This could be sillier, but not by much. In this episode, I got to deal with "Ramessu", who tried to pass himself off as an Egyptian, and an invaluable potential resource to an Egyptian Reconstructionist group like the House. In reality, Ramessu turned out to be an undersocialized, anti-semitic fantasy role game player from Texas, who spent most of his time online with (other?) teenaged role playing gamers, when he wasn't fighting to avoid having to grow up.

Having entered this discussion in mid stream, without knowing much of the background of those in it, I failed to see what now seems obvious. Leah was present on the boards to sell a theology that didn't seem to be very compatible with that of the House - that the netjeru were to be thought of as being 'forces', not people - or maybe not. Pinning her down to a position proved to be quite the challenge for the House members taking part. For somebody like "Ramessu", however, who placed his own ego above all, the notion of a theology which would suggest that the gods might be things to be commanded rather than people to be learned from and obeyed, must have seemed irresistable.

Without mentioning that she was a member of Leah's organization or connected to her in any way, Ankhesenamun soon gave an 'answer' to Renee's question, which was little more than a sales pitch for Renee's position. Ramessu, apparently seeing how convenient Leah's beliefs would be, where they true, for getting him what he wanted, decided to make them true through an act of will, good Nietzschean that he was, 'arguing' with Ankhesenamun in the feeblest of ways, in order to win victory for Ankhesenamun's side.

At this point, suspecting nothing this manipulative, I jumped into the argument to support Ankhesenamun, who seemed to be getting insulted without reason, Ramessu misrepresenting his arguments. Ramessu replied, in his usual trollish fashion, by going on the attack, and engaging in a little character assassination. I replied to some of Ramessu's arguments on a philosophical level, and then defended myself and Ankhesenamun from Ramessu's attacks.

Ramessu responded with a personal attack, ironically backing up a false charge that I had misrepresented his arguments (continuing the theme that I was "libeling" him), through a misrepresentation of my arguments, and capping it all off with a rant in which he argued that the Jews were responsible for their own murders at the hands of the Nazis. (It was already known on the board that I had come to Hellenism from Judaism). This, I gave a mild rebuttal to, remarkably mild considering the fact that a good chunk of my family had come from Lyons, correcting his history, and objecting to his personal attacks and misrepresentations.

Khen, one of Leah's fellow Aset worshippers, then managed to set a new low among netcops on Neopagan sites, by scolding me for objecting to said personal attacks and broad anti-semitism. I couldn't believe what I was reading. Having offered an apology for feeding the trolls that went up after Ramessu made his post (but before I read it), I then took issue with Khen, for whom, to this day, I could not pretend to have the least amount of respect. Her willful deafness on this occasion set the tone for much of what would follow, as the easily confirmable lies of trolls would be taken at face value, by those who would refuse to look.

Though I didn't know it at the time, a torch was about to be passed. Ramessu offered one last smugly self-righteous bit of trolling, as an apparently new troll we'll call himself "John" chose this thread as an opportunity to introduce himself. Before he left, though, Ramessu was good enough to share his real e-mail address with me, on the boards (in public), which proved helpful when I looked into his background, and discovered that the situation had been far more absurd than I had even imagined. The 'invaluable resource' that some had urged me to sacrifice my right to self-expression and self-respect for the sake of, was nothing more than the feedback of another online geek from Texas. "It couldn't have happened to a nicer group", I found myself thinking.

Click here to return to "Meeting the Pharoah".