“I Am A Total Piece of Garbage”: The Author Of A Viral Ukraine Post Wants To Fix the Mess He Made

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Last week, I saw a deeply distasteful post on LinkedIn. Here it is:

The post was flying around the internet — and, as so often happens in moments like this, the writer was getting pummeled online. I lightly piled on myself. I posted a screenshot, with the writer’s name and face redacted (just like above), and captioned it: “Not everything is a marketing hook.”

The next day, to my surprise, the writer emailed me.

“Hi Jason, I saw your post on LinkedIn forwarding my delusional post,” wrote the author, Mac Schlesinger. “I admit that I am a total piece of garbage for posting this and I already apologized. You have no idea how much I regret it, especially now when the situation in Ukraine is really bad as opposed to when I posted it originally. But either way, it should have never been posted.”

As it turns out, Mac wrote the post the night before Russia invaded — and by morning, Russia had started its shameful war. That doesn’t make the post any better, but we can at least all agree: That is very bad timing.

Mac explained that he’s stepped away from his businesses and is working to raise money for Ukraine refugees. Then he nicely asked me to remove my post.

I said I would, and made an offer I assumed he’d turn down: Would he like to speak with me for my podcast, and for this newsletter, to explain the situation — how it happened, what the reaction was like, and what he's learned?

Here's why I wanted to talk.

Most social media users see a terrible post online, assume the worst of whoever wrote it, lash out, and then move on. Nothing is accomplished. Nothing is understood. It’s an ugly cycle, and I’ve certainly played my part in it.

If Mac was willing to reach out to me, I figured, maybe he’d be willing to engage in conversation too — and to fill in some of the human gaps that we often miss on social media.

To my surprise, Mac said yes.

We spoke for the new episode of my podcast, Problem Solvers. You can also read a version of our conversation (edited for length and clarity) below.

ME: Where did this post come from?

MAC: I'm very active on LinkedIn, on social media, promoting my companies [which all service Amazon sellers]. One of the companies that I’m involved in is running events. At that time, it was like a week before the event, so I was thinking, “How else can I promote the event? What else can I do?” One post slipped out of the norm and it came out very negative. And it went viral.

Do you usually market your events by commenting on the news?

No. To be honest, I don't really read the news or care about the news. I'm busy running my business. I'm busy supporting my family. That particular post… I still don't know how it came out of me. I never usually post these types of posts. I'm trying to think if maybe the alcohol was a little factor, because it was after a party. I was a little bit tipsy. So maybe that was a part of it. But I have no idea.

Set the stage for us. So, you're leaving a party?

Yeah. Then I came home. I was sitting down on the couch, just taking a break. I have a few assistants that have access to my LinkedIn account — if I want to do something, I usually get them to post. But it was late at night. I think it was like 12 or 1 am. And they weren't available.

I was sitting on my couch and thinking, “Okay, what else can I do to promote the event?” Somehow this came up. And I didn't even think about it. I was just holding my phone, clicking my fingers. And it went out. I didn’t put too much thought in it. Obviously, the main goal was to promote the event. All the rest of it was just fluff.

Then you went to bed. When did you realize this was a big mistake?

Yeah, that was the issue. Because I posted at like 1 am. Then the next morning, I wake up and I was like, “What the heck? What is happening?” I got phone calls and messages all over. I totally forgot that I even posted something.

So people started asking me — “delete the post, delete the post!”

“Which post? What are you talking about?”

I looked at my LinkedIn. I see what's going on — all the comments and all the messages. I deleted the post right away.

There are many lessons in this story, but here are two that jump out to me. First, don’t post about something you don’t understand well, especially after a few drinks. And second, stick around to see how people respond after you post something. What other lessons have you learned?

First of all, don't post anything out of desperation. There are a lot of lessons that I'm still learning.

What was it like to be on the receiving end of everyone’s angry responses?

It was very hard. It's still hard. People searched my name, saw my company, and started reaching out and harassing me. Obviously they see the post and they assume “Okay, he's a bad guy. How can he think of this?”

I understand them. Because if someone wrote a message about something that I believe in, and I didn’t know the person, I would probably react the same way. So it's understandable. People got angry. And it's okay.

Did you try to engage them at all?

It depends. Some people are online just to take advantage of any story and be negative and post threats. But some people, I felt like they really care and they really mean it.

So I got back to those people and admitted that I made a mistake, and that it was the wrong thing to do. I really feel bad. And most people were like “Oh, wow. Okay. I thought you were like a bad guy.” They all changed their mind.

Did you worry for your business?

Yeah, I was definitely worried. The first thing was about the show I was promoting. We had big sponsors. So I had to be fired from the show. That was painful. Then my other businesses started getting threats on chat, on emails, and social media. All over. It didn't stop. It was very hurtful.

You posted an apology. Tell me about that.

I am honest and truthful person. If I believe in something, I'm not going to change my mind. If I don't believe something, and I just made a mistake, then I'm going to say it. So this is what I did. I came out. I posted an apology. And obviously some people accepted it. Some people didn't because this is how the world goes. But I had to do what I had to do.

Do you think the apology accomplished anything?

Basically a lot of people were confused. First of all, people that know me were confused about what I meant. “What happened with Mac? I don't know him to be this type of person.” So they got clarification of what happened. Also people that didn’t know me, they saw a post and they didn't really know the real story behind it. So once they saw the message, they were like “Oh, okay. Understandable.” They sent me private messages. They actually apologized to me for reacting negatively.

Your apology wasn't defensive in any way. You acknowledged how much you messed up and left it at that. You did the same thing when you wrote me — you wrote, “I admit that I am a total piece of garbage.” Those are not the words of somebody hiding from a problem.

Yeah. I was totally honest. As a person, I don't have a problem saying when I was wrong or when I was right. So it is what it is. You have to admit if you made a mistake. You have to stand up for it and be honest with yourself.

When people mess up online, many of them disappear and wait for it to blow over. You didn’t do that.

Right. Some people have told me, “Just move on. Just ignore it. Just get off the internet.” But for me, the way I do business, I like to make an impact in the world. I'm not happy when I'm just sitting somewhere hidden and doing my thing and making money. It's not about that. It's not about the money. It's about doing things and making the world a better place.

So, obviously, with that comes the consequences of making mistakes and being out there. Also, as they say, “every obstacle is an opportunity”. So I really want to take the opportunity and turn around this whole negative thing into a positive thing. I think that hiding is like running away from your problems, which is never, never good.

What are you doing to turn this into a positive?

We're working now on creating a very big campaign to raise a lot of money for the Ukraine refugees. I’m collaborating with some people involved in Ukraine, and we're going to come out strongly with a big campaign and promote it and hopefully be successful and get a lot of money to help the most people possible.

For me personally, especially as a Jew, I know what my parents and my grandparents went through back in the days. Especially in a war where innocent people are getting hurt and affected — that's where my heart is, and I'm trying to do whatever I can.

Finally, let's talk about why we’re having this conversation. Why did you agree to this, even though it could draw more attention to your original post?

As I said earlier, it's not just, “I made a mistake and I want to hide and run away from the problem”. This is not what I am all about. But the whole thing that I'm going to do now is, it's not about myself. I am who I am. A person is nothing. A person comes and goes. It's not about me anymore and it's not about my businesses. Right now, it's mainly for what's really going on in the world. How can I make an impact and help out? So that's my main thing.

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Photo credit at top: Getty Images / Peter Dazeley