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You are here: Home / Politics / GOP Death Cult / Open Thread: ‘MyPillow’ Guy Redpilled, Red-Faced

Open Thread: ‘MyPillow’ Guy Redpilled, Red-Faced

by | 139 Comments

This post is in: ,

I have a general policy against highlighting self-imposed tragedies from the genuinely not-sane, but this Lindell guy…

Pilled was a bad meme, and now it’s become a big joke. Phillip Bump, at the Washington Post, “The con is winding down”:

… Lindell, who has claimed for months and months that he had definitive proof that the 2020 presidential election was stolen by China, pledged to release that information at a “cyber symposium” that is underway in South Dakota. According to Lindell, someone captured Internet traffic in the days after the election that shows how votes were shifted away from Donald Trump and to President Biden. Instead of simply presenting this evidence to the public, he withheld it, offering $5 million to anyone who can prove that the information isn’t legitimate.

Rob Graham, a technologist and author, went to the summit to evaluate what Lindell claims to have. During a “breakout session,” he and others were provided with access to what Lindell’s team claims to have obtained. Graham shared what they were given — a collection of files that consists of 1) a list of computer Internet protocol addresses and 2) gibberish like that above. Well, technically they were given rich-text format files, some of which were inexplicably converted to hexadecimal encoding. Graham, an expert on Internet data, described the provided material as “a bunch of confusing stuff they can’t explain,” and said that those running the symposium pledged to hand over the “real” information Tuesday night or Wednesday. Meanwhile, Lindell’s live stream of the symposium — being watched by hundreds of thousands of people on one streaming feed — presses on, with the CEO mostly riffing on how toxic the media is. Promotions offer viewers codes for discounts at MyPillow, a useful bit of advertising given that Lindell’s conspiracy theories have cost his company placement in a number of retailers’ inventories…

But what if you’re not trying to prove it? What if you’re trying to make some cash and you stumbled onto a big, juicy mark? What if there were a millionaire desperate to prove something, a millionaire who’s not exactly an Internet savant but one willing to hand over loads of cash for data you made up — as some of the data previously released by Lindell pretty obviously was? For a while, you’re skating, cashing checks and sending along reports on occasion. Eventually, though, you get closer and closer to the point at which you need to actually turn over your work.

This is how all cons end. Things stretch and stretch and stretch until: snap. So instead of presenting your data, you encode it and obfuscate it and promise that there’s actually something there, but wait, hmm, that is weird, let me see what’s happening. Instead you say things like that there was a medical emergency that slowed things down and just ask everyone to stick with you for a moment. It’s just buying time — like Trump calling senators on Jan. 6 — hoping that if another hour or so passes, you can somehow regain control…

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    The man is an addict, and unstable. This conspiracy crap is his latest addiction.

    This really could end tragically for him. He, Q and their like have already done a tremendous amount of damage to our body politic and civic organizations.

  4. 4.

    Adam L Silverman

    Someone should really explain to these folks that the whole point of the Matrix movie is that it is a transgender allegory by the Wachowskis. The red pill analogy, within the context of the story they wrote and directed, is that by taking it you can recognize and then experience your true self.

    Which would freak out all the homophobic and transphobic Proud Boys, alt righters, gamergaters, shitposters, inches, misandrists, etc who constantly use the reference.

  8. 8.

    Ruckus

    @Parfigliano:

    And seemingly more intelligence as well.

    And at least a potato can be made into an alcoholic beverage or a half assed salad, can crappy pillow guy or any of his crappy products do that? I don’t think so.

  9. 9.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Poe Larity: Made me go find the first ASCII table I’ve looked at in I don’t know how many years.

    54 49 52 45 44 20 59 45 54 3F

  11. 11.

    dr. bloor

    Lindell’s kind of facinating from a professional perspective–he occupies that gray space Venn diagram overlap of “mentally ill,” “not very bright,” and “sociopathic huckster.”

    Alas, my professional curiosity about his make-up is completely crushed by my desire to plant my knee in his junk, really hard.

