Faking One's Death
A Qanon fairy tale.
That recent suicide report that put me into a contemplative mood turned out to be a ruse by the victim. This would normally be something down below the noise floor, it wouldn’t get mentioned here, but when put in context there are some lessons to be learned.
Attention Conservation Notice:
This is some off in the weeds drama that involves figures from Anonymous and Qanon. It’s tiresome, it’s juvenile, but the pattern is typical of online conflict among the self-promoters who turn up for social movements.
Overall Context:
Clear back on August 19th I published Captain Coprolite & Turdboy, a criticism sans name check of a couple of real losers. Notice the subsection entitled Issue Du Jour, which is about the weaponization of CSAM (child sexual abuse material) accusations.
Two weeks ago I published Preposterous Bullshit Casualty after word of attempted suicide of one of the Twitter Qanon combatants. He had reportedly jumped, serious brain injury, not expected to survive. Knowing that environment like I do, I began inquiring daily to see if he was still dead.
Some Dare Call It Conspiracy put a name to Captain Coprolite - a drama whoring junkie by the name of Barrett Brown. He had appeared on the Some Dare Call It Conspiracy podcast, during which he lied about me and Joe Menn, the reporter who covered MIOS: Iran’s PressTV. We both demanded a takedown, and after review SDCIC did just that.
Yesterday I published MIOS: PressTV Phone Logs. Based on what I’ve heard it appears there will be another article based on that Black Reward intrusion. Keep in mind that one has already burned hot enough that The Met took Richard Medhurst into custody right after his flight landed at Heathrow, which was covered in MIOS: PressTV First Blood.
The caliber of targets I engage and the level of activity are definitely drawing attention, but I’ve been insulating myself since the summer of 2020. I assume this is happening, but I’m sheltered to the point I’m not seeing much of it directly.
Specifics:
Below you see the victim, Arturo Tafoya, admitting to the ruse, dragging his ex, and name checking Barrett Brown. Notice the CSAM accusations.
The “cool BB groups” were a cluster of Signal chat rooms organized by Brown and others. I have heard, but can not verify, that there was one member on supervised release who had a phone and computer provided to him by his parole officer. I have heard, but can not verify, that Brown was raided while living in the U.K., perhaps in the month of May, but it’s not clear to me which year this was. One source is telling me May of 2021, and that makes sense to me.
What I heard indicates Brown’s devices were seized, then promptly returned to him. When an individual gets picked up in the U.K. for online misbehavior it’s normal for their devices to be held for a month, and then returned, but with serious prohibitions on what they can do. Brown’s narcissism is such that he would immediately take those devices and go right back to his old haunts, that narcissist supply being orders of magnitude more important than the safety of his companions.
Can’t Think Of A Good Title For This Section:
First, Brown is what LE/intel would label an anti-authority/anti-government violent extremist. And he’s a Dark Triad psychopath, who will let someone like Turdboy into his environment, so long as it brings him more attention.
I am acquainted with Arturo’s former fiance; she and half a dozen others were ejected from my chat rooms in July of 2020, which was basically the end of my tolerating anyone self-describing as an activist. It’s a sick culture that attracts sick people, those who will do anything for another little squirt of dopamine.
Arturo wanted out. I recognize his grievances, I’ve seen a lot of people treated that way over the years, and I’ve been subject to it myself. Now we all he has to do is make that farewell stick. That is harder than you’d think; he certainly has friends who will remain, and part of his income may depend on being present.
Big Picture:
There’s a lot more happening behind this scrum and it’s not obvious, unless you’ve been around and paying attention since Arab Spring. There are some Christian Nationalists in that world and they’ve all been a bit adrift since January of 2021. The FBI’s sudden turn towards right wing extremists has shifted them from suppressing social movements to dodging the same sort of trouble they used to cause for others.
Zooming back to 40,000 feet
Julian Assange Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy after many years.
Meliorator Social Botnets were outed.
BreachForums Breach Hilarity marked the hunters becoming hunted.
Russian Moles In The U.S. got raided.
Benny Johnson & Tim Pool are on the hot seat after the Tenet indictment.
There’s a broad, concerted campaign against foreign influence. There’s a broad campaign BY foreign influence. They’re all fighting over assets they can use - and Brown falls into that category, despite being seriously damaged goods.
Conclusion:
How did we start with a Qanon adjacent guy faking his own death and end up at multinational counter-intelligence task force?
How did we start with a $2,500 consumer drone and end up with a $200 million dollar air defense system going off like a roman candle?
Due to the internet’s viral cascades a single person can set off a dramatic chain of events. Arturo has been party to such things. Brown likes to pretend he’s the director of such things, but much of that is him dickriding capable people. Given the insanely tense online environment of 2024, both of them would have utility, should they be willing to accept some sort of direction.
Arturo may well be truly out of the game. Brown is a musty has-been who is being directed in various attempts to start trouble, but he’s in the U.K., where violent extremists are handled swiftly and roughly. I don’t know precisely what happened between Arturo, the future Mrs. Arturo, and Brown, but like Richard Medhurst, Brown is within reach of The Met.
If you made it all the way through this, I hope you absorbed some of the patterns mentioned herein. If you observe online conflicts long enough you will encounter them again, and it’s helpful to be able to recognize and dismiss time sinks like this, as well those that can’t help but participate in them.