In mid-August, actor Wil Wheaton announced that he was boycotting Twitter until CEO Jack Dorsey permanently banned Alex Jones from the platform. He’s still gone, and The A.V. Club reports that he’s posted on his website his feelings about social media and how he doesn’t deserve to be treated so terribly.
Wil Wheaton on quitting social media: "I don’t deserve to be treated so terribly" https://t.co/Y46eztyuAc pic.twitter.com/fRy4JlU2iP
— The A.V. Club (@TheAVClub) August 31, 2018
He writes that he found on microblogging site Mastodon the same experience he had on Twitter:
I found a harsh reality that I’m still trying to process: thousands of people who don’t know me, who have never interacted with me, who internalized a series of lies about me, who were never willing to give me a chance. I was harassed from the minute I made my account, and though I expected the “shut up wesley”s and “go fuck yourself”s to taper off after a day or so, it never did.
We confess: Twitchy covered Wheaton quite a bit, and gave him plenty of chances to expand the reach of his tweets — like the one where he said members of Congress who accepted money from the gun lobby were “accessories to murder, every last one of them.”
After Speaker Paul Ryan said prayers were needed after the shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, Wheaton tweeted to Ryan, “If prayers did anything, they’d still be alive, you worthless sack of s**t.” He also tweeted “F**k the NRA” a lot and blamed the NRA reflexively for every shooting that made the news.
He also reminded Trump supporters that “the racism, homophobia, misogyny, bigotry, and authoritarianism you supported is still going strong!”
Oh, and there was that time he mocked a young man with cerebral palsy for making a simple typo.
Pity no one ever gave him a chance to just open up and share his thoughts and feelings. He didn’t deserve to be treated so terribly.
*narrator* he absolutely did
— scott (@sb_the) September 1, 2018
You kind of do. https://t.co/8IOp7Usi3U
— Nick Searcy, INTERNATIONAL FILM & TELEVISION STAR (@yesnicksearcy) September 1, 2018
Will Wheaton is a trash person who helps create the exact sorts of situations he’s talking about. He deserved it actually. https://t.co/AVHaXbic0r
— Mike Beasley (@MikeBeas) September 1, 2018
Yes he does. Wil Wheaton lived by the same sword he died by. https://t.co/EeLRG2m8AR
— ???? ???????????? (@OneDollarOneCar) September 1, 2018
https://twitter.com/jtLOL/status/1035674316027904000
Well, then maybe you should have not been such an ass, Wil. https://t.co/hQhWwUuTU0
— Jeff Ellington ???? (@Jeff__Ellington) August 31, 2018
Has Wil Wheaton never heard of Wil Wheaton? https://t.co/MuzN6qEnnx
— Eric Spencer (@JustEric) August 31, 2018
The exact kind of toxic call out culture that he helped spearhead has come back to bite him in the ass. https://t.co/W86i2DBUn9
— neontaster (@neontaster) August 31, 2018
Yes Wil, you're right. Nobody deserves to be treated terribly.
However, this is how you have treated others over the years on social media. You've treated people like shit all while wearing a smug, shit-eating grin. I hope you will learn something from this. https://t.co/IPvyOBdsXg— A Edwards (@LysanderWrites) September 1, 2018
I don't like people disagreeing with me so…I'll just leave.
— "Free Rides" Sikorsky (@ThurstonDana) August 31, 2018
He had like half of Twitter preemptively blocked. If he still felt he was treated so badly, maybe the problem wasn't everyone else ? https://t.co/5K69rzptgH
— Persnickety (@Dawnsfire) August 31, 2018
How many thousands of people have found themselves blocked by thousands of accounts because they got on Wil Wheaton's blocklist? Social media is better without Wil Wheaton. If his ouster is something this benign, I'll acknowledge the specific unfairness and celebrate the result. https://t.co/QIDWQXq8VQ
— Matt Jameson (@RogueNotary) September 1, 2018
Wil Wheaton treats others with hostility and toxicity. He is not a victim. https://t.co/HlDaen3uwS
— M.Ramirez ?? (@cybr_gk) September 1, 2018
I don't condone treating people badly, but almost every time I saw Wil Wheaton's name come up on Twitter, he was being an absolute jerk to either a person or a group of people. He did't know how to act civilly at all. https://t.co/RNELx494DV
— Mike Hartnett (@NJShadow) September 1, 2018
This kind of whining is unbecoming from a man who threw a fit over a crying LEGO figure made to represent his annoying “Star Trek” character.
— Eisen Schädel (@generic_male_69) August 31, 2018
This is what I came to see. I’m not disappointed
— DanPan (@dan_paniagua) September 1, 2018
Related:
Umm, you’re a dude? Wil Wheaton scolds ‘weak and afraid’ men for trying to delegitimize the #WomensMarchhttps://t.co/JX6zNDWEg4
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 24, 2017
Join the conversation as a VIP Member