By David Futrelle
Is loopy alt-lite “journalist” Mike Cernovich losing it? Admittedly, with Cernovich his normal behavior is already so bizarre it would be hard to tell, but his unhinged reaction to a guy who gently trolled him at Politicon the other day has me wondering.
The story so far, as best as I can figure it out: At Politcon, a convention that’s been described as “the Coachella of politics,” a young man bearing a striking resemblance to Max Fischer in the movie Rushmore gently touched Cernovich on the arm before launching into a jokey spiel about the wonders of Cernovich’s “Gorilla Mindset” supplements.
Quickly gathering that the young man was not a real fan, the rattled “mindset expert” sped off, repeatedly warning the young man to “stay out of my space, bro” and announcing to everyone in earshot (as well as to his audience on Periscope) that he was being followed by “a creepy stalker” and that “that guy was talking about pedophiles, so watch out for him.”
Now Cernovich has apparently decided that the young man in question was possibly “a replicant” or “a demon” sent to kill him, and that his life is now in danger. And no, Cernovich doesn’t seem to be joking about the replicant/demon stuff.
Seriously, watch this:
https://twitter.com/keanu_weaves/status/891767328135798784
Is he trying to steal Alex Jones’ schtick? Or has he severed his last connections to reality?
I’m guessing it’s a little from column a and a little from column b.
Here’s the original encounter at Politicon that triggered this apparent meltdown:
https://twitter.com/VicBergerIV/status/891502915202019328
Now, I can’t say I exactly endorse what the bespectacled troll did here — I mean, seriously, don’t go around putting your hands on people you don’t know, even lightly. But TV journalists doing live shots face even more ridiculous trolling — if not outright harassment and assault — on a daily basis and somehow don’t end up ranting about replicants and demons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NFKJUE3LzU
This isn’t the first time Cernovich has made a giant stink about people touching him in public. At a rally in Austin earlier this year, he repeatedly shouted “I’m being assaulted” after being gently nudged by rallygoers who got tired of his disruptions; you can find video of the entire horrifying nudging ordeal here.
But I don’t remember him accusing anyone involved in that incident of being a murderous biorobotic android.
I’m not the only one wondering if Cernovich is going off the deep end. Take a look at this little compilation:
Mike @Cernovich's life is in free fall. Recently divorced and is drinking heavily. He even accosted a loyal #GorillaMindset fan. Not good. pic.twitter.com/sB5sBGz7F9
— Nathan Bernard (@nathanTbernard) July 30, 2017
And then there was this weird video of his:
this broadcast could be why she divorced Weird Mike. Stream ends abruptly when wife enters room. Very bad. pic.twitter.com/aBNI7df3T1
— Nathan Bernard (@nathanTbernard) July 28, 2017
(FWIW, as far as I know, Cernovich is still with his second wife, though I can’t for the life of me understand why she is still with him.)
All this is pretty odd, even by Cernovich’s extravagantly weird standards.
As Rachel Maddow likes to say, watch this space.
@Jesalin: Same here, but I didn’t like the way they just abandoned the Elizabeth Weir replicant after determining that she was still loyal. They could have sent a jumper to fetch and reactivate her, as they had retrieved and reactivated Niam previously, but … nothing.
@Micharion: Cernovich’s projecting onto the troll may mean that, deep down, he believes himself to be a demon and a replicant too, then.
@Dali: Congratulations!
Now I’m no expert. But I’ll just float this idea: A lot of these “KingKong muscle-bro” types like to play around with artificial testosterone injections. That stuff does a number on your brain eventually…
Surplus to Requirements:
Someone should ask Juicebro the tortoise question.
At the weekend, I was at the British Museum’s Hokusai exhibition, so I think what Juicebro needs is Shōki, the demon-queller, a dude who won’t take no shit from no demons. I wish I could find an online copy which does Hokusai’s red Shōki justice, because, holy shit, it’s so good.
What’s a tortoise?
