The saddest place on the internet
In this week's edition: stolen valor, Twitter sweepstakes, fading alt-right icons, internet hitmen, influencer hair and polar bear shenanigans
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“If you need dinner, drop your cash app.” That’s how it often starts: the periodic Twitter feeding frenzy overseen by a once-obscure Michigan home-builder. Bill Pulte’s schtick is simple: Follow him on Twitter, obey his instructions, and he may deposit “blessings” in your Venmo account. Pre-pandemic, Pulte’s sweepstakes had a carnival air about them. But seven months into the crisis, they’ve grown much darker.
One woman replies that she just paid her water bill, but now has no money for food.
Another tweets a picture of her empty refrigerator.
This one’s living in her car. That one can’t afford McDonald’s chicken nuggets. Pulte’s followers tweet screenshots of their empty bank accounts and many, many photos of their unsuspecting children.
The Pulte phenomenon first came to my attention in April, when I was looking for workers in upstate New York to talk about their experience with the unemployment system. I’d tried the conventional places without much to show for it, but when I typed “unemployed” into the Twitter search bar, I found dozens of Pulte hopefuls in my area. Some had tweeted at him dozens and dozens of times, apparently unmoved by the evidence that these odds, however opaque, were not in their favor. Others scrapped uselessly — unknowingly? — with obvious Twitter bots and scammers.
Much has been written about r/unemployment, the subreddit where jobless workers organize to advise and care for each other. (This piece by Bridget Read, which I love, appeared in an earlier newsletter.)
But as far as I can tell, @pulte is both a far larger phenomenon and a much more tragic one. For starters, he has 3.1 million followers to r/unemployment’s 52,400 members.
And while a lot of quiet, person-to-person transactions do go down in Pulte’s @-replies —“The Philanthropist,” as he calls himself, rewards generous “teammates” with extra deposits — the majority of Pulte’s desperate following appeal directly to the man himself. This same man is, notably, the grandson and heir to a major development fortune who previously made his philanthropic name in “high-tech” large-scale home demolition. For each of the past five days, I’ve downloaded a random, 2,000-tweet sample of his @-replies; the most common words include “money,” “people,” “love,” “food,” “cancer,” “covid,” “struggling,” “tough,” “sick,” “broke” and “miserable.”
For what it’s worth, Pulte and I have exchanged a small handful of emails for a (tangentially related, yet unpublished) story. He seems like a generally well-meaning guy, if slightly caught up in his own social media myth-making. He forwarded me half a dozen GoFundMe accounts that he had publicized, and for which his “teammates” had later raised funds. When I asked him how it felt to field so many strangers’ life-or-death requests, he said: “You call them strangers, I call them human beings! [Smiley face emoticon].”
In all seriousness, though, it would appear that even Pulte’s adherents have questions; on @PulteDaily, one of his many unofficial fan accounts — notable for its truly amazing selection of worshipful and badly Photoshopped memes — the “random person behind this account” recently asked followers for the one question they wished they could ask Pulte.
What is your actual job?, wrote one woman, who also said she dreams often of her family’s eviction.
How do I build wealth from the bottom?, asked the disabled grandfather of five kids.
Can you give me a job with a middle-class salary?
What is it like to never worry about bills?
Can you help me? Can you help my child?
Or are we just … helpless?
(P.S. If you’re interested in reading some of the types of stories that first got me searching Twitter for “unemployed” — albeit without the ~fun~ internet angle! — several are publishing online today as part of a collaboration between The New York Times and a group of local newsrooms. You can read my stories here and the full package at nyt.com; also look for an insert in today’s print paper.)
(P.S. #2: Hello and welcome to new subscribers from The Cut!! ICYMI, last week’s newsletter intro was reprinted over there — we truly love to see it.)
If you read anything this weekend
This profile of (slash eulogy for??) the satire site ClickHole, which also reads like a paean to the 2010s internet. Increasingly it seems to me like 2014-2017 were *the* definitive, formative years of modern internet culture. I guess I’m glad I was there for it…? (See also: this.) [Kate Knibbs / Wired]
This unflinching and surprisingly up-close portrait of fading alt-right icon Lauren Southern. I know there’s a school of thought that pans these sorts of profiles for amplifying the racist/shitty views of their subjects. But insofar as Southern has already enjoyed years of amplification, I think it’s useful to see *just* how morally and intellectually bankrupt her whole charade is. [Daniel Lombroso / The Atlantic]
Speaking of up-close: this intimate, behind-the-scenes account of the man who faced off against QAnon. Running against Marjorie Greene was apparently an accident — and it ruined Kevin Van Ausdal. [Stephanie McCrummen / The Washington Post]
This journey through the online vigilante communities that name and shame “stolen valor.” This has always been a fascinating phenomenon to me, and I love how this piece gets into the long, pre-internet history of military imposters. [Rachel Monroe / The New Yorker]
This totally disillusioning dive into the (deep!!) roots of the white-woman-who-loves-fall meme. You were very wrong if you thought it started with pumpkin spice lattes. [Hazel Cills / Jezebel]
And now for something completely different
Our local zoo is trying really reallyyyyy hard to start this meme where they give inappropriate foods to the polar bear to see if he’ll eat them…? Feels entertaining, but also kinda messed up! Rather like zoos themselves…
Postscripts
The incredible rise of fake local news and the “blob” décor aesthetic. An algorithm that truly, literally seems indistinguishable from magic. An interview with a fake internet hitman. An experiment in how we see history. Words first used the year you were born. (Ugh mine include “right-click” and “bcc.”)
Authoritarian governments are sponsoring travel bloggers. “Influencer hair” is a new concept to me (!). Behold: the only Toobin take that I plan to read. The Peter Pans of the pandemic. The TikTok teens memeing the vote. Last but not least, a crucial Vox guide to the “Chris discourse.”
Sharing is caring
Seriously — can we keep talking about this?? Because I’m not over it yet. This morning I took a Peloton class with a user called “DrMomSlayer,” no exaggeration. Does this person slay moms? Doctors? Spin classes? Truly, I have questions. I also have *lots* of gratitude to Nick for tweeting about it. THANK YOU to Nick & everyone else who shares this newsletter. Your referrals are the main way it finds new readers!!
— Caitlin