Category: Cyberbullying

DEVICES USED TO CREATE SEPARATION BETWEEN A CHARACTER’S PHYSICAL AND PERCEIVED PRESENCE

draft…not completed

Most people lead normal enough lives that they enjoy a good scare once in a while.  The toughest decisions are which to choose, a suspenseful book or scary movie.  Who done it and why.  When the monsters come out the stalker chooses their weapon or the nightmare penetrates the calmness, the show begins.   Terror begins to sketch out its shape.  No problem, most normal people choose to watch, and a huge money machine supports fear generation.  The viewer can always click to another channel, or get up for a snack.  The spell is broken. 

 But what if the individual couldn’t stop the show.  What if the terror keeps coming on, slowing creeping into every corner of living days.  A year or so ago, I was watching late night television.  I remembered an old Halloween KIT Vincent Price used to promote.  It allowed children to carve apples, dress them with fake hair and apparel and bake them in the oven.  Shrunken Heads for a scary season.  Tick, Tick, Tick, DING… it was just that easy.

Modern stalkers have arrays of magical jars of clay to shape and extrude from.  They just don’t create fear with their scary ‘dolls.’  The voodoo slight-of-hand steals small bits of the victim’s essence and enchants new zombified identities to multiply the depth and breadth of illusion.  As individuals proceed with daily life, jobs, family, activities, they feel slowly drained.  The real fear of this horror is unexplained loss of control of the small things.  The world still spins and cycles.  Days continually progress.  But in the recesses of the victim’s mind, a small fear takes shape until it overtakes the happy sequences.  This show won’t be made for T.V. and it doesn’t end in a two-hour format. 

When the attacks penetrate a victim’s physical and living ‘walls,’ feelings composed of exposure and alienation are generated.  “Exposure” feels like ‘the whole world is watching me,’ and “alienation” feels like ‘no one cares.’  Silent screams vibrate from the victim, but the walk of real life trudges on.  Exhaustion is no reason to stop the show,  life takes patience.  Attackers repeatedly proceed until the victim gives up, loses their identity or submits to the given terms.  Some move away or ‘transfer’ to a different life.  A few disappear or commit suicide.  ‘Just sit down at the desk and write that note,’ the “voice” silently whispers.

Wikipedia defines CYBERBULLYING as “communications that seek to intimidate, control, manipulate, put down, falsely discredit or humiliate the recipient.”  [Wikipedia, English, Cyberbullying]  Victims are most often described as exceptional people.  They often exhibit qualities of competence, CREATIVITY, and integrity.  Victims are often very intelligent and dedicated people.  This inspires jealousy in attackers, who wish to gain an advantage over or actually taking their place.  Sometimes attackers steal their work or credentials, leaving victims dumbfounded and penniless.  This extended type of bullying, stalking and DAMNATIO MEMORIAE, or the cancellation of every aspect of a person’s life, CAN occur to children as well as adults. 

The ACLU and other parent / teacher organizations have started to take notice of the damage this bullying, Cyberbullying and Cyberstalking is causing.  Customized programs for young adults can report bullying by using web apps such as BOB. This stands for ‘Back Off Bully,’ and if the attacks are warranted, networks are in place for follow-up.  Unfortunately, adults have to use a higher standard of proof.  The FBI has developed the IC3 program, Change.org has created anti-harassment petitions, and web sites allowing personal comments have been initiated to learn from ‘victim wisdom.’  Other services such as ‘Life-Lock’ and ‘Reputation.com’ protect physical and online pieces of presence, but attackers use more advanced and saturating techniques.  For example, Character Assassination can occur through implicit or explicit permissions.  Wikipedia has warned about this type of structured character destruction by explaining “the mobilization toward ruining the reputation of adversaries [is] the prelude to the mobilization of violence in order to annihilate them.”  In other words, patience and turning the other cheek in these matters has always ended in physical assault of the victims. [Wikipedia, English, character assassination]  Apparently, Wikipedia and its authors have seen this movie before.

CHARACTER ASSASSINATION is defined as a deliberate and sustained process that aims to destroy a person’s reputation and credibility.  Topic incarnate might manifest itself as receiving a phone call immediately preceding a court hearing.  When the news on the phone is worse than the meeting with the judge, a line is crossed.  This is a form of Electronic Harassment that gives new meaning to ‘you have the right to remain silent.’  Officially done to remove a part of someone’s physical appearance.  Unofficially activities such as these might be interpreted as take a fall on this one, because the next attack will be worse.  Character Assassins blend different types of methods ranging from raising false accusations, planting and fostering rumors and manipulating information. [Wikipedia]