Alan, you know what a turtle is?
Of course.
(You do know this conversation ends up with you getting shot? 🙂 )
Congratulations, Dali!
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving person.
I don’t really know how to comment on Cernovich except that even I don’t have this kind of meltdown when people touch me without asking.
And I literally run away from them if they do that.
Well done, Dali!
Congratulations Dali!
Congrats, Dali, but (nitpick) why is it called “Through a Scanner Farkly”? Is that to avoid trouble with the Dick estate?
Yeah, wouldn’t mind turning that test around on ol’ Mikey boy. Or any of his ilk. Fail inside a minute.
@Grogepi
There’s a reason he’s called Juice Bro and it’s only partially that he sells overpriced overhyped actual juice on his site. A memory holed post of his had him promoting anabolic steroid use.
Weird, I always thought he was gay. I’m not sure why, maybe just conflating him with Milo since they kind of go hand-in-hand topic-wise.
Hmmmm.
I hope that he feels better soon, if this is something outside of his control (as opposed to some sort of bizarre…publicity stunt?)
I experience paranoid delusions and they’re terrifying. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.
First things first, congrats Dali !!
Second, ehh… as David said, people believe all sorts of weird things. And that doesn’t say anything about their mental health, rather their mental hygiene (and the two aren’t as closely related as one might gather from their names) and yes, you can make endless fun of Tcherno’s absolute lack of the latter without it meaning you’re armchair-diagnosing the former. Calling him unhinged is certainly not the same as calling him mentally ill.
Otherwise you’re gonna have endless trouble even talking about Trump and his White House, because they have pretty much the same relationship with reality that Tcherno displays.
Third, did his phone fall off the dashboard in disbelief when he said “replicant, demon or something” !?
Oops, I missed Dalillama’s post. Congratulations, that’s really exciting!
“MAGA Mindset” indeed (yes, that’s the title of one of his dishrags trying to pass as books)! I’m concerned about his wellbeing but I also can’t help but laugh a bit. Yeah you’re really making yourself great again, Mikey!
@Dali, Congratulations! I hope it does really well. Better than mine I hope!
@David,
Doesn’t take any mental health problems to come up with the strange nonsense he’s saying. I like to use the term mental hygiene for the sort of behaviour he’s exhibiting. Like, he’s mentally healthy, but his mental hygiene is atrocious. I.e. he has no ability to distinguish between good and bad beliefs, and no way to protect himself from letting bad thoughts take root in his mind.
Someone in the comments was suggesting that his taking piracetam would do this? Data point of one, but I’ve taken piracetam, and you’d have to take an awwffful lot of it to do anything really notable. That is at least what I found.
(Also, there’s no good evidence that it’s a nootropic drug at all. Mostly it’s just bitter and gross and ew. I experienced some mild “alertness” effects, but that could very well have been placebo. I found nightly melatonin to be far more powerful in effect.)
Not that he isn’t taking a pile of piracetam! He could be having a huge amount and utterly messing up his neurotransmitter levels, at which point all this weird stuff is a lot easier to swallow (unlike the piracetam itself, blech). That, plus steroids, plus whatever else he’s shoveling into his metabolism and I could see that having an effect alright.
And that’s enough rambling from me!
Strange that he’d use the phrase ‘gorilla mindset’; he doesn’t appear to be promoting a peaceful, vegetarian lifestyle.
Also, congratulations Dalillama!
Congrats on the book, Dali!
Add my congrats to the pile, Dali!
This might have something to do with his state of mind recently
https://twitter.com/TeaPainUSA/status/892073033975955457
Congratulations Dalillama!
@Moggie
I assume that they forgot that he didn’t put ‘Through’ in his title like all the other titles referencing that line do (including about a dozen analyses of Dick’s work)
@dreemr, I’ll believe it when I see it (Juicebro getting a subpoena). He’s desperate to appear a major player, rather than just another troll, so of course he tries to insert himself into the story. Though I’d love to be wrong about that.