The long national nightmare is finally over. YouTuber Jeremy Hambly and male feminist Matt Loter reached an out-of-court settlement. Hambly accused Loter of punching him in the back of the head during the early morning hours outside a bar in Indianapolis.
Jeremy Hambly
Happy New Year to you and your people
Today is the first day of the New Year. It’s the day a lot of Americans have weapons-grade hangovers. The last time I had a hangover, any type of hangover, was 1993. It’s when I learned a man I both admired and respected did something truly horrible and was in prison. This man was my boss when I was in the Air Force and stationed on Guam. More importantly, he was my friend.
I found out about it in the afternoon. That evening, I got extremely drunk. I haven’t been drunk since.
2018 was a terrible year
My hope is 2019 will be better than 2018 was, but how can it not? 2018 sucked. I began last year fresh out of the hospital where I almost died. Even when I got out of the hospital, life wasn’t that great. For one thing, I could barely stand, let alone walk. Ten days in bed had made my legs extremely weak. Once I was able to stand, I began working on walking.
I’d want to go to Walmart and Target with Sheri, but legs weren’t all that cooperative. I had Sheri take a photo of me in one of those scooter chairs at Walmart. It was the only way I could get around. I wanted a photo of me in the scooter because I used to look down on folks who rode these scooters. I’d try to determine in my mind if they had something physically wrong with them or if they were just lazy. Most of the time, I decided they were just lazy.
I was wrong to do that. Who was I to judge anyone? I wanted a photo to remember what an ass I was. Not that I usually need anything to remind me.
My large intestine is smaller than your’s
Then in June, I went back to the hospital to have surgery. By then, my gastroenterologist diagnosed me with Crohn’s disease. It’s what put me in the hospital at the end of December 2018. Crohn’s had severely damaged my large intestine, so much so, I had to have part of it removed.
That’s when you know you’re old when they start hacking off parts of you.
What do you know, Comicsgate is a hate movement
I’m ashamed to admit that I at one time supported Comicsgate. I think I was fooling myself that it was a grassroots consumer movement. In reality, it’s a hate movement filled with people hellbent on being jerks to women, minorities, members of the LBGT community, or anyone else they deem to be unworthy of making comic books they don’t read.
In August, I saw the light. I wrote three (3) critical blog posts on Jeremy Hambly, a controversial professional YouTube personality.
- Jeremy Hambly’s YouTube update poses yet more questions
- The time Jeremy Hambly was banned from ‘Magic: The Gathering’
- Jeremy Hambly getting punched at Gen Con is now officially a dumpster fire
Unbeknown to me, Hambly was one of the leaders of Comicsgate. I was not aware of his status in Comicsgate because he never spoke about comics in his videos. Evidently not possessing an interest in comics doesn’t matter to people in Comicsgate. What matters is if you have an ax to grind against women, minorities, members of the LBGT community, or men deemed inferior to the manly men of Comicsgate.
People in Comicsgate began going after me, both in the comment section of this blog and on Twitter. Some of these same people had interacted with me prior in a much more cordial manner. It got so bad, I had to temporarily disable my blog’s comment section.
The whole experience was quite eye-opening. If they went after me in the manner they did, I can only imagine how they went after women, minorities, and members of the LBGT community.
I now wish I had nothing to do with Comicsgate. It’s something I’ll regret for a very long time.
Don’t look now, but there’s a stranger in my car
In the latter part of 2018, I began to focus more on driving for Lyft and Uber. Integrating e-commerce on websites and selling WordPress plugins was my main gig, while rideshare driving was a distant second. I then switched it up. It turned out to be a good move on my part, both financially and mentally.
My goal for 2019 is to make it better than 2018
I want this year to be better than last year. I’m going to concentrate on the things I control. I want to identify what those things are and focus on them. I also want to identify on what I have no control over and try to ignore those things. For example, the raging idiot we have in the White House. I have no control over him or what he does.
