By Hal Brown, MSW, Retired psychotherapist
Since AmandaD, the originator of the tweet and person who took this photo has posted a link to this diary many or most of those who replied on Twitter don’t know that I was a psychotherapist for 40 years who has posted a few hundred articles about Donald Trump’s psychopathology on Daily Kos. The study of Trump by psychotherapists is sometimes being called Trumpology.
‘A symbol of incels’: Internet destroys Idaho man for standing near Air Force tribute with Nazi flag was the main story for awhile on RAWSTORY. (If you still don’t know what an incel, is here’s the definition.)
His journey to RAWSTORY and possibly other websites began with one simple tweet from Amber who describes herself as follows on her Twitter page: “USAF veteran, former amateur MMA, animal activist, environmentalist, geologist by trade but full-time dog rescuer by choice...I block MAGAs.”
RAWSTORY has a selection of the tweets about the fellow so there’s no reason to add them to this diary. Amber’s tweet (above) has over 100 replies, more than 8000 people are tweeting about it. Some have images, including one by cartoonist cartoonist Mark Dolk.
Her recent tweet in response was:
I appreciate all of the likes, comments, and retweets on this post...we need to get this message out there and let “them” know that we are NOT okay with the bigotry and ugliness that has bubbled to the surface the last few years. Time for us to take our country back.
There has been a certain amount of body shaming in the tweets about this fellow. In fact there was a diary about this on Daily Kos on July 31st: Body Shaming and DKos. We don’t even know if this man fits any of the definitions of incel. For all we know he is in a loving intimate relationship.
I more look at this man’s face rather than at his body and while it doesn’t give me much to go on I see a rather sad person. He may also have an intellectual disability. He appears to be either wearing googles or unusual glasses. Obviously he managed to get himself a NAZI flag but we don’t know if he’s really an anti-Semite or a bigot who comprehends what this means.
There is no doubt that what he engaged in was attention seeking behavior but beyond this we don’t know why he did it. Did someone persuade him to do it or did he think of it on his own?
He may fit the psychiatric definition of having a passive-dependent personality disorder which is characterized by a lack of self-confidence and self-reliance and consequent surrender to and dependence on others to take responsibility for major areas of one's life. Reference. He may have another more serious psychiatric disorder, schizotypal personality disorder for example.
Nobody has doxed him yet as far as I know but it is quite possible if not likely that because people know his identity his name and whereabouts his identity will soon be widely known. Just to look at him I don’t think he deserves this. He might. But he might not.
Obviously he managed to get a large NAZI flag and he has found that belonging to this group satisfies some kind of need. We do not know whether he actually is aware what the group stands for.
We don’t know much of anything about him aside from what we see he did from the photo.
Sunday, Aug 2, 2020 · 3:27:01 PM +00:00 · HalBrown
Amber responded to my tweet to her which said:
Your tweet about the man with the NAZI flag prompted me to write this and post it on Daily Kos. I wish you'd talked to him so we'd know more about his motivations and personality.
I suggested back to her that if she did talk to him she could write a story about him for Daily Kos.
