A Legion of Dipshits in Pursuit of Clout

This past Saturday, January 9, Orleans County, New York Libertarian Party chair Chase Tkach (@chasetkach) posted the following to Twitter, in response to President Donald Trump's ban from the platform after a large group of his supporters forced their way into the US Capitol, causing large amounts of damage and leading to 5 fatalities, including a Capitol Police officer:

Let’s have a discussion about how we are more addicted to social media than drugs, yet there aren’t any resources out there to help the addiction. In fact, it’s encouraged to stay addicted to and in some ways mandated to use.

We are upset about being banned because we are addicted and don’t feel there are any other ways to communicate. And they all got us addicted from a young age, on purpose, and this is now happing to our kids in virtual school.

In October of 2000, MTV premiered the television series "Jackass." The show, an evolution of a series of articles and videos produced by skateboarding magazine Big Brother and the CKY skate team, inspired a rash of imitators attempting stunts and pranks for media fame. These range from the somewhat innocuous Impractical Jokers on TruTV, to YouTube channels like "super humman."

As social media & self-produced content insinuated itself more deeply into our society, the hope was that the ability to connect and communicate freely with anyone on the planet would spark creativity, enhance dialogue, and break down the barriers of xenophobia that have been the cause of so much strife in human history.

Instead, we got people with clear mental defects doing flying elbow drops onto microwaves, in honor of the "Juggalos and Juggalettes."

Aokigahara is a dense forest on the northern face of Japan's Mt. Fuji. It is known as "Jukai" or the "Sea of Trees," but perhaps more infamously known as the "Suicide Forest;" the number of suicides and attempts in the forest has become so great that the Japanese government no longer publishes statistics, for fear of inspiring more.

On December 31, 2017, YouTube "celebrity"-turned-semi-pro-boxer Logan Paul published a video of himself and his friends entering Aokigahara to camp, and goof off, only to find the body of a person who had hanged himself among the trees. Paul chose to show the person's body on-camera, though he did blur the face.

He makes a statement in the video imploring those who are experiencing depression or suicidal thoughts to get help. This message might have been much more impactful had he: A) not been wearing a skullcap fashioned after the green, three-eyed aliens from Toy Story, and B) not responded to his cameraman's remark of discomfort by saying, "What, you never stood next to a dead body, bro?" followed by a belly-laugh. He and his pals proceed to mug for the camera and joke about what they've just seen, while screaming like frat boys in an area that has deep spiritual significance to the nation of Japan.

The day prior, Paul published a video of himself in his friends in Tokyo behaving like, in his own words in said video, "the ugly Americans." They staged a fight in a busy street, bought a Game Boy Color from an electronics store and smashed it on the sidewalk, screamed at locals, filmed people without their permission, and generally acted like disrespectful pricks.

The two videos created an international incident and a huge backlash, resulting in YouTube removing his channel from their preferred partners program and cancelling three movie projects he was slated to star in, which later prompted a lawsuit against him by the producers of one of the planned films.

He experienced a significant net gain in channel subscribers after the controversy.

And since he's such an excellent role model, his younger brother Jake has followed him into the YouTuber/boxer biz...and was arrested for following a mob of looters into a closed Arizona mall during this past summer's BLM protests. The evidence that led to his arrest? His buddy's Snapchat feed, which contained footage of him in the midst of the action.

As Ms. Tkach notes above, social media shows all the signs of a highly-addictive digital narcotic. One need look no further for evidence of this than the people who stormed the Capitol, livestreamed it on their own social media channels, posed for photos & video, and gave interviews openly identifying themselves and their hometowns. This abundance of recorded evidence has led to a glut of arrests, charges & firings. Apparently, they got their definition of "infamy" from ¡THE THREE AMIGOS!

Here's a few notable specimens:

And then there were the "Zip Tie Guys."

I'd like you to pay extra attention to that last photo, specifically to the cellular phone hooked to the front of his tactical vest. Not in a pouch, not in his pocket...presented, with lens unobstructed. Which means he was likely either recording or streaming his adventure in the gallery. And the only reason anyone would be stupid enough to collect that much evidence against themselves is if they WANTED the footage to be seen. And the only reason he would have those flex cuffs is if he planned on detaining someone.

Haven't put the pieces together? That's okay, I did the hard work. This piece of shit was going to take someone hostage for internet clout.

We have crossed a horrifying rubicon. We have a generation which is now so desperate for any crumb of attention that some will commit violent federal offenses just to get noticed on the internet -- the very internet that, within hours, had mobilized its "weaponized autism" to track and cross-reference every atom of evidence visible in every photo, video and interview they could find. Names, locations, places of employment, all uncovered with terrifying speed.

Social media has so much potential to be a force for good. It has opened communications in oppressive parts of the world. It has kept families and friends in communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has created the most detailed historical record in the history of man. It also gave us Donald Trump and QAnon, and now 5 people are dead.

We must be better. We must aim higher. We shouldn't be teaching our children that "YouTuber" or "streamer" or "influencer" are viable career paths. We should be teaching them how to think critically and skeptically. 

Because the most frightening part of this entire marionette show is that no one knows who was pulling whose strings.