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July 5, 2017 1:41 pm - NewsBehavingBadly.com

After the vicious racist troll who created the ‘beat the crap out of CNN’ video meme that former reality show host Trump tweeted late last week was identified and exposed by a New York Times contributor…

… the troll did the right thing – and apologized!

‘HanAssholeSolo,’ the Reddit user who took credit for a gif that depicted Donald Trump clotheslining a CNN logo (a gif that would later be posted on the president’s personal and official Twitter feeds) apologized for his history of “racist, bigoted and anti-Semitic” posts on the site.

“I would like to apologize to the members of the Reddit community for getting this site and this sub embroiled in a controversy that should never have happened,” HanAssholeSolo wrote in a Fourth of July post on Reddit. …

“I am not the person that the media portrays me to be in real life,” HanAssholeSolo wrote. “I was trolling and posting things to get a reaction from the subs on Reddit.”

It became an addiction as to how far I could of with the posts that were made,” the Reddit user wrote, calling the incident an “extreme wake up call to always consider how others may thing or feel about what is being said before clicking the submit button.”

“Free speech is a right we all have, but it shouldn’t be used in the manner that it was in the posts that were put on this site,” HanAssholeSolo said, before arguing he intended for the meme to be taken “purely as satire.”

“I do not advocate violence against the press and the meme I posted was in no way advocating that in any way, shape or form,” the user continued. “Our First Amendment protect the press from things like violence, and we as American citizens should respect that even if the opinions of the press are not in line with our own.

“I had no idea someone would take it and put sound to it and then have it put up on the President’s Twitter feed,” HanAssholeSolo wrote. “It was a prank, nothing more.”

HanAssh*leSoso’s calls for non-violence were pretty much ignored by Trump’s supporters:

Jared Yates Sexton, a New York Times contributor and assistant professor of creative writing at Georgia Southern University, shared with HuffPost several threatening messages directed at him since he unmasked the troll Sunday. In one, a Reddit user warns of a looming “journocaust” — presumably a holocaust for journalists. In another, a Twitter user says there’s “a civil war coming” and that memes — specifically, the antisemitic one by the creator of the video that Trump shared — are “the least” of Sexton’s problems.

“There’s a fever pitch to this dialogue that is dangerous to everybody,” Sexton told HuffPost. “And it’s the people who are mentally ill, who are unhinged, who are unwell — they pick up on this stuff. And they are really, really moved to act by it.”

“If we keep this up, there’s going to be more consequences,” he added. “That’s just a fact.” …

“I think a lot of these people have a shared idea that this would be a time where they would basically be able to kill liberals,” Sexton said. “With a little bit of research what I’ve found is there are large online havens where they talk about widespread murder of journalists. They fantasize about killing them in the streets, like a revolution. They have terms for it, like ‘day of the rope.’”

And the latest howls from the Trump supporters – in a move that looks orchestrated – is a false claim that CNN somehow “blackmailed” their bigot bro HanAssh*leSolo:

CNN came under fire late Tuesday after the Reddit user who claimed credit for the tweet by President Donald Trump issued an apology as well as other offensive things he’s posted online.

CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski explains the research the staff that led to his Facebook page. At no time did they publish the man’s identity as they deemed his apology was sincere.

However, it’s the line that appears next that has sent Trump supporters over the cliff and claiming blackmail and “doxing” — a practice of revealing people’s private information publicly so physical attacks can be made. “CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change,” Kaczynski wrote.

This line is being misinterpreted. It was intended only to mean we made no agreement w/the man about his identity,” Kaczynski wrote on Twitter Tuesday night.

It was also reported that the man was 15 years old, which Kaczynski also revealed was not true.

“HanAs*holeSolo” reached out to Kaczynski via phone on Wednesday and issued the statement, “I am in total agreement with your statement. I was not threatened in anyway.”

Other reporters seem in agreement that the Trump supporters are incorrect. John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary and New York Post columnist was one.

But all of this reality-based data isn’t going to stop a discredited provocateur from trying to gain attention:

Jack Posobiec, a controversial pro-Trump activist who has attended White House briefings, published information on Wednesday that he claimed were the personal details of multiple CNN employees and talent.

In a message posted to Twitter, which Raw Story is not linking to, Posobiec said that he received the information from the white supremacist group 8chan.

The so-called “doxing” was said to be in retaliation after CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski located the person who created a violent anti-CNN video that was shared by President Donald Trump.

The information in his tweet included names and/or addresses for Wolf Blitzer, Daniel Patrick Merica, David Chalian, Don Lemon, Brian Stelter and Erick Erickson.

With the exception of Blitzer, all of the phone numbers went to voicemail or had been disconnected. However, records showed that the CNN employees had a connection to many of the listed street addresses.

Posobiec has opened himself up to civil – and probably criminal – sanctions. Heckuva job, Jack Assh*lePosobiec!

D.B. Hirsch
D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.