  12. 12.

    prostratedragon

    “I don’t know what we were waiting for. Maybe we thought the world would end.”  − Jeff Bailey, Out of the Past

  13. 13.

    MagdaInBlack

    I’ve kind of been watching/listening to the “Symposium” on Hal Sparks and….well…wow, just wow.

  14. 14.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Has he kept his promise to stay on the stage without meal, sleep, or bathroom breaks?

  15. 15.

    Gin & Tonic

    I think I felt a twinge of sympathy for this guy, but it seems to have passed. I hope Dominion buries him.

  17. 17.

    emmyelle

    So, I was just on a Zoom for my kid’s school, and Karen asked “what data are you using to justify placing restrictions on unvaccinated kids?”. Only she pronounced it “daahduh”. I know no one that says “daahduh” because that’s not a fucking word. So now My Pillow Guy is screamong about “daahduh” and I am wondering if this is some kind of secret handshake.

  20. 20.

    There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)

    Being a compassionate sort, I really feel I should buy me one of them pillows. At last. It might be the only real achievement in what turned out a miserable, insane, and wasted existence. Dude has just kinda set himself on fire in front of the whole world. Also, my neck could use a little hug now.

  21. 21.

    dmsilev

    @emmyelle: No, it’s “what Dada are you using?”. As in, how does an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement act as a justification for vaccination? It makes no sense, which is in itself very Dada.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    Overheard an ad on MSNBC, of all places, for his product. $40 off the “regular” price (which is still far more than it’s worth). Signals to this viewer his sales are circling the drain.

  25. 25.

    JoyceH

    Years ago (I was an Ensign!) I had a lengthy conversation with a guy on my crew who was flipping out. I didn’t learn until later that he was a diagnosed paranoid who had stopped taking his meds. Every time I see Mike Lindell on television, I remember that day…

  26. 26.

    dmsilev

    @emmyelle: It helps that it’s a self-referential answer. We all know the importance of meta-Dada these days.

    (Sorry, I’ll stop now)

  27. 27.

    CaseyL

    It might be interesting to see how much of this codswallop he’s funding out of his own (fast-diminishing?) wealth, and how much he’s funding by fleecing the rubes.

  33. 33.

    Just Chuck

    @dr. bloor:

    he occupies that gray space Venn diagram overlap of “mentally ill,” “not very bright,” and “sociopathic huckster.”

    Thank God no one like that ever became President.

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this dude’s personal narrative ends in tragedy and i think that’s just fantastic. how can we accelerate that.

    a tweeter after my own cold dark place where a heart should be.

  40. 40.

    Steeplejack

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I tested negative for sympathy again today. (I get the multi-part anti-COVID/​GQP/​RWNJ test daily. It’s quick and easy, highly accurate.)

  43. 43.

    Steeplejack

    @planetjanet:

    Maybe someone can return the favor and tell me where the goddamn frog is every day (after a suitable period of time has elapsed, of course).

  49. 49.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I think this is what they call “readership capture”?

    President Biden @POTUS 9h
    One year ago today, I made one of the most important decisions I’ve ever made: selecting my vice president. I couldn’t have asked for a better partner and friend on this journey. Thanks @VP for all you do.

    Vice President Kamala Harris @VP
    I’ll never forget that Zoom call, Mr. President. It is an honor to serve alongside you: A president with such vision and purpose. Thank you for your leadership and your friendship.

  50. 50.

    Ruckus

    @JoyceH:

    I’m not sure that Mikie has ever taken any meds. I think he’s just ridding it out on his own. I’m pretty sure that’s obvious to normal humans. The people in his thrall are not at all normal….

  53. 53.

    Jay C

    Thanks, AL: before I read this post, I hadn’t clearly got the handle on Mike Lindell’s insane “Crusade For Truth” – AFAICT, it’s basically a politically-oriented version of a Ponzi scheme: keep the rubes enthralled/contributing by endlessly promising The Big Reveal (while carefully shifting the blame for the lack-of-Reveal onto some Sinister Others on a daily basis), and, as you point out, apparently only now having to face the fact that there IS  NOT GOING TO BE any “Reveal”, and desperately trying to change the subject.

