Your Stories of Bullying - Cases Nine and Ten

Case Nine

Thanks for having such a wonderful site.  I thought  I was alone in being bullied, or among a small number. 
 
Here's my story.  It was completely on the internet and it's very weird.  If I hadn't lived it, I'm not sure I would believe it.
 
I was in an online group.  I enjoyed it for months, the energy was good, they were knowledgeable and open. Then someone started asking about how experienced we were.  I replied. I was among the youngest, and, to my surprise, among the most experienced. They all started snubbing me. No one would reply to my  questions, my advice was ignored.  I laid low on the group but stayed in. I thought it would blow over.

Then my roommate (I was in college at the time) got mad at me and sent them a weird email.  They were suddenly behind "me" because "I" had asked for big time help. I tried to clear the whole thing up but they had the ammo they needed to get rid of this kid who had more years under her robes than them. They started accusing me of doing spells on the roommate and them, sending viruses, and hacking their email. They said I made the hacked email up just to get "dark magick" spells from
them. They reported me to my university for abusing computer privileges, endangering students and converting people to Satanism. I was also reported to Yahoo for the hacking and viruses. Luckily they didn't have my real name so the investigation at the school ended quickly and I was never questioned. I left the group and had to close the email I used for it because they sent messages threatening to come to my school every day. 

I thank the Goddess every day that I didn't order any books from them like many group members did.  I'm sure it would have been much worse if they could have found me. All this over me being lucky enough to find my path young!

~ Fiona, in California

My Response:

What a bunch of idiots. Some people get really bent out of shape if there is someone present who knows more than they do - because they fear exposure. The fact that you're younger probably just threatened them all the more.
 
I've backed away from e-groups because I find they're infested with know-it-alls and toadies - and I can't be bothered with such nonsense. I'm still on some, but I'm on no-mail and rarely post anything. 

Case Ten

There are some horribly pedantic Pagans out there, attempting to point everyone out as being horribly wrong, save for themselves, and their cronies. I had a bad experience with one person, and she is still harassing me.

Essentially, this woman would seek a debate, purely for the sake of debating. For example, I had posted that silver objects may be used to repel negative energy and be used in magick for protection, due to its similarity to a mirror. Well, she said my belief lacks logic because mirrors are backed with mercury, regardless that the first mirrors were merely highly polished pieces of metal [this is an historic fact]. She refused to concede that I might be correct. Indeed, she generally perceives anyone that points her out as being incorrect, challenging her debate, as automatically her enemy-- and she treated me as such. She said that I had humiliated her amongst her peers, so in her words, "It's your turn to pay!"

Somehow she found out where I lived-- I have no idea how-- and threatened to "out" me to my neighbours, being that I'm gay and was living in red-neck Hell, at the time. She started out with threatening E-Mails, and then hacking into my various on-line accounts-- even impersonating me. However, her ISP supported her, falling back on so-called "freedom of speech" and in order for her ISP to believe that they had hacked into my account, they demanded that I get Yahoo! to send THEM the perps' log info. Well...Yahoo! said that in order for THAT to happen, I'd have to get a court order!

It later escalated. She somehow got my phone number, which was both unlisted, and not even in my name! For a while she and her friends would harass me by phone.

When this died down, she began keeping tabs on everything I'd post in order to re-post it on a Group to which I was not a member, mocking it by soley typing, in the subject-header, "Oh the idiocy!". At one time, she even founded a message board on Yahoo! with the SOLE purpose of mocking me [and it had several members...over 100 when it was still around, though I quickly got it deleted].

Also, she once threatened me, and my Goddess, with hers if I did not "back down" and cease, in her words, "bad mouthing" her with the facts of her horrors. Can you believe that she actually threatened me and my Goddess! And, not one soul stood up to her for her clearly ridiculous behaviour. What the...???

Her bullying continues to this day, unabated. Indeed, when speaking to -- and of -- me she uses such phrases as "supposed knowledge" and implies I might be delusional - all this on public message boards, and yet no one stands up to her. My own theory as to why this is is that some probably don't want to be black balled as a "Fluffy Bunny".

Oddly enough, when it comes to her attention that I am telling others all that she has done to me, she joins only to accuse me of "bad mouthing" her! Since when is relating factual information "bad mouthing" anyone? And, still, her "friends" are quick to jump to her defense, denying anything that they might have done, and claiming that she is the greatest "priestess" they have ever known!

~ Rick, in Vermont