There are probably many more, but these are the ones I can name without trying.
I'm a basically a nobody amongst the examples you just rattled off, but I'll also note he gave me a rash of shit when I criticized him for associating with Ralph and tried to convince him not to. Afterwards, some hardcore Rekieta fans were less than kind to me.
I have no desire to re-fight that old battle (and Ralph eventually rendered it moot anyways), but I only bring it up to bolster your point that at
no point did I think Nick "ordered" anyone to go after me. And if I don't think he did, I don't know why anyone else would. I could be an asshole and try and claim he did, but then I would be grossly dishonest and unfair.
Similarly, CGoody probably isn't getting marching orders from Nick to go after Elissa. He's just doing that on his own in the hope of cummies from Nick and his fellow fans. Nick is probably agnostic towards what he's doing too.
Anyways, there's your "insider baseball," albeit three years stale. Nick's "capos" really aren't because they are
self-appointed weirdos seeking parasocial relationships with him.
In fact, I think one of the only people Nick ever charged with anything is Soter to run the Discord. And that is an employee-employer relationship because he was paid.
What this boils down to is Nick has issues he
can control, and others he
can't. He has limited control over his followers, but
total control over his content and demeanor. His biggest problem these days is the radical turn his content and demeanor has taken. The fans drowning in cope are a almost a sideshow to laugh at.
Does he like it? No. Will he tell people to stop? No. He still has lolbertarian takes underneath the libertine presentation that have not been undermined so far.
Yeah, what I'm observing is that he's bitching at Elissa (which is kinda cringe), but he IS stopping well short of telling her to stop.
No. He dislikes clips taking him out of context. Which he always has.
Yeah, but how is Elissa clipping in a way that provides inadequate context?
He's absolutely 100% within his right to make that argument, but does it prevail?
Him repeatedly drunkenly raving about how great a movie American Beauty is should've probably been the clearest warning sign.
I actually liked
American Beauty, but I'll be the first to admit absolutely
NOBODY should emulate the way Kevin Spacey's character acted in that. I saw the movie as a cautionary tale. It depicts a suburban middle aged man going through an unarrested mid-life crisis, and how it leads to his downfall.
I'm sure that's not the way the hoity toity professional lefty critics saw it, and I'm interpreting it "wrong," but IDGAF.
Movie spoiler:
May Nick's mid-life crisis NOT end with a closeted homosexual Marine Colonel shooting him in the head.