GAS LIGHTING.  Originates from the 1938 American Release Play Angel Street (Gaslight).  In this one, Ingrid Bergman’s husband deliberately manipulates small elements their shared living environment.  He proceeded to insist to her and her friends that she is mistaken or mis-remembering details.  The husband searches for Treasure in their house, and when using the attic’s gas lights, causes the house lights to dim simultaneously.  When Bergman accurately notices, her husband continually denies her observations.  This has the effect of causing the victim to doubt his or her memory.  It can involve higher levels of organization.  For example, if a police officer issues an ‘incorrectly written summons’ of manslaughter [murder], the victim may be forced to accept lesser charges.  When multiple steps in the enforcement chain conspire to work together, details become impossible to verify. [parallel construction]  Family and Friends may be led to believe that victim is disoriented.  When the victim is unable to prove the bizarre events by the abuser(s) are incorrect (perhaps the lawyers are in on the show), the falsely accused victim has been ‘Gas Lighted.’  This plot may also occur between parent-children relationships.  Lying and deliberate false hoods undermine perceptions.  Calef and Weinshel described in their article “Some Clinical Consequences of Introjection:  Gaslighting” that this technique involves the projection and interjection of psychic conflicts from the perpetrator to the victim. [Wikipedia, English Gaslighting]

Scary Movie??? As in many cases of life, the ability to resist the scam depends on the victim’s ability to TRUST THEIR OWN JUDGEMENTS.  If you see something, say something, try to get other’s to view the story through your eyes, and most importantly, follow your instincts.  Do your best to correct and validate the facts where able, avoid extraneous conflicts and seize the moments when able.

Like all of the greatest scary movies, the victim tries and tries to elude his attacker(s).  Turning corner after corner in rapid succession; where is the next safest spot?  Unfortunately, like a masterful script writer, the attacker seems to have all of a victim’s life mapped out.  Next example of creating detachment for a victim from their life is at their workplace. 

MOBBING at a person’s job, as described by Wikipedia, occurs where poorly organized production and working methods exist.  Inattentive and participative managements allow a type of emotional assault to occur to the victim whereby they become the victim of harmful or disrespectful behavior.  When correct actions are mismarked, activities continue to single out the victim as non-compliant when clearly, best practices are being performed.  Mobbing is executed by a leader whose actions draw in others to ‘gang up’ on the victim.  In the 1980s, a professor named Heinz Leymann noted that one of the possible side effects of ‘mobbing at the workplace’ is post-traumatic stress disorder.  Somatic Symptoms and psychological trauma have also been noted.  It is very depressing for the victim to have to return day after day to this place of hopelessness, unable to reach out to anyone.  Gossip, rumor and unfounded accusations eventually force the victim to leave.  Mobbing has also been described to exist in schools, academia and during the peer review process.  Ultimately, attacks by one or a few bullies are led by people who have gained positions of power.  This type of horrifying character enjoys abusing their gained power to attack and harm the vulnerable.

People should respect their jobs and their bosses.  But when a correctly diagnosed victim wakes up identifying the specific type of attacking person(s), work is a scary place to spend your day.  Some people are stronger than others.  Some are able to look forward to other things in their lives to block out what is being done. Victims might frequently ask themselves ‘no money could be worth this treatment because this is so far away from the job description.’  INTERFAITH WORKERS JUSTICE is one agency that understands these types of complaints and provides outlets for grievance mediation.  Author Kim Bobo, writer of Wage Theft in America, started this initiative to supplement and enrich existing workplace organizations including the DOL.  Don’t wait until it is too late.  Document your feelings and actions, at least through the lens of a personal journal.  The victim’s voice and words are the greatest protection and ally.  Victim’s need to be their own defender and they should follow the safest mechanisms available.

As the drama unfolds, the targeted individual becomes increasingly confused, disoriented, self-doubting and spiritually weak.  Friends and family may begin to question an individual’s behavior.  The main objective of a CYBERSTALKER is to inflict harm, debilitation and repeated dissociation from areas of strength or solitude.  The reach of the attacker(s) are extended by leveraging electronic and communications methods to create the feeling of ‘heavy breathing on back of the neck.’  These activities at a distance act like a cloak of invisibility, increasing the fear factor, and the difficulty in pinpointing the offending parties.  Multiple people often work together in this electric harassment.  Experts have named this hostility a ‘digital pile on.’  Imagine having an unseen thumb pushing you down every time you try to look up for information.  Internet services, mobile technologies, web pages, discussion groups, instant messaging and SMS all are used.  So whether one person is using multiple entry points or multiple people exploiting one or a few, the harm and hostility is VERY difficult to stop.  A victim getting attacked while conducting daily business is especially bewildering because we as global people sign in with these tools every day.  This basically forces you not to do human activities, so virtual death occurs by getting ‘blocked in’ because of self-paralysis. 

It doesn’t have to be this way.  These attacks are vicious and unrelenting.  It IS difficult to educate authorities and close relations.  Get over the fact that people want to write you off as useless or depressed.  Be your own best friend, and trust your own judgment.  Patiently document everything with multiple sources.   Protect your identity and possessions the best you can.  First question is how hard will you work to hold on to your ideas, values, sanity, and possessions.  I look at these abuses like this;  although videotaping or recording the attack in progress is the best evidence, we do live in a more educated society.  Try your best to be clear and calm.  Fifty or more years ago these types of attacks would be near impossible to prove.  Just ask Ingrid Bergman.  Stay on top of things, and don’t do anything injudicious.

