Two days ago, I signal boosted a post off of Reddit, posting it verbatim on X to call out increasingly abusive behavior toward poll workers by MAGA in the 2024 election. (My original post on X is in the article below.) It described the aggressive and offensive behavior of a Trump supporter toward poll workers. Within hours, JD Vance had reposted it calling her “a patriot.” I deleted the thread. Why did I do that? Here’s why.
For those of you who don’t know, I live a double life. I do consulting to schools and organizations about healthy masculinity. In those spaces I lead with compassion.
I have also spent decades in the bruising bullying world of social media and the manosphere, pushing back against toxic Man Box culture social and political messaging. (I’m @remakingmanhood) And since 2016? I’m in a non-stop battle against Republican white supremacists and Christian nationalist tolls and operatives supporting Donald Trump.
My post was intended as criticism of abusive behavior toward poll workers. MAGA began to weaponize the thread, calling her a hero and a patriot. People were arguing back but after years of doing this work, I can tell immediately when a tweet is getting weaponized in a bad/ unintended way. It takes on a feeding frenzy quality. So I deleted it.
A tweet on X (formerly Twitter) operates as a hub. When it goes viral, all responses and reposts key off of the thread created by the original tweet. White supremacists and bot farms are experts at “brigading,” piling onto a thread to make it go viral with their racist messaging. This is what I saw happening in real time. When you are the person who posted the original tweet that is being weaponized and you delete it. Everything stops. Completely.
Extremists on X were not happy that I deleted the thread just as they started to run with it. I’ve been hearing from them. “bloodybill88” posted “@RemakingManhood showing his true Jew deviance.” If you don’t already know, 88 is code for the modern day Nazi movement. 88 stands for “Heil Hitler” because H is the eighth letter in the alphabet.
I had no idea Vance had retweeted my post until hours after I deleted it. Someone sent me a screengrab. Had I known he did, I would have deleted it even more quickly. It was accelerating into a MAGA assault on polling law and polling workers. Clearly, JD Vance is encouraging that assault.
As for “bloodybill88,” Being a Jewish person would be fine, but I was born and raised a Presbyterian in Texas. Which, once again, confirms that White supremacists get every single thing wrong, every damn time.
Understand the threat we face. This is Donald Trump’s base. We saw them in their glory at his ghastly Madison Square Garden rally last night. If you don’t want these people in the White House againl, VOTE. DONATE. VOLUNTEER. #HarrisWalz2024
Here’s an article which includes the original tweet on “X”.
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Previously Published on Medium
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