I think this articulation from Derek is the best I have seen in terms of understanding his mindset.
It is probably a bit apparent that I don’t like Derek. And yet I can still love him. Similarly, I don’t like Joey Camp, Aubrey Cottle, Chad Loder, or Molly White. And yet I can still love them and I can hold an optimistic view about them. The act of sending Aubrey $444 had nothing to do with what he did, but rather it has to do with who he is: a child of the most high God. When a colleague shared the
GoFundMe story, it just seemed like the obvious thing to do. After all, love conquers all. Wise as serpents. Harmless as doves.
As for Derek's ongoing assertions about lying, these have already been debunked. However, I can see where it comes from. For example, I have stated that I generally avoid conventional churches in Seattle. He likely noted that point. It just so happens that my family recently began going to a church in nearby Bellevue that the kids like and so it became family event. It also just so happens that I also delivered a talk at a men’s prayer breakfast at the day before. As a result his claim of "You have never gone to church” was especially absurd. I have actually been to MANY physical churches, including in Seattle.
As for Derek’s disdain for some of our clients like Gab and Infowars, I certainly don’t agree with all of their content or all of their users. However, as a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, this
a priori should mean that the sites he does not like at all should be allowed to exist. In a free speech absolutist world, Joey’s sites would stay online. One man’s whistleblowing is another man’s harassment. One man’s truth is another man’s "fear porn".There is a lot of gray area. A free speech absolutist should actually be indifferent. The cognitive dissonance must be deafening.
As for Derek’s Christian faith, I don’t identify with it. I don’t claim to be perfect. I used to swear like a sailor, loved money, and mocked gays. I came to Christ in Fall 2013. I applied Romans 12:1 on Feb 5, 2014. in July 2018, I petitioned the Lord for two things: (1) the capacity to love everyone and judge nobody, and (2) a servant’s heart. Sanctification started in March 2020. Derek can call me a "fake Christian, a petty tyrant wannabe, a liar, grifter, fraud and has no respect or concern for others” but we’ll likely disagree on how Christians should exemplify “love thy neighbor” or “judge not lest ye be judged”.
As for Q content, I personally never bought into that movement though I know many who did and still do. However, here again is the debate about whether such content should be allowed to exist. We did not allow 8-Chan to use Epik and yet General Flynn is an Epik client. We did not believe 8-Chan was capable of self-governing in 2019. And yet, in 2020 I had no issue with empowering General Flynn. Although registrars and hosts are not content editors, we do have free will to decide who to empower and for how long. Uncoachable edge lords don’t tend to last long at Epik.
Ultimately, I am confident that Epik is a force for good. While we don’t claim to have the answers, we learn quickly, attract great people, work hard, and are agnostic on build vs. buy. As a result, we tend to get more done than most. This recent hack incident was the greatest crisis we have ever faced. And yet it confirmed something we sensed, and that is that we have remarkably loyal clients. We are deeply grateful for them. The team is working diligently to make sure such an incident does not happen again at Epik. In time, I am hopeful that we can distill what we learn into something that can help others.
Have a good rest of the weekend!