User:Filll Obama "birther" ringleader Options Rating

[Kato]

As noted on another thread, Filll (T-C-L-K-R-D) , who was a primary voice on the WikiVoices (formerly Not The Wikipedia Weekly) radio show, a regular Defender of The Wiki, and someone quick to attack Wikipedia Review whenever he could, is a leading light in the Obama "Birther" conspiracy theory. He came to this site's attention during his bitter battles on WP with Moulton last year.

Filll, using his real name Robert Stevens, is all over the internet trotting the old line that Obama's birth certificate is faked, blah blah blah.

Here Filll has a blog on the matter, where he discusses the WP article on Birther "Queen" Orly Taitz (T-H-L-K-D) and makes all kinds of weird claims in the comment section. Filll was an early editor of the WP bio creating a version in user space. A now deleted YouTube video from some unknown adversary claims that Filll manages the blog for Orly Taitz, the woman pushing these baseless Obama theories in public.

Filll previously went through a right wing phase of blogging against crazy Muslim strawmen arguments of his own creation. Later, after his WP dispute with Moulton, Filll wrote that he was afraid of "getting killed" and wrote a long preposterous essay about Wikipedia Review (which now seems to have disappeared).*

*Update: Found it.
User:Filll/Wikipedia Review reviewed - and here's WR's response.

[dtobias]

Weird... I thought his big thing on WP was to stringently oppose "fringe theories" (e.g., Intelligent Design) and the people who try to "push" them?

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[One]

Once an anti-fringe crusader, now a fringe-pusher? Are we sure this is the same guy?

[GlassBeadGame]

Once an anti-fringe crusader, now a fringe-pusher? Are we sure this is the same guy?

Don't ArbCom members has CheckUser abilities or at least other with same at their beakon call? You tell us.

Please, no nerd crap about "beck and call."

[Kato]

Once an anti-fringe crusader, now a fringe-pusher? Are we sure this is the same guy?

Here's Filll working on the Orly Taitz article in his user space. He made a bunch of edits on January 16th, a day after this mysterious user Huckit (T-C-L-K-R-D) created the biography.

Whoever it is that really has it in for Filll has created a kind of video timeline.

http://www.dipity.com/timeline/Orly-Taitz-Wikipedia

Presumably it is the same guy who has created this blog about Filll, which is a real mess and hard to follow.

http://filll-fan-club.blogspot.com/

[Milton Roe]

Once an anti-fringe crusader, now a fringe-pusher? Are we sure this is the same guy?

I think not. Our WP user:Filll is the semi-nerdly French-Canadian biology teacher (naturally liberal) with the facebook pic (looks to be in his early 30's) and want of girlfriends, in Bowie? Maryland (I need to look at the Filll thread again-- hey how come no Filll thread in the notable editor forum?). The Bob Stevens dude of the fringe ideas is probably the right-wing M.D. who seems a generation older.

They might have the same name and even live in the same state, but it's a common name and there must be lot of them around there.

[Kato]

Once an anti-fringe crusader, now a fringe-pusher? Are we sure this is the same guy?

I think not. Our WP user:Filll is the semi-nerdly French-Canadian biology teacher (naturally liberal) with the facebook pic (looks to be in his early 30's) and want of girlfriends, in Bowie? Maryland (I need to look at the Filll thread again-- hey how come no Filll thread in the notable editor forum?). The Bob Stevens dude of the fringe ideas is probably the right-wing M.D. who seems a generation older.

They might have the same name and even live in the same state, but it's a common name and there must be lot of them around there.

Milton please. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/dry.gif)

Then why does Bob Stevens (who we know is Filll) write a blog post about editing the Wikipedia article on Orly Taitz and keeping it from deletion, the same day User:Filll edits the bio and keeps it from deletion?

I don't spend time peppering original posts with links for fun, you know. Nor do I pull these kinds of things out of my ass (unlike certain people here). (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/hrmph.gif)

[Moulton]

Filll, as Kato noted above, has been active on Skype for many years.

He landed on a right-wing Skypecast that called itself "Skype Assholes" (they even have a web site promoting their show, which runs 24/7). It was there that "Appliantologist" ran into Filll Bob Stevens (Bob.in.MD) and contacted me. Since then, "Appliantologist" has recorded some of the racist rants on the Skypecast, including those of Filll, which he then posted on YouTube, with links thereto from a blog called Filll-Fan-Club.

I have no idea how or why Filll descended from his IDCab role on the English Wikipedia into the openly racist character he has become today, but there is no doubt that it's the same person. His voice is quite recognizable on the Skypcasts, and his Skype ID is well known from his previous appearances on NotTheWikipediaWeekly.

It's all rather bizarre, and begging for analysis.

Note, also, that Filll was a disciple of FeloniousMonk and lamented the decision of ArbCom to act against FM.

