Scotty would not approve

[lliira]

I'm fascinated by cults, cultish groups, and con artists. This means that, of course, I am fascinated by the saga of Andy Blake aka andythanfiction aka Jordan Wood aka Victoria Bitter aka Amy Player aka VoyagerBabe (I'm sure I'm missing a few akas). There's something I don't see talked about a lot when it comes to people like this: they tell transparent and simple lies.

I'm not talking about channeling hobbits or any other involved, supernatural beliefs. Those are complex stories and they aren't unleashed on victims until later in the game. I'm talking about lies about factual things which a person with their experiences would know were lies. For instance, Andy Blake was a massive Star Trek fan, and he told a "touching" story to one of his marks about how he saw James Doohan at a convention just before the actor died in 1990, when Andy was "6 or 7".

James Doohan died in 2005. This isn't a little slip. I'm not as big a Trek fan as Blake was and have never been involved in the fandom, and while I didn't know the year in which Doohan died, I certainly knew he was alive for all the Trek movies which featured any members of the original cast, and that he was in a late-season TNG episode which took place after 1990. I didn't remember the exact years off the top of my head, but I'm also not the HUGE Trek fan that Andy Blake was. (Nor did I get praise for writing a script for DS9 before DS9 actually existed like he says he did, but I digress.)

Andy Blake knew he was lying about that, but why would he lie? While Doohan's supposed death adds a little emotional sting to the story, it's not important to the story, and it seems the consequences to that lie would be greater than the benefits. To many people on the outside, it's obvious that he lied to test his mark's gullibility. If the mark buys something like this, that's a sign to the liar that they may make a good victim. Someone who would do the 10-second Google search to verify Blake's story would likely be much more difficult to abuse.

This is not a one-time simple test, though. The mark is going to learn that Blake lied, and Blake knows it. The real test is whether she will defend him even after finding out he lied. Will she claim that he was merely mistaken? It's not only a test for her, though. It's also a test for other followers. And one of them passed with flying colors. 

Not only has ceirdwenfc bought into Andy's lie, but she also ups the ante. I don't think all the ideas there are hers; I think Andy led her to them. (WindowsXP was the first Windows for home use? You couldn't buy a computer at a store in 1994?!) With this, ceirdwenfc's proven that she will throw herself into controversy for him in a manner which makes her look ridiculous. Now people are upset with -- or at least exasperated by -- ceirdwenfc too. GOAL! It's Andy and his circle against the cold, harsh world. Plus, I bet ceirdwenfc feels pretty stupid about her claims after all these people told her how ignorant and foolish they were. There is no question in my mind that Andy Blake loves making his supporters/victims feel like shit for itself, but that it's also a tool of manipulation. It's a lot easier to manipulate someone who's embarrassed and ashamed than someone who isn't.

Andy Blake didn't expect anyone but his victims to believe the lie or even to believe he was mistaken rather than lying. That's never the point of this kind of lie for people like him. I think there's even an element of pleasure in the fact that we see through him; he's like a toddler who runs around yelling a naughty word because he enjoys the negative reaction. But the main points are to test for new marks, abuse the loyalty of his old marks, and to shore up his "us vs. the world" mythology.

And finally: if anyone tries to tell you that we walked around in some kind of information-less fog before widespread internet use like Andy claims his dad did, do not trust them. This is not the first time I've seen someone who is trying to get away with something pull this.

Comments

[quirkytizzy]

Waaait. So people in fandom tell outright lies like that, about the most easily disprovable things, and if caught they claim it was a test of TWUEEEE fandom? Cuz that's stupid, yeah, but also sincerely creepy.

[beroli]

I think it's more a matter of, if he'd been caught, he'd have said something along the lines of, "Oh, oops, I don't know what I was thinking"--and mentally marked down "this is not an ideal person to con." When the person he was conning either didn't bother to verify what he was claiming, or insisted that a minor difference of fifteen years must have been a sincere misunderstanding instead of a deliberate lie, then he knew he'd hooked a new victim.

[lliira]

Yes, this.

[redsixwing]

...certainly everyone before the internet had to just learn things by word of mouth, because we had to invent writing so we could have computers that used it.

What in the actual hell.

Sounds like this person is walking around in an informationless fog ON the internet.

[guardians_song]

Ah, so you follow that entire trainwreck, too? Have you seen this Google document keeping track of all related material?

[lliira]

Yes I have! I also learned last night that the person who bought the "Scotty died in 1990" lie without blinking is a fandom_wank regular. Which... HOW.

(Btw, your analysis of the Amy Player "apology" is awesome.)

[elisetales]

I think there's even an element of pleasure in the fact that we see through him; he's like a toddler who runs around yelling a naughty word because he enjoys the negative reaction.

I believe this, too. I'm convinced the negative attention surrounding him and his increased visibility due to all the warning blogs actually provides him with narcissistic supply. He gets off on the hoopla. It's difficult because on the one hand, having people talking about him, focusing on him, is exactly what he wants and it's still FEEDING him (even as it's hard to look away as becomes more and more outrageous); but on the other it's important those blogs are out there in order to warn people and prevent them falling into his trap. Ugh.

I also agree his pathetic and easily disprovable lies are told to find potential marks, but they're also to taunt his victims and detractors. Andy really does love hiding in plain sight, and the more I see him make convenient Tumblr posts addressing criticisms he apparently doesn't read (like reblogging excerpts of Why Does He Do that, like fuck off, Andy), the more I believe that. What a POS.

[lliira]

Oh yeah, he definitely taunts his victims and detractors. He and his little "posse" constantly try to draw his former victims back into the argument. I don't know if he realizes how actually pathetic that makes him look. Like, not sympathetic woobie, but cowardly, unimaginative abuser with an empty life. I feel like he knows that's what he is on some level, that he knows he's far worse than the most of the rest of humanity.