    The “release” of the “data” being offered up as support of the delusional “election fraud” claims reminds of nothing so much as something I read about a trick Bernie Madoff used to pull with his marks: he would send them, every month, reams of computer printouts about their “investments” which were so voluminous and complex that they were basically incomprehensible: the customers would be only too happy to get Bernie’s graciously-provided “recap” – a simple one-page note with the month’s “profits” prominently circled….

  54. 54.

    Steeplejack

    @planetjanet:

    By the time I see the Mr. Frog posts I’m usually in bed, reading on my cell phone. And then I forget to look again the next morning on my (not that gigantic) 13" notebook screen.

  55. 55.

    Ken

    As a solution to the Frog Problem, maybe John should include each frog’s location in ASCII-hex encoding.

  56. 56.

    Mike in NC

    It was pretty much inevitable that two shameless con artists would gravitate to one another.

  58. 58.

    oldster

    How serious are the suggestions about drug abuse (in this thread, and also in Josh Marshall’s tweets)?

    Is he Charlie Sheen/ American Psycho levels of obvious coked-out, or is he just a bit excitable and it’s fun to tease about a Republican doing drugs?

  61. 61.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @oldster: per his wiki page

    In the 1980s, Lindell launched and operated a number of small businesses, including carpet cleaning, lunch wagons, and a few bars and restaurants in Carver County, Minnesota.In his 20s, Lindell became addicted to and a frequent user of cocaine. This addiction became worse after crack cocaine was introduced to the market in the 1990s. indell was also incurring gambling debts. The build up of his addictions between 1980s and 1990s, lead to the foreclosure of his house, and his wife filing for divorce. Lindell stated that he achieved sobriety through prayer in 2009.

    So… thirty-ish years of booze and blow?

  62. 62.

    zhena gogolia

    I'm officially retiring the phrase "shit show". For now on, all major debacles will be likened to "pillow symposium"— Eric Aschner (@EricAschner) August 11, 2021

  64. 64.

    WaterGirl

    @zhena gogolia: Spoiler alert.  Do not highlight the inside of the block quote unless you want to know where the frogs were.  (information from debbie)

    The first one had the frog sittingThe first one had the frog sitting on a rock. Yesterday, he was in the water just below the pipe/tube thing. on a rock. Yesterday, he was in the water just below the pipe/tube thing.

  68. 68.

    khead

    Meet Laura Morris – today’s cause celebre in wingnut world.  Laura is just a poor teacher in Loudon County who is standing up for her “values” by very publicly resigning at a Loudon County Board meeting…

    …. and is also someone who – as with most grassroots whiny wingnuts – appears to be the president of the local GOP Woman’s Club.  Now I KNOW why Fox and other wingnut outlets leave that part out.  But just how fucking hard is it for ANY OTHER OUTLET that picks this story up to run her name through Google to find this hit?  (Hint: Not very. One search. 0.72 seconds. Second hit.)

    I really, really don’t like these people.

  71. 71.

    BC in Illinois

    In regard to Mister Pillow. A few days ago — the day the 72-hour ordeal began — I read a note on F’Book. (A distant “friend” whose posts I look at fairly regularly, to see what the fringe are telling each other.)

    This is what the fringe are telling each other.

    PLEASE PRAY FOR AND SUPPORT MIKE LINDELL

    He’s facing down the gates of hell.

    He shared on Steve Bannon’s show this morning that the last 3 days have been . . . by far . . . the hardest days of his life.

    He looked like he had not slept in a week.

    He even confessed that he (the eternal optimist) had to talk himself out of bed this morning . . . saying he cannot describe the demonic forces coming against him!

    Our crosses to bear do not even compare with his.

    We can honor him by not quitting ourselves.

  77. 77.

