Flagship brand of the Long Island acting fraternity Alec Baldwin recently rallied his followers in an all-out offensive against an alleged Twitter stalker harassing his girlfriend, Hilaria Thomas.
According to the Hollywood Reporter:
Baldwin gave out the Twitter handle of the user, @scarfacemadam, whom he said "has entered the twitter-verse ONLY to harass my girlfriend" in a way "that is borderline threatening." He asked users to "go to her address and read just a few of her posts, and give her your notice of her behavior."
The request worked -- the user, who had been encouraging Thomas to leave Baldwin, soon deleted her profile, after being inundated with harsh tweets.
Way to deploy a LGM-30G Minuteman-III intercontinental ballistic missile to a Twitter fight, guy.
Look. I ain't gonna lie. As far as I'm concerned, pretty much everything Alec Baldwin does — acting or in real life — is awesome … with, of course, the exception of that leaked voice mail message to his daughter. But hey, that was never any of my business, and anyhoo I guarantee he's a better parent than any I ever had.
That said, if Baldwin wants to play 4chan — posting identifying information of an individual with the suggestion of harassment — he should learn the iconic Web forum's Rules of the Internet, specifically rule 14: "Do not argue with a troll — it means that they win."
If the troll harassing his GF really is as bad as he says, then it's way to fuel a psycho stalker, Alec Baldwin!
Conversely, if the troll is just your run-of-the-mill Internet jerk (with or without diagnosable mental issues), then Baldwin just sent thousands of people in that troll's direction. While many of the Twitter attacks against @scarfacemadam can't compare to the jillions of death threats tweeted by Justin Bieber fans should someone so much as insult a perfect hair on his well-manicured head, they aren't pretty. Certainly nothing one should throw the way of a person suffering any kind of mental or emotional disturbance. For example, these:
@Scarfacemadam You are one crazy, psycho a** b****. Seriously. Grow up. Leave @alecbaldwin & his gf alone. #***clown
@Scarfacemadam why don't you go f*** yourself and stop harassing people.. I'm sure @alecbaldwin has not affected you personally.#b****
@Scarfacemadam you're kinda a b**** maybe u should log off twitter and find something better to do... harassing over the internet is DUMB
The irony of all of the above is kind of awesome if, say, one isn't outfitted with an empathy chip.
Granted, Baldwin is a dude given to short bursts of public rage that are often pretty on target. Society needs guys like this to shake things up.
Take for example, Baldwin's last Twitter twantrum after he was booted from an American Airlines flight in December because he wouldn't stop playing "Words with Friends" while the jet was still waiting on the tarmac. Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that the FAA is considering its ban on digital reading devices during taxi, take-off and landing.
Note, however, that in the case of American Airlines, Baldwin unleashed his furor against a corporation. Just like Kevin Smith's own righteous Twitter twantrum against Southwest Airlines when the director claimed he was booted from his flight for being too fat to fly. In both cases, the targets were giant organizations outfitted with the public relations departments more than capable of dealing with the fallout.
When a celebrity directs his fanatic legion (which has various states of mental stability) against a single, not-famous person, that's feeding a troll at best, and at worst, straight-up bullying.
Dude seriously needs to take a tip from Ice-T who issued the Best (NSFW) Twitter Insult Ever after musician Ami Mann commented on his acting ability (or lack thereof) via the microblogging platform.
As Gawker noted at the time: "Do not get in a Twitter fight with a person whose followers consider themselves an organized army, as Ice-T's Final Level Twitter Gang does."
After a plethora of Twitter apologies from Mann, Ice T called off the angry mob: "OK. Homegirl apologized …… Say no more. FLTG Cease fire! Once again there's Peace in Twitterland. Ice T. "
Take note Baldwin: This is how a benevolent Twit-tator rolls.
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.
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