Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hurricane Sandy and the Twitter Troll


On Tuesday night, as New Yorkers struggled to cope with the fury of Hurricane Sandy.

A Twitter account with the handle ComfortablySmug tried to cause even more fear.

By sending out a series of alarming false messages.

Now the person responsible has been revealed to be a hedge fund analyst, and a Republican operative.

Based on photos he censored and posted to the account but I found unedited elsewhere, @comfortablysmug is Shashank Tripathi, a hedge-fund analyst and the campaign manager of Christopher R. Wight, this year’s Republican candidate for the U.S. House from New York’s 12th congressional district.

For years, he’s been a prolific commenter at NYmag.com and a popular conservative presence on Twitter. In 2008, he penned an entry for the site’s popular sex diary feature that “detailed a week of obsession, rough sex, and Ambien.”


And he's apologized.

But some like the New Yorker's Adam Martin aren't buying it.

Yes, @Comfortablysmug takes "full responsibility for my actions" and "deeply regret[s] any harm or stress they may have caused," but fully half of this apology amounts to further campaigning for the candidate whose employ Tripathi just left: "It is my sincere hope that the voters of New York will see him based on his merits alone, and not my actions of the last 24 hours." That makes the whole "apology" sound a lot more like a political move than a legitimate expression of remorse.

And who can blame him? For who could possibly feel sorry for a guy like that one? Who would scare frightened people.

Or write this kind of garbage:

Consider this passage from the Sex Diary he wrote for Daily Intel: "My suspicion she has low self-esteem is confirmed once I'm basically fucking her face, which segues beautifully into rough sex. I'm satisfied by the thought this will probably leave her with bruises." 

And what more can you say eh? When you've finished vomiting. Except it HAD to be a Con.

For only a Con could be so ugly and cruel. You see it in the ghastly excretions of people like Ezra Levant. You see it in the faces of the twenty somethings that run the sinister Con War Room. You see it in the cold dead eyes of their monstrous leader.

For only a Con could fail to understand what the word "community" means. Which is of course, why we fight them.

And the good news? 

The Cons have no future. For the world needs people as callous and brutish as them, like it needs a hole in the head, or a ruptured levy.  

And thanks to the strength of community...people helping people.

Hurricane Sandy may have savaged it.

But the Big Apple lives eternal...






















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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Simon,
You are consistently the best Canadian blogger I read. Keep up the great work. (And sorry to hear about your dog.)

p2p

susansmith said...

great post Simon

Anonymous said...

Who's we? You mean you and your keyboard? Keep writing Simon, cus that is all you ever are going to do.

Beijing York said...

Simon, you make hating the 21st century conservative mindset so easy. The Mulroney crowd were worthy of dislike but this new breed is just soul less with absolutely no compassion or sense of distinguishing right from wrong.

thwap said...

LOL! Off your meds again?

Simon said...

hi anonymous...thanks for that high praise. I don't deserve it, because there are many other finer bloggers, but I'm very happy you feel that way,and it encourages me to try to do better.
And thanks for your sympathy. I still miss Kerouac a lot, but my sadness is slowly lifting...

Simon said...

hi Jan...thank you, I'm glad you liked it. I just had to express my disgust for what that guy did. I just can't understand how someone could spread mass panic at a time like that one, instead of reaching out to others and encouraging them, like we did in Montreal, on the radio, during the ice storm.
But then all those young Con operatives are like that, the ones in the U.S. and the ones here. Ghastly fanatics, and hideous human beings...

Simon said...

hi anonymous...when I say we I mean me and all the other progressives in this country who may I remind you are more than twice as many as your Cons.
And what have you got against writing anyway? So what if all I do is write? Haven't you ever heard that the pen is mightier than the sword? Besides I fully intend to offer my blog to the prosecution, when your gang goes on trial for crimes against Canada. So there... ;)

Simon said...

hi Beijing...Thanks...but let's face it, it's not that hard eh? Not the way those Cons behave. I have a visceral dislike for bullies, I've never seen anything as grotesque as this hideous Con regime. And if I didn't express how I feel I would probably explode. :) You're quite right too, the Mulroney crowd was bad, but compared to the Harper gang they were practically angels. I knew from the day they came to power, and immediately went after women's rights, that we were dealing with an alien entity that could destroy this country. But because we had never seen anything like them, too many failed to recognize the danger, and look where we are now...