Over the years, I have achieved temporary fame, if you want to call it that, for the articles that I’ve written and for the projects that I have done. My best project was an experiment where I used Craigslist’s Casual Encounters forum, a feature that no longer exists. In that experiment, I wanted to see just how many men were putting their wives/girlfriends at risk of STD’s.
Some argued that there was no point to my experiment, covered in the Las Vegas Sun, published in my hometown, as my character was an 18-year-old college girl looking for random hookups with no strings attached. As such, I was not trying to catch men committing illegal acts such as going after underage girls. Those people missed the point, the point being that I wanted to show just how many men would cheat under the cloak of anonymity.
To get the whole story, you can read the article that I linked you to, but the general idea is that I was able to publish the findings without the need for being fair or objective. I caught those men by any means necessary. Because of me, numerous men lost their jobs (for using company time to troll for sex), their girls and one even got discharged from the military. Had I been an actual journalist, I wouldn’t have been able to have all the fun that I had.
That’s one perk of being a blogger. But there are several other perks that I enjoy:
- I am not required to be objective.
- I am not required to be fair.
- I am not required to tell both sides of the story.
- I am not required to give people in my articles their side of the story. Some countries have a “right of response,” but the United States is not one of those countries.
- I can spin the narrative without having to adhere to journalistic standards.
- I can tell someone a conversation is off the record and then name names anyway. A traditional journalist would not be able to do that. As a blogger, I absolutely can and have.
Over the years, reporters have approached me for interviews and I have been featured in numerous news articles over the past twenty years. A few reporters, and it doesn’t matter who they are, have told me off the record that they envy me for being able to pretty much write whatever the hell I want and spin the stories my way.
Along the way, I’ve lost numerous website hosting providers because of my viewpoints. Though I have toned it down quite a bit, I do continue to do, much like Frank Sinatra, things my way. But again, one hosting provider told me under the condition of anonymity that he laughed when he read an article where I called a Jewish person a rather nasty name. Point being, I do have people who admire what I do, or at least the way that I do it.
I have written about a lot of things and I have paid the price for some of those things. That’s the downside to being a blogger: words do have consequences, especially when you write the things that I write. I’ve lost jobs, friends, career opportunities, hosting providers and so much more. But you know what? Worth it!
Sometimes, people organize campaigns to ruin a blogger’s life. That happened when, in 2008, I wrote an article about reckless teenagers from Ocala, Florida. The reaction was swift and I was made to be the bad guy as opposed to those teens, all of whom died, who could have ended innocent lives.
Those trashy people came after every aspect of my life and caused some minor but temporary damage. I lost a hosting provider. Someone even abused their connections and got cell phones registered to myself and my wife cut off. Someone found out where I worked and I lost tht job. An attorney representing me on a traffic ticket case dropped me.
So many people caved under the tiniest bit of pressure. In one case, I was able to get revenge. When that employer who sacked me stood before me in need of help, I stood idle. His four-year-old daughter was having a medical emergency and I was trained in how to handle the very sort of emergency she was having. She laid there and the ground, convulsing and suffering. I just stood and laughed.
He begged me for help. I told him that he can’t fire me out of one side of his mouth and then ask for help out of the other side. He tried to beg, saying, “I was wrong for firing you! I was in a bad mood that day!” Well, folks, my response was swift and punishing: “Yeah? Well, now I’m in a bad mood and now you and your daughter are fucked!”
Did I mention that he did not have his cell phone on him and I was the only person nearby who could call 911? I just laughed at them and told him to figure it out for himself. I then walked away with no regrets. It was not my fault that he walked around without a cell phone on his person.
I don’t know what happened to them after I left, nor do I care. I don’t care that a young child was denied assistance and I don’t care if she could have died or did die. Sometimes, kids are just collateral damage. I have no problem punishing innocent family members of those who victimize me.
You see, you can mess with me and get away without for a little bit, but sooner or later, Mike always gets his revenge, even if innocent people pay. I have a long memory. I do not forgive. I do not forget. People who came after me for what I write and people who took action against me have found out, even a decade later, that my memory works and I am always up for doling out revenge.
One one occasion, I tracked down someone who tipped off a newspaper reporter things he knew about me from going to the same high school as I did. I lay in wait and I caught him accessing my website from the dispatch center where he worked. Yes, a 911 dispatcher being distracted by personal internet usage.
That personal internet usage on the company dime could have caused serious problems, so I did what I do best: I went after him, reporting him to the police department where he worked. Yeah, he got fired for that and as a result, he and his wife and young child suffered financially. The wife left him for being unable to provide for them.
There were, of course, numerous death threats over the years, but then again, just about every blogger gets a death threat now and again. It’s part of the gig. Out of all the death threats that I received, no one actually did anything. One time and one time only did someone wind up near my door. When she saw me approach her on my property, she froze.
I proceeded to deliver a hard punch to her nose, blood squirting out. My guess is that she was on blood thinner. I laughed and walked away. She obviously expected me to cower in fear, but she found out the hard way that I have no problem hitting a female when provoked and only when provoked.
As that girl, who was maybe 17 or 18, found out, Mike always wins, even if that win comes years later. That’s another perk to being a blogger. Sometimes, I have to take the abuse, but sooner or later, I can dish it right back out. I have taken action many years after the fact. Again, I do not forget. I do not forgive. I gather data through various means and I wait for the dish to grow cold. Then, I strike. I have ruined lives, jobs and relationships. Maybe don’t mess with me and that won’t happen.
Over the years, I have been told through various platforms that I have caused people to cry and have caused distress, like the one time that I exposed a CEO, quite literally, to his employees. I took the pictures of himself in the nude and with an erect penis, pictures that he voluntarily sent to my character, gained through that experiment that I told you about, and sent those photographs to his employees. I was told later that he was “humiliated.”
I was threatened with a lawsuit from another company leader. I responded to the attorney that I would send my answer to the complaint to the local media and that I would, by accident, include the photographs, exposing him (no pun intended) to the local media and, by extension, the entire internet. Mysteriously, the lawsuit never materialized. I did nothing wrong. All I did was hold him accountable.
Maybe next time, don’t send nudes to anonymous people on the internet?
A traditional journalist cannot do the things that I do. Though on balance, I am a cuddly kitten now compared to the old days, I still write articles that people whine about and I will not stop doing so. I do not care about being impartial. I do not care about being fair. I have no interest in being ethical. I do not care one bit about hurt feelings.
A traditional journalist cannot do the things that I do. Deal with it!