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[–] 85 points 7 months ago (12 children)
  • [–] 56 points 7 months ago (6 children)

    It's insane that he pretended to be terrorists of Islamist, feminist, white supremacist, and Zionist origins, but the only one any government cared about in any way was the Islamist terrorists persona. It's also insane that he was convicted of being an Islamist terrorist when it's clear that he wasn't an Islamist because they knew about all the personas.

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  • [–] 22 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    If he didn't do anything criminal under those other personas, what would they prosecute him for? Most of his activities were just not crimes, but covered under free speech; giving someone bomb-making instructions in the belief that he's actually going to commit terrorist attacks is not.

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  • [–] 19 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Australi Witness passed specific[22] information on the manufacture of a bomb targeting a September 11 memorial event in Kansas City, Missouri, to an FBI informant, who was posing as a Muslim extremist.

    We can't say how much of this deal was set up by the government and how much was his initiative. If this was a Honeypot and they caught a mentally ill man from it the question is are they running similar set ups for other "extremist" groups. If they're just targeting Islamic groups then that shows some racism.

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  • [–] 11 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Not to mention they could have set up the trap for ANY of his personas and it would have worked the same. Creating fake crime just to put people in jail.

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  • [–] 43 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    In 2015, he wrote an article titled 'Yes, Diversity is About Getting Rid of White People (and That's a Good Thing)' attributing it to a fake author named "Emily Goldstein". The article was later retweeted by Elon Musk.

    Crazy to think about the butterfly effect and how much societal damage one person can cause...

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  • [–] 42 points 7 months ago

    Goldberg was also active on Twitter, Reddit, Disqus and others under the username MoonMetropolis,[7] a "free speech absolutist" who was involved with the Gamergate controversy. He would frequently use this persona to criticize the works of his other personas such as anti-free speech activist Tanya Cohen, arguing against points that he himself had made.[38]

    Sums up a lot of modern political discourse pretty well imo. This kind of person, making disingenuous arguments against themselves, maybe for some reasons but mostly because they are insane.

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  • [–] 27 points 7 months ago (8 children)

    It’s like the weird bit from Ender’s Game where his siblings become internet trolls pretending to be in opposition to each other, except within one guy, within one house.

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  • [–] 15 points 7 months ago (7 children)

    yeah it's fascinating that Card foresaw this kind of social influencing while being a very odd (religious conservative and game developer fiction writer) mix, but then he went wacko:

    Card described an alternative future in which President Barack Obama ruled as a "Hitler- or Stalin-style dictator" with his own national police force of young unemployed men; Obama and his wife Michelle would have amended the U.S. Constitution to allow presidents to remain in power for life, as in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Nazi Germany.

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  • [–] 16 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah, projection is common among conservative types.

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  • [–] 15 points 7 months ago

    So close, except that it's Trump who has created his own private police force comprised of unemployed men and is trying to stay president for life.

    Every conservative accusation really is a confession.

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  • [–] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah, Card turning into a nutter turned me off his work and recomemding it.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago*

    Partly agree about liking him as an author. He can pound sand because of bis politics, for sure. He is pretty much a one trick pony. The majority of his lead characters are all child messiahs or some variant of child with special powers. Heck, one of them (Earthfall) is pretty much a character ripoff of Joseph and his cloak of many colors in the bible. So after reading a few of his books you’ve kinda seen them all.

    That said, I really liked the Ender series, as well as The Redemption of Christopher Columbus.

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  • Tactical never-going-outside

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  • [–] 4 points 7 months ago (5 children)

    I'm lost why this is funny? Cause he never left his parent's house? Sounds like what a typical POS troll does?

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  • [–] 31 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    You don't find it funny to think of the FBI setting up surveillance on someone that seemed dangerous enough to be worth monitoring but it was all for naught because they were just watching a front door for over 14 hours a day?

    To me there's definitely an element of irony there both in terms of the troll's life being a little bit pathetic compared to their personas and in terms of the FBI seeming like this ultra serious organisation but being rendered ineffective by virtue of someone just intensely doing nothing for a long time.

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  • 11 comments in c/wikipedia@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 11 points 7 months ago*

    Goldberg was released from prison on April 1, 2024.

    I hope he's doing good these days. That lifetime paroles gotta suck. Welp, don't go planning terrorist attacks, people. You don't want to live and learn like Joshua did.

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  • [+] 13 points 7 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 12 points 7 months ago

    That’s just reddit alone, some of which he was moderating groups he had set up.

    He was also posting blogs and trolling forums under different names, sometimes arguing against his own personas. He also didn’t seem to hold any consistent beliefs, he was just the best troll to have ever existed and been unmasked.

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago

    Next week on To Catch a Redditor...

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    If anybody wants to give living this way a shot I might be hiring some additional artists for my comics soon.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (3 children)

    Living what way? In their parents basement, or in jail?

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  • [–] 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    Staying online indoors for multiple weeks.

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