Let the Bots Squeal

I am a thorn in the side of the Missouri GOP.

The fact that I am a woman makes my activism even more irritating to the misogynists in the party.

I expose them, and they hate me for it. I have been on a mission to make their would-be authoritarianism harder than it would be if I weren’t on their case.

I started this Substack because I was angry about two Missouri GOP lawmakers who used flamethrowers to light boxes of “the woke agenda” on fire. There was not enough space on Twitter to talk about these two fascists, so I started writing here.

I challenge the Missouri GOP misogyny through my activism, and they lash out. They pitch fits. They call me names.

Usually the same name.

And here is something I have been stewing on since last week when Trump told a woman reporter, “Quiet, piggy,” when she asked a question he didn’t like. A question about the thorn in his side — the Epstein mess.

I had a visceral reaction to the name-calling. It immediately reminded me of the days when I was still on Twitter and was called every name in the book, every day of the week.

Name calling by bots and by GOP lawmakers and GOP wannabe lawmakers.

For years, I have been surprised that lawmakers would lower themselves to speak in such terms and call such names, but my god, the President of the United States put a finger in a reporter’s face and called her “piggy.”

Sounds familiar.

I am a middle-aged Midwestern Mimi…I don’t really watch my weight. I watch my clothes, and as long as they fit, I eat and drink and stay pretty merry for a woman living under authoritarianism.

But I am not skinny by any measure.

And that’s where I receive almost all of my criticism. It’s not because I’m “woke” or liberal or an advocate for everything from public schools to the LGBT community to trans kids to healthcare…it’s because I am not skinny.

But here’s the kicker: almost all of the abuse I have encountered happened on Twitter — now called X. Hundreds of comments on my appearance. Hundreds of threats. Hundreds of replies I read over the years calling me disgusting names.

A favorite name? Pig.

A screenshot from the social media of Valentina Gomez, former candidate for Missouri Secretary of State.

The photo above was posted by Valentina Gomez, a former candidate for Missouri Secretary of State. She was well known for her bigotry and anti-LGBT positions. She is the worst kind of MAGA woman; a pick-me who thrives on rage-baiting.

Gomez went viral on Twitter after she produced videos of herself burning books. The Missouri Republicans love a good book burning. Apparently.

I addressed her video with a Twitter post denouncing it, and she made another video for me. She posted it on Twitter. As you can see in the screenshot, she called me a “fat pig.”

Was I offended? A little. Did it stop me from speaking out against her hate? Not for a second. But the fact that everyone from the President to extremist GOP candidates refer to women in the exact same terms is vile.

I just thought she was a homegrown bigoted anti-feminist, but her language coordinated perfectly with MAGA. It was scripted. Algorithmic.

I left Twitter after the 2024 election — I stayed until that point to follow lawmakers and news outlets and to participate in state-level politics.

A year ago, I ghosted 160,000 followers.

It was ten years of activism. But it was also 10 years of verbal abuse and harassment at the hands of MAGA accounts.

I always knew there were bots on Twitter, we all do, but I didn’t know the extent of the bots and bad actors.

So, you can imagine my surprise yesterday when I opened my news app to read a story about a new feature on Twitter that showed the actual location of accounts:

…as soon as the feature appeared live for users, X was flooded with viral posts showing that numerous high-engagement, MAGA-branded accounts that present themselves as those of patriotic Americans appear to instead be based overseas in Eastern Europe, Thailand, Nigeria and Bangladesh.

MAGA accounts with millions of followers are not American. Some of the biggest political accounts that consistently spread MAGA misinformation and harass others are not American. Accounts with massive American political clout that are retweeted by Trump are doing the bidding of other countries.

*Elon Musk’s team disabled the location feature quickly for reasons we can all deduce.

I am kicking myself for staying on that app for so long. I beat myself up for years when I looked in the mirror, because even though I know I shouldn’t base any of my self-worth on my appearance or how others feel about it, I still read all of those comments all those years.

I digested them.

“Fat pig” still rings in my ears.

I wasted my time on a woman running for office who eventually got 7% of the vote in her primary. Maybe I helped her lose in a spectacular fashion, but I have no doubt that she was not worth the time I gave her.

She was just playing up the nastiness for an online audience.

I also wasted time on the Twitter accounts that harassed me for years which were set up in foreign countries to waste my time and energy. Macedonian accounts with a bald eagle and American flag in the profile picture.

The President of the United States uses the disgusting language of those Macedonian bots. It’s misogyny and sexism, but it’s also internet speak. And it is coordinated.

The President is a fake account. He is pretending to be America First, but his true mission is to do the bidding of other countries. To destroy us from the inside.

He was elected to dupe. To hoodwink.

Internet culture and internet addiction have led us down this path. Bots and bad actors have gained the upper-hand in American politics. It’s plain to see the coordinated messaging in the name-calling and rage-baiting.

These things have kept us busy while a man was installed in the White House who does not work for the American people. Who means to harm us.

Trump is a bad actor.

Trump is an algorithm.

Trump represents the coordinated attack on America, and I’m not wasting another minute on thinking about his insults. I won’t forget his words, but I won’t spend any more time on them either.

I’m spending my time making his authoritarianism and fascism more difficult. I’m spending my time working to beat MAGA in less than one year.

Let the bots and the lawmakers and the wannabe lawmakers squeal like pigs. I’m too busy knocking on doors to hear them.

~Jess