For my own well being, I need to be better at ignoring Donald Trump and his buffoonery. I cannot make Donald Trump a better person. I can make myself a better person.
So that’s what I’m going to do.
I supported Comicsgate until I didn’t
For a while, I’ve had some strong opinions about comic books. My biggest concern is that comics cost too much. The average price of a monthly comic book is $3.99. That’s too much for the amount of entertainment you get. Considering that it takes less than 10 minutes to read a 22-page comic book, it’s the most expensive form of entertainment I enjoy. In comparison, I pay $14.99 a month for an Audible membership and for that, I get one audiobook. I get hours and hours of entertainment for my $14.99. Currently, I’m listening to a book that’s over 17 hours in length.
The truth about Comicsgate
I learned over time Comicsgate was about all sorts of things I didn’t agree with. These things included:
Anyone who doesn’t agree with Comicsgate is called names. If you’re not down with Comicsgate, you’re a social justice warrior (SJW). Men are called cucks, soy-boys, radical leftists, or some other derogatory name. Women are called cum dumpsters, fake geeks, diversity hires, or worse. Since most supporters of Comicsgate hide behind fake names, they throw these insults towards people while protected by anonymity. I take a dim view of fake name people attacking real name people.
Comicsgate supporters claimed to want politics out of comics. That turned out not to be true. They were fine with politics if it was Trumpian in nature. I’ve watched live streams on YouTube with Comicsgate people and they never grow tired of bashing Hillary Clinton or anyone critical of Donald Trump. I reluctantly voted for Hillary Clinton and I’m critical of Donald Trump. When Comicsgate creators bash Hillary Clinton supporters and people critical of Trump, they’re bashing me.
Comicsgate supporters wanted comics to be more affordable until they didn’t. Everything began to change for me when the leaders of Comicsgate, Richard C. Meyer, Ethan Van Sciver, and some of the others began asking people to help fund their independent books. These books cost more than traditional comic books. A lot more.
Comicsgate related books
Jawbreakers: Lost Souls, Richard C. Meyer, 112 pages, $25 + $10 shipping.
Cyberfrog: Blood Honey, Ethen Van Sciver, 48 pages, $25 + $10 shipping.
Red Rooster: Golden Age, Mitch and Elizabeth Breitweiser, 40 pages, $25 + $10 shipping.
There are others, but these are the most popular books in Comicsgate. They describe these books as graphic novels. Most people associate graphic novels with five or six issues of a floppy comic that have been bundled together into a book. Most graphic novels have at the very least 120 pages (5 floppy comics). The graphic novels offered by the Comicsgate crew have fewer pages. In some cases, a lot less.
What I find to be especially obnoxious is the $10 shipping. Since these books are only available through the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform, the only way to get one is to have it shipped to you. The price should then be rolled into the cost of the book.
Have Comicsgate creators never heard of Amazon?
These creators could have used Amazon to fulfill orders, allowing Amazon Prime members to pay nothing for 2-day shipping. I’m currently listing my old graphic novels on eBay. It costs only a couple bucks to send a graphic novel U.S. First Class Mail. If it’s too heavy for that, I send them U.S. Media Mail.
I ship them in padded envelopes I purchased in bulk at Sam’s Club. I can do this because the books I’m selling are actually graphic novels. Most of the graphic novels sold on Indiegogo are not really graphic novels so they need something more substantive than a padded envelope. I imagine at the very least they will need to be bagged and boarded and sent in something more rigid than a padded envelope. That’s what I do when I ship a single floppy comic.
Since the buyer is paying to ship when they buy a graphic novel from me on eBay, I make it as cheap as possible to send it to them. I get the impression these Comicsgate creators never even considered making the shipping as affordable as they could. They seemingly just don’t care.
Indiegogo is a terrible place for the consumer to buy comic books
This IndieGoGo business model is beyond stupid. These books are far too expensive even without the extortionate cost of shipping. Any success these creators enjoy will be short-lived. Show me a consumer willing to pay $35 for a 40-page comic and I’ll show you a consumer who will probably never do it again.
