Cass Oakdown/Panopticon Dump Thread

[lb_lee]

Okay, this has happened enough times that I feel like it might prove useful.

Since I finished the Cultiples series, ex-followers of Panopticon's groups have been coming forward to speak to me.  There's been a decent few of them, and I thought it might be best for them to have a centralized place to share their stories, link-dump, and otherwise talk with each other, if they so desire.  Anon comments are turned on, and also screened, so that none will appear unless I specifically say so; if you want your words unscreened, just say so, otherwise they will remain hidden.  I will keep the comments moderated.

Panopticon has my blog staked out, and they may retaliate.  Be aware.

I will also use this as a centralized post to note those folks who have already come forward and stated they're okay with being public:

• Pigeon, Panopticon's former roommate's testimony. (And here's the thread where they said they were okay with it being public.) (EDIT: tumblr purged the post, so here is the archived version.)

Comments

Re: Pigeon

[(Anonymous)]

PS - “one of” the folks is new to me. I was not aware anyone else had contacted him. To be honest, when the article came out as did Cultiples III, their entire group panicked and begged me for advice and weren’t shy about their desire that I foot the bill for legal action. It wouldn’t surprise me if their QPP went off on him as well, though. That person often sent knee-jerk rage messages to anyone the perceived as a threat to whatever-they-say-they-are, including me.

Pidge.

Re: Pigeon

[lb_lee]

Actually, I wasn't certain and couldn't remember whether it was one or many, so I just guessed on the worst plausible case.

their entire group panicked and begged me for advice and weren’t shy about their desire that I foot the bill for legal action.

Yeah, I saw the posts about trying to get me legally silenced. Fortunately, I had prepped for that years prior, and so it wasn't much of a concern. I had already planned to release the entire series for free and let the Internet spiderbots do the legwork; Internet files barely exist, but they never stop barely existing.

Re: Pigeon

[(Anonymous)]

Well again. Thank you for your work. I know it was scary and stressful and difficult and often thankless, but you saved my life and my marriage with it, and I’ll never be able to repay you for that. I wish you everything good, everything you need, and everything you love. I’m going to move on as much as I can, but I’m not afraid to revisit this if doing so down the line would help anyone. These kinds of people deserve no quarter. As much as their escalation has been horrifying, it’s also made it a lot harder for them to keep up their facade. As my father once said, sometimes after a while you just gotta sit back and let people screw themselves over, cause they’re usually way better at it than you.

Pidge.

Re: Pigeon

[(Anonymous)]

LB, just not signed in. Something you said just got my notice...

Namely wait, the ARTICLE freaked them out? It wasn't even about Cultiples! That project doesn't even get alluded to!

...do they seriously not realize that the Cultiples series is NOT my professional life, and that other projects are far more of interest to folks?

I don't know why this boggles me but it kinda does. Most of my colleagues seemed perplexed as to why on Earth I made the series at all!

????

Re: Pigeon

[(Anonymous)]

Anything to do with you freaks them out. I don’t know if it’s half-exaggerated on purpose to make themselves seem like they’re just incapable of functioning like an adult because you published their screen names or what, but they seem to think that if you get any kind of major national platform, you’ll use it to “expose” them and “stalk” them and “target” them, etc. etc. etc. Because, you know, they can’t fathom a universe that doesn’t revolve around them. Everyone is either worshipping them, aiding them, or constantly plotting against them, because no one could possibly not give a shit about them, they’re *Insert Made-Up Title Bestowed By Deity No One Else Can Speak To That Conveniently Has The Same Priorities As Them.*

-P

Re: Pigeon

[lb_lee]

...I guess I shouldn't really be surprised, but man is that depressing.

Especially since they could easily guarantee I will never say another word about them. All it would require is for them to stop creating coercive groups with reality-blurring RP. If they just up and became a goddamned birdwatcher or something, or took up competitive macrame...

*sigh* This is probably crazy, but part of how sad it is is that they're so YOUNG. Draven and Tristan at least, were my age or older; they were at the stages in their life where they were fairly set in their ways. They weren't going to change... but they weren't at an age where you EXPECT anyone to change.

But Panopticon are YOUNG! They should be out... I dunno, discovering themselves, working shitty jobs that pay crappy wages, drinking crappy beer and having silly teenage dramas that are really important but that they get to laugh about later, figuring out what they want to do with their lives, and learning about what makes them happy!

For them to be barely drinking age and have already run like half a dozen different coercive fandom cults? And that they seem so hellbent on continuing? It's just... sad. Like watching someone smash their face into a wall over and over, knowing that the only one who can stop is them, and they're never going to. And there's just this sense of... of WASTE! They didn't have to be this way! They're young enough that they could change, and I know that if they do, it will have nothing to do with me but it still sucks anyway!

I know they would never believe it coming from me, but I don't actually want them to be unhappy! I just want them to stop hurting people and... and get a fucking life that's OUTSIDE fandom as religious experience!

Sorry, I had no business ranting that in your inbox. I'm just... even though they tried to get me stabbed in the face at Flamecon, they still seem to have hurt others and themselves way more than me, like that old story about the scorpion and the frog. And it's not at all satisfying or schadenfreude-y to watch, it's just sad.

I don't like being right. In this case, I so, so badly want to be wrong. And it keeps not happening.