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| A dramatic representation of Patrick Sean Manchester's recent series of complaints about the author. Picture: Sony Pictures Releasing via Nerds and Beyond. |
At the time of writing most of the first instalment, I did not realise Mr. Patrick Sean Manchester had made several other posts about me on his Facebook group, The Cross & the Stake. I will now take the opportunity to address those, too.
First, there is his rebuttal to a blog post that delved into his extremist, far-right nationalist leanings and Nazi fetishism. Overlaid on an uncredited partial screencap of my post, Mr. Manchester writes "No, Hogg, you beg to differ, along with your Marxist chums, while more and more people are agreeing with †Seán Manchester that all war is pure and utter lunacy."
Now, I'm a pacifist myself, but this response needs some context. Mr. Manchester was blaming Britain for the Nazi devastation of Europe during World War 2, i.e. if they hadn't butted in, it would have been a lot less worse: "Had Great Britain not declared war on Germany in the wake of a conveniently manufactured agreement with Poland that was designed to be violated, perhaps the sixty million people killed, which was over 2.5% of the world population, might for the most part have survived? Hitler certainly did not want a war with Great Britain on whose Empire he modelled his Third Reich. My country's action resulted in the worst and deadliest military conflict in history. It should have been avoided by every measure available."
That notion is, of course, utterly ridiculous considering Nazi Germany's Lebensraum ambitions, but not too surprising from a Nazi apologist. However, in the same post Mr. Manchester refutes this assessment: "I AM UTTERLY AMAZED THAT MY OPPOSITION TO WAR — INDEED, I HAVE PUBLICLY OPPOSED ALL WARS OCCURRING IN MY LIFETIME — CAN BE TWISTED BY ANTHONY HOGG INTO 'DEFENDING THE NAZI INVASION OF EUROPE.' I STAND BY MY WORDS (QUOTED ON TOP OF THE PAGE) AND SHALL CONTINUE TO PROUDLY ENDORSE THE SENTIMENTS THEY EXPRESS."
I'd day blaming Britain for Nazi atrocities and the scale of WW2 can be reasonably qualified as "DEFENDING THE NAZI INVASION OF EUROPE" don't you?
Later, in third person, Mr. Manchester remarks "BISHOP MANCHESTER IS NOBODY'S APOLOGIST; HOGG IS AN APOLOGIST FOR SATANISTS." Here, Mr. Manchester clearly has a flimsy grasp on the meaning of "apologetics," in not only overlooking his own defense of Nazi Germany at the expense of Great Britain, but also wildly casting the concept around to include a nonsense statement about me being an apologist for Satanists. In what capacity, he isn't clear. The only thing I'd defend is their right to practice their faith, as we all do in a free society, and salient points they make on the hypocrisies of religion in mainstream society (e.g. the trolling and counter-protests of the Satanic Temple).
This, of course, is probably just another smokescreen for Mr. Manchester's own history with Satanism, a religion he practiced under the guise of "Lord Manchester."
Next up is a lengthy diatribe by Mr. Manchester, screencapped from some uncited Facebook post, about me and my colleague, Erin Chapman (accompanied by a pic stolen from a Vamped article she wrote, tinted with some sepia filter). Now, since Mr. Manchester's post appears sans context, I will do my best to address what he might be getting at.
It begins with a classic case of psychological projection from a man who regularly writes nasty comments and falsehoods about me:
You write about me in the most negative, misleading and distorted manner possible, and have done so for in excess of a decade.
I dispute that. I think I hold Mr. Manchester's claims and behaviour to the light of day. As I'm doing with this post. I provide quotes, links and/or citations so readers may have a common reference point—if I'm distorting anything, readers can easily call me on it by checking the references for themselves. This is a courtesy Mr. Manchester does not provide me, often taking my comments and material out of context specifically to smear me, as shown in this very post.
What about other people’s claims? How is it that you are not writing about them, save very infrequently, or in anything like the same abusive fashion?
Yet another falsehood. First, just on the Highgate Vampire topic alone, nearly all the posts I made on this very blog about Manchester's nemesis, David Farrant, were critical. One can easily see that by clicking on the "David Farrant" label link on the sidebar of this blog (https://dawwih.blogspot.com/search/label/David%20Farrant). That's one hundred and thirty posts in which he is a primary topic of discussion. I dispute Farrant's narrative, his criticisms, his recollection of events, the works. That's likely why Farrant wasn't a fan of mine, either.
Here, Mr. Manchester is trying to play victim; framing fair criticism as a torrent of abuse. In my view, this is a ruse to throw people off the scent of his own appalling behaviour, falsehoods and dubious claims.
When somebody confines entire websites, blogs and probably dozens of Facebook groups to attacking just one person over a period of more than ten years that, by any definition is indubitably obsessive. There is nothing “unChristian” in what I have written. What you are doing, and have done over many years, however, is unChristian.
