He went to the UK for Christmas and then was in Montana for New Years! No isolation! Went straight to a restaurant with no social distancing with a bunch of people who never took the pandemic seriously to begin with -- that's relatively minor? And the cherry on the ice cream (that he licked after JHo, so YA KNOW what else he licked) is all the goddamn hypocritical stay at home horse shit he posted, pretending to be a good, upstanding citizen. He ain't who he shows the world he is. He's an actor. That makes him a professional liar. I don't care who he fucks, unless he's spreading "social" diseases in the process. Click the link for receipts.

R38 you have no evidence he was in the UK besides a pic with no geo tag and some dubious conclusions based on time of day like no one stays up late or reflects/reviews/posts pics of their day later especially with how fucked up everyone’s routine has been and the effects of jet lag from international travel. And the covid approach in Montana was very different than other states, there were no requirements to isolate, and people were allowed to eat inside. I would hardly call any of that receipts. He traveled to the UK and Canada at least once on other occasions for work and there’s actual proof of that but you aren’t raging about those? Plus you have no idea if he already had it and felt safer at the time since the prevailing wisdom AT THAT TIME was that people previously infected and recovered were displaying strong immunity according to their antibody production and they also weren’t carriers anymore. You are basing your extreme outrage on some very dubious evidence that you are presenting as facts and that’s simply not true when you don’t have all the actual facts. Maybe find a healthier way to take your anger out that doesn’t involve obnoxious trolling there are plenty of bigger problems and more problematic people in the world. This trolling is what has caused all these other issues because now anyone discussing Ben on DL is considered to be as extreme as you and that’s not the case

One less frau on here. I'm all for it.

R39 *sigh* Why do you insist on trying so damned hard to defend him? There isn't any "public evidence" only if you don't know Ben, and don't realize how often he mistakes his public IG for his private one. He meant to post that pic of him in England to his private IG. Again, if you know Ben, that's obvious. But even beyond that, the man has friends, and at least one of those friends knew ahead of time that he was going home for Christmas and spoke about it. Obviously I can't post that evidence cause YOU DON'T BURN SOURCES so you can believe that or not. But it is not in doubt that he was in fact in England for Christmas. Also, why exactly did you use the excuse of "jet lag from international travel" if your whole apparent point was "maybe he didn't actually travel internationally, we don't know!" Am I missing something?

No one is complaining that he had to travel FOR WORK because we're not actually extremists. What would have happened if he said no to that? They couldn't finish the entire show? Even bringing that up is a patently *ridiculous* example that doesn't serve your purpose at all. Not to mention it was at least *said* by production that they did in fact quarantine when they were there in Canada. Whether it's true who knows, but it was at least said.

Yes, Montana is an extremely Republican state that does not care at all about protecting public health. And if Ben had stated from the beginning that Covid was a hoax and masks were dumb etc. no one would have cared that he eventually went there for a sex party. But he didn't say that. He used his public platform to advocate for staying home, and (eventually, after getting in trouble the first time with Julianne Hough) wearing masks, and taking Covid seriously etc. Those are principles. You live by principles. Except privately, he abandoned and flouted those principles when he went to Montana. No one is upset that he specifically went to Montana. We are upset that he's a hypocrite who lied about being a good guy for the sake of his public image. I don't know why you refuse to accept that the hypocrisy is what we're mad at. Asking honestly, is it because you don't have a defense for it?

You do realize YOU have STILL not provided any evidence that he had it. Despite being repeatedly asked to do so. You are repeatedly using that POSSIBILITY as a factual excuse because there was an industry rumor that some people at the WestworldS3 premiere caught it. So I will ask you *again*. Do you know specifically that Ben had it already? What/where is the evidence?

And lastly honey, unless you're a spy, no one knows who you are. No one has labeled you an extremist anywhere because you're anonymous. Unless you're not. But if your girlish sensibilities can't handle being labeled with such offensive terms, we are not forcing you to be here. You can leave any time you want.

How can I delete this thread that bitches about that thread, and make stay away forever?

Leave?

Forever?