Incidentally, Appliantologist compiled a fair amount of additional research to confirm that Filll is Robert Evan Stevens, a one-time climate modeler who lived and worked in Bowie MD.

[Kato]

I have no idea how or why Filll descended from his IDCab role on the English Wikipedia into the openly racist character he has become today, but there is no doubt that it's the same person.

I listened to one of the Skypecasts, where Filll was "in character" as an obnoxious right wing talk show host. And it is the same voice as the Filll who was a regular on NotTheWikipediaWeekly.

All of this, the racist diatribes, the anti-Obama thing, is certainly the same guy as Filll on WP. Last year, when his crazy anti-Muslim rants were exposed, it dawned on me that this guy is either a bona-fide crack-pot, or descending into one very rapidly, and figured it best not to comment further.

This new development, where Filll is providing back-up for the Obama birther movement is just too weird to keep quiet about.

[Moulton]

When Appliantologist first contacted me, after hearing Filll taking my name in vain on the Skype Assholes audiocast, I was skeptical it was the same person.

While I was talking to Appliantologist (on the phone), he patched me into the Skypecast, where Filll was holding forth. After I continued to express skepticsim, Filll proved to me his identity by recalling obscure details of our previous encounters that no one else would have known.

And, like Kato, I was able to confirm his nasal voice and style of speech was indeed that of Filll from the old WP Skypecasts.

Orly Taitz mentions Bob Stevens by name as her web site manager in a Birther's Movement press conference that Appliantologist reposted on YouTube.

So I have no doubt it's our own Filll Bob Stevens, who seems to have gone off the deep end since my first encounter with him two years ago.

[Kato]

So I have no doubt it's our own Filll Bob Stevens, who seems to have gone off the deep end since my first encounter with him two years ago.

You can see a change in Filll here: In the first of Filll's ill judged AGF Challenges, Filll constructs hypothetical cases which he believes challenge Wikipedia's "commitment" to assuming good faith in the face of FRINGE THEORIES. These exercises are silly but fairly random in scope, meaning that the exercise retains some credibility .

Filll wrote a follow-up; AGF Challenge 2. This time round, thinly-veiled anti-Muslim sentiment had crept into the questions, and a couple of them referred to real life cases that had got him hot under the collar at Wikipedia. This made Filll look obsessive and a poor judge of just about anything, let alone complicated FRINGE THEORIES.

A year on, it is shown that Filll is so bad at judging these things, he fell for the Obama Birther nonsense!

Case dismissed.

[TungstenCarbide]

Filll, using his real name Bob Stevens, is all over the internet trotting the old line that Obama's birth certificate is faked, blah blah blah.

That's a brilliant strategy by the way; demanding that Obama prove his innocence without really presenting evidence of guilt. If Obama concedes and makes his documentation public then that will open the door to an endless stream of fat maggots demanding ever more proof of innocence for imagined crimes. If he doesn't, they can just spend the foreseeable future spreading dissent, twisting his inaction as proof of guilt.

[Moulton]

Filll, using his real name Bob Stevens, is all over the internet trotting the old line that Obama's birth certificate is faked, blah blah blah.

That's a brilliant strategy by the way; demanding that Obama prove his innocence without really presenting evidence of guilt. If Obama concedes and makes his documentation public then that will open the door to an endless stream of fat maggots demanding ever more proof of innocence for imagined crimes. If he doesn't, they can just spend the foreseeable future spreading dissent, twisting his inaction as proof of guilt.

Actually, it doesn't work that way. The State of Hawaii is the custodian of record when it comes to establishing the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate. Hawaiian officials all the way up to the Governor of the state have attested that his birth certificate is authentic. Moreover, there were announcement of his birth in the newspapers as well. There is no way they could have been faked.

[Kato]

Filll, using his real name Bob Stevens, is all over the internet trotting the old line that Obama's birth certificate is faked, blah blah blah.

That's a brilliant strategy by the way; demanding that Obama prove his innocence without really presenting evidence of guilt. If Obama concedes and makes his documentation public then that will open the door to an endless stream of fat maggots demanding ever more proof of innocence for imagined crimes. If he doesn't, they can just spend the foreseeable future spreading dissent, twisting his inaction as proof of guilt.

Actually, it doesn't work that way. The State of Hawaii is the custodian of record when it comes to establishing the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate. Hawaiian officials all the way up to the Governor of the state have attested that his birth certificate is authentic. Moreover, there were announcement of his birth in the newspapers as well. There is no way they could have been faked.

Orly Taitz, Filll's new mentor, produced a faked Kenyan birth certificate suggesting that Obama was really born in Mombasa, Kenya. Unfortunately, this birth cert stated it was issued by the Republic of Kenya. Which is unusual given that Kenya was known as the Dominion of Kenya at the time the document was supposedly issued, and no such surrounding genuine documents would use that title.

