Ep. 138: Pay the Troll Toll

[00:00:03] And I just turned around and I pulled ass out of there. I was done. I wasn't dealing with that.

[00:00:12] The hypocrisy of the cult is one of the things that turned me away the quickest.

[00:00:20] When I turned my headlights on, it turned and looked at us.

[00:00:25] And one of the things I remember the most were the eyes were glowing red.

[00:00:30] I see an orb of light. It is just circling these steps like it is waiting for me.

[00:00:38] And when he begins to tell them that he saw a UFO, they're basically like, what are you talking about?

[00:00:50] That's seven foot up on a tree, peeking around it.

[00:00:54] And that's where I saw the top of the muzzle, nose and the eyes.

[00:00:58] As soon as I made eye contact with this thing, it felt like death.

[00:01:05] Welcome back to Tinfoil Tales. I'm your host, Brandon Wright.

[00:01:09] Tonight we're going to be joined by my guest, KG.

[00:01:11] KG is the CEO of a professional trolling company.

[00:01:16] I know that sounds a little weird for people, but it was something that really kind of interested me because I've never had the opportunity to speak with someone that owns a professional trolling company.

[00:01:27] And I know we deal with a lot of trolls out in our lives these days, especially in the world of social media.

[00:01:32] So I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk to someone that does this as a profession.

[00:01:36] It's a little bit different than what we normally talk about here, but I can probably guarantee there are some interesting topics on here that may pique your interest.

[00:01:44] So definitely want to check this one out.

[00:01:46] But before we bring KG on, if you've ever had an experience and you would like to be on an episode of Tinfoil Tales, you can send an email to tinfoiltalespodcast at gmail.com or you can go to tinfoiltales.com and go to the contact section.

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[00:02:50] We're going to go ahead now and bring KG on and dive on into this conversation.

[00:02:54] So sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

[00:02:59] I'd like to take this time to welcome my guest tonight, KG. Thanks for coming on here and talking with me.

[00:03:03] Great. Very excited to be here.

[00:03:05] Would you like to let the audience know a little bit about yourself?

[00:03:09] Sure. I'm the CEO and the founder of TrollToll.

[00:03:13] TrollTroll. It is the only place on the internet where you can hire internet trolls, and it's all real people doing all of the dirty work and different tasks and projects that anyone can imagine online.

[00:03:33] It's not what you're used to hearing about when you hear about internet trolls or troll farming.

[00:03:39] We don't meddle in elections or anything like that.

[00:03:42] It is people who feel like they've been wronged or they feel like their competition is getting the best of them, and they just want a little help.

[00:03:53] They want other people starting these conversations and expressing these opinions in an organic way.

[00:04:00] And we offer the support as much as we can.

[00:04:05] How does one become a professional troll?

[00:04:09] When you first reached out with me, we were talking.

[00:04:12] That was the first thing that popped in my head is how does someone become a professional troll on the internet?

[00:04:16] Because I do a lot of that stuff on the daily.

[00:04:18] Well, what's most interesting about this is the group of trolls are core employees.

[00:04:26] They actually existed before the company did.

[00:04:28] There was this, I'll call it underground, but I mean, it's really not as a chat room of people who would find these little conquests together and join forces.

[00:04:40] And I said to them, you know, if you're good at something, never do it for free and started to find ways to get them paid.

[00:04:48] You'd be surprised what a lot of these people do, you know, nine to five in their normal lives.

[00:04:52] We have a lot of teachers, a lot of aspiring screenwriters, and then some people who are just in between jobs looking for a way to make a few extra bucks and stay creative.

[00:05:05] You know, it takes a lot of self-control and the ability to make decisions in a mature way.

[00:05:15] We are always getting people reaching out.

[00:05:17] Hey, I'd love to be a troll.

[00:05:18] I've been doing it my whole life.

[00:05:20] I might as well get paid for it.

[00:05:21] Those usually aren't the people that work out.

[00:05:24] If you think you're a troll, you probably aren't.

[00:05:27] It's one of the ironies of the business.

[00:05:31] I see like a lot of people, some of the trolling that I see and I've dealt with, like I was literally dealing with some of it yesterday and a little bit of it today.

[00:05:42] Like, especially with some of the topics that I usually dive into.

[00:05:48] There's a lot of people that have things to say that are trying to poke fun, trying to ignite an argument, especially in today's scenarios of craziness in the world.

[00:06:01] But those type of people, I don't really find like they're actually, they're more or less instigating arguments.

[00:06:12] But then it gets escalated into like, they're not like doing it nonchalantly.

[00:06:19] You know what I mean?

[00:06:19] Like they're just being straight up aggressive about it and overbearingly annoying about it.

[00:06:24] Right.

