PBrunsel was a pretty generic teenage blue avatar from Iowa with a bunch of policy positions that were about what you'd expect from a evangelical upbrought teenage socon (at least by the standards of the time, the simple fact that he opposed same-sex marriage would have him labeled a reactionary or troll today, and come to think of it it's been quite awhile since we had a poster who promoted things like young Earth creationism or hardline abstinence only education), but was not aggressive about it in the slightest, and thus developed a large friend circle on both sides of the political spectrum, and was most identifiable by a pretty odd obsession with Herbert Hoover, maybe at least partially attributable to him living pretty close to the small town in Iowa Hoover was born in and where his presidential library is. He was like most posters of the sort known most for his timelines and Atlasia activity.
A couple years after he established himself his brother Karl made an account but didn't post much, and his few posts were mostly apolitical and about things like his pet turtle. And then later another "brother" of his started posting, a supposedly older one who went by the name Hawkeye and posted incredibly bigoted screeds in a much more aggressive way, attacking groups like immigrants, homosexuals, people on welfare, Muslims and a healthy dose of anti-Semitism to boot. Hawkeye was such a blatant caricature that many posters (including myself) couldn't take him seriously and concluded that he was a troll persona, but many believed that he was due to PBrunsel's insistence he was real and his actual brother. He never joined in on Hawkeye's trolling sprees or even defended him, but always insisted he was his actual brother and his background story (that he was a high school gym teacher living at home with the Brunsel family) was accurate as well. Hawkeye did have a few hiatuses, one where I recall PBrunsel stating he quit posting simply because he asked him to.
One day a Hawkeye thread was going as normal until the account Karl, his younger brother posted a reply in Hawkeye's style. It was quickly deleted, but not until several posters has noticed and screenshotted it. After this was exposed "Hawkeye" posted an apology stating that he was not very political and just used the forum as a way to blow off steam and he apologized to anyone hurt by his hateful screeds, and then proceeded to delete all his posts, as did the Karl post. I vaguely recall something about a blog that obviously posted by whoever was behind the Hawkeye account but even more vicious and bigoted being uncovered, but then it too was deleted.
However PBrunsel insisted that he had two brothers and that Hawkeye was real and that he was simply doing this story because he didn't want it to reflect poorly on PBrunsel. At that point most of the forum turned on him and many accused him of actually making up both the Karl and Hawkeye accounts and that he was behind Hawkeye himself.
Surprisingly PBrunsel didn't immediately vanish after this, at least not permanently, though he greatly slowed posting and mostly ceased participating in the greater forum community and just stuck to his timelines and Atlasia activity. His activity eventually faded entirely to nothing of course and his reputation as a very friendly and kind guy was basically destroyed so it's not surprisingly he no longer had a desire to stick around longterm. So we never exactly found out if any of PBrunsel's brothers were real or if he was behind the whole thing, personally I've long held to that Karl was in fact his actual brother (his earlier posts were too mundane for someone to create a sock to post), and Karl was behind the Hawkeye persona but that was obviously fake. The more relevant and somewhat disturbing question is if "Hawkeye" came out of simple boredom and a desire for attention like traditional trolls or if he was in fact some sort of emotional outlet for much nastier things below the surface...I will say that whoever was behind that account definitely should seek help regardless, most normal adjusted people would have a very difficult time writing the sort of things posted by it even if they were "joking" or not serious and just trolling around. So one of the other notable bizarre incidents in Atlas history.
Its time to think reasonably now, emotions aside.
These men chose to be uneducated in a capitalist society. It is basicaly their own fault they died. They at least had the brains to get a good paying job with their lack of job skills but they had to take the risks that go with these uneducated jobs.
Hawkeye would have a red avatar these days.
