HOW DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTERS ATTACK JOURNALISTS

[deminks]

http://www.newsweek.com/epileptogenic-pepe-video-507417

Shortly after I wrote an article for Newsweek about how Donald Trump’s business interests could undermine national security should he be elected president, one of his supporters assaulted me. He used the internet to do it.

Throughout my adulthood, I have never made a secret of the fact that I have epilepsy. It’s better controlled now than it has been during other parts of my life, but not completely—my neurologist tells me I have intractable epilepsy, meaning treatment will never bring the condition fully under control. I know how people—particularly children—with seizures suffer when uninformed idiots suggest they should impose limits of their lives or quell their aspirations. So when Fox News blowhard and college dropout Sean Hannity practically drooled in delight this election season as he falsely proclaimed that Hillary Clinton suffered from seizures based on her acting goofy in a short video clip, it infuriated me. I knew how his message would be heard—people with seizures look ridiculous, they should be afraid of others laughing at them, they should listen to the voices telling them they can’t do what they want (even be president). And so I raged at Hannity in the pages of Newsweek, on cable television news shows and on Twitter.

A couple of weeks later, after my article about how Trump’s business interests would create a conflict of unprecedented proportions, I received a tweet from someone with the twitter handle “Mike's Deplorable AF.” Like many Trump supporters, he has chosen to identify himself as deplorable to mock the label once used by Clinton to describe the racists, neo-Nazis, homophobes and like who have crawled out of the sewer to cheer for the Republican nominee. Mike, however, is indeed deplorable.

In his tweet, which has since been deleted, Mike made mention of my seizures and included a small video. It contained images of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character that has been identified by the Anti-Defamation League as a hate symbol. I was carrying my iPad, looking at the still image on the video and, without thinking, touched the PLAY button.

The video was some sort of strobe light, with flashing circles and images of Pepe flying toward the screen. It’s what’s called epileptogenic—something that triggers seizures. Fortunately, since I was standing, I simply dropped my iPad to the ground the second I realized what Mike had done. It landed face down on the bathroom floor.

(end snip)

[tonyt53]

1. They do this shit because they are bullies. Trump has made them think that what they do is okay.

Bullies love Trump.

[SunSeeker]

2. K & R for exposure.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Quasi-anonymous internet assault & bullying is way out of hand. It needs to be smashed.

If it isn't smashed it will just get worse and there will be an increase of physical intimidation and violence, including for political gain.

'Crime' might be down, but it seems to me that petty crime is up.

The "clown craze" has crime aspects that are more than petty. It's an example of pranks getting out of hand and becoming retail scale terrorism.

Villains like "Mike" need to be caught and investigated fully and prosecuted to the full extent of the law and made a harsh example of. The few that have been caught have been found to have committed hundreds of online acts against dozens of people -- for example the Dutch man who goaded people into suicides.

[mcar]

4. Deplorable isn't a strong enough word for them

[Control-Z]

5. Most twisted and cruel.

The most twisted and cruel of all. Somehow I almost missed the full impact of this.

"The video was some sort of strobe light, with flashing circles and images of Pepe flying toward the screen. It’s what’s called epileptogenic—something that triggers seizures. Fortunately, since I was standing, I simply dropped my iPad to the ground the second I realized what Mike had done. It landed face down on the bathroom floor."

epileptogenic
adjective ep·i·lep·to·gen·ic -ˌlep-tə-ˈje-nik

Definition of epileptogenic:

inducing or tending to induce epilepsy

Could there be a criminal aspect to this behavior?