[00:06:25] Right.

[00:06:25] And you know, our trolls work a little differently.

[00:06:30] We, if you think you're dealing with the troll, we don't feel like we're doing our job correctly.

[00:06:36] We try to take on the position of the people we're working with in a very real way, almost as if we're actors and, and believe we are now that person or we're working on their behalf.

[00:06:49] We're not out there just trying to pick a fight.

[00:06:51] We're trying to get a little bit of justice.

[00:06:53] We're trying to make people feel a little bit better about their situations.

[00:06:57] Uh, and, and I know we all have this idea of, of what an internet troll is.

[00:07:03] And, um, it's a, it's a trope we, we use on one end to, uh, to market ourselves and make it fun.

[00:07:10] Like I want to hear more about this, but on the other side, we're fighting against it every day.

[00:07:14] Mm-hmm.

[00:07:15] Mm-hmm.

[00:07:16] Now I've always had my own little slogan of don't feed the trolls because I know a lot of the, a lot of people fall into that trap of baiting.

[00:07:27] They get baited into it and it just starts a big old shit storm of argumentation.

[00:07:31] But to me, it's, I try not to dive into it, but I know when, uh, I know when we originally were talking, you said there was some weird stuff that, uh, you've kind of had.

[00:07:43] And to deal with like, just from people reaching out some of the requests or anything, like, is there anything you want to kind of dive into some of the weirder stuff that you've had to encounter?

[00:07:56] So, I mean, there's, I have a few stories.

[00:07:58] There's one I'm, I'm excited to get into, but a couple of preliminary, um, we had somebody reach out and they were part of a form online for people with schizophrenia.

[00:08:09] And they felt like they were removed or blocked from the forum unjustly.

[00:08:14] And they wanted a little help.

[00:08:15] They just wanted, um, some people to go in sort of as a proxy and say, like, what's the origin of this?

[00:08:21] Is this really how you treat people?

[00:08:23] Let's give this person a second chance.

[00:08:28] Um, but, and I'm not making a joke here or trying to get a cheap laugh because of the person's condition.

[00:08:39] They didn't remember hiring us the next day or anything to do with this.

[00:08:44] And, um, and then they canceled the order.

[00:08:47] It was like right out of a, it was like right out of a movie the next day.

[00:08:50] They just had no idea who we were.

[00:08:53] Um, so, you know, it's all you can really do in those situations and laugh.

[00:08:58] And again, like we try to handle everything with so much empathy, but, but at the same time, it's like, there's people in this world.

[00:09:05] There's just so many different things you don't even know about until you know about it.

[00:09:09] And, uh, and you, and you never know what to expect in this, in this world.

[00:09:16] Have you ever had someone reach out that you've actually looked into and didn't actually want to do something for them because it's almost like what they were wanting you to troll against was kind of like they were in the wrong.

[00:09:31] Does that make sense?

[00:09:32] Like what they were wanting done because they were in the wrong and they were just trying to stir shit up afterwards.

[00:09:38] Yeah, that, that actually happens frequently.

[00:09:41] Um, that's kind of what I was wondering.

[00:09:43] Yeah, that happens frequently.

[00:09:45] We, we deal with, um, more recently in the political world.

[00:09:49] Uh, and it's not even necessarily, you know, crossing party lines and having issues with that.

[00:09:55] It's more, there are just some people who are, um, filled with a lot of hatred and a lot of prejudices out there running for office because that seems to be for whatever reason, working for some politicians.

[00:10:07] And today, in this day and age.

[00:10:09] And, um, you know, when we, we had a team of trolls, they sat through a debate actually last week and it was in, you know, the middle of nowhere, Texas.

[00:10:18] There was a person running for a sheriff, uh, position and he had no policies or anything.

[00:10:26] Everything was, if people don't look like you, I'm going to keep them out of this area.

[00:10:31] That's more or less the, you know, the gist of what he was saying.

[00:10:34] And we just had to, this isn't for us refunded the money and just had to like wipe our hands of it.

[00:10:40] Cause it's it, the, the goal of what we're doing isn't, isn't to just, um, spread messages, but it's to, it's to help people in essence.

[00:10:51] I know it sounds like there's an altruistic thing. That's maybe even a little, you know, ironic that these trolls are trying to do good here, but the, the idea is that it's a service and it's, and it's meant to help people.

[00:11:04] It's meant to empower people. It's the voice for the voiceless, not giving these people a platform, uh, of hatred.

[00:11:12] Um, you know, we've, we've had people from, uh, I don't want to get this wrong. I'm sure your audience knows it better than I do off the top of my head, but it's, um, the, the satanic church.

[00:11:23] I think it's what it's called. And they've become pretty popular, um, for how like level headed they are. I guess you would call it.

