We all put out a force field. We all attract people into our life, even internet trolls, even rapists, even murderers. There’s rarely a murder or a rape, I suspect, where the victim did not do something stupid to put herself at risk.
I pull out a specific example of one of his Tweets. It says: “Rape is always OK.”
“That is not an acceptable thing to say in public life,” I say to Mark.
“Yep, well that was because the discussion that was happening [online] was about defending rape victims and then someone actually said: ‘Rape is never OK’ so then I replied to that with ‘Rape is always OK,’ just to get a reaction,” he responds.
Me: “But why? If you are someone who has suffered sexual assault, that is such a wounding thing to say. It’s horrendous.”
Mark: “Because if you are a victim of sexual assault, you are open to it. You’ve already got a weakness to that kind of stuff.”
Me: “So you are targeting a person at their weakest point?”
Mark: “Yeah, pretty much.”
…Not always, but often it is women that are under attack.
“Well yeah it is because women are generally weaker,” Mark says, “they are more easily offended and easier to anger and stuff like that.”
Me: “You’re not choosing them because of misogyny, you’re choosing them because they are an easy target?”
Mark: “Yeah generally you can say something about their kids which is gonna set them off pretty quickly. Like you could post what school they go to and stuff like that. That’s gonna get them really angry.”
“I don’t actually have any problem with them being a woman. I’m doing it because at that moment it time, I’m going to get a better reaction out of them.”
…Mark doesn’t just hurt other people, he goes so far as to blame them for becoming a victim.
“You are not just going to go after a random person. You are going to go after a person you already know has a weakness. So people kind of, in some way, make themselves victims,” he says.
