Of mice and men.
The internet hate machine is real. On the plus side, the internet was an amazing innovation of mankind, allowing anyone to have a platform. On the negative side, the internet allows anyone to have a platform. What’s nice to observe however is how neatly the terrors align into buckets; it softens the blow of vitriol and harassment when you realize the same faceless masses hiding behind Pepe or anime avatars are also discussing the finer points of hentai, or retweeting some right-wing vitriol. Someone put it best - why give mindshare to individuals you would never associate with in real life? And that’s a fair assessment.
Unfortunately, sometimes you get people like this:
This similarly is not a statement on him, his character, and I implore you to not attack, troll, or engage with him in any way. I do not intend to go into detail or if I can help it mention this in any way further in the future, and have tried even during the months this has continued for to avoid direct mentions or incitement. To my knowledge, he is a grown adult and has a daughter. I hope for her sake she does not know about her dad’s Twitter. I wish I didn’t either.
However, on the converse, you also get friends like this:
So the internet isn’t all bad. Unfortunately, due to the maker-taker dilemma of social media which I will describe below, for most individuals the dedication of one individual can often outweigh the well wishes of many.
I’ve kept quiet about the situation for months, mostly hoping that by blocking and ignoring this situation would change. On one hand, I am no stranger to these type of events. My first foray into a trading community I had the naivete to use a Discord account that had a photo of me, since I used it to that point only to talk to friends. Within 10 minutes, I received enough sexist insults from an individual to warrant a moderator banning him.
This is very common.
Most women I know who have an active online presence face events like this. Unfortunately, an article was written by Bloomberg which portrayed the good of Financial Twitter, and the positive experiences I’ve had. The article is correct in many ways, but does a disservice to those reading it in many ways. The truth of Financial Twitter is it reflects the human experience, and many of us in this experience do not get the enjoy the fruits of our labor. In my time on Twitter, I have been excoriated by both named and unnamed individuals, with little recourse (except reporting) and minimal engagement on my end. I have received death threats from anonymous email addresses. I have had public figures try to insult me both in public and private, especially when I’ve interacted with the media. I have had people attack my appearance, my age, my attitude, my net worth, my character — pretty much anything except the actual content I write about. The whole purpose of online harassment is to chill voices — trolls rarely wish to cause physical harm, but do intend to gaslight, to gish gallop, and to make your experience unpleasant enough that in the end, you go silent.
I have multiple friends who I will not name (but if you’re active on Twitter, you would know) who have faced instances where faceless hordes cloaked in anonymity have threatened to doxx them because of jokes gone wrong. I have others who have been the victim of private Instagram videos leaking for the intent to bully them. I have seen one of the most helpful accounts I know have to worry for his family’s safety due to racist trolls targeting his Twitter and later his family on social media. I know of young, talented women with massive audiences on TikTok and other platforms get stalkers and fear for their safety. Yet others have been silenced by Twitter for the harmless application of slurs said in jest to friends. Twitter' Support, in its infinite wisdom, sees enough problematic to suspend a meme account (bankingslut) for a slur said in jest than removing videos posted by crazed zealots trying to track, identify, and harm women on its platform. I’ve attached the examples below:
This may seem like a bitter truth, but social media platforms have minimal interest in enforcing safety and community building. In platforms like Twitter, there are content creators (makers) and there are the shrouded masses who consume the content and interact with them (takers). Takers bring in the advertising revenue which propels the companies; makers are needed, but expendable. What do advertisers care about, principally? Engagement and sanitation. We live in a world where we care more about the letter of the law than the spirit, and we let those who target others walk through by the flimsy and systematic approach of basic rules. We care not for the impact of words; we care about the appearance of a healthy and functional society. Or less poetically, we care for those who consume content, and we prioritize their needs over those who create and bring the audiences that power the revenue factories.
Despite pushing for diversity of thought, the laxity in which social media platforms approach this issue is probably one of the biggest social issues in the modern day. This is compounded by the lack of sybil resistance — despite faux attempts to rein in these issues, it costs nothing to create a new, anonymous profile. You can cause incalculable damage online with little personal risk. There is no one to talk to, there is full opacity in reporting and decision of which content is removed. A relevant anecdote — I have friends that work at Twitter, Discord, and every other Big Tech social media platform. One who worked at Twitter, I shared with her the current situation. Her reply: “Twitter won’t do anything; you should go to the police”. We provided these platforms safe harbor from the malice they let propagate as they rake in dollars, and they don’t do much.
