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Why was a loud-mouthed blogger suddenly silenced?
That's what some political junkies have been wondering ever since phillydecline.com, a local politics blog, shut down this month without explanation.
Why was a loud-mouthed blogger suddenly silenced?
Why was a loud-mouthed blogger suddenly silenced?
That’s what some political junkies have been wondering ever since phillydecline.com, a local politics blog, shut down this month without explanation. Aaron Proctor, the former site’s 29-year-old author and a self-described “Tea Party patriot,” has made a name for himself throughout the past few years for being a firebrand — even by Philly standards. He was celebrated (and hated) for sticking it not only to the usual suspects, like Arlene Ackerman and John Dougherty, but to fellow conservatives and local heroes, too.
He called the city’s finance department “Mayor Nutter’s Bitch Boys”; wrote that City Council candidate Michael Untermeyer smelled bad; and wondered “how many cans of Steel Reserve” GOP mayoral candidate Karen Brown drank before a debate. No one was safe — not even local leaders whose supporters, Proctor claimed on his site, routinely sent him hate mail. Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky, who dedicated a 600-word article to Proctor, called him “part gadfly, part H.L. Mencken, part Howard Stern” and said he “won’t shut up.”
But then, out of nowhere, he did just that.
City Paper tracked down Proctor to see why he got out of the game. He quit, he says, for a few reasons. Click below to find out what those are.
In Proctor's words, this is why he shut down phillydecline.com:
"Sick of this 'left-right' shit. People pointing the finger at different sides when a tragedy like Gabrielle Giffords or Norway happens. I started saying things I didn't even believe in, just because I had to 'pick a side.'
The labels are more and more insanely stupid, mostly because folks who call themselves liberal or conservative aren't either. I realize I'm just a spoke on the wheel and that things will carry on. Maybe things will get better in this town in a few decades when the people at the top naturally pass on but then again, they'll just turn everything over to their idiotic underlings and doofus sycophants.
All politics is full of a parade of ass-kissers and liars. They lie to the public, they lie to themselves. I never claimed to wear a white hat but I was more in touch with what people wanted to hear than the powers-that-be. I was guilty of caring too much. Being the voice of the voiceless should be bestowed upon a smarter, more stable person. I'm leaving politics before it swallows up my life. I'd rather quietly espouse my views to family and friends and work at a regular job.
Sick of the liars, the fakes, the well-connected and above-the-law people who do stuff like send 'I know where you live' letters to my family. [Note: Proctor declined to comment further to City Paper about these alleged threats, and refused to name names.] Politicians, get over yourselves. You're simply professional wrestlers w/o the tights and at least when they try to hide what's real and what's fake, it's for a good purpose. Republicans, Democrats, you're all full of horse crap. And I simply don't care to be a part of the problem any more. Living my life and not looking over my shoulder — that's true freedom. And that's all I'm gonna say about that."
Eye-catching, but inaccurate lede. He was burned out by politics as usual in Philly and self censured himself.— TGC- I think Proctor has honorably become a Libertarian. Good for him! I've re-registered as a Libertarian myself.— Ric B.
