An Internet troll who claims to have found deep divisions among factions of the Left on Twitter laid out a plan Saturday for fellow Donald Trump supporters to exploit those fissures.
Posting on the sometimes-dubious message board 4chan, the anonymous poster wrote a post entitled, "Let's troll Bernie and Hillary supporters systematically," where the writer says he/she posed as a Democratic voter and trolled supporters of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in an effort to deepen divisions and help Trump secure a victory in November.
"We need to take advantage of this. This is Trump's gift," the 4chan troll wrote. "If we're serious about a Trump presidency we need to start infiltrating their conversations in order to sow more divison (sic). I'm talking systematic and long-term /mischief/, not just a hew minutes trolling dumbass SJW's. Look at the chaos and damage I was able to make yesterday, just one person, with no real rudeness in my replies. Imagine that writ large: My account is @realJohnMilIer."
"SJW" stands for "social justice warrior."
The Twitter account for "real John Miller" indeed seems to show activity celebrating divisions among Clinton and Sanders supporters.
"John Miller" is the alter-ego that Trump has been accused of bizarrely impersonating with reporters in the past. The 4chan user suggests fellow Trump supporters do three things:
1.If hundreds of accounts on the Hillary or Bernie/Stein side were saying even worse things it'd make the divisions deeper. 2.If we got people to agree with us the opposing sides would blast each other as dangerous extremists but each would defend horrible tweets. 3. Even if a few or a lot of us were caught, it would increase distrust tremendously among ANYONE on the opposing side.
The user then says he/she was amazed to see the vitriol on the Left.
"It's amazing to see them using their SJW tactics against each other, and having to defend themselves from their own tactics," the user wrote. "They don't know how to respond so they just spew more blind hatred and vitriol. They fighting with each other like they're fighting white nationalists. It's bizarre. It's not just virtue-signalling, it's blind hatred and panic. I encourage everyone to read the vitriol about the Matt Bruenig firing."
Bruenig was a blogger for the progressive think tank Demos, and was fired for calling a Clinton supporter a "scumbag," Politico reports.
The user then started brainstorming Twitter hashtags to ignite fury among factions on the Left, like #BloodOnHillarysHands and #HillaryKillsPOC. In the discussion that followed, 4chan users tried to conceive schemes to get Sanders to run on a third-party ticket against Clinton in order to defeat them both.
"[Green Party candidate Jill] Stein said she will offer Bernie the VP slot if he wants it. He said months ago he would support the nominee but this week MSNBC hinted he was looking for an excuse or reason to not do so, but in a way that gives him plausible deniability," one user wrote. "Green party has no chance to win, they're only on like 30 state ballots, but it would cause a shitstorm. #SteinSanders and #SteinSanders2016 could be a great goal, but I think first we should focus on deepening the divide."
Screenshots of conversation can be viewed by clicking on the photos below:
Newt Gingrich's 2012 presidential committee still owes creditors more than $4.6 million, new federal records indicate. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) speaks during a news conference on health care September 13, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Al Sharpton (right) listens to Stacey Abrams (left) at the National Action Network's Women's Empowerment Luncheon on April 11, 2024, in New York City. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)