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Unmasking The Trolls

9/22/2020

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Author: Bret Gordon
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The power of trolls comes from their anonymity. The moment their true identities are exposed is when they lose any sense of control they think they have over the situation. There are many reasons for the pseudonyms, all of which are designed to protect the troll. Some justify their fake names and lack of willingness to be seen by saying that their lives have been threatened in the past, to which I respond by saying maybe people would stop wanting to kill them if they minded their own business and stopped trying to ruin other peoples' lives? Some use fake names to avoid having to answer for their slander and libel. Regardless of why they do it, every troll has one thing in common: they are really good at hiding. Whether it's a single troll or an elaborate group of trolls sharing the same pseudonym and social media account to further conceal their identity, they all live in fear of being exposed for the cowards they are. 

If anything has come from this past of year of trolling, I have gained a better understanding of just what the procedure is to file a lawsuit on someone running their mouth on the internet and the requirements/limitations for doing so. I have also learned that anyone who forwards you a video saying "you should sue this guy" also has no understanding of the process. For example, most trolls are in another time zone. To file a lawsuit, you must secure an attorney in their state... Something most don't have the time or money to do, and that's if you even know their real identity. It also comes down to what they're saying. No matter how many times they scream you are a fraud and your certificates are fake or invalid, there is nothing you can do about it. That is an opinion, apparently. 

But every now and then, a troll makes a mistake. They say something truly defamatory and slanderous/libelous, and they reveal their identity through careless arrogance. This article will expose one such troll...

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Gerald Greysmith claims to run an organization called Greysmith Investigations, an organization dedicated to exposing fake martial artists. He portrays himself very professionally, and is rather thorough in his presentation of "evidence" leaving very little to be left unsaid. Like his infamous counterpart, Lordus Sapiens, Mr. Greysmith pads his articles with just enough believable half-truths to make sure you don't question the rest of the garbage the article contains. 

I will give Mr. Greysmith credit as the most amusing troll I have ever dealt with. Many of our communication has been in movie quotes, such as this line from Tombstone, "It would appear Mr. Greysmith is an educated man, now I really hate him." He has kept me entertained throughout this charade, and I continue to engage with him purely out of enjoyment.

In his arrogance, the person (or people as it would turn out) behind the Greysmith persona have made several grave errors that would lead to the destruction of his anonymity. 

It all started when I wrote an expos
é (click here) on Barron Shepherd, one of the people joining in on the bullying with ad hominem attacks claiming I was an incompetent martial artist simply because I do not have abs like he does. I will certainly give him credit for returning to such great shape after being run over by a semi-truck. I could probably get back into fighting shape, but milkshakes are my friend. Anyway, Barron supposedly contacted Mr. Greysmith to look into me in retaliation for what I wrote. 

Early on in this "investigation," I actually spoke to someone claiming to be Mr. Greysmith on the phone. Later, I saw a video of Barron Shepherd talking about Ron Collins, a well-known fraud and pedophile in the martial arts. Imagine my surprise when it was the exact same voice... Could it be that Mr. Greysmith was actually Barron all along? I certainly made that prediction in a previous article (click here), but it's actually more complicated than that. 

​One of the more vocal haters on BSMA is a guy named Dale Dugas. You can read about how I "embarrassed" him by calling him out for making a fake challenge, demanding I name a time and place to fight, and then bailing on two separate occasions when I agreed to meet by clicking here. He was so hurt by this that in a recent video, he even said he's going to make us all pay for laughing at him. Sorry Dale, but you embarrassed yourself with that one.

He claims I "slandered and libeled" him in my account of our interaction when I said he likes recreational marijuana, since apparently he has a prescription for his cannabis use. He claims he's going to sue me for such, but he's not going to sue me for the same reason I know he never had any intention of fighting me... He won't stop talking about it. I did post an official retraction at the bottom of said article of that fact, and let this serve as one as well. There, now we can be friends again. 

But in his show of bravado, from the random challenge he issued without us even knowing each other, to all of the videos he made first trying to coax me into the fight and then other random drivel, he has done exactly what he accused another of doing in his own blog a few years ago, from another internet feud he was in. Dale does seem to get into a lot of these. I wonder how he has any time for his actual job? In his post about his feud with Thomas Daw, Dale was so kind as to detail the Florida statutes for threatening and stalking as you can see.

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I wonder if making a video saying he was going to essentially debilitate both my teacher and myself, tie us into pretzels and force us to submit, would qualify as a threat? These displays of masculinity, lifting up his shirt to display his lack of suntan and beating his stomach, could only be taken as shows of aggression meant to intimidate me, and boy was I shaking as I waited for him. I'm pretty sure King Kong beat his chest also, and you can see the same behavior in gorillas on any Discovery Channel special. But Dale wouldn't blatantly make a threat, would he? 

