Perhaps a brief history is in order – in a nutshell, I was attacked on the basis of the 3 following statements:

1. It is in all of our best interests, as business persons, to look beyond a testimonial page on a website or in a marketing brochure. Looking on the surface does not constitute due diligence, as I’ve never seen an endorsement on a website or marketing brochure that was anything but ringing.

2. My contention that SALES (not ‘independent research’ or ‘telephone name gathering’) will get an executive search firm through a recession is agreed with by not only 95% of the recruiters I know, but also fellow owners/managers at search firms.

3. My statement that the thread was an overt disregard of the professional networking site’s posting guidelines to not post content which could be construed as promotional in nature.

These 3 statements have led to the following (condensed) laundry list of terms/phrases used to seed anger and discontent in the reader’s mind from a neuro-linguistics programming perspective:

“venom”, “agenda”, “defamation”, “disparage”, “shills”, “perpetuated”, “instigated”, “distasteful”, “resent”, “insults”, “controversial”, “hostile tone”, “venting”, “disruptive”, “ugly”, “loud voice”, “conspiracy theories”, “disappeared”, “coming out swinging”, “detracts”, “is really what you’re all about”, “false accusations”, “attacks”, “incessant need to school”, “poor simpletons”, “touted your brilliance, your affiliation with the Marines and your MBA”, “You’re like a guest at a party eating all the hor’derves and criticizing the hostess”, “condescendingly”, “innuendo”, “dirty accusation”, “unsolicited”, “you know nothing”, “absolve your intention”, “The fact you are somehow trying to backpedal is rather revealing of either your ignorance”, “passive aggressive”, “not wanting to take responsibility”, “dirty insinuations”, “smokescreening”, “do-gooder”, “And if Joshua were to come to me and show me that he had little money, I would pay for part of his course with (Group Moderator). A nice discount. It sounds like he might appreciate that kindness.”

While several posts have been removed by one attacker, they are so egregious as to attack me for nearly everything with the exception of my race and religion. For example, I also received an email from one attacker stating, “You don’t have a top 10 MBA so why even tell anyone you have a MBA. It means next to nothing. . . . No wonder (the professional network) is going to kick you out.” Surprisingly, this attacker was even audacious enough to use the professional networking site’s email tool to send me this insult. Then, just when I think that the situation is diffused, I receive the following bombshell from an anonymous email account with one of the attacker’s initials at the bottom: ““U.S. Marines are nothing but body bags – too bad you’re not in Iraq.”

As of this point, my attempt to clear my name has been removed on 2 separate occasions, and I have now been informed by an employee of the professional networking site that “Unfortunately at this time I cannot allow you to repost that message.” This is censorship and chilling of free speech at its worst. At the same time, a legal threat of a lawsuit from one attacker has been allowed to remain. In other words, I am told by the professional networking site that the Group Moderator originally censored me (not them), while not censoring others, however the network then reinforces this censorship by denying me the post pursuant to the Group Moderator’s preferential censorship.

When things get to such a point that someone is attacked on the basis of their education, financial status, military background, and any & all things not even remotely related to business, this is extremely unfortunate. When these actions are harbored and the bullied party is not even able to clear their name, while the libelous & slanderous attacks are not equivocally stemmed or curbed, it’s downright shocking.