I try to ignore failures at life -- by which I mean "people too awful to write for Breitbart.com" -- like Charles C. Johnson on the Twitter because he is the very model of modern dickhead troll.
As Andy Richter once said, "Engaging with assholes on the Internet is like trying to drown a vampire with your own blood."
Among the many blustery bullshit artists on Twitter and elsewhere on the Internet, the ginger furby stands out not only for his ridiculous manly-man posturing, but for his penchant for going after the victims in news stories because, to him, "journalism" means comforting the afflictors and harassing and humiliating their victims.
Johnson has been booted off of Twitter multiple times for posting private information about people he has designated as his target du jour with the intent of driving traffic to his ridiculous "news" blog, where he relentlessly begs for donations to keep his "news" empire alive and smearing.
His audience seems to be made up of men's rights activists, unabashed racists, and the usual assortment of outcasts, sociopaths, and idiots found lurking in the margins of society.
If a black teen is killed by a cop, Johnson is standing by ready to search the internet looking for a Facebook photo of the teen flashing a "gang sign,' proving violent leanings meaning the kid had it coming. Using specious logic (see Kaci Hickox) that would would make Alex Jones say "Sounds like bullshit to me," there is nothing Johnson won't accuse a person of doing or being.
But mostly, he's just a dick who uses Twitter to drive his blog traffic, and if someone gets hurt by it because he was wrong, well, to him: "it's worth dying for."
Johnson's latest target is "Jackie" from the disputed Rolling Stone UVA story. Despite the fact that Jackie might well have been raped and elaborated upon her story, Johnson has decided he needs to Twitter-rape her because he's all about truth and journalism ethics.
And he started with this:
This isn't journalism, it's extortion.
Johnson has already revealed what he believes is her name on Twitter -- repeating it on Twitter continuously -- and is now making claims that she has a history of false rape accusations.
Nice guy. A real bro's bro. A ginger mensch.
It doesn't matter that Johnson has a history of being wrong that would make Bill Kristol blush. What does matter is that he is trampling on this young lady to make a buck, and he's using Twitter to drive traffic and finance whatever crappy lifestyle he claims to have.
And Twitter needs to do something about it, and not another temporary suspension followed by reinstatement when he promises to abide by the rules...until the next time.
This isn't a First Amendment issue; Johnson is free to spew his special brand of slime-shit elsewhere on the Internet until he's sued for libel or slander, which will eventually happen since he has no filter, morals, or sense of shame.
But that doesn't mean Twitter should enable his posting personal information on people or threatening them, something directly prohibited by their own user agreement.
He needs to be made gone by Twitter.
And one last thing, as if he's not loathsome enough:
What a dick.