[00:11:31] I mean, we've had people reach out from there that they're getting, uh, they feel like they're being prejudiced at country clubs and things like that because their affiliation.

[00:11:38] And it's like, that's something that's people who might be labeled bad, but have a worthy cause at least. Um, so, you know, there, there's definitely things where it's, uh, the, the person doesn't need an army.

[00:11:52] They don't need more power. Uh, what they need is to reevaluate things.

[00:11:57] Mm. Now, as far as the, you mentioned the church of Satan or whatever they're, they're called, I don't really know, but when you talk to certain people that are into that sort of thing, they claim it's not a, they don't even really believe in Satan.

[00:12:19] It's kind of my understanding too. Right.

[00:12:21] It's strange. Like why are you, or the church of Satan or Satanist or whatever, but you don't even believe in that, but they claim everything is about being good and very, very different from what you would expect them to be.

[00:12:35] So it's, it's strange.

[00:12:36] It was certainly strange. And my understanding and how they outlined it to me was how they got so into this and involved in this world was, um, because it, to them, that was being able to be part of this meant they had absolute freedom.

[00:12:52] Like this represented being free. People couldn't tell you what to do or what to represent. And I was like, you know, there is something to that. I think, um, we're all looking for a community, I guess. And if that's how people find that, that thread that connects them to other people and they're actually not taking goats and Instagrams, like, I guess it's okay.

[00:13:15] As long as they're not out there sacrificing kids and all sorts of things.

[00:13:18] Yeah. Right. Right. Right. That's like the satanic panic back in the eighties or whatever. That seems to be what everyone was all about is saying that that's what they were doing. They're out there trying to dig up dead people and stealing kids and sacrificing them to Satan and drinking goats, blood and all sorts of craziness. But I don't honestly know if that was ever really a thing or if that was just something being blown out of proportion.

[00:13:41] And, and that's what, and that's what, that's what we're kind of finding in this world we're in. There's just so many different types of groups of people out there and everyone's just looking for their little place in a community and brotherhood, whatever you want to call it. We, uh, we, we helped a person.

[00:13:58] And, um, she was, she had this online chat. I was a role playing chat and it was essentially a brothel. There's no other way to put it. People went in there to have internet sex.

[00:14:08] And, um, she was a married woman in real life. And, um, she was a married woman in real life. And then in the chat had a husband who was somebody else. And, um, I guess there was some type of emotional affair there. She was accused of, and they were kind of existing in this throuple.

[00:14:30] Whereas one person never met them in person or physically or sent pictures, videos, whatever voice or anything. She just had this, this text boyfriend, this text-based boyfriend, and then this real husband and the husband and the boyfriend played fantasy football together.

[00:14:49] And, um, I guess there was a person who used to frequent the chat who was coming back and leaving comments and calling them freaks and stuff. And they wanted some help against that. They wanted some commenters to clean up the page a little bit and make it look like it's more of a positive place. But I was like, you know, if this is what works for these people, none of my business, right? Love is love.

[00:15:11] I try not to. Things are weird. I try not to dabble too much into the strangeness of it at all, but whatever works for people, I guess that works for them. It's none of my business.

[00:15:24] Right. And they found a way to make it work. And marriage is a complicated thing in and of itself. If you need a special type of friend like this and it's role playing and it's a character, I guess you're not breaking a law and you're not ruining your family or hurting anyone's feelings.

[00:15:40] I suppose to each their own. Right. Right. Has there been anything else that's like really stands out has been on the odd side for you? I know there's probably a lot of weird stuff, but anything that like stands out.

[00:15:55] There's one story I just can't wait to tell you. I think in today's world where we are so scared of artificial intelligence and the ethics behind it, I just love to tell you, I'd love to open up to your audience for some, maybe some of their theories or opinions.

[00:16:13] Um, so we got a message from a man named John and he said, I really need help. I need your trolls to go into this, uh, local Facebook group and say that they've met my granddaughter because I'm being accused of not having a granddaughter.

[00:16:30] And I, uh, so we had a dispatcher working that one and they passed it over to me. And I said, I'm going to have to look into this one. This just seems too peculiar. It's so, especially on Facebook, it should be so easy to prove you have a granddaughter or not.

[00:16:44] Uh, so I was, uh, so I was speaking to the person going back and forth via email. I was like, so what's the problem? Why don't you just have a family picture or something or, you know, link to their Facebook or maybe make it private or something.

[00:17:01] You don't have to worry about them getting stalked, but still make it apparent that this person exists. And the guy comes back, John comes back to me and he says, well, I actually hired a private investigator.

