Despite claiming to represent more than 40,000 “clients,” Michael “Mikey” Weinstein has apparently been unable to sustain a donor base to the “charity” that funds his paycheck and is the vehicle that allows him to attack military religious freedom.

Weinstein’s public Facebook profile has been hammered in recent days by comments from those who disagree with his attacks on religious liberty and Christianity. A few MRFF acolytes were apparently surprised by the sudden influx of “trolls” and have tried to defend against these criticisms by asking why those critics are bothering to visit a page they don’t like.

It turns out those critics aren’t visiting Weinstein’s page. Mikey Weinstein is paying to visit them.

It seems Mikey Weinstein has been paying Facebook to elevate his diatribes as “sponsored posts” in an effort to reach a greater audience. These “advertisements” are showing up on random people’s Facebook pages, as determined by some secret Facebook algorithm. Weinstein’s paid publicity appears to be backfiring, as he seems to be educating more people about his personal hatred of Christians than he is gathering more donations.

The comments generating the highest number of “likes” are the ones denigrating Weinstein’s bigoted attacks on religious liberty, meaning he’s solidifying his critics, not his allies.

This is an important revelation about Mikey Weinstein. Not just that he’s advertising — Weinstein has long had a problem finding other people who he could use as vehicles for his personal agenda, forcing him to advertise for plaintiffs. Instead, the notable part of Mikey Weinstein’s act of desperation is that this is “publicity” he used to get for free. Weinstein used to appear on television and other venues — including military JAG and professional military schools — and that publicity would increase the traffic to his Facebook page and website.

It seems they’re no longer seeking him out; so Weinstein is looking for them.

Two important things have happened to cause this: The first has been the rise of civil liberties groups defending military religious freedom from Weinstein’s attacks, largely in the form of the Restore Military Religious Freedom coalition. The result has been the US government is less likely now than it has been in the past to so quickly genuflect to Mikey Weinstein’s demands. The perception that Weinstein holds sway over the military has largely faded, in part because a few of the powerful allies who were carrying his water have retired.  In recent months Weinstein has been relegated to cleaning waiting room tables of materials left by patrons.

The second thing that has happened is more people have learned just who Mikey Weinstein really is. It’s more difficult for a major news outlet to bring Weinstein on air when they realize his expressed views on Christians are more extreme than Donald Trump’s alleged views on Muslims, and that were he speaking of Jews instead of Christians, Weinstein would be rightfully labeled anti-Semitic and worse.

Military religious freedom may be losing its greatest critic, as Weinstein is apparently losing his public platform. Mikey Weinstein hasn’t had a major public appearance in quite some time, and he’s now forced to “create” publicity on Facebook.

As one of those newly-educated critics said, if Weinstein’s “content was good” and his cause was just, he wouldn’t need to advertise.

Desperate times…

As an aside, it’s worth noting the type of person Weinstein has defending his cause. Enter Greg Petrequin, a retired Air Force “senior officer” who worked for Weinstein’s cause while he was on active duty, responding to an MRFF critic:

Greg Petrequin Chris, have you ever met Mikey? I’d say no as you are a little b[redacted]. We contacted your Mom and she said that she’d take your internet connection away and not feed hot pockets anymore. She wants you to get a job and quite being such a burden on society. We’re dying laughing! Your mom is so cool and you are such an a[redacted]! Ha Ha!

What was that Weinstein said about “haters”? Hard to believe that was written by a retired Air Force Colonel.  Stay classy, sir.

ADVERTISEMENT

---

---