Dis-Info Trolls for Hire - Threaten Much?

MAGA trolls are sending intimidation my way. You, too?

Disinfo-for-hire actors are being hired by MAGA — in droves, this week in particular— to flood the zone with intimidating notices to anyone who they think needs “punishment.”

I’m not new to this, but yesterday, it came to my blog. I wrote to the Substack Trust and Safety Team:

“I’m sad to say, today, a few days before the US Presidential election, is the first occasion I am reporting a personal threat here on the Stack.”

This is not my first rodeo.

If they didn’t shut me up 50 years ago, do they really think it’s going to work now?

Photo: ©Joel Levine, Los Angeles, Impeach Nixon rally, 1974. I was followed home by FBI.

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As you know, on October 27th, there was a widely-criticized Trump rally in Madison Square Garden. It was a rehearsal for a racist insurrection.

I wrote a mild “Note” last night, sticking up for Puerto Rico citizenry and criticizing the GOP’s cleanup crew:

To the many GOP apologists like Sen. Rick Scott who protest they love Puerto Rico because it’s a favorite “vacation spot” — the people of Puerto Rico are not your tourism servants! Your disrespect reveals your bottomless racism.

You have no idea who you’re messing with.

A Substacker whom I’ll call “Jane Troll,” responded to me in Notes:

“Nor do you, my friend.”

That’s a threat. Their textbook intimidation. I’ve heard those exact same words, decades ago. The very same! They like to use Christian nationalist sarcasm. “My friend…”

It sounds tiny, but it implies something sinister. I know their foreplay. I was jibing the Rick Scott types of the GOP that they’re going to be surprised on Election Day. I think Jane's retort is creepier, in the MAGA tradition of “raise violence every time we don’t get our way.”

To wit:

When I looked up “Jane,” her feed was full of memes calling for “Death to Democrats,” imprisonment, deportation, racist vulgarities, Elon Adoration, Bible threats, etc etc.

I have been an activist in the civil rights movement since my teens, the 1970s. That kind of threat, while disingenous, is the language the Klan and American Nazi party use when they are implying they are going to invade your house, shoot you in a dark alley— it’s is violence-tinged intimidation. I’ve had both in my face.

Both.

You may think, “Oh don’t exaggerate” — well, think again. Ask the people who study their language, like Southern Poverty Law Center. Ask your friends who survived COINTELPRO.

I have been targeted by these same kind of people, long ago. They don’t change their lingo much. They call you “friend,” seconds before they point a muzzle in your face.

I slept with a shotgun for a year, thanks to “friends” like these. I moved on, of course you move on, but when the same ugliness raises its head, I go “click.” PTSD is a bitch.

The mainstream press today, are reporting on how MAGA-types are rehearsing to riot and foment civil unrest and violence if they don’t win at the 2024 polls.

“Let chaos reign,” is their motto. You see how Russia invades the Ukraine? Grab and pillage what you can get?

Yeah, like that. That’s the big plan.

Over the decades, I moved away from some of the big city hot spots I once organized in. I’m old, Father William. I thought of such violence as far away from the small town I settled in.

Nope. No longer. I know many of you see the same in your communities. I remind myself: There are more of US than there are of them. And WE have damn well HAD IT.

Our neighborhood had an active shooter freakout (stochastic threats by such jerks) at the high school across my house last year. I had local parents using my truck in the driveway as a “blind” to evade gunfire and risk everything to perform a rescue, if needed.

This last summer, MAGA individuals picked off members of our tiny gay parade, and warned of “worse” to come, in biblical rhetoric.

Our local newspaper is filled with letters from guys threatening Armedgeddon. So. . .

I have blocked “Jane Troll,” whoever that is. Ginni Thomas in her spare time?

Most likely, in this online nasty-ness, it is the work of a a low-paid spammer enlisted to flood the zone. I have turned over their coordinates to pros who hunt such assholes down.

Of course “Jane,” my snotty critic, offered nothing real about herself.

“Jane” started their account a year ago, but she has no posts. Imagine! Nothing original to say. “She” only reposts visual vulgar racist and MAGA-talking point memes, only active for the last month or two.

“Jane” suddenly “loves” Elon Musk . . . it’s like a MAGA ticker tape, never any original remarks or a genuine interest in anything. I made screen shots.

Jane McFake is bullshit.

I know many of you, my regular readers, are political veterans. History watchers!  Some of you older ones, like me, were on the FBI/Nixon domestic enemies list, with a thick FOIA file to match. We remember.

I hate living in this state of stochastic terror all the time. I hate it.

Here’s what I’d like Substack to do:

If “Jane Troll” is a dis-info fake, I’d like Stack to throw them off, along with their merry band. Don’t tolerate these farms of inauthentic members. They aren’t writers. They have no genuine expression, at all! They are agent provocateurs, of the classic variety.

I’m an ACLU stalwart. I’ve been a ACLU named-plaintiff for group free speech twice, in SCOTUS and California State Supreme Court, as well as similar case in Canada’s Queen’s Court. I know the difference between speech and falsely yelling fire in a theater. False flags, and fake people.

I imagine this week is going to be very tough for Substack. I hope they will consider me an experienced ally.

What are you seeing, dear readers, on your end? Let’s talk in Comments. This is a tough week.

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FYI:

BRIGHT LEGAL CV, FREE SPEECH

•  Co-Plaintiff, ACLU v. Gonzales (C.O.P.A. case), Supreme Court, 2003-2006

--Judgement in favor of Plaintiff

•  Consultant, Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium v. Commissioner of Customs and Revenue and Minister of National Revenue - S.C.B.C. Action No. L020443, Queens Court, Canada,  2003-2004

--Judgement in favor of Plaintiff

•  Plaintiff, Bright v. Los Angeles Unified Sch. Dist. , 18 Cal.3d 450, 1974-1976

--Judgement in favor of Plaintiff

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P.S.

I have to admit, I’m braced to receive a formulaic response from the likely-overwhelmed Substack staff. I hope that will not be the case. I am an otherwise very happy, engaged Stacker and longtime friends with many of their members and staff. This election is a big deal for how we’ll be able to go forward.

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