I know I won’t.
By charging $35 for a 40-page graphic novel, these Comicsgate creators are making comics even more expensive than they are now. They’re also being rude to the fans. Charging $35 for a 40-page comic is rude. Comicsgate followers don’t realize how poorly Comicsgate creators are treating them. That doesn’t mean they’ll never realize it. Just wait for them to get their wafer-thin $35 “graphic novels” and begin to realize what they could have bought on Amazon for $35.
The attack on Jeremy Hambly
Jeremy Hambly is a person who makes Magic: The Gathering videos on YouTube. Wizards of the Coast, the makers of Magic: The Gathering, banned Hambly for life over videos he made attacking, insulting, and harassing people in the Magic: The Gathering community.
During the early morning of August 2, 2018, in Indianapolis, Indiana, Hambly was attacked outside a bar. He was in Indianapolis for GenCon, a massively popular tabletop convention starting later that day. Hambly didn’t know his attacker. His assailant attacked him without provocation. Fortunately for Hambly, he was unharmed in the attack.
Initially, I was supportive of Hambly, but then more and more “facts” about the incident came out or were changed, I began to question what really happened. Hambly was not only changing his story, but he was also deleting videos he initially made about the attack. It was then I began blogging about this incident with a more critical eye. These are the posts:
- Jeremy Hambly assaulted at Gen Con by male feminist Matt Loter
- Jeremy Hambly getting punched at Gen Con is now officially a dumpster fire
- The time Jeremy Hambly was banned from ‘Magic: The Gathering’
- Jeremy Hambly’s YouTube update poses yet more questions
I did not know Jeremy Hambly was a leader in Comicsgate
Unbeknownst to me, Hambly was a leading figure in Comicsgate. I was unaware of this fact because I never watched a video of his where he talked about comic books. That didn’t matter. He was against Social Justice Warriors (SJWs), cucks, soy-boys, and “waamen” he deemed to be whores who were invading male-dominated hobbies.
It was then I began to get harassed by members of Comicsgate, even though I still considered myself a member of Comicsgate. I was harassed on Twitter and in my blog’s comment section. I actually had to shut down the comment section here for a while, the first time since 2006. It was bad. I’m no stranger to Internet bad actors, but what I was seeing directed towards me was a lot worse than the trolling I ever saw on Usenet.
I suddenly realized exactly what people were talking about when they spoke of being harassed by Comicsgate. I only wish I understood it before.
I also realized to be looked upon as a leader in Comicsgate, one doesn’t even need to be into comic books. What’s more important is your stance on women and men deemed to be radical leftist soy-boys. In other words, men who didn’t vote for Donald Trump.
The straw that broke the Comicsgate camel’s back
The thing that finally did it for me was watching a video by Richard C. Meyer “roasting” comic book writer Kwanza Osajyefo. In the video, Meyer was reading tweets from Osajyefo and used an effeminate “black” voice to impersonate him. Kwanza Osajyefo doesn’t sound anything like that. To assign an effeminate “black” voice to Osajyefo is racist and dishonest.
I’d watched these videos before, but they never registered with me as this video did. It made me feel ashamed I supported Meyer and Comicsgate. I was also ashamed that Meyer’s degrading treatment towards Osajyefo never bothered me before.
It should have.
I can only imagine the harassment Meyer’s supporters directed towards Osajyefo after each of these “roast” videos.
I won’t associate myself with a hashtag movement ever again. Although I have beliefs, I’m perfectly capable of expressing those beliefs without the aid of a hashtag. I’m very much pro-consumer, so much so that I look at the Indiegogo campaigns of Comicsgate creators as nothing more than blatant cash grabs, preying on their followers.