[00:17:12] And they say, my, my granddaughter is real. And I said, sir, with all due respect, why do you need a private investigator for that? If you know your granddaughter and, um, and John said, I'm just trying to prove it. I have all these people.

[00:17:26] I even had people go as too far as, um, to, they saw, I, they asked me what kind of car she drives. And I told them, and they called up the car dealership in our local town where she would have purchased that car.

[00:17:41] And they asked if they saw her, if they met her. And now they're harassing that person saying that, uh, they're a liar as well. And, and making up this story that this woman exists, that they're, that they're on the take as well. And I was like, John, this is really getting complicated. Just give me a second to look into this. Can I have her name?

[00:18:01] And she, and he says, sure. Uh, she, she, her page is this, she goes, she's a musician. She's an aspiring musician. I'm a musician. We're family musicians. Her whole shtick is she is trying to pretend like she's AI, like she's artificial intelligence. So her band's name is she's not real. And it's spelled a CHI. If anyone out there is trying to look it up. So it's she, or it's, she might be real is what it's what it's called. So if anyone looking out there, she might be real.

[00:18:31] Um, and she tries to pretend like she's AI, it's a whole shtick. So she like answer questions wrong. She'll chat, chat GPT answers to make it seem as though she is, um, uh, a computer. And I was like, Oh, well now that's starting to. So that's why this is so confusing. All right. That makes maybe a little bit more sense, but at least, uh, there's something here. And I was like, okay.

[00:18:57] So if you explain that to people, he's like, of course I explained that she's trying to be AI. This is like this cool new way. She's trying to integrate into the, into the music scene. And now, you know, simultaneously, I'm not sure if you're familiar, but this person is being sued for 10 million, a different person.

[00:19:15] But like currently in the current events, a different person is being sued for $10 million for having music written by artificial intelligence.

[00:19:24] And then using bots to stream it, uh, has been able to make money off doing this. So AI music, isn't a crazy thing, but it's also kind of looked down on by actual musicians.

[00:19:37] So part of me is saying to myself, if this person's actually musician, probably isn't going for this, but again, it is possible. I'm not ruling it out.

[00:19:47] So I, I, I, I Google the person's name and I always try to, I Google John's name and I always try to avoid doing that. I just feel like it's a little invasive and it's not really my job.

[00:20:00] However, I did it. I had to, well, there was a ton of posts on Reddit on different Facebook threads, different things, um, accusing him of being, uh, a pedophile.

[00:20:13] And in 2012, he was actually arrested for, uh, kidnapping, uh, a young girl who there's some gray area, but it was his biological daughter.

[00:20:29] He just had no relationship with her. And, uh, he was accused of kidnapping. All the charges were dropped and somewhere along the line, uh, it was speculated that there was some type of, uh, sexual undertone there that he like kidnapped her to, to, for some type of, you know, gross debauchery.

[00:20:50] And, um, it was never, he was never convicted or anything. He was never found guilty. The charges were dropped, uh, for whatever reason. I mean, the guy seems a little, a little out there.

[00:21:01] So it's possible that they understood that he's like kind of a harmless guy and maybe we should just let this one go, whatever the case.

[00:21:08] So that pops up. And then there are these countless threads where this guy, John is being outed as pretending to be a woman in different chats.

[00:21:21] Basically for the last 20 years, he's been pretending to be a woman and a younger woman at that. And he's different chat rooms, presumably to meet other, you know, young, young people, presumably.

[00:21:33] And, um, he keeps getting caught doing that. So all of these people, it turns out who are accusing him of making up his granddaughter, they weren't doing it to just be trolls and just be a thorn in his side.

[00:21:47] They think this person is a predator. They think this person is pretending to be his granddaughter.

[00:21:53] And, um, in an effort to meet young women, to meet other young women, to have conversations with other young women, these other kind of like a fans of music and, and these chat rooms and everything and digging into it.

[00:22:08] It could go any way. It could really go any way. I mean, this guy was never found guilty of anything. There's countless people accusing him of this.

[00:22:16] Um, the girl, the granddaughter, the woman, um, she does have music out there. It is definitely, um, AI, like it's definitely just instruments. There's no voice. You can't. So it's very possible.

[00:22:30] It's just AI made or with garage band or some, you know, easy to use software. And, um, but there's these countless people out there where wherever this guy is posting, they're trying to give a heads up to other people.

[00:22:45] If a girl friends, you saying that she's related to him, it's him pretending to be a woman. And, um, for some reason he's escaping this. Uh, the police are aware of him.

[00:22:55] We, we contacted his local police. We felt like it was our job. We contacted them. They're aware of everything he's doing. They say he hasn't broken any rules. Uh, they didn't really have to release any info on his family.

