Yesterday boutique music manufacturer Synthrotek decided to go out in a blaze of glory by doubling-down on wildly inappropriate social media posts. Steve Harmon, founder of Synthrotek, posted a baffling picture of Harvey Weinstein on Instagram. The accused sexual harasser, and confirmed creep, was pictured with the caption: "BUY MORE SYNTHS"
The crass non sequitur would probably have gone unnoticed by all. But when Steve was challenged on the merits of this marketing gimmick he decided to double-down on Facebook... and then triple-down. Before eventually melting down on Reddit.
Steve continued to post throughout social media; vacillating between aggressive ad hominem attacks, and defensive assertions that he was being ironic. Even under the most permissive definition of the word, it seems impossible to apply irony to this situation. He went on to claim that his pictures were somehow attacking sexism and the objectification of women, while simultaneously challenging consumerism. Several observers of this behavior, and its asinine justification, opined that we could be witnessing some form of manic mental illness.
As the day wore on his communications became increasingly erratic. Many of his comments on Reddit, and the original offending image on Instagram, were deleted or edited. Some of the remaining comments reference a spiritual being named Jesus, of presumed Mexican heritage, which he claims will forgive him.
Further revelations on Reddit appeared from a former employee. The employee had specific grievances with Steve's spiritual preoccupation in the workplace, and revelations of a criminal side-business selling "pirate merchandise" on eBay. In all of the comments from Steve, he did not seem dispute the charge. (Update: It turns out the pirate merchandise is literally a website for pirate themed clothing of the same name. Thanks to a comment here for pointing that out.)
To get a sense of the man we can look once again to Instagram where he posted a non-apology. No matter how you feel about using images of alleged sexual harassers in lazy memes, an issue that seems surprisingly controversial, I think everyone who watches this will agree that at the very least... this guy is an asshole.