Any way you choose.

[quote]Muriel, the Ben Barnes Threads are Bullying People

Well, at least that means I don't have to fucking do it.

R41

[quote] There isn't any "public evidence" only if you don't know Ben, and don't realize how often he mistakes his public IG for his private one. He meant to post that pic of him in England to his private IG. Again, if you know Ben, that's obvious.

You don’t know Ben stop acting like you do. And are you saying if he had gone to England for work and then to Montana that would have been completely fine? That makes no sense. And he didn’t try to hide the other times he traveled so why would he hide this one if he were actually there?

And I said you have no idea IF he already had it. That is not presenting it as a fact that’s literally presenting it as a possibility. I’m not the one who said he had it on some other thread. And how would someone even provide proof of that anyways? Illegally post private medical records? The point is all your obsessive vitriol is based on loose assumptions you make about something you think is evidence, that is circumstantial at best, when actually you have no idea what the whole story is.

And even if what you say is true he didn’t break any laws or local requirements in Montana so stop treating him like some criminal. Even before the vaccine there were ways to make it relatively safe to travel with masks and frequent testing with negative results which is how many have had to get on with their lives when they didn’t have the luxury of staying at home. And again this is a POSSIBILITY not a fact. Plus wasn’t most of his posting about staying home back when we all thought we were doing the “15 days to slow the spread” bullshit that wasn’t even realistic in hindsight and clearly didn’t work out like we hoped? You really expect everyone to still act like it’s March 2020 for a full 2+ years? The point is everyone has their own risk tolerance and some people take more calculated risks than others, but without knowing all the factors that went into a decision and what decisions were actually made your obsessive hatred is not proportional to the ambiguous situation you are basing it on

This entire thing reeks of 2 obsessives (one of whom is almost certainly the poor harassed victim mentioned in the OP, who probably posted it her/himself) playing out a turf war involving their chosen celebrity and multiple sock puppets on multiple platforms including this one. I'd bet a decent amount of money I'm only the third real person posting on this thread (and the other posts are various accounts from the same 2 nutjobs). You're both coming across as unhinged and my suggestion is that if you cannot handle someone liking or disliking a celeb that you personally like/dislike, you should stay as far away from the internet as you possibly can.

I don't even know who Ben Barnes is and this is the first time I've ever clicked on one of the threads with his name in it here on DL. Oh and lastly?

[quote]All I’m saying is; choose to be kind.

All I'm saying is: do, do fuck off. Fuck right off. Immediately. You are not the internet police ad you stink of control-freak frau.

R46 Lucky you! Some days I wish I could go back to the days I didn’t know who he was

These celebrity stans are the saddest, most pathetic people alive. I cannot even comprehend how people can get so wrapped up in a celebrity. I can't even bother to obsess over people I personally know IRL.

This reeks of granny Tumblr obsessives. Backing away quietly.

[quote}You don’t know Ben stop acting like you do. And are you saying if he had gone to England for work and then to Montana that would have been completely fine? That makes no sense. And he didn’t try to hide the other times he traveled so why would he hide this one if he were actually there?

R45 (part 1) I specified the exact way I know Ben, you even included it in your quote. Don't put words in my mouth because they fit your narrative.

No. I in fact didn't say if he traveled for work then for pleasure it would have been fine, because you're right, that doesn't make sense. Don't put words in my mouth because they fit your narrative.

And, as already established, he didn't hide when he traveled for work because he HAD TO travel for work. He didn't HAVE TO travel for pleasure, and it was strongly advised across the board that everyone should NOT do so, so he hid it. That is not even in the slightest bit difficult to figure out. Come on dude stop making yourself look like an idiot here.

[quote]And I said you have no idea IF he already had it. That is not presenting it as a fact that’s literally presenting it as a possibility. I’m not the one who said he had it on some other thread.