[00:23:07] If he has a granddaughter to us and they, and they didn't, but, um, you know, it is one of, one of the big mysteries right now in the troll world. And we don't know, you know, what's real or what's not, but he sent us, he still sends us emails asking for help, looking for help.

[00:23:22] Cause he's being accused of making up his own granddaughter.

[00:23:27] That is very weird. And the whole context of the story, when you mentioned the musician part that I've actually, that's what I used to be before I did this podcast.

[00:23:36] I used to do vocals in the death metal band. Oh, cool.

[00:23:40] But I used AI to make the ending song to this because then there's words and stuff because nowadays you can actually, it'll actually sing for you and stuff.

[00:23:52] So people are making music that way within the last six months that's came out and I've been seeing people releasing stuff claiming it's their music, but yet I can tell it's not really music.

[00:24:06] I don't, as a musician, I also look at it as the fact that a lot of people are DIY like myself.

[00:24:14] So I'm going to go the cheapest route that I can go.

[00:24:17] Right.

[00:24:17] But I also have friends that are musicians too, from being in bands.

[00:24:20] So I have them make my stuff like my intro and everything else was made by my old guitar player.

[00:24:25] But far as like what goes on with that, I could totally see him just being a creep and using it.

[00:24:32] Right.

[00:24:33] Just the whole setup or whatever, like if there's smoke, there's fire in my opinion.

[00:24:37] So if there's so many people saying something, there's more likely some sort of truth behind it.

[00:24:42] At least in my opinion, I mean, which doesn't really mean anything, but if there's so many people saying this guy's kind of a predator, he most likely probably is a creep.

[00:24:54] Yeah.

[00:24:55] I mean, our best guess here is we have a lot of hypotheses and we're speculating here.

[00:25:02] We don't know anything.

[00:25:03] We think he's probably someone who's not allowed to live by himself type of thing and has plenty of people watching him and plenty of supervision.

[00:25:12] So nothing bad's actually happened.

[00:25:14] But mentally, he's probably a little underdeveloped and feels more comfortable talking to young people.

[00:25:22] But yeah, I mean, the whole thing is just he could be a perfect.

[00:25:27] He on the other hand could be a lovely man who just wants to help his granddaughter make it in the music industry.

[00:25:34] Right.

[00:25:34] So, you know, it's just a mystery and we might never truly know the answer because evidently this she might not be real band won't give you a straight answer on anything.

[00:25:47] Works really hard to seem like she is AI.

[00:25:51] That's just weird in itself.

[00:25:53] Right.

[00:25:54] Especially with today, like anyone can do that because everyone has access to it.

[00:26:00] It's a free app.

[00:26:03] I'm just yeah, I mean, I guess I really I don't know what the advantage would be if that's like some marketable kind of character that you can portray.

[00:26:12] But I suppose it could be there's been crazier things between Eminem and Lady Gaga.

[00:26:19] Like there's I'm like these characters and find a career, I suppose.

[00:26:25] The only instance that I can bring up that I can relate to any of the trolling and all the other stuff.

[00:26:31] Soon you're mentioning music.

[00:26:33] I was doing another podcast last year with my friend and we'd done an episode with someone that said that they were.

[00:26:43] The topic was cancel culture, basically.

[00:26:47] Right.

[00:26:47] He says no matter what he does, he gets as soon as he posts something, he gets bombarded by people just trying to destroy anything.

[00:26:55] He does because an ex-fiance of his told everyone that he abused her.

[00:27:02] But yet I did a background check.

[00:27:04] I had the extreme of I had to pay to do a background check on this guy because when his episode came out, we were starting to get attacked.

[00:27:11] Right.

[00:27:12] Right.

[00:27:15] And she was the one that ended up being arrested.

[00:27:18] He had no wounds on him.

[00:27:19] I read the police report, all sorts of stuff.

[00:27:24] Everything in there said that she was the aggressor.

[00:27:26] She cut him with her fingernails and she had marks.

[00:27:29] She had marks on his face, his throat.

[00:27:32] She didn't have anything.

[00:27:35] Well, the excuse was she was, she's, I believe, half Filipino, half black.

[00:27:40] So they said that they had to arrest her because she was black.

[00:27:43] I was like, well, that's not how it works.

[00:27:46] But and because she told everyone he abused her, they just believe it.

[00:27:53] So anytime he does music stuff, he's being bombarded.

[00:27:55] So when he came on our show and he for some reason brought that up, which the show was all about how musicians struggle.

[00:28:02] Like the bad things they have to deal with, the dark side of the music scene is kind of what it was.

[00:28:06] And we started getting harassed and we were starting to be called white supremacists and all sorts of things.

[00:28:13] And yet my co-host isn't even a white guy.

[00:28:17] They didn't even do their own research.

[00:28:20] They just were.