    Gin & Tonic

    My dear wife just informed me that Chris Cuomo appears not to be hosting his regular 9:00 pm CNN program this evening. Odd. He must be on vacation or something, I guess.

  81. 81.

    zhena gogolia

    Hahaha

    As I finish up grading, I am reminded again that there is almost no student left on this planet who knows the proper format of a footnote.— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 11, 2021

  85. 85.

    Tim C.

    46 72 6f 67 20 68 75 6e 74 20 6f 72 20 77 65 20 72 65 6c 65 61 73 65 20 74 68 65 20 4b 72 61 6b 65 6e

  91. 91.

    RSA

    @zhena gogolia:

    As I finish up grading, I am reminded again that there is almost no student left on this planet who knows the proper format of a footnote.— Tom Nichols

    This is how I do it: \footnote{This is a footnote.}

    Nichols needs to fill in a few more details for his students about what he means by “proper format”.

  94. 94.

    Ruckus

    @Mike in NC:

    Someone has to have an appreciation for their effort…

    Of course that person belongs in a home with a jacket with wraparound sleeves that end in a padlock loop in the back.

  96. 96.

    Leto

    @Gin & Tonic: well after it was reported that he was helping coordinate his brothers response to this pillow convention, I’m hoping that he’s permanently spending time with his family.

  103. 103.

    Ruckus

    @oldster:

    I think people are trying to give him an excuse to be speaking/acting like such an ignorant fuck. Not that he’s earned an excuse, he’s a semi grown human who seems to park his cranial appendage in his exit orifice on occasion – like 23 hrs and 59 minutes a day, so he really doesn’t need excuses for looking like a shit.

  108. 108.

    Soprano2

    OT update on my mother. She’s resting as comfortably as she can at the hospice house. The people here are wonderful. She had a few visitors today, which was nice. This is still so surreal.  And I’m tired but I didn’t do anything today but sit and talk to people.

  109. 109.

    Anoniminous

    Speaking of assholes ……..

    “A Scottish court on Wednesday gave activists the green light to continue their effort to use an anti–money laundering statute to investigate the financing of Donald Trump’s golf courses in the country.
    <snip>
    The amount of money Trump has dumped—and continues to dump—into the courses has raised suspicions about these ventures. The numbers simply don’t add up—it’s an extraordinary amount of cash that Trump would have had to struggle to scrape together, spent on a business that doesn’t seem to be paying off. Mysteriously, Trump has pumped money into these properties through ongoing loans—loans to himself with no due date and no interest charged. Financial experts interviewed  by Mother Jones say it’s hard to come up with a rationale, legal or not, for Trump’s Scottish dealings. ”

    A Scottish Judge Just Resurrected an Effort to Investigate Donald Trump for Money Laundering

  111. 111.

    Ruckus

    @Soprano2:

    That’s good news.

    I’ve been through this more than once so I will say that it is exceedingly tiring. Please remember to take care of yourself as well.

  112. 112.

    debbie

    @Soprano2:

    I was sorry to read your news about your mother yesterday and am glad she is comfortable. The last visit my mother had was with her two oldest and closest friends. It was such a gift watching her take joy in her friends.

  113. 113.

    WaterGirl

    @Soprano2: I am sorry about your mom.  I must have missed an update because the last I heard we were waiting to see if she could swallow.  I imagine there was not god news there.

    I’m glad it’s a good place, but I am so so sorry that you are losing your mom.

  115. 115.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Soprano2: Hospice workers are amazing and I’m glad you have them there to help you all through this.

    I remember that surreal feeling. I think its because we disassociate from the situation in order to deal with it.

  116. 116.

