Writer Leo Guinan went viral after sharing a
personal, anti-Trump anecdote Friday on Medium, revealing that he told his mother and father that they would have to choose between having a Trump 2020 sign in their front yard and seeing their son and grandchildren.

Guinan received heavy pushback over the piece, and, admitting that he made a mistake, published a follow-up entry Monday revealing that
he was sorry for what he told his family.

What did he say in the original post?

The original article, titled, “Today I Gave My Dad A Choice: Trump or His Grandkids and His Son,” Guinan revealed that his father had the audacity to place a pro-Trump sign in his front yard.

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Guinan was apparently so upset and offended that he told his father that he would not be visiting with his children until he removed the offending sign from the property.

Guinan, who said he was “really pissed” over the move, said he sent his father and mother a text message.

“Hands shaking, tears in eyes. This is what it said,” he wrote. “Due to the signs in the yard, the kids and I will not be down. The current occupant of the White House is preaching hate and violence, endangering the lives and safety of many of my friends. This is not acceptable to me at all. There is a complete disregard for women, minorities, science, ethics, and morality. Please consider if you support Trump that much. Because I hate him that much. I wanted to be upfront and honest about my feelings.”

Guinan said that he felt empowered after he pulled the trigger on the message and felt secure in his anti-Trump convictions.

“At this point, it is not acceptable to me,” he wrote. “You can vote for whom you wish. But I can choose who I surround myself with. I love my dad, but I can’t be around him until he understands how vital I believe this election to be and what is truly at stake. It is not easy. But it was necessary. ”

What did he say in his follow-up post?

Just days later, Guinan admitted that he might have acted irrationally in trying to hold his family hostage over their political differences.

In a follow-up post titled, “How To Fail At Everything,” Guinan said he wanted to “go viral” his apology to his father.

“I took an emotional moment in my life and framed it in a specific way because I wanted to trigger a response,” he wrote.

And he did. He said he received “mostly negative” responses, which he admitted was unsurprising.

“I was trying to prevent others from being manipulated by manipulating them,” he reasoned. “And I was doing this because I had the ability to, through social networks. And I let that go to my head. I am sorry to everyone who experienced that. It made me truly realize the incredibly destructive power that social media can provide.”

Guinan added that the posting “sucked me into doing the very same behaviors I thought I was fighting.”

“I apologized to my dad in person,” he revealed. “I screwed up with him, and I owned that. I am OK with making mistakes because that is the best way to learn. But my dad did teach me growing up that it is better to own your mistakes and make them right.”

“I screwed up by trying to influence others through social media,” Guinan continued. “[I’m] sorry that I influenced your thoughts and actions via social media. … [I] deleted all of my social media accounts. There were toxic to my life.”

Guinan continued, insisting that social media is toxic, and encouraged his followers to examine their online lives.

“[Social media] came very close to ruining my life,” he admitted. “I refuse to let it do that.”

At the time of this reporting, it does appear that
Guinan’s Twitter account has been deactivated.