The lies in that post are inexcusable. First, my primary website (not counting the site dedicated to my organisation, the Vampire Studies Association [https://vampirestudies.org/], which will be undergoing some major redevelopment) is Vamped (https://vamped.org/), a general interest vampire site. Mr. Manchester has occasionally featured (https://vamped.org/tag/sean-manchester/), primarily in context with his "investigation" of the Highgate Vampire case, but he is not the website's primary topic.
As to blogs, I've created a handful over the years—none dedicated to a single person. This blog, for instance, focused on the Highgate Vampire case and the personalities involved. I previously wrote Diary of an Amateur Vampirologist (http://doaav.blogspot.com/), which later morphed to The Vampirologist (http://thevampirologist.blogspot.com/) before landing on a Wordpress version of the blog (https://thevampirologist.wordpress.com/).
In what I can only class as yet another case of psychological projection gone wild, it's Mr. Manchester who has actually created blogs about other people; specifically his nemesis, David Farrant (e.g. David Farrant Obituary, https://davidfarrantobituary.blogspot.com/), Kevin Chesham (e.g. Kevin Chesham Q & A, https://kev-chesham.blogspot.com/), various perceived enemies (Antipathetic Voices, http://antipatheticvoices.blogspot.com/) and, yes, even yours truly (Hoggwatch, http://hoggwatch.blogspot.co.uk/ [site discontinued]). Sidenote: Mr. Manchester launched that blog about me under a fake identity, before revealing himself to be the true author when he issued a copyright claim against me for posting a link to it (!) on Facebook.
I think it goes without saying that Mr. Manchester's remarks on the practice of my faith are more than a little hypocritical, but I accept the notion that my remarks can't always be considered Christ-like. The difference, of course, is that I acknowledge that; Mr. Manchester remains unrepentant. And he's a "bishop" (as he likes to keep reminding us).
Notes
the first instalment: Hogg, "Mr. Manchester Does Not Want to Be Called 'Mr.' & Other Gripes," Did a Wampyr Walk in Highgate? (blog), January 2, 2021, https://dawwih.blogspot.com/2021/01/mr-manchester-does-not-want-to-be.html.
a blog post that delved into his extremist, far-right nationalist leanings: Hogg, "Response to Patrick Sean Manchester's Remarks About My Political and Religious Views, and Purpose of My Facebook Group," Did a Wampyr Walk in Highgate? (blog), December 27, 2020, https://dawwih.blogspot.com/2020/12/response-to-patrick-sean-manchesters.html.
"No, Hogg, you beg to differ, along with your Marxist chums": Manchester [The Cross & The Stake, pseud.], "No, Hogg, you beg to differ, along with your Marxist chums," Facebook, January 1, 2021, https://www.facebook.com/VampireResearchSociety/posts/2181196232011832.
"Had Great Britain not declared war on Germany": Manchester, Manchester, "Detractors," "The struggle can take many turns and directions." — Kevin Chesham (Dec 2009) (blog), April 8, 2012, http://kevin-chesham.blogspot.com/2012/04/detractors.html.
"I AM UTTERLY AMAZED THAT MY OPPOSITION TO WAR": Manchester, "No, Hogg, you beg to differ." The comments follow an image a sieg heiling pig, with a Nazi armband, captioned "Pig Heil"—in what appears to be a childish dig at my surname—over another caption reading "The Anthony Hogg Nazi Smear [?] Campaign," offsided with a photo of me, used without my permission.
"BISHOP MANCHESTER IS NOBODY'S APOLOGIST": Manchester, "No, Hogg, you beg to differ."
a religion he practiced under the guise of "Lord Manchester": see plate captioned "Lord Manchester chargeant le poignard du sacrifice, au cours d’un rituel magique" in Jean-Paul Bourre, Messes rouges et romantisme noir (Nice: Editions Alain Lefeuvre, 1980).
a pic stolen from a Vamped article: Chapman, "Trip to Texas: The Vampire Studies Symposium and More," Vamped, April 9, 2016, https://vamped.org/2016/04/09/trip-to-texas-the-vampire-studies-symposium-and-more. I took the picture.
"You write about me in the most negative, misleading and distorted manner": Manchester, "You write about me in the most negative, misleading and distorted manner," January 1, 2021, https://www.facebook.com/VampireResearchSociety/photos/a.974803782651089/2181200215344767. Unless otherwise noted, subsequent quotes are derived from this post.
and, yes, even yours truly: For a more detailed discussion of the blog, see Hogg, "My Number One Fan," The Vampirologist (blog), April 30, 2014, https://thevampirologist.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/my-number-one-fan.
revealing himself to be the true author: Hogg, "Suspended from Posting to Facebook for Three Days," Did a Wampyr Walk in Highgate? (blog), November 26, 2013, https://dawwih.blogspot.com/2013/11/suspended-from-posting-to-facebook-for.html.
