Thread by @SunlightAFA

Welcome to the sunlight, Logan Michael Smith of Stillwater, OK.

Or should we call you 'Levi Smith', UTR attendee and operator of the racist '/pol/ News Network' accounts which spread lies about Unite the Right to thousands online?

#LightGreenHatUTR

Buckle up, it's 🧵 time!

Growing up, Logan was a devout Christian, 'Chief Operations' for Florida Federation of Teenage Republicans, and an 'Intelligence Officer' for an online survivalist group.

In 2011, Logan tried to join the Air Force but was discharged due to health reasons.

Around this time, 4Chan created '/pol/' in an attempt to 'contain' far-right trolls.

Instead, the board became a magnet for racists, misogynists, genocidal maniacs, and someone called 'Levi Smith'.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki//pol/

boundary2.org/2019/07/dennis…

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…

In 2014, Logan posted photos of a 'Kindness Bus' to his Instagram. His public postings illustrate his 'ghost skin', masking his alter ego: a manipulative, toxic, racist, and hate-filled individual projecting two incredibly different personas.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_skin

Logan ended up attending Florida State University where he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. While there he got married, and upon graduation they moved to Virginia.

Logan worked as a research associate, helping research suicide screening in military populations

In August 2016, a '/pol/ News Network' (PNN) page was created on Facebook. It shared the most toxic memes from /pol/, hoping to radicalize a wider audience.

Around the same time, PNN started showing up on Twitter, Gab, and other platforms.

In March 2017, PNN posted a meme vilifying Muslims, Drag Queens, and Liberals. It went viral after it famously backfired, with liberals proclaiming 'Yes, this _is_ the future we want!' (which is true, btw).

archive.is/nNYmB
wired.com/2017/03/future…
buzzfeednews.com/article/juliar…

In April 2017, a user called 'Levi Smith' joined Twitter and claimed responsibility for several PNN accounts, including those on Gab, Wrongthink, and Youtube.

'Levi' left plenty of other clues confirming he was running the accounts.

In May 2017, 'Levi', Milo, & TPUSA joined the 'Safe Streets Project' hoping to 'trigger libs' in to defending themselves, while recording info in SALUTE format to send to cops and make 'antifa' look like aggressors.

archive.is/2h1EA

archive.is/wOIvM

To avoid bans 'Levi' framed his PNN accounts as if they were run by multiple people, often tagging other users and calling other accounts 'affiliates'.

CW: In July 2017, however, he did a 4Chan AMA where he removed any doubt about who ran them — and why.

archive.is/5fTDt

In August 2017, 'Levi' doubled the reach of the #UniteTheRight hashtag on Twitter.

At ~93k followers PNN was arguably the most influential account promoting UTR.

https://twitter.com/3r1nG/status/1160970248637562881

news.docnow.io/unitetheright-…

archive.org/details/UTRdata

https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/896898631533547521

The @/polNewsForever Twitter account was created in 2014, years before PNN existed. Using some magic, we found it was previously named @/EveryBitcoinKey — a crypto spam account — prior to being rebranded for PNN in May 2017. It gained almost 18k followers in just 9 days.

Logan was a crypto bro — LinkedIn shows he worked for 'Finman Technologies', which we suspect was owned by cryptocurrency millionaire, 'Erik Finman'. Logan and Erik later worked together at another crypto company, Metal Pay @metalpaysme

theguardian.com/technology/201…

Publicly, organizers claimed UTR was about 'Free Speech', the same claim made by other far-right groups such as the 'Safe Streets Project' and the Proud Boys.

The truth, however, is the exact opposite: They want to eradicate free speech.

On August 10, 2017, polNewsForever stated its Admin was going to UTR. On the 12th, 'Levi' tweeted a picture from his car confirming he was going.

That was a mistake.

ANTIFA™ Sleuth Mode: Activated!

https://web.archive.org/web/20170813134813/https://twitter.com/polNewsForever/status/895879632506966016

https://web.archive.org/web/20170814173123/https://twitter.com/LeviSmithUSA/status/896326076732985344

cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/ch…

CW: That afternoon, James Alex Fields Jr. drove his car into a crowd of people, injuring dozens, and killing a beloved activist, Heather Heyer. 'Levi' claimed 'Antifa' was responsible.

In July 2019, almost two years later, he was still pushing that narrative on PNN's Gab page.

Through constant vilification of 'Antifa', Logan's PNN amplified the 'Safe Streets Project' use of DARVO — a psychological gaslighting technique that makes the victims of violence look like the aggressor.

narcissisticabuserehab.com/darvo/

metro.co.uk/2020/06/13/gui…

Upon returning from UTR, 'Levi' discovered that his house had participated in trickle-down economics, and posted photos of the aftermath to the internet.

That, too, was a mistake, 'Levi'.

