What happened to Hugh Manatee?

[brainpanhandler]

You know what's weird about this thread? This is the thread in which Hugh Manatee Wins apparently ended his entire career of posting on the internet. Hugh was a compulsive poster with an electro- paper trail all over the web leading up to the moment when his account was suspended a few pages back. Then - complete radio silence. Nothing. I would not have thought that would be possible. I've searched for his unique keyword combinations many times since, but to no avail.

Best wishes to you, Hugh, whoever you were and wherever you are.

Is Hugh still using "Sig Mickelson" as an alias anywhere?

Not to my knowledge. I haven't gone looking for him recently though.

I agree with Barracuda:

It's just very hard to imagine a man like Hugh desisting in his prosthelytizing.

He has to be out there somewhere. Has to.

Love him or hate him or both it's a mystery what happened to Hugh. He was nothing if not monomaniacally driven. How can it be that he simply disappeared and has never resurfaced anywhere? I don't even think he was or would be capable of writing in any other way than he did. He ought to be findable with key phrase searches.

There have been hints that he took up residence at a certain other RI-users forum...

No, believe me, I've looked there.

I found no evidence that he had joined Lupercal's forum either.

I really hope we see him emerge with something published in 2013.

He could just do a history of MOCKINGBIRD and I'd buy 10 copies. The man was thorough and putting his work out into an even bigger shark tank of criticism would only make the Thesis stronger.

Maybe he's holed up somewhere writing his magnum opus. Maybe he had a nervous breakdown and is convalescing. Maybe an alpha agency offered him a job. Maybe he found love. Maybe he was abducted by aliens.

Can we find him? If several dedicated members with decent skills cannot locate him what does that mean? I assume many members have already tried to some extent to find him. Has anyone had any luck?

[Searcher08]

I still find Hugh baffling in the extreme - some of the detailed knowledge and depth of understanding he had was extraordinary; there was a definite long-term change in his posts towards less engagement and a less good humour, more hectoring approach - and for me he crashed and burned in the 'Hollywood' thread. That thread seemed to expose a big section of his 'There Be Dragons!' mental map to a kind of (what may have been for him) extremely painful reality testing.

I have noticed that the 'keyword hijacking' search term no longer brings up pages of RI references, as though it itself has been keyword hijacked

Ironically, I think many of the themes that engaged Hugh in his own private meme-war desperately need to be discussed and aired. He left such a huge meteorite impact crater here.

Was Jeff the last person to talk with him from RI?

[DrVolin]

Hugh is worth a documentary. Or a festschrift, at the very least.

[IanEye]

eye just looked around, and he's gone .

[8bitagent]

I do miss Hugh, but I've been saying that for awhile. I don't think the guy was capable of maliciousness online. I mean we all have gotten into tiffs, but I noticed even when he would annoyingly hijack with his keyword hijack thesis
on countless topics I felt it was a work of art and rarely personal.

He seemed to have a very deep knowledge of the civil rights era, both in terms of what the FBI was doing with cointelpro as well as the general JFK and RFK era. My guess would be placing him around
the 55-65 age range. Really smart individual even if at times his angle was to many people's chagrin.

Hugh is worth a documentary.

Oh absolutely. Even early on I would read his posts and think of it within the framework of at least a youtube short. I told him several times he should try and make a couple
of youtube shorts based off some of his threads or ideas, which isn't very hard to do.

In a way his cadence of writing reminded me of this skit from the obscure early 90's MTV late night showcase "Liquid Television"
http://aeon.liquidtelevision.com/video/psychogram-6/

[Luther Blissett]

When I conduct my own research, I still frequently am funneled towards Hugh's posts and his sources. I even think that my history book may contain a biscuit crumb dropped by Hugh on some thread or another about the advertising industry.

I really hope he is writing a well-sourced book, and agree that Mockingbird would be the most logical starting point.

Does anyone remember his thing about communicating with other researchers exclusively via payphone? It was a thread about symbolic street art stickers that began appearing in one of the booths he used. There was something really romantic about the story, and my mind reeled from trying to imagine it taking place in our universe.

[8bitagent]

When I conduct my own research, I still frequently am funneled towards Hugh's posts and his sources. I even think that my history book may contain a biscuit crumb dropped by Hugh on some thread or another about the advertising industry.

I really hope he is writing a well-sourced book, and agree that Mockingbird would be the most logical starting point.

Does anyone remember his thing about communicating with other researchers exclusively via payphone? It was a thread about symbolic street art stickers that began appearing in one of the booths he used. There was something really romantic about the story, and my mind reeled from trying to imagine it taking place in our universe.

That sounds like it'd be an even more mindblowing documentary than Resurrect Dead: Toyn Bee Tiles

[brainpanhandler]

Does anyone remember his thing about communicating with other researchers exclusively via payphone? It was a thread about symbolic street art stickers that began appearing in one of the booths he used. There was something really romantic about the story, and my mind reeled from trying to imagine it taking place in our universe.

Haven't found the thread, but I saved this image from it:

[Luther Blissett]

Thanks, here it is: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=23789&p=262518

Did anyone ever contact ejamuel? I can't remember the outcome.

[peartreed]

“Hugh Manatee” was a cyber bully, browbeating nonbelievers with his belligerent bombast, flaming even the fans of his fixated fantasies, intruding uninvited into any intercourse interfering with his imagined exclusive omnipotence about any intel agency agenda. His farcical confabulations of facts to fit his theories became fanatical. His arrogance, sarcasm and belittling of all opposing argument was megalomaniacally unhinged. He lost sight of his surroundings, overshadowed by his own humungous hubris, and became lost in the maze of his own asinine word associations.

Simply, he was a bore. He was disruptive to more intelligent discourse and ideas. And he was the single most off-putting personality ever to plaster his posts and puerile posits all over this board in a relentless campaign to exclusively expose the pantheon of his own paranoia. His removal as an impediment to rigorous intuition was overdue.

As to his present whereabouts, I imagine he has finally found true freedom, to be by himself, fomenting his findings in a frenzy of eurekas, unchallenged and unfettered by argument or reason, occupying the solitary dark underground cell of his singular suspicions. For social stimulation he has surrounded himself with cardboard cutouts of us all, targets for his excess sputum, a captive but finally quiet audience.

[IanEye]

Hugh rocks.

[Fresno_Layshaft]

He got too close to the truth, man. He's gone underground til the heat dies down.

[IanEye]

*



it's Hugh's world,

*



we just live in it.

*

“We will live in this world, which for us has all the disquieting strangeness of the desert and of the simulacrum,
with all the veracity of living phantoms, of wandering and simulating animals that capital, that the death of capital has made of us
—because the desert of cities is equal to the desert of sand
—the jungle of signs is equal to that of the forests
—the vertigo of simulacra is equal to that of nature
—only the vertiginous seduction of a dying system remains, in which work buries work, in which value buries value
—leaving a virgin, sacred space without pathways, where only the wind lifts the sand, where only the wind watches over the sand."

*

[divideandconquer]

I read a lot of what he posted and it was very interesting to say the least. Are we sure something didn't happen to him, or he got sick, or something?

[lucky]

Jeff is conspicuous by his absence on this thread.... any thing you can add big man? Yes Hugh was at times infuriating but at least he stuck to his guns and as has been said had indepth knowledge of many RI subjects.
Is there no one who use to PM with him who might be able to say something of his whereabouts? Who knows in 10 years time KWH'ing might be a wikileak subject. : )