[Off-Topic] Net Kook
The Original Irish Bastard
free to skip. It is being posted in the interests of continuity.
Earlier this month, I mentioned a net.kook that had at one point
been a star performer in the carleton.* newsgroup hierarchy, namely Paul
G. Derbyshire. I published some of his quotes (to the delight of some) and
mentioned other documents I knew of but didn't have on me at the time.
To recap, essentially his "raving and drooling" in the Carleton
newsgroups earned him his share of detractors. He started to believe there
was a conspiracy against him, a "Cabal" who was attempting to ruin his
life. He posted an infamous "Cabal FAQ" which resulted in much hilarity
from the supposed Cabal, who had for the most part never met each other.
Note that my personal involvement in what follows is non-existant.
Although I have had an interest in the saga, it is that of a historian
rather than a participant.
The lesson to learn from this? Well, I dunno. Draw your own
conclusions. The theory put forward by Nickolaus Maack (further down)
sounds plausible enough, except that I've *seen* the posts in question (or
at least a good cross-section) and 1) Paul was loony from the get-go, and
2) most of the people accused have not done anything more to Paul than
what happens every day in r.m.p; strong debate sometimes lapsing into
flames.
I guess the bottom line is that Usenet should not be a playground
for the insane.
At any rate, read and enjoy.
------------
FIRST THINGS FIRST:
There is a "Paul Derbyshire FAQ" at www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aa349.
Much of it reads as one long attack on him, but the pieces of
information provided there are generally factual, editorializing aside.
The "Chemistry Lab Incident" is generally held to be factual -- while some
of it may seem incredible ("I am not a human mop"), anyone who has dealt
with someone psychotic can tell you that when someone sees reality
differently...
------------
THE INFAMOUS CABAL FAQ:
This is Paul's "FAQ" on the conspiracy that was after him.
Article 78607 of ncf.general:
Path: freenet-news.carleton.ca!cunews!wabakimi!pderbysh
From: pder...@chat.carleton.ca (Paul Derbyshire)
Newsgroups: carleton.general,ncf.general,ncf.sigs.irc,alt.silly.group.names.d
Subject: The Cabal FAQ
Date: 18 Aug 1996 13:46:04 GMT
Organization: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
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Message-ID: <4v76qs$5...@bertrand.ccs.carleton.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: wabakimi.carleton.ca
NNTP-Posting-User: pderbysh
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Xref: freenet-news.carleton.ca carleton.general:35682 ncf.general:40255 ncf.sigs.irc:10734 alt.silly.group.names.d:2109
The Cabal FAQ:
This FAQ is to bring you information about the Cabal.
1. What is the Cabal?
2. Who are the Cabal?
3. Who are their targets?
4. What do people have to do to become targets?
5. What exactly do they do to their targets?
6. What is the future of the Cabal?
7. What can be done to speed things up?
1. What is the Cabal?
The Cabal is an organisation of thirteen Carleton University students
whose purpose seems to be to select from among the people they meet
certain targets, who are then harassed in a very vicious fashion in all
electronic media. It seems to be an extracurricular activity motivated
by hatred and done as a source of entertainment and as a way for the
cabal members to punish everyone they dislike.
2. Who are the Cabal?
Cabal Membership Sheet, gained by intrepid espionage:
(A friend of mine secretly joined them and then left with inside info)
Jamie LaBrash (Ring leader)
Kia mennie (Second in command)
Enver Pletilic (Security officer in charge of physical action)
Jennifer Coulter (Spy, rachel used to have this job. Searches usenet for a
target's postings and is advance scout of attack force)
Sean Maguire
Erdem Onder
John Edwards
Andrew Metcalfe (Inside man on Carleton U's CHAT admin)
James Carriere
Dave O'neill
Mike Shaver (Another strong-arm man)
Someone I forget, inside man on freenet's administration
M. Vasquez (Strong arm man, computer expert with hacking skills. His job
is to subvert computers, to variously interfere with targets'
accounts and IRC sessions and whatnot, and censor newsgroups.)
These individuals are sometimes seen in various forums appearing to be
harmless.
Do not be fooled. They are merely very good actors. Be wary of all 13 of them;
cross one of them even slightly and all 13 will come down on you very hard.