[00:28:21] So they started trolling his band and saying they're a bunch of clan members, like all sorts of nonsense.

[00:28:29] And this is so dumb.

[00:28:31] But like, that was the only instance that we've ever had to deal with anything over an episode about something that had nothing to do with us over something that I had to pay for that looked like it wasn't even real.

[00:28:43] So that's kind of the other reason why I wanted to talk with you, because has there been anything like that you've done something?

[00:28:50] Then after you've done it, you realize that you kind of maybe shouldn't have done it.

[00:28:54] Yeah, there's one that comes to mind.

[00:28:56] There was a coach, a sports coach at a really big university in Alabama.

[00:29:04] And this person was fired from their job.

[00:29:08] And a person and then a reporter, an amateur journalist basically went on Twitter, Twitter at the time,

[00:29:15] and said that this coach was fired for having a relationship with one of their athletes.

[00:29:22] We had someone from that coach's family reach out and say, you've got to get that.

[00:29:28] You've got to help us get this taken down.

[00:29:29] You've got to bombard them with other comments saying it's not true.

[00:29:32] They're never going to be able to work again.

[00:29:34] This is going to ruin their whole career.

[00:29:36] And we actually have one of our people reach out to the journalist and they were able to negotiate that person taking the posts down like offline

[00:29:47] and just agreeing to wait until all the facts came out.

[00:29:50] And so they took the post down and then a week passed, two weeks passed.

[00:29:56] No facts came out.

[00:29:57] Nothing came out.

[00:29:59] And there's a part of me to this day that still wrestles with that a little bit, that some of these schools,

[00:30:08] that type of negligence to allow something like that, they would work hard to cover it up.

[00:30:13] They really would.

[00:30:15] So I'm never going to be certain as to what happened and that family, how hard they were willing to work

[00:30:23] and how much money they were willing to pay to make that go away.

[00:30:27] And I just hope, you know, whatever happened, it was at the very least consensual and just inappropriate.

[00:30:35] But yeah, I still think about it.

[00:30:38] Yeah, that's one of those that I would struggle with.

[00:30:43] When it comes to stuff like that for me, and you even mentioned it, with my show, I'm more of a conspiracy-minded person.

[00:30:52] So when you say how much money does someone have to make it go away?

[00:30:54] Like I think of stuff like that all the time.

[00:30:56] Right.

[00:30:57] It seems to be a common trend, though.

[00:31:00] Like there's been people that have gotten in trouble over doing certain things.

[00:31:05] But if you look at who they are and who their family is, how much money they have, and then it comes down to the charges.

[00:31:12] They're not so extreme or they don't get charged with anything.

[00:31:17] Or they make it go away.

[00:31:24] Right.

[00:31:25] And I don't want to say Illuminati, but just this idea that there's a group of people that have reached a status so high in life that there is a number they can call.

[00:31:36] There is something they can do to make different things go away.

[00:31:39] We have a person who's like a social media influencer type that we deal with.

[00:31:46] And we now have a direct line to our Reddit page that frequently has people commenting and criticizing her.

[00:31:57] And that Reddit page has made it very clear what the price is to get stuff removed.

[00:32:03] And we are just the middleman facilitating that.

[00:32:06] And I can only imagine what it's like with people who have more power, bigger networks, the actors of Scientology, things like that.

[00:32:17] It's very real how some of this power game works.

[00:32:23] Weirdly enough, you mentioned that.

[00:32:24] I was actually thinking about Scientology earlier because they're one of the – they had – there's a big controversy.

[00:32:33] Again, we mentioned music, but I was never a huge Linkin Park fan.

[00:32:38] Right.

[00:32:39] But now there's big controversy as they release this new lady singer who's apparently a Scientologist.

[00:32:46] And I guess when Danny Masterson was on trial for all the bad stuff that he was doing, she was a supporter of him.

[00:32:53] And they were – the church was supporting him.

[00:32:56] And now there's a big bunch of backlash against her.

[00:32:59] And now the guitar player doesn't even want to be on their tour because he's helping them record this and that.

[00:33:05] But he's just not ready to go back on the road.

[00:33:06] I was like, you were just a couple days ago.

[00:33:09] Right.

[00:33:09] It's – no, it's like when people draw the line, I guess, is when they're finally judged.

[00:33:14] You know, speaking to Danny Masterson, one of his old castmates from that 70s show has a memoir that was supposed to come out in April.

[00:33:23] It then got pushed to this fall.

[00:33:26] I think it's coming out the end of September.

[00:33:28] We actually had that person's PR team reach out to us because they're expecting a lot of backlash because I think there's a lot of chapters about kind of the stuff going on with Danny and some other people that at the time they thought was in good fun and now might be looked at a little differently.

