pat pope

Please allow me to introduce myself: I’m Pat Pope and I’m addicted to reading negative comments and abuse hurled at me on the internet. For the sake of my own sanity, this is me going cold turkey.

Last week I made the mistake of writing one of those Open Letters you hear about. I wrote it in response to a request from Garbage’s management company that they’d like my permission to use a photo that I took and I own in a book they intend to publish and sell for money. But they’d like to not pay me. Since it went out on the internet it’s caused a huge debate, and within that debate I’ve been called a “whiney weener”, a “shitty douchebag”, and an “egomaniac”, and I’ve been encouraged to “watch your back” because “we will find you”. I found it quite hard to read those comments, not least because I’m English and I’m not sure what two of them actually mean.  For the sake of balance, I’ve also been described as an “internet warrior” and someone who is “standing up for the little guy”, so it wasn’t all terrifying, some of it was just a bit mad. But I need to get back to my life now, so I’m turning it all off. This is my final and only comment on the whole debacle, and I just want to use it to clear up some misconceptions.