As I waxed about in my previous post, the issue with this approach is net, the value of increasing social clout appeals to two types of individuals - bad actors and financially motivated/”sponsored” players. It is far easier to stomach the detritus that lies in the abyss of hateful speech and trolling if you either get off to it, or get a paycheck at the end of the day. If you are neither — why would you do it? Popularity has diminishing utility.
In reality, the bad actions of a few can outweigh the good actions of many, and that is what kills the community. A community lives and breathes by the actions of the makers who power it, and without compensation - either monetary or through satisfaction - like all living creatures it will die.
We all make a choice every day whether to do right or wrong. Despite continued slander over folks calling me a charlatan or grifter, I’ve been proud to raise tens of thousands of dollars this year alone for charity through the power of social media. As many remember, my blog used to be subscription; the money was donated, minus 25% allocated for tax season (which will be donated if no taxes are owed), to charities. I’ve help raise money via Discord campaigns; via Twitter drives; via conferences. It’s a bit funny to be called a charlatan or grifter. It’s interesting to be called a charlatan when you act in transparency; as most of my readers know, I haven’t shied away from mentioning my age or experience. Time and time again I’ve had it lobbied as an insult by the faceless masses; time and time again, I remind myself they’re likely younger and less experienced than me. My work history, my current place of employment, the results of the model folks love to hate — fully available and auditable online. I may be a bit outdated in my lexicon, but it seems a bit difficult to grift by telling the truth.
Conversely, I know full well that those who hate hide in the shadows. There is a deceptive power in anonymity. In the best of cases, it can breed a revolutionary world, where full meritocracy occurs and the tyranny of society is unshackled. We can see this well in crypto. Crypto, whether you love or hate it, was the great leveler. Rari Capital, which boasts over $1 billion in total value locked, was founded by literal teenagers. Imagine how different that is than the named society we’re used to! When I was 18, I was finding my way through college parties, and my dad used to bring me Chips Ahoy and ramen noodles to share with friends drunk in a college dorm room.
In the worst, anonymity is the great enabler of toxicity. Behind obscurity you see the full depths of human nature come into the forefront, as people are able to satiate their worst impulses and excesses with little to no cost. Very few at this juncture would deign to post racist, sexist, or supremacist beliefs under their real names anymore. But behind PepeDingDong69, it becomes a lot more palatable.
Twitter is an interesting platform because of the mix of named and unnamed folks. As I’ve quipped before, the anon account in your comments may be a 12 year old boy, or a 40 year old $1 billion AUM hedge fund manager offering you a job. They might type the same way too.
This is not a victim card-based apologia. This is a lived experience of an individual who has over the last year been brigaded twice by hateful groups under the guise of anonymity. Behind those laptops are (almost certainly) grown men, who have lives, jobs, wives, and daughters that likely have no idea of what they’ve done. I am not a weak person, and I will not disappear into the good night over some directed harassment. I am thankful for the support of my friends, my family, my employer, and those who have decided to take a stand on Twitter.
I intend to continue writing, and sharing research and findings hopefully for many years to come.
To end this, I wanted to note that the model that has bred enmity since it first came out - NOPE - will be discontinued for new subscribers by the end of this month. This not a marketing email, and there will not be further development on the site. In fact this is an anti-marketing email — if you find no value in it, please remember to cancel your subscriptions. As many who have followed my journey remember, I shared the methodology freely, and talked about it in genuine interest. I researched in the public eye, and it was converted to a premium site largely to deal with increased traffic and the site owner’s wishes. I would kill it outright, but on the converse it is demonstrably unfair to the community that surrounds it, and the traders every day who banter, converse, and use it.
That’s all for today. I want to end with this.
I implore you to fight to protect and defend those in your communities. It is not okay to attack others, to dunk, or to harass. Whether in jest or not, you chill the voices you claim to sponsor, and condemn the community you cherish to a death by a thousand cuts.
Please, Jack, do better. Please, all of us, do better.
Please remember the human.
Definitely a mice that is not worth your time to write about.
I am so sorry about what you are going through. It must be such a hard thing. We are all rooting for you.