Jeremy Hambly’s YouTube update poses yet more questions
Jeremy Hambly posted a new video that was aimed at providing an update to his legal case against alleged attacker Matt Loter. It posed more questions than it did answers.
Jeremy Hambly hired a lawyer
Hambly said he retained the legal services of business attorney Bill Richmond. Who is Bill Richmond?
From Mr. Richmond’s LinkedIn page:
Bill represents companies and entrepreneurs in a variety of industries when they are involved in litigation regarding contract disputes, business fraud, large property loss, and catastrophic personal injury. Bill has experience in both state and federal courts regarding pleadings, motion practice, discovery, pre-trial and trial and he has represented both small and Fortune 500 companies in high-stakes litigation.
Mr. Richmond is based in Dallas Texas. Will Hambly file the lawsuit in Texas? I wouldn’t think so. I’d think he’d file the lawsuit in Indianapolis, Indiana, where the alleged assault took place. One might think Hambly would then want to hire a lawyer there who specializes in lawsuits like the one he wants to file. A local lawyer could exert pressure on the Indianapolis Police Department to take the alleged battery more serious.
Why would Hambly hire a lawyer in Texas who does not specialize in the type of case he wants to pursue? Because Mr. Richmond is also the attorney of conservative political commentator Steven Crowder.
The GoFundMe campaign
Hambly claimed in the video he paid Mr. Richmond a $5,000 retainer, half of his normal retainer. Why didn’t he pay the full retainer? His GoFundMe legal fund currently has over $29,000 in it. I don’t understand why Hambly is pinching pennies. If this money isn’t going to pay for a lawyer, what will it go to?
On Hambly’s GoFundMe page, he says he paid his lawyer a $10,000 retainer. Which is it, $5,000 or $10,000?
The GoFundMe page still says the attacker “will be arrested shortly.”
I think it’s safe to say the man Hambly believes attacked him will not be arrested shortly.
Jeremy Hambly does not know who attacked him
It’s important to point out that Hambly doesn’t really know who attacked him. This is a tweet he made August 2, hours after the attack.
Publicly saying he “didn’t get a good look at him but others did” doesn’t sound at all like the basis of a successful civil suit. This is especially true considering there’s no physical evidence suggesting Matt Loter assaulted Jeremy Hambly. The case will depend solely on eyewitness testimony. Were any of the eyewitnesses sober? Hambly wasn’t. He has claimed to have consumed 19 drinks before the alleged attack took place.
Loter cannot even be forced into sitting for a deposition since he’s never been charged in the case. Loter has a right under the Consitution against self-incrimination. Anything he said in a deposition could then be used against him in a criminal case if one ever materializes. That’s why most civil lawsuits relating to a crime only happen after the criminal prosecution has concluded.
Jeremy Hambly believes Quinnipiac University fired Matt Loter
According to the update video, Hambly believes Quinnipiac University fired Loter from his part-time teaching gig. The reason? Because Loter’s name has been removed from the university’s website.
I sent a test email to mathew.loter@quinnipiac.edu and the message did not bounce. I then sent another email to jeremy.loter@quinnipiac.edu and it bounced. What does this show? It shows Loter’s name may have been scrubbed from the website, but he still has an active email account at Quinnipiac University. It also shows I’ve done more research than the blogger at CampusrReform.org has done. This is the same blogger who’s two posts about this matter contain factual errors and she claims to have “broke” the story.
Her first post about this was published August 8, 2018. My first post about this was published on August 3, 2018.
Also from the update video:
If you’re sending your kids to this school (Quinnipiac University) they have been contacted by multiple people about one of their own professors being violent, unstable, having delusions and they didn’t even tell the campus police. So it’s pretty clear they’re not interested in keeping their students safe.
If Jeremy Hambly now has a lawyer, why are they allowing him to make a video saying this? Hambly knows the school has been contacted by multiple people complaining about Loter. Hambly urged his viewers to contact Quinnipiac University and ask them what they thought about keeping a violent criminal on staff.