[TungstenCarbide]

Filll, using his real name Bob Stevens, is all over the internet trotting the old line that Obama's birth certificate is faked, blah blah blah.

That's a brilliant strategy by the way; demanding that Obama prove his innocence without really presenting evidence of guilt. If Obama concedes and makes his documentation public then that will open the door to an endless stream of fat maggots demanding ever more proof of innocence for imagined crimes. If he doesn't, they can just spend the foreseeable future spreading dissent, twisting his inaction as proof of guilt.

Actually, it doesn't work that way. The State of Hawaii is the custodian of record when it comes to establishing the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate. Hawaiian officials all the way up to the Governor of the state have attested that his birth certificate is authentic. Moreover, there were announcement of his birth in the newspapers as well. There is no way they could have been faked.

Ya, but the endless supply of nuts have this constant refrain; "Why doesn't he just make his full birth certificate public, what does he have to hide". This is repeated over and over again (they generally leave out the part about Hawaii's governor). It's a brilliant smear job.

Orly Taitz, Filll's new mentor, produced a faked Kenyan birth certificate suggesting that Obama was really born in Mombasa, Kenya. Unfortunately, this birth cert stated it was issued by the Republic of Kenya. Which is unusual given that Kenya was known as the Dominion of Kenya at the time the document was supposedly issued, and no such surrounding genuine documents would use that title.

(IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/laugh.gif)

This post has been edited by TungstenCarbide:

[Kato]

Ya, but the endless supply of nuts have this constant refrain; "Why doesn't he just make his full birth certificate public, what does he have to hide". This is repeated over and over again (they generally leave out the part about Hawaii's governor). It's a brilliant smear job.

It is public and has been online for over a year.

http://msgboard.snopes.com/politics/graphics/birth.jpg

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp

[dtobias]

Orly Taitz, Filll's new mentor, produced a faked Kenyan birth certificate suggesting that Obama was really born in Mombasa, Kenya. Unfortunately, this birth cert stated it was issued by the Republic of Kenya. Which is unusual given that Kenya was known as the Dominion of Kenya at the time the document was supposedly issued, and no such surrounding genuine documents would use that title.

Not to mention that somebody else found an Australian birth certificate from the same time period that was online in a genealogy site which exactly matched the alleged Kenyan one, complete with the document numbers in the corner, making it clear that the faker had used that as the starting point. Web archives show that this version was online long before the alleged Obama one (but conspiracy theorists will claim that's faked too).

[TungstenCarbide]

Ya, but the endless supply of nuts have this constant refrain; "Why doesn't he just make his full birth certificate public, what does he have to hide". This is repeated over and over again (they generally leave out the part about Hawaii's governor). It's a brilliant smear job.

It is public and has been online for over a year.

http://msgboard.snopes.com/politics/graphics/birth.jpg

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthcertificate.asp

apparently there's a 'long form' version that has not been made public, or so the nut jobs say.

Here you go, Kato. You'll get a kick out of this guy.

This post has been edited by TungstenCarbide:

[Moulton]

Irony upon irony.

The whole ID brouhaha emerged from a statement (originally signed almost a decade ago by some 100 scientists and academics) urging that people adhere to the protocols of the scientific method when examining and evaluating theories. The basic method of science is to try like the dickens to disprove any hypothesis before accepting it as a serious contender in the search for scientific truth.

Here is a case where disproof is laughably trivial, rendering the contentions of the birthers untenable by any reasonable standard of evidentiary proof.

This is the same error IDCab made when it adopted the untenable thesis that those same 100 scientists and academics were supporters of Intelligent Design. Not only was there no evidence to support that ludicrous claim, there was copious evidence to disprove it. And yet IDCab muscled that troublesome falsehood into dozens of articles and BLPs.

Filll and his ilk seem to be hell bent on enmeshing themselves in lunatic political drama, in contravention of the most basic tenets of scientific inquiry.

[Kato]

Most of these guys get shown up in the end. JzG, Gary Weiss, Filll, JoshuaZ, Jossi, Chip Berlet etc.

What's interesting is how many people at WP look at their cases early on, and don't conclude that these people are tripping out-of-their minds and clearly in the wrong. Regardless of the often misplaced tactics of their adversaries here, the offenders get away with it for months and sometimes years under the protection of Wikipedia clans. And it can be a concerted effort to get others to see rational sense and stop protecting these loons and their bad behaviour.

To be fair, justice isn't helped by the quantity of utter morons that roll up at this site at a regular rate. Bad, self-indulgent critics here devalue genuine criticisms and limit the occasions when we can identify abuse with credible evidence. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/ermm.gif)