Let’s keep this brief. Over the weekend, Alex Stein, the closest thing our city has to a bridge troll in the Year of Our Lord 2023, harassed Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner at DFW Airport. It became a national news story, and, as is Stein’s custom, he captured it on video.
Normally this would be the part where we link to said video and elaborate a bit on why the harasser in question sucks. We’re not going to do that this time. If you read Jonny Auping’s profile of Stein in the May 2022 issue of D Magazine, you understand why. For those unaware, I’ll refer you to this passage from Auping’s story, which frames Stein’s schtick in the context of his appearances at city council meetings but neatly sums up the whole enterprise:
Taken by themselves, the videos are mostly harmless, if at times in poor taste (as when he wore a one-piece women’s swimsuit to Plano City Council to “protest” for trans rights). Depending on your sense of humor and political leanings, you might crack a smile. But there is a strategy behind Stein’s performances. He is exploiting municipal government meeting rules in a novel way to gain access to larger right-wing platforms where he can spread misinformation, transphobia, and conspiracy theories.
Nothing about what Stein did Saturday was amusing. There are no innocent laughs to be mined from asking a long-term detainee in a Russian prison if the prisoner swap that granted her freedom was “a fair trade.” Same goes for positing that being forced to have sex with Vladimir Putin was one of the terms for granting her release. There is no purpose to any of this beyond generating clicks, because clicks are his ticket toward larger platforms where he can espouse harmful ideologies. Clicks make him matter.
Auping’s story about Stein is titled “Do Not Share.” That’s the right approach.
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