In the Details

On my way out of Dayton township and up Six Mile Canyon, and as I drove through the community of Mark Twain, my cell phone suddenly blew up, dinging and dinging until I had to stop and look at it to see what was happening.

“What the hell,” I said.

No, I was not fortunate enough to finally have one of my social media posts go viral. What I did find were thousands of hateful messages sent to me through my several social media apps, which are all connected to Virginia City, Nevada.

That became the start of a week-long slog through a story about alleged racial comments and how social media played a part in taking an isolated incident and turning it into an international news story. But that I left for my news article, published a week later, on Friday, August 9.

In between this, I looked around the Internet and found connections to the situation, with activities that created a broader picture bordering on conspiracy. And yes, I admit that the things I am about to write are mere speculation and not fact-based.

Not until I got home that first Friday would I start to understand why my cell phone had started dinging and was still dinging. Someone in Virginia City stood accused of racist remarks, posted on TikTok for all the world to view.

After watching the five-minute-six-second video upload, I came away with a slightly different take. Yet, being a news reporter, I kept my opinion to myself and worked hard to write an exacting article for my employer.

Setting that aside, I remembered other incidents I had seen in the recent news cycle and recalled the cancellation of a historical event for the weekend in Virginia City. I saw a far-reaching picture once I connected everything.

Before the racial incident, the Rev. Al Sharpton sent a letter to Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, inciting him to investigate former Ahern Rentals owner and CEO and Trump supporter Don Ahern for making racial remarks, calling a truck driver the N-word.

Having watched the TikTok video several times, it seemed all too familiar.

Then, I saw a comment on the TikTok video that said, “And did you notice the silver nooses?”

I returned to the video in question and could not find the frame in which this reported image appeared.

“Okay, so someone knows something about the town, but not the history,” I jotted down in my notes.

For the great unwashed, the silver noose lapel pin, made of silver still being removed from the Comstock Lode, is the symbol used by the cowboy and western reenactment outfit, the 601 Vigilante Group. They dress up on holidays and most weekends to wander about the town as 19th-century characters and unofficial docents.

Then, I began looking at the thousands of comments I had received. Not only did they come at a breakneck speed, but much of the language, syntax, and the myriad of spelling errors seem the same.

Ah, ha — spamming via artificial intelligence. So, good luck tracking down the threats of violence and personal harm.

Then, the annual Virginia City Civil War Days ended up getting canceled. The event had become too politically insensitive after what had happened the weekend before.

Finally, you can see what I am postulating is a conspiracy to develop distrust, divide by racial foment, and separate us from our state’s proud history of having helped save the Union within the 15 rural counties in Nevada, the same ones that generally and historically vote Republican. We’ll know I am right should this happen again in another little Nevada burg.

As a side note, in self-defense, I deleted most of my multiple apps after running out of steam trying to outpace the little nasties I was getting. Right now, I am enjoying life without the buggers, and I’m contemplating never reinstalling the damned things.

It is now time to retrieve a beer from the fridge, grab a seat at the mouth of my open garage, and watch the world go by.