Caution: autistic attempt at quickly explaining Patrick's psyche ahead.
Pat is a
very insecure man. Above all, that is what defines him.
He grew up an awkward kid and was constantly being despised, mocked, bullied or somehow, looked down on by everyone around him:
- By the other children, who would mock him and bully him (he even claimed he got his arm broken once in a fight)
- By this highschool kids (Pat has mentioned several times how he's now better than the other kids who thought they were better than him then. Also, he has said many times how he despises high-school love, specially between the popular Jocks and Cheerleaders)
- By his teachers (all you need to do is listen to the absolute rage in his voice when Josiah mentioned how his teachers thought he was stupid, in tape 5).
Even the people who liked him made him feel inadequate, and more conscious of his shortcomings. The more obvious is his brother. Despite his Tomlison genes, Kyle was all Pat was not: school athlete, Honor Roll student (with a 3.2-3.5 GPA), went to college (and got a PhD). Heck, he even had a good looking wife (Rona), at a time when Pat was being arrested for threatening his cheating wife!
And it doesn't even stop there:
- Jakob Raven and Vance Raven: Pat's cousin Jake is a Navy Seal Sniper, an actual tough guy, a badass father of three, adored by his military friends and everyone else around him. Vance is another of Pat's cousin: a mechanic, a real motorhead, and a man who mocks Mustangs constantly as being sissy's cars. I believe Pat's attempt at a Tough Guy Persona began somewhat early in life, when his feelings of inadequacy were still blooming, before Jake. But after adulthood, it seems Pat molded that Tough Guy Persona based mostly on the Navy Seal, with a hint of Vance's civilian macho attitude.
The Manly Angry Man Persona serves double duty for Pat: not only it helps him deal with his inadequacies towards his role in society, it helps him cope with his inadequacies towards himself, that is, his homosexuality. I'm not trying to do a whole complex analysis here, but I believe it is obvious to everyone that Pat is gay (or at least, very, VERY effeminate). Sometimes his voice and tone of speaking are borderline mockeries of sassy black women, for fuck's sake.
All these things I've mentioned above are just the tip of the Awkward Iceberg that is Pat's self image and sense of self-worth. Pat lived his entire life circling the drain, desperate for SOME kind of validation... and then, he found the Internet.
A world outside his world, where people believe he is who he says he is, without ever needing to meet the real Pat. Where Angry Pat, Masculine Pat, Intelligent Pat, Heterosexual Pat, Successful Pat and Popular Pat are not concepts that shatter as soon as people listen/look at him, but permanent realities.
Twitter is just The Internet world, but on Overdrive. Here, his popularity is an objective, quantitative reality ("52k people love me, want me! See, I'm no failure!"). Be it Trump or Musk, anyone is fair game if their targeting brings him a legion of sycophantic validation. Yes, it may all be performative, but Goddamnit, if
feels real... and that's all he's ever needed.
Twiiter it's even better than the regular Internet, because if anyone EVER dares to look down on you, you can just block them, and poof!... it's gone; you're safe!
That's why he'll never give up on Twitter, and he'll die before he admits he owns Quasi. His entire perception of self-worth and reality depends on it.