First, apologies for confusing you two again. Now, it is possible I'm misremembering, so in all sincerity correct me if I'm wrong. But I remember the "excuse" that he thought he was safe because he already had it STARTED when that poster claimed there was an industry rumor people caught it at the Westworld premiere. It wasn't even a possibility he'd already had it before "that moment" because there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that would make anyone think that he had. It was only after "that moment" that people started saying it to excuse his actions as if it was true. Because of this, "that moment" did its job. Randomly come in, a year and a half after the possible fact, to introduce doubt in order to excuse and defend. There is absolutely no (even circumstantial) evidence it's true, but it's still continually used as an excuse, even though it might be a red herring. I hope that more clearly explains my point.

(part 2)

[quote]And even if what you say is true he didn’t break any laws or local requirements in Montana so stop treating him like some criminal. Even before the vaccine there were ways to make it relatively safe to travel with masks and frequent testing with negative results which is how many have had to get on with their lives when they didn’t have the luxury of staying at home. . . didn’t work out like we hoped? You really expect everyone to still act like it’s March 2020 for a full 2+ years?

I am not treating him like a criminal. I am not asking for him to be brought up on charges of any kind. I am not asking him to be prosecuted in any way. All I'm doing is complaining on a public forum for gay men that he's a hypocrite who knowingly endangered people's lives, and complaining that his ardent fangirls never do anything but enable him to continue behaving in such an utterly selfish and consequence free manner because, and I quote, they will never stop loving and/or supporting him. People call out and complain about societal harms in order to change future behaviors for the better. The people that don't complain, and especially that condone it, ensure that societal harm continues. My conscience at least, doesn't allow me that privileged luxury.

But you're right, there were safe ways to live/travel. For example, they included socially distancing, wearing masks and quarantining after traveling. He did NONE of those things for his Montana trip. That's in part what I'm complaining about.

(part 3) Though no, I don't expect everyone to "act like it's March 2020." Firstly, because I have absolutely no faith in people, as people are absolutely NOT inherently good. (I did think Ben was good though, he did fool me..) But secondly, most people weren't (and haven't been) acting like it's March 2020 even in March 2020. That is the reason this fucking shithole country has one of the worst track records with Covid in the entire fucking world. Because this country is mostly full of selfish, entitled, uneducated shitgibbons who lack all empathy and concern for others. If everyone had behaved like they were advised to by the medical community since March 2020, we're rich and resourced and fully capable enough of having a Covid outcome at least more similar to New Zealand. With only a couple exceptions, up until. . . last week was it(???), they have been able to live normal lives because they originally were responsible and capable enough to stamp out Covid so that they were 100% free of community spread. Could we have had the exact same outcome? Probably not as their border is 100% ocean and we border other countries. But the New Zealand people were evidently selflessly responsible enough to originally create and maintain such an enviable outcome. Unfortunately, here we have mostly people just like Ben, who are going to flout all the "rules" because they're selfish and just wanna do whatever makes them feel good, everything else be damned. That's been the problem allllllllllll along, and he contributed to it.

But finally, IF we were wrong in our accusations as you believe, that could have been addressed a long time ago. In ANY way. *Something*. But it wasn't. Instead, the only thing Ben did was try to erase all the evidence when he got called out in the first place. Instead, he doubled down over and over, especially with sneaking around again to pre-vaccine availability maskless events months later. I admit I don't know whether he wore a mask at that event (almost no one else there did according to all the pictures/videos, including who he went with), but if not he wouldn't have had the excuse of still thinking he had immunity at that point. He could have corrected the narrative a long time ago and this all would have stopped because we were wrong. But he didn't. Instead he told people who had a problem with what he did to "leave on our bikes." If you were very specifically accused of endangering people's lives and you were innocent, wouldn't you try to correct the record? Cause he didn't, he tried to cover it up. There are actions you can take that at least make you appear to be innocent, and there are actions that make you look guilty. You're right, I don't know with 100% certainty what exactly happened, but Ben has done absolutely nothing all year but make himself look guilty in a fully arrogant way that makes it look like he does not care one bit that he apparently is. He could have corrected "me" any time, but he didn't, and that speaks volumes to me. And proportional is subjective.

You people are INSANE!

Holy fucking balls this is some deep batshittery.

R54.

