On recent Twitter drama and the sad failure of social media

Pitchfork-waving stupidity has invaded my mentions as of late

Having interviewed Stephen Elliott on the dangers of internet mobs earlier this year, I am currently watching a completely unqualified “disinformation activist” attempt to stir up a mob against me in real time.

So far, he’s only succeeded in provoking multiple mobs to swarm him instead (haha). But the fact that this man has a sizable platform has made me reflect on how pretty much anyone can acquire a readership and make money from false statements if they speak with enough conviction.

I’m not going to bore you with too many details. J*m St*wartson (deliberately starring out those letters, let’s not give him any more unearned publicity) is a guy who used to make VR games and is now a kind of mid-tier conspiracy theorist, as so many people of various political persuasions are these days. He’s currently being sued by an even bigger nutter, Mike Flynn, creating a kind of conspiracy theory ouroboros.

St*wartson seems to have a savior complex, as detailed here, and anyone who criticizes his methods is immediately in for it.

I recently disagreed with St*wartson because I saw him using an ex-intel guy who has greatly exaggerated his military service — and has made sexist comments about me, including statements that I take money from Vladimir Putin to seduce married Green Berets (I know, I know, this is getting weird already) — as a credible source.

St*wartson also accused a retired SGTMAJ, a good friend of mine who’s dedicated decades of his life to serving this country, of being a “LARPer,” i.e. a fake soldier. That’s deeply upsetting and simply gross.

In response, St*wartson published an unhinged screed about me that I will not link to (again, he doesn’t need any more free publicity), but here’s just a snippet:

I grabbed that screencap before he repeatedly edited the tweet — the latest version has me cheerleading for “anarcho-capitalists,” whatever that means to J*m’s fevered brain — but as you can see, he even went as far as accusing me of being some kind of fake Ukraine supporter.

Me, an actual person from Ukraine.

As laughable as all of this is, what’s interesting is St*wartson’s method. I believe these two tweets sum it up best:

https://twitter.com/DastardlySlack/status/1689230506045390848

https://twitter.com/MacLennanMike1/status/1688972555393110039

(Because Twitter has become highly ephemeral with all of its recent troubles, I have archived these tweets here and here)

The idea is — people like St*wartson try to push legitimate experts to the fringes of their field through sheer hysterical bullying, thus lessening competition for clicks, AND can fundraise while painting themselves as victims of dastardly plots.

What this situation reveals is a financial incentive to lie about people on behalf of someone who claims he is investigating liars.

And the truth is, most of his hardcore following goes along with it, because it’s dramatic and entertaining.

Actual disinformation research can get kind of boring. It’s harder to “sell” to people. It’s much more fun to accuse someone of being a “cryptofascist” and get other people to bully them, thus giving them something to do in the process.

I’m also fond of giving people something to do, but that’s why I play geolocation games with my followers. I prefer and enjoy positive engagement.

Social media, however, is more driven by negativity, especially in the realm of disinformation, cyber threats, etc. Again, this offers financial incentives.

I’m glad to see that J*m St*wartson’s plan against me has mostly failed. Sure, some people have harassed me as the result, but it could’ve been much worse.

By the time he found me, he was already dealing with a fair bit of damage to his reputation + his wild statements about a number of recent, disconnected Twitter groups has created a surge of playful solidarity among different people who see him for what he is.

Still, this debacle made me think about just how much more money I could be making if I was, to put it bluntly, a disingenuous asshole. OOF.

I am obviously not going to do this, but the situation makes me sad for all of us.

In my sadness, I’ve decided I should be working even harder. I’d like to plan more geolocation challenges before the end of the year — again, I want more positive engagement in this world — so I hope you stick around!