[00:33:50] But, you know, it's – when was that show on?

[00:33:53] Like the early 2000s basically made it 30 years before there was an issue just because he was part of the right group.

[00:33:59] Crazy.

[00:34:00] Yeah.

[00:34:01] So it was in the 90s and into the early 2000s because now there's that 90s show on Netflix.

[00:34:08] Right.

[00:34:08] It's crazy.

[00:34:09] But, yeah, there's – the cover-ups are all very real.

[00:34:14] We deal with a lot of cover-ups here.

[00:34:16] And we had a CEO of a company who wrote an email out to all of his customers, so not even his staff, his customers, endorsing a politician and he got flamed for it.

[00:34:33] Everyone's like, this isn't what I'm here for.

[00:34:35] I don't care what your opinions are.

[00:34:36] I just want your product.

[00:34:37] And they basically jumped ship.

[00:34:39] He lost, he said, 200,000 email subscribers just because of that.

[00:34:44] And now he's looking for help just to get people to change the conversation a little bit and focus on the business and not his political leanings.

[00:34:53] And he didn't even blink an eye at the price tag.

[00:34:58] He was ready to go.

[00:35:01] So, you know, for a little – for someone to come and clean their name, there isn't a price tag high enough.

[00:35:10] We'll pay it.

[00:35:12] You don't have to give a direct answer, but if someone were to reach out to you to hire you for something, is there different tiers of – depending on how far you have to go with it?

[00:35:23] How much that would cost?

[00:35:25] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:35:27] So we have a social media troll and that's just somebody who's looking for a little help online, some comments, a couple of comments here on Instagram or something.

[00:35:36] Nothing too invasive.

[00:35:38] And that – we charge people $50 for that.

[00:35:40] It's quick.

[00:35:41] It's usually impulsive.

[00:35:43] It's the type of thing where you get a lot of them, you know, late at night on Friday, late at night on Saturday.

[00:35:49] Just someone stewing about something and they want a little help.

[00:35:52] But then we have what we call a classic troll and that's where we help people across different channels.

[00:35:57] We're available for all of the replies.

[00:36:00] We'll call, we'll text, email, whatever they need and that's $120.

[00:36:03] And then we have a version of that that we call unhinged and that's $329.

[00:36:09] And basically what that does is it's more of a relentless – we won't stop until we get whatever that desired reaction is.

[00:36:20] And not necessarily in like a spammy negative way.

[00:36:23] But it's like send an email, don't get a reply.

[00:36:26] You're going to get a bunch more from different email addresses until you do.

[00:36:30] That one's really goal-oriented.

[00:36:32] We have a fixer troll and that's like if you're trying to do like a little reputation cleanup, that's $275.

[00:36:40] And then we also – we offer retainers for people and then we have business packages for businesses who need –

[00:36:46] we're looking for someone to do posts, comment about whatever their product or business is doing and kind of hype them up a little bit.

[00:36:56] Maybe I'll hire a troll for my show.

[00:36:58] Yeah, look, we have quite a few podcasts actually.

[00:37:01] So that's interesting.

[00:37:03] I wouldn't think that anything on like my spectrum would be doing that.

[00:37:08] But then I got thinking about some of the other podcasts out there and this might irritate some of them.

[00:37:14] But I feel like a lot of them are probably doing that because they instigate a lot of stuff.

[00:37:24] I think what former President Trump taught us eight years ago was that if you – it doesn't matter what someone feels about you.

[00:37:34] They need to feel something if you're trying to get a – if you're trying to get attention and try to get a reaction.

[00:37:39] So I think a lot of people have really started to take that to heart and they're trolling more.

[00:37:47] They're saying more outlandish things because all they want is that thumb to stop the scroll and get that reaction and hopefully it turns into business for them.

[00:37:57] I made a post earlier today on Facebook and it wasn't to instigate anything.

[00:38:02] It was more or less just me thinking out loud of I miss the days of when not everyone's personality was based on their political bias.

[00:38:11] Absolutely.

[00:38:12] And boy, did that start something.

[00:38:15] Oh, yeah.

[00:38:17] How dare you suggest that identity politics is one of the most divisive parts of our country right now?

[00:38:24] No.

[00:38:24] But I just miss the fact that people couldn't have conversation.

[00:38:28] Literally everything I see is left versus right, red versus blue.

[00:38:34] In my opinion, it's all just a distraction to make everyone hate each other.

[00:38:39] They're both.

[00:38:41] The easiest way to not have to get anything done is for people to be distracted and to hate each other.

[00:38:47] Right.

[00:38:47] And you can just coast for four years, play as much golf as you want, have whatever legacy you want.

[00:38:54] That's kind of how I feel about it.