Yo. March 2020 didn’t hold a fucking candle to Dec 2020. Imagine 9/11 every day for weeks — that was Dec 2020. And that was Ben “yer cute so yer God” Barnes traveling without any isolation BETWEEN CONTINENTS for some pussy. So go to hell.

[quote]These adults need to go find jobs and try and make a life of themselves.

I think that applies to every one who's participated in the 35 fucking threads on this actor - and you can take the Froytards with you. Go and get a life. This fixation on every single action or moment or photo on an actor's social media presence and then making up a fantasy of his life is not healthy. It doesn't matter if you're a "stan" who wants to shut down any negative criticism of said celeb, or if you're the one on the other side complaining about every single thing the actor does that doesn't pass your approval. It's ALL the same obsession.

[quote] Ben, regardless of what he’s done that’s upset people, has been my coping mechanism to get through all this.

I'm so fucking sick of this excuse. I've seen it spouted on every gossip site as a way to give credence and legitimacy to spending your every other hour begging for any scrap or morsel of gossip about your obsession so you can diddle each other about it.

Gossip can be entertaining, but some of y'all need help.

R52 this whole 3 part spiel is exactly why Ben and any PR professionals or industry peers advising him would have said it’s pointless to try to act defensive and attempt to correct the narrative because there are always people who want to believe the worst in people and wouldn’t believe it anyways. The fact that you are lumping Ben’s behavior in with the Neanderthal MAGA crowd and the institutional and cultural failings of this country that make it uniquely inept at dealing with any modern crisis including covid make it seem like you are one that wouldn’t have changed their mind even if he tried. And it’s probably a good thing because you clearly placed him on an impossibly high pedestal that no real human could ever maintain and you are clearly going through your parasocial breakup now, I just hope you eventually move through the anger stage of grief to the acceptance stage because maintaining all those social media accounts and making all the hate memes and stewing in this hate fest sounds exhausting.

But I will clarify a portion of R50. Someone else (who I believe is the same person who said they fucked Ben when I checked the posts at the time) said with confidence that Ben had had covid, but didn’t give any details on when or how. Shortly after that, I AM the one who said I’m surprised this (i.e. Ben previously having covid) hasn’t at least been brought up as a POSSIBILITY to explain (but not necessarily excuse) his actions considering there were quite a few people who came down with covid after the Westworld premier (which Ben attended) since it was right before the California lockdown and had both local and international attendees and no precautions yet. I know this because two of my friends attended the premier and tested positive about a week later. And without me ever offering up this intel first, several other people i later talked to who are in the industry or around LA also said they knew other people who got sick after the premier or knew more broadly that there were some outbreaks after it, which made me think it was a more widely known incident or rumor. However I was not claiming to know anything about Ben’s status in particular or trying to say he definitely got covid there, just that I knew there were some issues with covid from that event which he also happened to attended. That’s the extent of the link between the two.

Was that really Muriel who posted above? LoL.

R58 I understand your point but it actually does not apply to me as I very much wanted to go back to liking him. He was a pick me up that I had turned to to make me feel better/happy when I needed it (he posted something, cool what's up.. it's a shit day, but that singing video made me smile last time, think i'll watch that again.. a new project coming, there's something to look forward to!.. etc.). He was my kind of person (I believed) and I just simply enjoyed paying attention to him cause it made me happy to do so. Ever had a favorite TV show? I had a favorite actor's career and SM. It sucked to initially falter in that and I did want it back. I believe in forgiveness and would have likely given it to him because I missed the "happy". (admittedly, the continued association with Hough *really* would have tested that..)

But you're misrepresenting what I said again. I did not compare him with the Magats. I compared his actions of not following the Covid rules with everyone else in this country that didn't follow the Covid rules thereby contributing to where this country is today, because he didn't follow the goddamn Covid rules! And if you think it's only Magats that aren't following the rules. . . you sweet summer child. Though it is worrying to me that you possibly consider following rules that are intended to keep people safe and alive during a deadly pandemic to be "too high a pedestal.." I absolutely do not consider it so, but again, the vast majority of this country would agree with you unfortunately.