​Now, maybe not so surprisingly, one of the biggest supporters of Dale for his excuses not to show up was none other than Mr. Greysmith, who falsely claimed it takes four hours to get from Dale to me and I didn't give him a fair amount of time, although a simple Google Maps search will show it should only take an hour and 48 minutes. In our private emails, Mr. Greysmith was very insistent on getting me and Dale on the mat (see below). Pay close attention to how he signs his emails "GG." This will become important shortly...
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Fast forward a few days to when the recent situation regarding Patrick Justice and the American Jidokwan Association (read Part 1 and Part 2) came to light. Our trolls felt this was their "ace in the hole," the one thing that could bring down myself and my teacher Steven Hatfield after all previous attempts to prove we are frauds failed. And in their haste to bring this information to light, Mr. Greysmith made several errors that would reveal his identity. 

First, Mr. Dugas would release a screenshot of an email I sent to Mr. Greysmith. Of course, there are plenty of explanations for this, like Mr. Greysmith sent the screenshot to him... Except of course it shows that Dale was on the web browser himself and logged into the account, so he took it himself. 
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And here's the same email on my end showing it was sent to Mr. Greysmith and not Dale's email...
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Now within minutes, the original post by Dale with the screenshot was removed and an updated version with the URL bar cropped out. But that's ok, there's more...

As we continued discussing the Patrick Justice situation, I reached out wanting to speak to Mr. Greysmith on the phone or video conference. However I was told that we have nothing more to discuss. Interesting that he would speak to me on the phone before, but not now. Knowing I was planning to release Part 2 of the article above, I told him to keep an eye on my blog. After a few hours, I got this wonderful gem.

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I am confused. The email is signed "GG" just like Mr. Greysmith, but it came from a "Dr. Dale Dugas." What could this possibly mean? Oh yea... It means the idiot forgot to change accounts to his fake name before emailing me again. Give them enough time, trolls will reveal themselves. So for everyone who told me to just let it go, had I done so I never would've gotten this lovely piece of information. But can you believe, that's actually not everything? In one of three videos he posted recently, Dale actually encourages me to talk to his "alter ego" and "come clean" about the Patrick Justice situation, as if I haven't already been completely honest. Either way, I wonder who this alter ego could be...

Of course, Dr. Doofus isn't as dumb as he looks. He knows he screwed up and revealed this information. Shockingly, then Mr. Greysmith wanted to have a video conference where I am certain it will not be Dale on the other end of the camera. He has to create plausible deniability at this point (more on that later), and when I decline this video call I am confident Mr. Greysmith will release an article with a picture of "himself" to take the attention off of Dale. He has to, because he knows that everything he said is defamatory, libelous and absolutely admissible in court. He also knows I have retained a lawyer right here in the State of Florida, so unless he pawns off the actions of Mr. Greysmith onto some other random person, he's looking at a rather major lawsuit. For all the damage control he claims I am doing, he certainly seems to be scrambling himself. 


So how does Barron play into all of this? With a long history as a blogger, and with a personal vendetta, it would not surprise me if he was one of the authors of the articles written by Greysmith. The general writing style of Greysmith seems to change quite often, at times matching previous articles written by both Barron and Dale. It is also in their best interest to have a different voice on the phone than Dale, since he is rather outspoken with all of his videos and self-punishment. I mean, punching yourself in the fupa? Really, dude? ​If that's the challenge, you win. 

​There are some other indicators that Barron is at least part of the Greysmith persona. Take this photo posted by Greysmith for example:
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The gentleman in the photo certainly has the same build as Barron, and as I said before it would be beneficial to have numerous people using the same persona so that it can't be tracked down. But is a person's build alone enough to say if Barron is one-part of the Greysmith machine? Of course not. Though there is one little piece of information on the picture that's intriguing. On the left arm, we see the very bottom of a tattoo. Now, the only picture of Barron's arms publicly available of course does not have a tattoo, but that picture is also over 5 years old whereas this screenshot was posted in 2019. So Barron, if you are reading this, send me a recent picture time and date stamped of your arms. If there is no tattoo like the one shown, I will officially retract my accusation that you are in this photo. Deal?

It really doesn't matter. At this point, it is clear that Dale Dugas is at least part if not the entirety of "Gerald Greysmith." After all, he admitted on video that "GG" is a nickname his grandmother gave him (see right). If he'd like to take on the entirety of the impending lawsuit, that is his prerogative. I'm fine either way. So Dale, it appears that I am Doc Holliday in this after all. In pace requiescat. ​

P.S. - Now, the majority of this article was written a few weeks ago but I've been waiting to publish it until the right moment, and that moment is now. Just as I predicted, "Gerald Greysmith" needs to create plausible deniability to deflect from all of the errors Dale made in revealing his part. "Greysmith" claims that they intentionally made it seem like Dale was GG just to see if I would bite. However, anyone with any critical thinking ability would see right through this ruse as nothing more than an attempt to take the heat off of Dale and somehow absolve him of responsibility for his actions... But I think the courts would prefer an actual admission on video over an anonymous post from an admitted fake profile. Wouldn't you say so? 
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