The New Rules

Since I signed off Twitter last night, I have received no less than two dozen, probably more, phone calls asking me to reconsider and come back. Most of these calls were allowed to go to voicemail.

I’m tired of repeating myself with the same things I’ve been say, even screaming about on Twitter for the past three years since the personal attacks began.

All of this is documented with law enforcement records: My family has been repeatedly threatened with rape and death; I’ve been threatened with death; my house has received gunfire; and I’ve been turned in to FBI and Secret Service for threats and hate speech, though no formal investigation has ever come to me.

I’ve been libeled and defamed, not just by the left, but also by the so-called right, including members of the Breitbart and Malkin teams.

I’ve been pushed forward as a leader of some sort of grassroots movement only to find that, each and every time, I’ve found myself standing with only a very few people fighting with me. It’s more like being the front penguin being shoved into the icy waters to see how many sharks are there.

My honor as a Marine has been besmirched. Even the honorable character of my military service was misrepresented or maligned by people many of you follow and consider great patriots and conservatives.

Only a handful of you stood by my and helped me actively off these attacks. Most of you stood back and said nothing. Or worse, some of you accused me of “infighting” or some other nefarious motive while I was defending myself.

In the meantime, anyone came to me with a request for an RT of their article as almost always obliged. We fought for those of you who ended up in TwitterGulag. We bought and read countless books of yours and recommended them to others. We made an effort to respond to every tweet we could.

I have had enough!

Why give so much with the only possible reward being more attacks, more abandonment when we need help?

A phone call an hour ago changed my mind.  She was in tears, saying that she needed the hope that my attacks on the left gave her. Someone had to say what she felt but didn’t know how to say. Her emotion was real, but she sold herself short. She’s smart. She can say everything I said on Twitter.

Nonetheless, I’m going to return but under very different rules:

1. I’M NOT YOUR LEADER

I say what I say because I believe it. I’m not going to be left alone on the hill again. Rally around someone else, and then abandon them. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it, too.

2. I’m not your personal retweet machine

I will retweet what I want, and I will find it myself.

Last night I sent out a very important tweet about what was going on. Only 8 people retweeted it. None of these 8 people were the ones who hit me all day long to retweet their stuff. If you have something of interest, occasionally, go ahead and send it to me as you have in the past.

3. Don’t ask me to step into your Twitter battles anymore

I’ve expended countless tweets helping people who were TwitterGulaged, being attacked, etc. The final straw last night came when in the middle of my asking for help on the attacks two people asked for help on TwitterGulag, but could not be bothered to take a moment to retweet what I was saying.

I will give no more than I receive anymore. For a bunch of conservatives, you sure do a lot of complaining about the “takers” in society, but you do your fair share that on Twitter.

4. My Follow Fridays and Military Monday mentions will be extremely limited

These have devolved to some sort of beauty pageant or popularity contest anyway. I will recommend whomever I think is worth following, those who’ve shown real loyalty and friendship.

And when it comes to the military veterans, I cannot believe so many of you would stand back and watch a fellow veteran be maligned and say nothing.

5. And finally, if I see anyone giving any aid or support to those that have attacked I will block at my sole discretion.

Your Twitter account is yours, and you can use it as you see fit. But the same applies to my account.  I don’t have to follow you, either.

It has been my past practice to follow back everyone who follows me, because I believe that everyone deserves a two-way conversation. I believe in tweeting with people not at them if they wish to engage in a dialogue.

Who are the attackers? Of course, we’re not going to bother to name the ones on the left, they are many. The ones who claim to be Patriots are:

@stranahan
@StevieJWest
@MrBloomingdale
@JeannieMcBride aka @CouldBeMe7
@MuddleVanHeck
@inhuggermugger

So, I’m back. But look for a very different dynamic in our relationship for most of you.

I gave unconditional loyalty to almost all of you. From now on, it’s earned.