Live by social media, die by social media. That's what fitness influencer Joey Swoll learned this week when, like most of us who grew up in the 80s, remembered the Hulk Hogan parts of our childhood fondly more than we did him saying the no-no word in a sex tape. Swoll learned a valuable lesson this week about trying to appease alligators.

Before we move forward, a reminder about Internet trolls...

I'm a fan of Swoll's content. The internet is lousy with people shaming others in the gym for social media clout, so he shames the shamers. He provides a valuable service.

Like most of America, upon hearing Hulk Hogan had passed away, he also remembered being a Hulkamaniac and shared a photo of himself dressed like Hulk Hogan. A rational, well-adjusted person, even if they didn't like Hulk Hogan, wouldn't be bothered by it.

Haters and losers went after Swoll instead.

Because Swoll didn't know every bad thing Hulk Hogan has ever said in 72 years, that made the influencer as bad as Hulk Hogan in the eyes of a loud minority of hateful f*cks on the Internet. Joey was called an -ist and accused of -isms. Then he made the mistake so many others have made in the past. Instead of focusing on all the people who celebrated his post, Swoll bent the knee with a groveling apology to the woke mob, using the same tired clichés about "better educating" himself.

This is where the lesson about appeasing crocodiles comes in, because it's never enough. The woke mob doubled down on the hate. So now Swoll is quitting social media.

I feel somewhat for Swoll, because when you are used to praise, sudden hate can be jarring. In a follow-up post where he admitted to just licking his wounds for a bit, Swoll shared details about the people attacking him over saying a nice thing about Hulk Hogan, "They sent messages telling me they know where I live and they were going to unalive me. Then they went after my gf, my business partner, and they found my sister’s number and text messaged her!"

You and I know that's how the woke mob operates. We're in that political world. If you aren't, I can understand reacting like this.

I just hope it is a teachable moment. Because when you bend the knee to the woke mob who doesn't support your work in the first place, what you're saying to the majority of your fans who do is that they are the ones in the wrong. We need to normalize telling social media to shut the f*ck up once in a while.

Brodigan is Grand Poobah of this here website and when he isn't writing words about things enjoys day drinking, pro-wrestling, and country music. You can find him on the Twitter too.

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