Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/11/brexiteers-plan-to-recover-b.html
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Shame it’s not true. Sure, the tweets happened, but someone was roleplaying an idiot for lolz.
Did a good step up though, got to give him that.
What is a fairy tale but truth dressed as lies?
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Brexiteer’s plan to recover bad Le Pen bet fails
Actually hilarious.
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[quote=The Real Colin]They’ve been saying I’ve been betting on some fascist group that ain’t even in this country. I don’t even know who – Le Pen or some bollocks like that. I had to ask someone that I know, because you know I don’t keep up with politics.[/quote]I’m pretty sure we could guess his opinion on the referendum at least.
EDIT
His YouTube is… something.
Although it’s a hoax the widespread belief in its veracity does highlight a fundamental truth of how gullible and short-sighted and self-destructive supporters of right-wing populist movements are.
Not only was it revealed as a hoax days ago, but it’s been a pain for the real Colin Johnson. It’s irresponsible to leave the post up.
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It’s fine, thanks. (But I did move the link to the top of the post instead of the end)
OK - how is it a hoax? The Ladbrokes guy is fake, but the Colin Johnson guy really did try to weasel out of a 500 UK money bet? Or did he REALLY have a 13 year old place a bet on his computer?
Both characters, Colin and Ladbrokes, were being written by the same person (Or people who knew one another. Or who caught one anothers’ eyes glinting in the dark)
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A self-claimed PR guy trolled the loony left for unknown reasons by stealing an already obnoxious semi-public figure (Colin Johnson), posting as him for over a month and retweeting popular figures in Brexit, and then finally (having started the troll before the French election) was able to tweet Ladbrokes who saw his tweet history and responded. Then the screen grabs got passed around and the media picked it up.
Like most trolls, it was a massive waste of time on his end for the lulz and the guy behind it is very impressed with himself.
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It may be true that on-avergage right-wing supporters are more gullible, but this by itself doesn’t demonstrate that. In fact, this doesn’t demonstrate that at all.
All this actually demonstrates is that the left believes supporters of right-wing populist movements are gullible and short-sighted and self-destructive.
It doesn’t say anything about how that belief was formed or how valid that belief is, methinks.
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Agreed. Which is why I used the term “highlight” instead of “demonstrate.”
Ah, ok, I see. Perhaps I’m just reacting to “highlight” being followed by “fundamental truth”… that’s pretty strong language and I’m not sure where it comes from. For example, the widespread belief in a lot of other things (think of something that is widely believed in that you don’t think is true) doesn’t highlight the fundamental truth of those other things.
[quote=“virtuous_sloth, post:13, topic:100830”]
All this actually demonstrates is that the left believes supporters of right-wing populist movements are gullible and short-sighted and self-destructive.
[/quote]Sort of. The hoax started well before the election and faked being a real person, so what it really proves is that no one should ever doubt how dedicated trolls are to their activities. This guy had to research someone online, figure out they had a personality that would pass basic research by the media, and then spend his free time for a month of more pretending to be this guy to eventually make a joke.
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Translation: “It gets clicks so whatever lol”
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Doesn’t quite seem fine to me. Your posting includes no acknowledgment that the story is fake. Why wouldn’t you at least add a note?
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The real Colin Johnson put up a new video a few hours ago. Kind of sad to watch him melt down, he obviously has no clue what the hell happened:
Not at all. I’m fascinated by its folkloric qualities. Sadly, of all the things I’m interested in that do not get many clicks, it’s the generation of contemporary folklore.