The cabal attempts to keep its existence secret but only in a halfhearted
way. They purloined a newsgroup called carleton.students.cabal, originally
it had another purpose now long forgotten, and have used it as a forum for
discussion, although their major planning is done by exchanged e-mail. Some
of their intercepted e-mail led to the nearly too late forewarning of their
latest target of a plan to trick the administration into revoking his account.
3. Who are their targets?
List of cabal targets and former targets:
Paul Derbyshire
Patrick Campbell
Michelle Tribe to a small extent
Prism Bostelaar to some extent
Amy Sheen
(unknown guy in New Zealand)
Chad Emmett (?)
Four of them, Paul, patrick, and Chad, plus the New Zealand target, have
been assaulted in the characteristic three stage fashion they use when
they go to all-out war with a target.
Three, Amy, Michelle and Prism, have been sent nasty e-mails and flamed in
newsgroups but have not borne the full brunt of their hatred.
Someone who stumbled on them got this e-mail:
There is no cabal. Forget that you even saw this `sig.' You are
being watched, and all of your online activities are being carefully
monitored. This is a warning.
They have some hacker skills. A major player in the cabal has the ability
to subvert freenet's IRC. His script enables following someone
automagically onto every channel where they go that is not invite only; he
also has a script command to op himself in any channel. They can monitor
things like how much time a user has left in a session, and can delete
files from other users' work directories, and change other users' passwords.
(They used this last on a friend of mine and on Patrick Campbell.)
4. What do people have to do to become targets?
Not much.
Merely disagreeing on a matter of opinion with one of the thirteen, or
having a brief skirmish in a newsgroup, or being perceived as annoying by
them for any reason be it the color of your hair or some way you behave,
may bring them down on you. They are not consistent, as people that cross
them may be given the full treatment, flamed a bit, only receive nasty
e-mails, or be ignored entirely. Why they target some people and not others
is unknown but it is known that they preferentially target people they
don't think will fight back. They also concentrate on one target at a time;
if another person annoys them while they are after a target, the other
person gets only a comparatively mild flaming.
Paul Derbyshire was targeted and given possibly their worst ever attack
for the most interesting of reasons. One of the Cabal approached him one
day on the National Capital Freenet and pretended to befriend him. After a
while she began asking him to do various nasty things to the previous
target, Patrick Campbell. These included spreading rumors about him and
hacking his account.
When Paul refused to have any part in this and began avoiding her, the
Cabal used its characteristic three-stage full frontal assault after a
latency period of less than a week.
Patrick Campbell, Chad Emmett, and the New Zealand guy crossed them in
unknown ways.
Amy Sheen, Michelle tribe, and Prism Bostelaar appeared in newsgroups
publicly defending one of their targets; all three were flamed in e-mail
and two of the three were publicly flamed in newsgroup but did not incur
the full three stage assault thank God.
5. What exactly do they do to their targets?
It is not a pretty sight believe me.
Minor targets, those that annoy them but they don't take a particular
twisted disliking to, receive one or more especially vitriolic e-mails. I
have seen some of these and they are so violently abusive they burn
themselves into monitor phosphor in seconds. Strangely, the Cabal
refrains from making racist or sexist remarks in these messages but this
is perhaps their only virtue.
It is thought that they only harass one or two people at a time. The
assault on Patrick Campbell stopped as soon as they fixated on Paul
Derbyshire. When they were crossed by three later people they decided not
to change targets and gave them only a minor flaming.
The major targets get a characteristic three staged attack aimed at them.
Before this there appears to be a few days latency period, probably while
they use their e-mail network to plan things and fabricate certain
documents that they utilise in Phase One. When they have organised and
synchronised themselves they attack like a precision military unit.
In Phase One the target watches with exquisite dismay as flamewars
bloom abruptly and simultaneously in several of their favorite newsgroups.
First one of the Cabal attacks them viciously in several groups, by making
assorted slanders. Within a few hours or days several others join in. The
newsgroup attack team includes Jamie LaBrash, Kia Mennie, and several others.
The slanders do not include sexual or racial elements, rather they have a
characteristic structure. The flame includes a documentary style
description of a fictitious incident in which the target supposedly did
something embarassing, comitted a crime, or did something else to be
ashamed of. This is delivered in a dry and matter of fact manner. The
libelous posting goes on to list fictitious e-mail addresses of people that
supposedly witnessed the fictitious incident. They also contain URLs of web
resources supposedly documenting the incident in more detail. It is implied
that the Cabal has an army of people that follow a target about with hidden
cameras monitoring them. This despite the fact that the fictitious
incidents are usually said to have happened at a time prior to the cabal
choosing their target!
