IG Honey Traps and the Dan B*lzerian Effect

I am not usually one for ploys, flim flams, and scheming hijinx, but occasionally I take a dip into the shallow end of feminine and dramatic tricks pool. One such occasion was this week. I decided to post an IG story specifically to provoke a response from a man who I went on one date with 3 years ago and will likely never see again. He watches my stories and reliably gives me a 😍 emoji when I post a thirst trap.

The ruse: I was going to be at the regional headquarters of the company he works for and the office has a spectacular view of this city skyline. He works in the central HQ in another country, so I knew I wasn’t likely to bump into him while running between conference rooms. But I wondered if posting a story with a tag of this company might… elicit a response from him.

So when our work team went to a gorgeous rooftop to take a group picture, I snapped a quick pic and posted it before heading into the next session. I’m proud to say the honey trap worked - I got a “Do you work here now???” before the afternoon had wrapped up.

I love it when I’m right :)

I sent a quick “hahah no” and a short explainer back to him, and decided to take a good look at his profile for the first time in a while, trying to remind myself of what I found so compelling on our date that I was still angling for his attention years later.

I was quickly reminded of an anecdote he told me on that date: He’s a foreigner who has never lived in the United States, but he learned English as an adult by listening to hours and hours of INFOWARS, the radical right wing podcast about American politics. I’ve traveled enough in my life to be comfortable with foreigners knowing a lot about American politics and having strong interest, but this was a first. I probed, asking careful follow up questions to see if he really believed the views espoused by Alex Jones, Infowars notorious and psychotic founder. His answers were mostly straight forward and I cleared him of all charges - determined him innocent of holding bizarre political opinions. Our night together was otherwise wonderful and fun - this Infowars tidbit was the only red flag (well that, and he had no idea who the Von Trapps were and had never seen the Sound of Music. But those two things couldn’t be related, right??).

Flash forward to today, scrolling through his bare bones and barely existent IG profile. Out of sheer curiosity, I popped over to the list of accounts he follows, hoping that this would tell me something more interesting.

And boy was I right - among the cat meme accounts and occasional hot girl influencers, he had recently followed both Charlie K*rk and Ben Sh*piro, two more alt-right-core talking heads and inflammatory commentators. I was stunned - this foreigner who had no real interest in the US or living here was supporting and actively falling into the alt right pipeline. Red pilling gone global!

Stunned into silence, I remembered a meme trend a few years ago: go through the follower list of any man (your boyfriend, a celebrity, your friend or your boss) and search for a certain notorious male IG influencer: Dan B*lzerian. Whether or not the man you are analyzing follows Dan B*lzerian tells you everything you need to know about his stance on toxic masculinity and how he feels about women.

This litmus test may sound extreme - how can following one influencer tell you everything? Let me paint a picture: The entirety of this guys account is posting picture of himself, surrounded by either guns, piles of cash, or scantily clad women. Usually, a grotesque combination of these things. I challenge you to find a more pure and blatant symbol of toxic masculinity than Dan B*lzerian. There is no man who is passively following this influencer.

I censor his name here because I worry he’s like Beetlejuice - if I say his name, he may appear. Or creep into the lives of the men I care about (don’t worry, I checked my brother and my male besties accounts - all clear!). I refuse to give him more power.

But knowledge is power, and knowing who a man follows, what views he supports even if he says all the right things and passes the test to your face, is important. I happily release Alt Right Foreigner from my fantasy roster and hope I never run into him again, in any country.

Good riddance.