    Scout211

    Oh my God. Speaking of the GQP death cult:

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-dad-killed-his-kids-over-qanon-serpent-dna-conspiracy-n1276611

     

    A California surfing school owner who was charged with killing his two children in Mexico is a follower of QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories who thought the children “were going to grow into monsters so he had to kill them,” federal officials alleged.
    Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, was charged Wednesday with foreign murder of U.S. nationals in connection with the death of his 2-year-old son and his 10-month-old daughter, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Authorities said Coleman confessed to the killings and told the FBI that he used a spear fishing gun to stab them.
    A criminal complaint alleges that he told the FBI that he killed his children because he believed they “were going to grow into monsters” and that conspiracy theories led him to believe that his wife had passed down her “serpent DNA” to the children.

  119. 119.

    Lyrebird

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks for explaining.  I’ve never seen the movie, and I’d been afraid to google red pill…  among other things, it seems to be used often by the kind of misogynist people Robyn Penacchia lampoons over at Wonkette.

  120. 120.

    lgerard

    Today the Lindell “cyber” team admitted that they do not have the “absolute proof” that they had claimed to have.

    Lindell “expert” Joshua Merritt (aka Spyder), former US Army mechanic said:

    “We were handed a turd,”

    But wait….here is a shiny object! A clerk in a tiny rural county with evidence of a giant conspiracy!

    It seems  that Dennis Montgomery has pulled off another successful scam.

  121. 121.

    RSA

    @Spanky: 

    EBCDIC or GTFO.

    Oh, yeah. Data representations should be influenced by physical punch card constraints until the end of time. :-)

  122. 122.

    frosty

    @Soprano2: ​ This is good news, considering the circumstances. My mother was in hospice for her last days. We were over 300 miles away and they told us since we had just seen her a couple weeks ago there wasn’t any point in coming again for the end, they would be there for her. And they were.​

  124. 124.

    Ruckus

    All cults come to an end eventually.

    Too bad this one has an entire “news” network to build it’s base.

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Some do not realize that the world on the screen and the one in their heads is not in any way, reality and that they would be a lot better off actually understanding the point of, well, anything.

  125. 125.

    pattonbt

    Notwithstanding the above, I assume Trump is still going to be re-instated as President for life this month right?

  126. 126.

    Ken

    @pattonbt: Yes, but only if enough True Patriots(TM) visit his website and make a donation of $100 or more. Otherwise it will have to be postponed a month, to give more True Patriots(TM) a chance to show their love for their country.

  128. 128.

    tom

    @Soprano2: It’s so hard. My mother was in hospice care for the last month of her life. Hospice caregivers are wonderful people, and I hope your mother, and you, find peace.

  131. 131.

    Low Key Swagger

    @Repatriated: That band rawks.  I actually brought them to Nashville once to do a fundraiser for MoveOn.  Caught them in the early 90’s in a small venue in Santa Fe.  Been my favorite ever since.

  133. 133.

    artem1s

    @dmsilev:

    It makes no sense, which is in itself very Dada.

    Back in grad school one of my friends had an alter ego, a WWF wrestler, that he would feature in his performance art pieces.  Lindell kind of reminds me of that character – an already ridiculous profession only exaggerated to the nth degree.  Salvador Dali would have loved Lindell.

  134. 134.

    artem1s

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    So… thirty-ish years of booze and blow?

    Oh, he’s still doing the booze and blow.  It just took him 30 years to discover fundies make the best customers.  You can lie to them about your sobriety (and products) over and over again, pray away your sins, and start all over again in the morning. They are perfect marks.

  136. 136.

    dnfree

    @tom: many years ago I could do hexadecimal math so I could trace addresses. And register contents. That was back when “byte” was a brand new concept.

  137. 137.

    Darkrose

    @RSA: Like, which citation style? APA uses in-line citations and a reference list. I think MLA uses endnotes?  Chicago/Turabian is the only one I’ve worked with that requires footnotes.

  138. 138.

    Matt McIrvin

    @dnfree: My dad used to debug core dumps that were in octal rather than hexadecimal, because the mainframes had a 36-bit word–natural to divide into groups of 3 bits, though I suppose 36 is divisible by 4 as well.

  139. 139.

    fancycwabs

    Isn’t tomorrow the day Trump regains the presidency after the Supreme Court votes 9-0 to reinstate him?

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