Individual None
Ignoring personas for fun and profit.
If you read court documents associated with politics in the U.S. in the 2020s, you will inevitably encounter INDIVIDUAL 1. This is a convention in charging documents where the DOJ, for whatever reason, does not wish to use a particular person’s name. Quite often enough details of the actions of high profile people are known such that not naming is no barrier. Here’s an example from Michael Cohen case, where Trump is INDIVIDUAL 1. If you hunt up the Trump January 6th indictment there are six unnamed parties, but five of them were easily deduced.
That’s cold hard facts from the kingdom of objective reality.
On the other hand, I have been seeing a bunch of nonsense pouring out of Twitter, and it’s time to talk about the spectrum from person to persona, and when you should say “LOL” and just move on.
Attention Conservation Notice:
Bullshit personas engage in bullshit games. If you already knew that and refuse to participate, go ahead and move along …
Persons:
“Neal Rauhauser” was a person back in 2009, a U.S. citizen of middle years with some technology skills and a curious, autismal career path. Somewhere along the way it became popular for losers, starting with Brandon Darby, to sign my name to stupid stunts like these:
This was the beginning of the unpersoning of “Neal Rauhauser”. The room temperature IQ informant tricks never worked, but that name being unique, and my methods and motives being known, it created opportunities for bad actors. Now and then I Google that Neal guy … and I don’t know what to think of him.
Pseudonyms:
There are a couple really famous pseudonyms from the Trump years. “Ricky Vaughn” got involved in campaign work, got crosswise with neo-Nazi candidate Paul Nehlen, and got doxed - real name Douglass Mackey. This started a cascade of events that led to his indictment for election interference. There’s been thunderous sniveling from the right about this - HIS CRIMES WERE MEMES. That’s nonsense, his crime was voter suppression using SMS messages.
There was another nom de derp from those years, Microchip. He proved to be an FBI informant and a witness against Mackey.
When an individual adopts a unique name and then uses it for endless provocation the hunt for the operator becomes an overriding fascination for some people. The first time I saw this happen was with Hector “Sabu” Monsegur.
Personas:
One of the things that came out of the HBGary intrusion back in 2011 was that the government sought “persona management” systems. If you’re looking at someone online and trying to decide if they’re such a jackoff that they’re risking death via carpal testicle syndrome, this is one of the diagnostic criteria. If they go on and on and on and on and on about this topic, calling everyone who disagrees with them a managed persona, the odds of them strangling themselves with their own vas deferens is pretty high.
There are synthetic personas that serve as agent provocateur fronts for online conflict groups. I started seeing this in 2009 and there have been a number of notable efforts over the years. As a firm rule, if they haven’t done something chargeable, attempting to uncover a real name is pointless. Watch for those who are around them, and when they “do” something really offensive, that’s a psychic snare. The referenced site, Conspiracy Brokers, is mine and dates to those years, it’s a trail of particle board crumbles distributed just like bread crumbs.
Countermeasures:
So what do you do about personas that are constantly in scuffles, but which never do anything that actually matters?
Stop Ingesting Crap - ignore them at a minimum, and you probably better ignore anyone who can’t leave it alone, as that’s just as likely to be an infiltrator as a genuine supporter.
Make sure you’re on the right side of Paranoia: Pathological or Professional? If a non-person that engages in provocative non-activities becomes a regular feature in your daily grind, as above, cut them off, and then start cutting people who can’t leave it alone.
Simulacra & Simulation is something I bring up repeatedly. We’re dealing with Reality Under Siege. Get used to asking questions like “Is this real?”, “Does anyone give a shit about it?”, “Would it matter if the operator(s) were identified?” Even one “no” is enough for me to find other things to do.
It’s hard for me to sit and write this, because I’ve been through enough iterations that I will make snap judgments on stuff. Those judgments will turn out to be correct long term, but people around me, some of whom should know better, will feel I’m overreacting. I’ve always kinda done my own thing so I don’t mind the social pressure, and it’s almost always good to avoid time wasting fuckups.
Conclusion:
This sort of thing has been steadily ramping up and AI has turbocharged it. Organic Stupidity, LinkedIn Style was not something special, I see stuff like that ALL! THE! TIME! I’m editorializing here because several people I like, some of whom actually DO know better, are showing signs that they’ve forgotten how this game works.
When you take intentional bait, you bring shame to the game. So just stahp.
Such is the essence of Individual None. Let the ignoring begin at once …