I've joked about being bad to the bone
but you know who really is? That depends which forum you frequent. If CycleChat, it's '
multitool'; if YACF, he goes by the name – and you're going to want to hold your nose here – 'Hot Flatus'.
How can I be sure they're one in the same?
I can't. However, the posting style, and more importantly the spirit behind it (including the easy reliance on insult), is too similar for me to be embarrassed about the possibility of being proved wrong. The choice of usernames is also something of a giveaway, as he delights in being called a tool on CC; god knows what private mirth is realised by being a f*rt at YACF. Therefore, I am proclaiming this so.†
Idiot Wind, as he is henceforth christened here, is active on CC's News, Current Affairs & Politics board (colloquially 'NACA'), and wherever animus may be found on YACF, chiefly Politics & Other Big Issues. He's only able to really let it rip at NACA because it's unmoderated.
He is without a doubt a social media influencer, having poisoned an admittedly already sickly discourse at NACA, and done a fair amount of damage at YACF. His latest conquest at the Y (as I've taken to calling it) is Ian, a highly literate user who, while I've had my own issues with him (nothing that ever surfaced publicly, NACF not really counting as public), was a credit‡ to the place; enough so that it seems one of the reasons I've been banned from the forum which plagiarised ACF all those years ago (just throwing that in) is because I happened to start what turned into a contentious thread where Ian said he was leaving after one tussle too many with Idiot Wind.
I've discussed multitool in the 'Triggering' threads. He's Trumpian insofar as he's capable of uttering truths, even while being a compulsive liar. He is deeply misogynistic yet prone to trying to dress as a feminist. He has a certain cunning intelligence, and can write a good sentence; but he is, in the end, one of the bad guys.
What's good is bad, what's bad is good
You'll find out when you reach the top
You're on the bottom
*https://salo.iu.edu/index.php/the-asshole-and-the-proto-emoji-the-visual-artwork-of-kurt-vonnegut/
†Next I'll be saying he's also
DadJoke over at Mumsnet. As if there wasn't enough of his brand of malevolence to go around. Composite villain or just one messed up bloke among many? You decide.
‡Well, more credits than debits at any rate. From the point of view of a former admin of a busy forum, forever talentspotting content providers who like to type but aren't the wrong type (the HFtools of the world, corrupt to the core), Ian was a flawed
gem who, on edit, I'm very pleased to see posting here.