While 'Levi' blamed 'racial profiling' for the robbery (sure, Jan), a lady-friend called Brittany Pettibone organized a fundraiser for repairs. Brittany is an 'alt-right' YouTuber who interviews far-right guests such as Aleksandr Dugin and Tommy Robinson.

splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018…

In May 2017, Pettibone interviewed 'Levi' about PNN. On August 12 2017, on his way back from UTR, 'Levi' video called her from his car. Photos of 'Levi' found on @/polNewsForever and @/LeviSmithUSA matched the man in the interviews.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170504004447/https://twitter.com/LeviSmithUSA/status/859827692908183552

Based on social media posts, we estimated travel time to be 2.6 - 3.1 hours, which limited our search to certain regions. We mapped gas stations along routes, and searched for the barriers in Levi's photo. We found only one match, near Portsmouth / Norfolk, VA.

"I'm being racially profiled!"
No, 'Levi', you were just exposed to the well-known side-effects of structural inequality. One of these heatmaps shows property crime, the other shows household income. Which is which? (see ALT text)
The data helped us hone in on your location.

After scouring satellite and streetview maps, we finally found the house. Who lived there until 2018?

Oh, look, it's Logan Smith and his wife!

His wife came up with the name 'Levi Smith', as confirmed by Logan during the 4chan AMA.

Did 'Levi' actually attend UTR?

PNN posted a tweet; it was archived 23 hours later. We found a Unix epoch timestamp in the HTML, converted it to UTC (14:46:06), then to EDT: 10:46:06 am. In photos taken at that time, we found Logan, and exposed watches confirmed the time.

Having confirmed the time of the tweet, we found the exact location of Richard Spencer in the park, which then led us to video footage of 'Levi', i.e. you, Logan, taking the photo and tweeting it out to @/polNewsForever (which was banned the next day lol).

Here's some photos for your album, Logan. Next time you want to promote the nazi invasion of an American town or city, or any other place on the planet... Don't!

Just as PNN boosted UTR, others boosted PNN (and thus UTR). One such account was @/TEN_GOP, which was outed in October 2018 as a Russian troll farm operated by the so-called 'Internet Research Agency'.

https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/1025509903601946625

archive.ph/smsuW

archive.ph/mzYUk

In mid-2018, the Smiths (not the band) moved to Stillwater, OK, where Logan was starting a Master's Degree at Oklahoma State University. @okstate @OSUPsychology

On his public Instagram, Logan posted photos of his silver Chevy Cruze, the car he drove to UTR.

In October 2018, Robert Bowers, a nazi and fan of /pol/ — the toxic ecosystem Logan helped promote via PNN, which Bowers also followed — attacked the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 people and injuring 6 others.

https://twitter.com/MikeStuchbery_/status/1056217817262051330

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburg…

In July 2021, Logan completed his Master's degree, and promptly embarked on his PhD. He also started seeing real patients in therapy sessions, although currently under the supervision of licensed practitioners... until he finishes his PhD.

What could go wrong?

Logan is also a Space bro. His particular interest seems to be, wait for it... SPACE MADNESS. In particular, he's researching 'Automated Psychotherapy', the autonomous screening of individuals & application of 'corrective therapy'.

archive.ph/hFoVd
archive.is/bktZC

Logan, who knows how to identify vulnerable people, and also what triggers suicidal ideation, and is researching automated psychotherapy, appears to still be posting hate memes to the remnants of his PNN social media empire — namely on Gab.

CW: Here are some examples of what /pol/ News Network has been posting every day since 2016. An endless stream of racism, bigotry, transphobia, antisemitism & misogyny. This stream of hate becomes an ideology for adherents, who then manifest it in decision making and actions.

Given what we now know, who do you think wrote this LinkedIn bio? Dr. Logan, or Mr. 'Levi'?

Logan will soon be able to see patients unsupervised — many in a state of distress and struggling with suicidal thoughts. He's researching how to automate "therapy".

🚨ACTION🚨

Please contact Oklahoma State University to warn them about Logan Smith's online campaign of hate, and how intellectualizing it won't prevent the potential harm to students, patients, or society at large.

psychology.okstate.edu/home/contactus

@thadlab @DrTonyWells @drshrum @OkstateCAS

@threadreaderapp @pingthread @rattibha @unrollthread unroll

UPDATE: After publishing the exposé on Logan Michael Smith, the PNN page on Gab suddenly went private.

Trying to hide your 6+ years of hate posting? Don't worry, Logan, we've archived the PNN social media posts, going all the way back to 2016.

#LightGreenHatUTR #IgniteTheRight

UPDATE 2: Logan Michael Smith has been removed from Oklahoma State University Psychology's "Current Clinician" page as of this afternoon.

We hope that OSU is taking the safety of others seriously and we will watch for further developments.

https://twitter.com/SunlightAFA/status/1642822858081550336