Readers have been mocking me for months now for falling silent just after I boasted that I hadn't, while my evil twin brother has been spewing out his pro-Bush propaganda almost every day.

And it's not just my supposed hypocrisy that bothers people. They complain about everything! I'll post some of the hate mail I've received, just so you can see what a lone voice of truth has to live with these days.

One reader writes:

Mr Medvedsilnyn,

I respectfully disagree with your assertion that several million people were killed in the war in Afghanistan. Noam Chomsky's October 2001 claim about a "silent genocide" has later been disowned by himself - and no proof of such a genocide has ever been found. In the name of honesty and fairness, I suggest you retract it.

Adrian Mayall

This is how the murky brown segment of the right operates these days. If they can't dispute your facts, they start calling for censorship. Sorry, "Adrian", I won't delete that post. I refuse to censor my views just because they contradict your rosy-red worldview.

Did millions die in Afghanistan? Does Noam Chomsky still believe so? Who knows? But there's a larger truth here, one the rightofascist brigades refuse to acknowledge: When the Americans used 9/11 as a pretext to invade Afghanistan, they very well could have caused a humanitarian disaster that might have killed millions of people. But they did so anyway, with no regard for the terrible price the Afghan people could be forced to pay - and might still have to, unless things begin to stabilize.

I did some checking up on this mr Adrian Mayall. He went far to hide it, but I've learned that he mailed me from a computer in the mit.edu domain. Is it a coincidence, mr Mayall, that you're affiliated with the same university Noam Chomsky works for? Why do you want to smear his reputation? Revenge? Blackmail? Promoting your own career? What's your agenda? I believe that's a more interesting question than whether I got all the details right about the silent genocide in Afghanistan. I've notified MIT about your activities, mr Mayall. Let's see how easy you find it to smear Noam Chomsky without a mail account to do it from.

More hate mail:

Comrade,

I am a fellow Communist of the old school. Like you, I don't agree with everything Stalin did, (the way some people abandon all their critical senses in their worship of Stalin is sickening), but I appreciate that he was a product of his circumstances, and that he often had no choice but to make tough decisions. Like you, I despise George W. Bush and everything he stands for, and I second your call for a global workers' revolution against fat cats, sycophants and lapdogs of all varieties. I very much appreciated your review of the Two Towers, which really opened my mind to the insidious agenda of J.R.R. Tolkien. You're doing a great job, and I hope you find time to begin blogging again.

I am concerned, however, by one of the faces I notice in your banner. Is that Adolf Hitler I see, furthest to the right? Why would you display the face of a man who killed millions of people, and who without provocation invaded the socialist workers' state of Josef Stalin? Adolf Hitler hated communism. You do know that, right?

Rik Edmondson

Here we go again. The wacko attacko never ends. After a brief opening designed to lull me with obvious flattery, Rik Edmondson brings out his poison dagger at the end: You're a Nazi! You support Adolf Hitler!

Sigh. How often do I have to repeat this? I am not a Nazi. I do not support Adolf Hitler. That is not the face of Adolf Hitler up in the banner. See for yourself. This is what Adolf Hitler really looked like. They don't look anything alike. The checkbone is different, the moustache is smaller, even the lighting and pose is different!

But why spend time attempting to prove that I'm not a Nazi, when that is exactly what mr Edmondson wants me to do? If you can make someone deny that they're a Nazi, that's almost as good as an admission. It sows doubt. Could there be something to it? Could Comrade Medvedsilnyn really be a secret admirer of Adolf Hitler?

When you allow doubt like that to creep into your mind, slime like Rik Edmondson will have won.

So let's turn the gun a bit. Who is Rik Edmondson? Why does he want people to believe I'm a Nazi? Why does any right-wing propagandist spread wicked anti-socialist rumours? Because they're afraid. Because they know the revolution is coming, and there's not a thing they can do about it. As for who this guy really is, I don't know. The mail came from an account at hotmail.com, which is registered to a company called Microsoft. You may have heard of it. I don't know if there is a multinational corporation standing behind this, or if mr "Edmondson" works alone, but this fact certainly puts his fairy tale about "old school" Communism into doubt, doesn't it?

Luckily not all mail I get is hate-filled right-wing poison. I have a lot of intelligent and well-informed readers. But it's just fair to warn anyone out there who has considered speaking up with their concerns about capitalism and George W. Bush as I have: They'll come for you. They'll come for you with all the lies and all the hatred they've got. They'll tear you down if you let them. Don't let them. As long as there is just one lone tower of truth and honesty left in the blogosphere, there is hope.