John Hinkley Jr. is on Twitter. That's Kind of Weird!
A musician with an unusual backstory recently joined Twitter. I know what you’re probably thinking: a musician seeking to cultivate a following is only now joining Twitter? In 2021? How is that even possible?
Even more perplexingly, this gentleman has a little over eighteen thousand followers yet doesn’t follow a single other account. Not even me! Or noted wit Josh “The Fat Jew” Ostrovsky.
But that’s ultimately not the weird part about this newcomer to Twitter. The truly curious aspect of this gentleman’s life is that before he took to Twitter to promote his career as a singer-songwriter and recording artist he spent decades in mental hospitals after being found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity for the attempted murder of Ronald Reagan.
Because the world is a very strange place John Hinckley Jr. is now part of the grand, grotesque culture-wide experiment that is social media and has been using the popular micro-blogging site to promote his music and try to get a record deal.
Hinkley Jr. understandably seems keen to downplay the whole “attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan” thing. In his introductory tweet, he wrote, “Hello everybody, this is the real John Hinckley. I’m now a singer/songwriter. I have 10 original songs on Spotify and the other streaming sites. Check them out. Also, check out my YouTube channel.”
If you’re following Hinkley Jr. because you’re a fan of presidential assassins, or would-be assassins, and want the low down on how it feels to shoot the President of the United States I’m afraid you won’t get much from Hinkley’s Twitter feed.
But if you want to know what kind of music the man who shot Ronald Reagan in a failed attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster is listening to these days he’s got you covered.
Hinkley Jr. is a fan of the King of Country, Hank Williams Sr., of course, gushing of the father of the “Are You Ready For Some Football?” guy, “He’s still the best. Today’s country music is lousy. I like the classic country sound from the 50’s and 60’s. You can hear it in my country songs.”
It’s always nice knowing that people are fans of your work but it’s got to be a very strange feeling when the famous person expressing fondness for your art is notable primarily for being a mentally ill man who tried to kill the President.
I can only imagine how Velvet Crush, Neutral Milk Hotel, Magnetic Fields, Half Japanese and Eve 6 feel about being praised on Twitter by a figure as notorious as the man who attempted to murder the star of Bedtime for Bonzo in order to impress the future star of George Clooney’s Money Monster.
What I find most perplexing about Hinkley Jr’s Twitter feed is how normal it seems. It’s direct and to the point and wisely focussed on one thing and one thing only—the music Hinkley Jr is making and the music he enjoys—rather than, you know, the other stuff.
It is a weird, weird world when a man who tried to kill the President is welcome onto Twitter with open arms while the previous President has been banned indefinitely.
That might seem curious or counter-productive but in the grand scheme of things Hinkley Jr. poses less of a threat than the disgraced, twice-impeached ex-president famously booted off Twitter.
If Trump were still on Twitter he’d undoubtedly use it to create further unrest and discord and push toxic lies about the 2020 election whereas Hinkley just wants folks to listen to his tunes, man.
There’s something weirdly innocent about Hinkley recreating himself as a troubadour. For a man who avoided prison and/or the death penalty by virtue of insanity he seems incongruously sane, if a little heavy on self-promotion.
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