TRIGGER WARNINGS. Online threats/harassment & stalking, fascists/neo-nazis, parental illness/death, brief mention of suicidal ideation…
"In early 2017, the flailing purple bird named ‘Trash Dove’ briefly and violently overtook the internet in a case of extreme social media meme virality.
Trash Doves are my creation, and this nearly ruined my life." -Syd Weiler
"I noticed several others from an anonymous individual — obviously a fake name, recently created account, no profile photos. The message basically read, ‘I keep an eye on some scary parts of the Internet and wanted to let you know that these people are talking about you,’ and linked to 4Chan /pol. At the time, I had very little idea about that particular forum — I did not frequent the site as a teenager — but I feel it needs no explanation past this today, aside from, it’s a festering campground for the alt-right/fascists/neo-nazis.
Remember what I was doing right before the virality boom? Raising money for Planned Parenthood, being generally very outspoken against the American election results? That I was a ‘purple-haired, feminist Hillary-supporter’ was the consensus /pol had arrived at, and they thought I should be punished for my sudden burst of visibility and artwork success.
I scrolled through threads of people talking about me, sharing photos of me that were found online (both personal and professional images of my likeness.) Many were asking what my bird was, making fun of it/blaming its movement on various disabilities while admiring the Asian Facebook users for creating a nuisance of a meme — and because of its popularity and their newfound personal dislike of me, early discussions of how to co-opt the imagery for their own subliminal messaging. Even scarier still, at the time, were a few individuals mentioning attempts to find my address, trawling the internet for personal information like government ID and banking logins, and tracking down the names and addresses of my immediate family."