The spelling of Cyberbullying, Cyberstalking and Gang Stalking may appear the same.  Each word even sounds the same.  An example of Gang Stalking would be if you were walking in a parking lot, and an unknown person approached but maintained distance outside your safety zone, say ten or fifteen feet away.  Using their smart phone and social media, some entity at another location would send messages to be read or acted upon, directly relating your personal information.  They make ‘speak to the air’ facts that only you would know, facts that could create and emotional reaction in your brain.  What would you do, fight or flight?  One way or another, your sense of reality has been affected.  At the top of the pyramid, the attacker is usually represented or is the actual information provider, affiliate, or information supplier of a competitor or a competitor itself.  Another example of Gang Stalking would be constant pacing outside your open window, employing the same tactics.  “We’re going to break into your house, steal your mail, hurt your pets,” or use any other personal information against you to get a reaction. 

Cyberbullying employs the same tactics, but uses the devices to create direct or indirect electronic activity.  Threatening emails, texts or internet attacks are all used during Cyberbullying campaigns.  Suicides have occurred through this behavior, most notably Ryan Halligan and Megan Meier.  Victims have many other reactions including reduction of self-esteem, retaliating or acting out, and being scared, frustrated, angry and depressed.  The victims that mange to live with this stress have shown retreat from their friends and activities.  This adds to loss of control and increased exposure to attacks due to the loss of support networks.  Cyberbullying attacks are also aimed at victim’s earnings, employment, reputation, safety and intellectual property.  As the victim gets older in age, courts change the label to Cyberstalking.  And all mentioned techniques CAN be brought closer to the victim by broadcast via speakers or vibratory impulses through tooth or medical device implants.  This is called Electronic Harassment, and skull to ear messaging.

Cyberstalking encompasses the above tactics, with the additions of monitoring, identity theft, damage to data or equipment, or gathering information for solicitation of minors for sex or in order to harass.  A repeated pattern[s] of this behavior to a target by an adult, both in an on-line and off-line environment, is recognized as Cyberstalking.  CYBERSTALKING is a sub-form of CYBERBULLYING.  Teams of attackers can form together united in purpose, for money or social activities, or simply because it has been successfully carried out against them, and they gave up the keys of hope. 

The constant monitoring is a particularly vicious attack.  For example, after immediately building a computer, an electrical spike is sent which destroys your new computer.  After the rebuild, the same happens again.  Back to the store, more parts, more labor, and as soon as you get online, the electrical spike occurs again.  Same procedure can be used with the television.  Best remedy here is to use surge protectors and Uninterruptible Power Supplies.  Another example is each time you change your password; an attacker seems to break back in.  Keyloggers and activity replay schemes make all online activity exposed to cyberstalkers.  Some attackers place a victim in a state of fear by copying public pictures that are provocative, pretending to be old yearbook buddies [catfishing] or the tried and true phone pranking. [phreaking].  They may be forced into a situation to protect a worse one in the future, or to insulate something from their past.  Of course, all future activity will be recorded as well.  Motives often include romantic, business conflict, intellectual disagreement, personal dislike or extortion.  Targets often exemplify qualities that the stalker admires but finds personally lacking, and is unwilling to develop in their own persona.  Apparently these activities are fun for some people, but let it be known that all of this is illegal and attackers ARE put in jail.  Imagine getting your Federal Freedom of Information Act returned clean, and your request for harassment records denied by the State of Residence.  The best overall policy is to keep yourself as private as possible and trust your own judgment.  An elder once told me, ‘if you steal, things will be stolen from you.’  Cyberstalkers will stalk stalkers when easier targets are unavailable, or to obtain more challenging prey.

 After all the popcorn and ju-ju bees are eaten, and the soda is almost finished, the twist of fate ending hits you.  What if you stalker lives next door, or can impersonate your physical past life by using a critical piece of your identification.  It is a small piece of non-laminated paper that all databases use.  You may have moved sometime during your life, but often a fact of your first or previous residence exists as a ghost in the machine.  Many philosophers have opined that a photograph traps a bit of one’s soul.  Your original social security card often shows the first location where your number was applied for.  Or perhaps you changed your address on the card once for college, but not the house you share with your spouse.  Your SSN in its paper form is ALSO a valid data record, because your SSN number is correct.  So even though you may have moved away and correctly registered your updates, the old address is tied to a valid number.  The type inked paper form is also kept as a record.  And in your absence, someone might use that old record to create a new invisible profile.  As long as they don’t get caught by someone who remembers you, it can create a tangent path to start a new background.  Unfortunately, crimes and deeds that this invisible person commits are tied to your valid profile.  Best bet is to finish the movie.  Ask questions and pay attention to all the sub-plots.  Life can be a scary place, but by using logic and determination, it doesn’t have to be a nightmare.