On Wednesday, everyone returned from the long weekend to the delightful, cheery hashtag: "CNN Blackmail." Tweeters included trolls at all levels, including Donald Trump Jr:
Explaining this ridiculous scenario backwards from today's hashtag might be the simplest way to understand what's going on here. But first, you've got to know that all this stems from a ridiculous tweet—as usual—from President Donald Trump.
But that's getting ahead of ourselves. On Tuesday, a CNN reporter named Andrew Kacynski identified the Reddit user who initially "claimed credit for" the stupid video in Donald Trump's above tweet.
He goes by the user name HanAssholeSolo. Nice. Naturally.
As CNN poked around HanA**holeSolo's Reddit history, they found a number of racist, anti-Semitic posts. Of course, because this is the type of guy that inspires Trump. The man behind the Reddit handle apologized, and CNN wrote the following. They wouldn't publish his name:
CNN is not publishing "HanA**holeSolo's" name because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, showed his remorse by saying he has taken down all his offending posts, and because he said he is not going to repeat this ugly behavior on social media again. In addition, he said his statement could serve as an example to others not to do the same.
CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change.
And here we are, with a number of right-wing personalities and straight-up trolls (Donald Trump Jr.) tweeting about #CNN Blackmail with made-up allegations, chief of which the idea that HanA**holeSolo is a 15-year-old.
He's not a 15-year-old.
The issue of exposing the Reddit user's identity sounds murky and bizarre—but Kacyznski denied coaxing the apology out of him, and said that CNN's article is being misinterpreted. The man himself, HanA**holeSolo, apparently agrees.
Plus there's this gem, in which an anonymous Reddit troll shows better judgment than the president:
None of the facts of the situation have stopped people like Donald Trump Jr. from tweeting what they want on the matter. After all, "CNN Blackmail" achieves the same thing POTUS did with his initial tweet: it turns the bashing of journalists into entertainment, based on nothing in reality.
Enjoy your day back from the holiday, and see you at the next Trump tweet.