Remember, Loter not been charged with a violent crime, let alone convicted of one. To say Quinnipiac University is “not interested in keeping students safe” is actionable by the school. It’s a statement presented as fact that anything but a fact. It’s slanderous.
Where is the evidence?
Although there’s zero evidence Loter assaulted Hambly, there’s a boatload of evidence Hambly libeled Loter. With each passing day, Hambly says more things on YouTube and Twitter about Loter, not as opinions, but as fact. For example, he says Loter is unstable and has delusions. How would Hambly know this?
From the legal dictionary at Law.com:
If Jeremy Hambly’s actions towards Loter do not constitute libel, I don’t know what does. Loter should hire a lawyer of his own and file a lawsuit against Hambly for libel. Hambly would then have to prove the things he’s said about Loter were true. He cannot do that because he made most of it up. The reason Hambly believes Loter was the one who attacked him was that people on 4-chan said it.
Like Jesus Christ said at the Sermon on the Mount, a good defense is a good offense. I don’t know if Loter is a follower of our Lord and Savior, but the man who died for everyone’s sins gave some good advice.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think Jeremy Hambly was trying to make his dumpster fire of a case burn with the intensity of a thousand suns.
The time Jeremy Hambly was banned from ‘Magic: The Gathering’
With Jeremy Hambly in the news because of his assault at the hands of Matt Loter the early morning of August 2, 2018, hours before the start of Gen Con, I thought it would be a good idea to check why Wizards of the Coast (WotC), the maker of Magic The Gathering, banned him for life. I’m glad I did because when WotC banned him on December 7, 2017, I criticized the ban. I’ve since learned I was wrong.
Hambly deserved the ban.
I knew the ban was for harassing and bullying cosplayer Christine Sprankle, but I didn’t know the details. At the time, I thought the claims of harassment and bullying were overblown. I now know they were not. I never saw the video in which Hambly harassed Sprankle because YouTube removed it. He posted the video on 5 June 2017 and entitled it, “Playset Of Beta White Knights Prevent Rape Of MTG Cosplayer @cspranklerun.”
If you think the word “rape” along with a woman’s twitter handle is a bad idea for a video title, you would be right. Even though YouTube removed the video, an archived copy is available, something I didn’t know when this controversy first arose.
The video is a lot worse than what I expected.
What Jeremy Hambly said about Christine Sprankle
In the video, Hambly referred to Sprankle as a “serial virtue signaler” and “crying for patron dollars professional cosplayer.” This was in response to Sprankle complaining publicly on Twitter about a man who posted a message on her Facebook page stating her cosplay gives him an erection. Hambly stated he would react favorably if he received a similar comment from a man.
Hambly then proceeded to run down the list comments made in response to Sprankle’s tweet, calling everyone who supported her a cuck and/or white knight. He called one man a shitty father.
Hambly also accused everyone supporting Sprankle on Twitter of wanting to penetrate her.
Hambly said cosplay is lingerie and then proceeded to go over photos of Sprankle cosplaying and made lewd, sexual comments about each photo. He then told his viewers to go to her Twitter account and let her know how unattractive and unsexual she looks.
Jeremy Hambly is a raging hypocrite
He also seems to have a major issue with Sprankle having a Patreon account so her fans can send her donations. Hambly calls these people “fucking losers.” I find this strange considering he too has a Patreon account so his fans can send him donations. Why does he criticize Sprankle for doing the same thing he does? Because Hambly suffers from weapons-grade hypocrisy.
Sprankle posted the following on Twitter:
It has been a rough year. And I have blocked and not said anything about him because I wanted it to die but without a doubt MtGHeadquarters/UnsleevedMedia has made my life hell this whole year with his unnecessary videos/tweets about me and other members of Magic.
Sprinkle has since deleted all of her tweets.