[00:38:56] The real stuff happens behind the scenes that no one else really knows about because we're too busy arguing with each other.

[00:39:01] I think the last few weeks have to be proof that there is some truth to that.

[00:39:07] When you look at our current president, it's kind of like he's missing in action almost.

[00:39:15] When's the last time he's been seen?

[00:39:16] Right.

[00:39:17] Is he even alive?

[00:39:20] There's, listen, there's a lot of weird stuff's going on.

[00:39:23] But the fact that this guy doesn't have to be at work for the last month and all these horrible things are happening, I think it's time to point some fingers.

[00:39:32] Yeah.

[00:39:33] It's very strange.

[00:39:35] And I don't know.

[00:39:38] I try not to go too much into political talks on this show.

[00:39:41] I have another show on my Patreon that my buddy and I would talk about that type of stuff.

[00:39:45] But on here, I just try and keep it a little bit political free because I think there's just too much crap out there.

[00:39:51] And I don't want all conspiracy stuff to be all political.

[00:39:54] Right.

[00:39:54] I don't want to do conspiracies.

[00:39:55] Like there's a lot of weird stuff on my shows.

[00:39:58] Oh, yeah.

[00:39:58] No, we and we were having a debate in our own office of how political we want to be.

[00:40:04] And if we want to take these things on, you just don't know.

[00:40:09] You don't know the character of a person just because they say all these things.

[00:40:14] Once they're in office, anything can happen.

[00:40:17] Do you really want that blood on your hands?

[00:40:19] It's a question we're asking every day as we get these requests.

[00:40:22] I always say what politician has ever delivered on what they said they were going to.

[00:40:28] They make a bunch of promises.

[00:40:30] But then once they get in there.

[00:40:31] Right.

[00:40:32] Nothing seems to ever really go the way they claim it was going to go.

[00:40:38] And we just keep going along and following the same thing, waiting for that big change to happen for the better.

[00:40:44] And it just never seems to.

[00:40:45] They keep dangling the carrot in front of us.

[00:40:48] Right.

[00:40:48] And then at some point, something's got to give.

[00:40:51] And that's probably like how Mad Max starts.

[00:40:56] The way life is going, I would not be surprised if that's not the future at some point.

[00:41:01] Right.

[00:41:01] It's just really a matter of time.

[00:41:05] Well, if there's anything else you'd like to discuss, we can.

[00:41:08] If not, we can probably wrap this one up.

[00:41:09] But I want you to let everyone know where they can find you at.

[00:41:13] Sure.

[00:41:14] So if anyone's interested in what we do or wants to chat through a project, please, I just come and we can talk it out.

[00:41:21] It's paythetrolltoll.com.

[00:41:24] We have a real person monitors the chat box.

[00:41:27] And then you can feel free to email, go through the contact page on the site.

[00:41:31] Whatever you think might be worthy of just having a little online help, we'd be happy to talk it through.

[00:41:38] Or if you just want to share your own stories or have your opinions on if she might be real is real.

[00:41:45] Would love to hear it.

[00:41:46] No, I've loved it.

[00:41:48] I love listening to conspiracy theories and looking forward to your future episodes.

[00:41:53] Awesome.

[00:41:54] Appreciate it.

[00:41:55] Well, KG, it's been a pleasure talking with you.

[00:41:59] Thank you so much.

[00:42:01] See everyone on paythetrolltoll.com.

[00:42:05] Alrighty.

[00:42:05] Well, on that note, guys, we're going to wrap this one up.

[00:42:07] So thanks for listening.

[00:42:13] And that's the show, everyone.

[00:42:15] I really hope you guys enjoyed the conversations.

[00:42:17] If you would like to be a guest on Ten Foil Tells, remember to send an email to tenfoiltellspodcast at gmail.com.

[00:42:24] Or go to the contact section of tenfoiltells.com.

[00:42:27] To get your message to me, we'll get something scheduled for a future episode.

[00:42:30] And just remember, the truth lies in the stories we share.

[00:42:33] The connections we make.

[00:42:34] Stay curious.

[00:42:35] Stay open-minded.

[00:42:36] Thank you all for joining us on this journey.

[00:42:38] And until next time, keep questioning, keep seeking, and keep exploring the unknown.

[00:42:42] Good night, everyone.

[00:42:43] Ten Foil Tells in the headphones.

[00:42:45] Yeah, it's time to rock.

[00:42:47] Got a story about a cryptic creature.

[00:42:49] Let's take a walk.

[00:42:54] They're out there in the dark.

[00:42:56] But the truth is out there like an idiot's.

[00:43:02] Lighting's got the whole world shook.

[00:43:06] Conspiracies unfold like a story in a book.

[00:43:11] We have control time.