Twitter is an Influence War

Jim Stewartson
5 min readJan 13, 2022

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This will be a long thread. I’m not naming names and I won’t provide screenshots — for now. But I think it’s important to describe the tactics being used and how and why trolling and smear campaigns work.

First, why am I a target? Because I’m very good at this and I have the temerity to tell the truth. The people attacking me are doing it for one of four reasons you should be aware of (MICE):

— Money

— Ideology

— Coercion / Compromising information

— Ego

MICE is a well-known counter-intelligence maxim. When confronted with people who are lying or intentionally steering people in the wrong direction, this is a very useful lens to look through.

I’m going to make some claims which I can back up with data and dates ad infinitum. Before I was inauthentically suspended for a third time on Twitter I did a thread of more than a hundred sourced subthreads in chronological order that show my journey. I have all the receipts in the world.

Journalists, many of you have been influenced in the wrong direction, not just about me, but about what is happening in America, and around the world. I invite any journalist to contact me by email: stewartson at protonmail dot com and I would be more than glad to back up every single claim with data and evidence. This needs to be reported. I am an open book and I want to help.

Here’s the big picture. The same people who are trying to destroy democracy are trying to destroy me and the other people who have figured out the truth about this. It’s pretty simple. Anyone who doubts this sort of thing happens, I invite you to look around. That’s all Twitter is — a large influence war and it’s getting more and more intense the closer they get to winning the war on democracy.

They saw me winning influence. I had 60k followers and 30M impressions in December. That is a large footprint and growing. They are going crazy to try and shut my voice up. I don’t think so. The thing about being a target is you learn quicker who people are. And the people who are inauthentic cannot help themselves but confess eventually. And they have. Through their actions.

Why pick me, a 52 year old creative technologist with a wife and kids tweeting about fascism and disinformation who has never committed a crime or intentionally harmed anyone? I’ll tell you why. I’m right and I’m not afraid of them.

Here’s the last thread I wrote right before I was suspended again. I have tried very hard not to stoop to their level but they are affecting my life and my ability to do my work.

There is a group of people who are larping (acting) as “leftists” while they do everything in their power to undermine the truth and truth tellers. Think of them as having “roles” in a play. Because that’s exactly what it is.

There are the low-level trolls who are obviously paid to do the work of shifting the narrative. I have identified dozens of them that are either full-time or part-time dedicated to defaming and harassing me behind a block. They are there to dirty up the target, to sealion and concern troll about made up bullshit.

Then there are the actual “ops.” These are people who are completely dedicated to disinformation, who have a history of it, and have embedded with this group to get attention and pretend to be something they are not.

There are quite a few of them, but they tend to be people who had a sudden turn to anti-fascism after working with fascists for years. In some cases, they just came out of nowhere and started fighting with specific fascists and platforming them in the guise of “exposing them.” These are LARPs.

Then there are the validators. People who have played a long game of pretending to be an independent journalist or researcher but are actually there to steer the narrative in the wrong direction. Several have blue checks. The thing is, if you actually examine their work, it is always either wrong or misdirects the conversation to something unimportant. Always.

These are also the people who use the false credibility they have created to slide into DMs, whisper rumors to colleagues and pitch hit pieces on people like me.

This group has said the following things about me:

  • That I’m anti-Semitic (they stopped when I explained my grandparents were Ashkenazi Jews who came over in the pogroms)
  • That I’m a “misogynist” which is not only deeply offensive but provably untrue
  • That I’m a “cult leader”
  • That I’m “dangerous”
  • That I have “swatted” people
  • That I conspire with criminals to hack people
  • That I spread misinformation
  • That I’m “unwell”
  • That I’m “Blue Anon”
  • That I’m a “grifter” or a “fraud” (I have not taken a DIME for this)

It could go on. But let me be absolutely clear that all of these are lies, provably, and anyone who continues to assert these things are opening themselves up to legal consequences.

Here are some facts that they don’t want you to know.

  • QAnon and the subsequent global syncretic Cult it created is in fact a conspiracy to destroy democracy.
  • The 2016 election was stolen by Mike Flynn collaborating with Putin and a who’s who of domestic information terrorists.
  • Russia’s interference has only gotten much worse.
  • QAnon. like Pizzagate was started by MAGA3X.
  • There was no “Q” but Mike Flynn directed it from the beginning.
  • Ron Watkins ran the second website for “Q”, that is all.
  • The Cult is the result of psychological warfare aka cognitive warfare. Within that framework are “psyops” which are specific operations designed to influence people inauthentically.
  • Anyone can be indoctrinated and brainwashed. It is not a choice. And it is not their fault. No one has ever brainwashed themselves.

I’m going to keep working and I’m going to keep talking. If anyone has any genuine concerns about the lies being told about me, I shared my email above. Thanks to everyone who has supported me. Keep fighting. 🇺🇸💙

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