I don’t believe in instant karma, but I wish I did because those who have helped me over the past year deserve so much more than I could ever give them in return for all they’ve done for me.
It’s said that your life can change in a single heartbeat; for me, it changed in a single tweet.
One year ago today I was reflecting upon the horrific damage of Hurricane Harvey. The damage, the latest in a long line of floods for the region, had been predicted more than a year earlier but politics had gotten in the way of helping the region prepare. In a rant filled with links to various articles on those very issues, I fired off one of the most poorly written tweets I’ve ever posted.
Soon, alt-right groups focused on pushing liberal voices out of academia were causing my tweet to go viral. What followed was the most horrific chain of events I could have ever imagined: losing my dream job, police protecting me from self-proclaimed white supremacists, and interview requests flooding my inbox. Calls for my firing trended on social media and a live audience applauded my discharge.
Despite major news stories, and a president clearly not fit for the job, Fox News, InfoWars, and Rush Limbaugh instead focused on stories about me. These wildly untrue stories only fueled more threats against me. My students weren’t safe, my family wasn’t safe, I wasn’t safe. The alt-right had set their sights on me.
My entire world was collapsing around me and I had regular fights within my own mind. As I came to grips with this actually being my reality, I realized not just a horrific dream. As many whom I thought were friends turned their backs on me, some attempting to use my unwanted fame as a way to draw attention to themselves. I saw countless posts on social media from these former friends now proclaiming I had been brainwashed, was mentally ill, or hated our great nation. None of that was true, and they knew it.
I fully recognize my tweet was poorly written and insensitive, but a single tweet shouldn’t ruin a person’s job. A single tweet shouldn’t cause panic and fear for my family. A single tweet shouldn’t result in graphically detailed death threats, endanger my students, or cause prime-time coverage for nearly a week on Fox News. A single poorly worded tweet now meant I was a news story as far away as China or New Zealand. It felt like the entire world had gone crazy and the entire world wasn’t going to be happy until I was gone from it. Everything I had worked so hard for was now being ripped away.
But as right-wing media stirred fears by labeling me a “big wig democrat” and as James Woods weighed in calling me “worthless vermin,” there came rays of hope. Former students, colleagues whom I hadn’t connected with in years, and so many friends reached out to me. Nearly all of them with messages of support. Those simple messages are what gave me the power to push through the hardest experience of my life. And those same messages are what still keep me going today.
My nightmare is far from over. One year ago, there was a concerted effort to ruin my life and, honestly, it was much more successful than many realize. As I shared earlier this month with the New York Times, I still have many unpaid bills and few job prospects. But I also have a new hope for the future. This experience has shown me who my real friends are. Strangers reached out to me to show their support, and many of those strangers have since become friends. Today I am much more aware of the threats to our great democracy, and I hope my experience helps all of us become more aware of these threats.
We can’t let a few radical groups hijack social media. We can’t let a few bad experiences, no matter how bad, ruin our hope for the future.
When everything happened last year, I pulled away from social media, fearful of anything I post on it being used against me. But I realized that is precisely what the right-wing radicals, who tried to ruin my life, wanted. After a few days of silence, I returned to social media. The first thing I posted is a quote that is just as important in today’s hyper-political reality as it was then:
“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” – Mahatma Gandhi.
Keep hope alive, for this too shall pass.
-Ken Storey
