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)]

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.