But I don't know who you think I am, but I have never posted anything to IG or Twitter in my life. It is absolutely NOT my thing. I have never commented, I have never liked, I have never nothing but viewed and occasionally linked here. Period. My "break up" as you so artfully put it was back in Jan/Feb times. But as I already said, my continued "trolling" commentary here (Ben and the unrepentant snark of the posters here was what originally brought me to this site years ago, therefore here I remain) now is out of a desire to change social behaviors for the better. I called things out hoping that shame or embarrassment or pain would cause change. That's all I can do, so I do it.

As kind of a case in point, you can look towards the beginning of this thread. I apologized to the girl I wronged. Why bother, it's not like anyone anywhere would ever know if I did or I didn't. No one anywhere would ever be able to call me out personally for what I contributed to, regardless of whether it was a minor offense or something major. No one anywhere would know, but I unequivocally did it anyway. Because it's the right thing to do. Period. I *might* have hurt someone with my words/actions, so I apologized. It is the right thing to do. I'm apparently considered an extremist troll, but even I know that much. What's Ben's excuse? His PR guy said don't bother they won't believe you anyway? That's a coward's way out. The only thing he can control is what he does. And he chose to do nothing.

But thank you for confirming the source of the 'he had it rumor.' I don't doubt that people caught it there. What I doubt is conveniently using the possibility as an out after the fact to try to excuse his past actions now. It's VERY convenient and there was absolutely no inkling of evidence of it all this time. That makes it VERY suspicious to me. But like you I will admit again, I don't absolutely know whether he had it or didn't. Only that the possibility is suspicious.

I *am* the radical extremist who posts the memes. I did apparently have him on a ridiculous pedestal of actually giving a rat's ass about pandemic safety and just being part of a civilization. This is the guy who participated in them women's march, supports all the social justice causes, admires President Obama, mocked donald trump -- my pedestal for him was simply that he was who he said he was. I have no care for whether he was straight or gay, though I certainly couldn't condone paedophilia or bestiality. I simply wanted him not to be a liar when he posted stay at home memes, did the How About That? video series, posted inspirational songs, interviewed the doctor from the UK...was that really so much? SUCH a high pedestal! Certainly hope he didn't sprain an ankle when he fell off!

Incidentally, the picture that places him in the UK just before Christmas is *still* listed on his very long-standing fan site. Would he not have asked them to remove it by now if it was not correct?

There's a difference between traveling for work and taking all the possible precautions, and traveling for funsies with a bunch of jet-setting assholes who only care about the next party. You just don't want to admit that Benny falls into the second category.

I love that they're so into this meaningless battle we're just having a whole conversation alongside it.

R62 ah yes……I see you’ve discovered the purpose and basic functionality of open and anonymous discussion forums, congrats!

[quote]one of whom is almost certainly the poor harassed victim mentioned in the OP, who probably posted it her/himself

I don't think so, r46. OP is a long-time Datalounge regular who outed his identity dozens of times in the past. The person in the Twitter account seems like a wholly different person. They might be posting here, but I'm 99% sure they're not the OP.

As I stated above, OP is either several (cheaply) sharing one DL account or one person letting all their personalities have too much screen time. I am none of them. Not Cheryl, either

R65 Oh, it’s very obv that OP isn’t ant of the Twitter fangirls when you block him, then check the Ignored section to see what’s been filtered out. It’ll show you comments across all threads.

[R61] as someone who was also appalled with the hypocrisy of Covid travel that Ben did last winter, I also believe there is a lot of jealousy involved in your trolling. Your Smartass stuff actually goes way too far and actually seems super obsessive and unhinged. I hope you eventually realize this and get the help you need.

What exactly am I jealous of? I'm super duper curious? Aside from his good looks and money, which hello, everyone should be, aside from the bird legs and flat ass he's very handsome. But of what am I jealous that you think motivates me aside from the anger at his lying ass being exposed? I await your answer with bated breath.

R68.

Just to conclude, the tweeting girl is fine and posting happily as before.