I am embarrassed I supported Jeremy Hambly
Watching the video Hambly made about Sprankle leaves me feeling embarrassed I originally supported him after Wizards of the Coast (WotC) gave him a lifetime ban. After watching the video removed by YouTube, I think WotC did the right thing. Hambly is a dishonest, toxic person. I say he’s dishonest because he was purposely spreading false information about the ban as soon as it happened.
Hambly said he never harassed Sprankle. That’s not true. WotC said actions taken in his social media accounts were in violation of WotC’s code of conduct. YouTube is part of social media. Hambly claimed in the above video to never agreeing to WotC’s code of conduct. That’s not true. If he had a Magic Online account, something he said he had before the ban, he had to check a box agreeing to adhere to the WotC code of conduct when he first created his account and then again each and every time the game was updated.
Hambly said he never harassed Sprankle, nor did he direct others to harass her. That’s not true. Anyone who watched the original video YouTube removed knows such claims are false.
Hambly harassed Sprankel.
Hambly directed others to harass Sprankel.
Hambly benefited greatly from YouTube removing his original video. Because it’s somewhat difficult for people to find, he’s able to lie and mislead people about the video’s content.
If I was WotC, I wouldn’t want him anywhere near my sanctioned events. I wouldn’t want Hambly to have anything to do with my game made for ages 13 and up.
Jeremy Hambly getting punched at Gen Con is now officially a dumpster fire
I’m calling it. As of 9:44 pm eastern daylight time, Jeremy Hambly getting attacked by Matt Loter at Gen Con is now officially a five-alarm dumpster fire.
Little by little, the story of him getting punched to the back of the head because of his “political beliefs” has become more and more absurd. Last night Jeremy released a video that said a whole host of things, some of which contradicted what he said earlier.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ncE9q6fHIU8
The whole thing is a mess. An absurd, hot mess.
Jeremy Hambly should have been prepared to deal with people who hate him
Jeremy is a controversial, YouTube culture warrior. He was banned for life by Wizards of the Coast, the makers of Magic: The Gathering for what they considered harassment and bullying of people in the community. He’s not allowed to attend sanctioned Magic: The Gathering events or tournaments for the rest of his life. There’s a reason they took this extraordinary step.
Whatever you think about Jeremy, there’s no denying he’s disliked by a good many people. It’s a reaction he spends a lot of time and energy cultivating.
If this happened to me, I would not have called the police
If someone like Matt Loter attacked me and I walked away with little to no physical damage, I wouldn’t have called the police. What’s the point? I generally don’t like the police and I try not to interact with them.
I also wouldn’t broadcast to the world that I allowed some alt-lifestyle freakazoid to approach me from behind and punch my head several times. The last thing I would want is my name in a public record documenting my inept reaction to being assaulted by someone. Consider how often Jeremy refers to men he doesn’t like as cucks, soy boys, and beta males. Now consider how he acted when he met with someone who wanted to do him harm. He ran away. At the very least, I don’t think he should ever call into question another man’s maleness.
Is Jeremy Hambly an alcoholic?
I think Jeremy has a drinking problem. In the military, this incident would be classified as an alcohol-related incident. He would have to be evaluated and depending on the findings, forced to attend an alcohol a rehab program and AA meetings. Even if he didn’t have, according to him, 19 drinks before the assault, the fact it happened outside a bar at 2:00 am would trigger some kind of mandatory treatment. Good thing for Jeremy he’s not in the military. Good thing for the military too. His reaction to someone visiting violence upon him is to run away.
Jeremy Hambly wants to be a victim
Jeremy seems obsessed with making this one drunken incident his defining moment. He seems to want to wallow in victimhood. That’s too bad. Who wants to be known as a human punching bag? Who wants to be a professional victim? Not me, that’s who. I would do everything in my power not to be those things. I get the impression this was the first time he was attacked by someone. I wouldn’t call it a fight because that implies both parties participated. Matt threw ineffective punches and Jeremy fled to the safety inside the bar.
That, of course, is if you believe any of it even took place.