For a week or two this is what goes on. The target's followup posts
denying the accusations are flamed viciously and followed up by more
invented incident reports in a vicious cycle. People that ask that it be
taken to e-mail, target included, are ignored. The target's mails to the
Cabal members telling them to stop it are ignored, and usually the Cabal
members ensure that it can't be taken to e-mail by telling the target and
the postmaster and sysadmin that the target is not to mail them again. In
preparation for phase three however, one of the Cabal sends mail to a
system postmaster and the target asking the target not to mail again
and saying any more mail is harassment, but arranges for the copy sent to
the target to bounce. This way the postmaster thinks the target is committing
harassment knowingly if further mail is sent but the target is not aware of
this fact. This is the mouth of a very nasty trap.
Although no insults are made to the target's race, sex, or sexuality, the
target's intelligence and mental health are insulted severely. A common
slander is a claim that the target was in a mental home once, or in a
juvie hall or some such.
At the end of phase one, the target's social life begins to suffer as there
are nasty rumors circulating and the like.
Phase Two commences then. In Phase Two some flames are kept up in newsgroups,
but the brunt of the attack shifts to spreading rumors of a vicious sort via
e-mails, IRC channels, and other things the target is not there to see.
Rumor spreading also occurs at outside-the-net gatherings and social functions
where Cabal members attend.
Phase Three follows shortly. Phase Three is most vicious of all. It
consists of a multi pronged attack the purpose of which is to get the
target kicked off of computer systems. The purpose of the first two phases
is to destroy the target socially. The third phase is to get them out of
the Cabal's hair, so that they cannot counterattack, or bring the admin
down on them.
Many methods are employed simultaneously. Cabal members approach the target
at various outside-the-net gatherings, at the target's home, or on IRC and
deliver threats that they have to leave the computer system or they will be
physically assaulted or killed. This is intended to scare the target off the
machine(s). Then they attempt to get the user banned from systems by
tricking the sysadmins with the aforementioned mail harassment trick. The
cabal member that performs the trick starts flaming the user in various
places to incite them to send them mail. Then the Cabal member tells the
admin that it is harassment and tells them to delete the target's account.
Thirdly, they attempt to sabotage the target's account(s) by hacker
methods. One possibly several Cabal members are capable hackers. Attempting
to ban the target from IRC, subverting IRC to ban them from every channel,
and cracking the target's account and changing their password are favorite
tactics of theirs. A cracked account is also used to send mail and do
things in IRC that are not nice, in the hopes that these will be
attributed to the target and cause trouble for him/her. The target is often
shocked to see an e-mail message to a friend, berating or flaming the
friend and ending with his/her own signature!
During phase three, also, the hackers of the Cabal censor some of the
target's postings. Postings they make that attack the Cabal, are in the
Cabal's newsgroup, or are offensive to Cabal member, are deleted somehow
even though nobody but the person who posted is supposed to be able to
delete an article. How they subvert the system is not known but they can
do this on CHAT and in usenet, and possibly on freenet too.
6. What is the future of the Cabal?
The future of the Cabal is very short. Many of its members have lost all
credibility by slipping up in their flaming attacks in Phase One. This is
especially the case when someone tries to track down one of the
"references" they cite to support one of their libelous fictitious accounts
of the target doing something or other socially unacceptable. There is
evidence of internal strife and it is suspected some former members have
been kicked out. Many of them have gotten warnings from the administration
of one or both systems about their activities.
The Ottawa Police are investigating some Cabal members because of Phase One
fictitious accounts of a target's "criminal activity"; the police see these
attacks by the cabal as possible obstruction of justice. It is believed the
administrators of both systems are also keeping tabs on the cabal and
especially their stolen newsgroup. The admin of both systems have reason to
dislike the cabal as being noncontributing members, being harassing, being
a bad example to others and giving the system a bad name. Probably most of
the cabal members will be ejected from the systems instantly as soon as
they cross the line by making a single posting or remark that is especially
obnoxious, racist, or in some way against the law.
7. What can be done to speed things up?
Several things.
1. Avoid the cabal members, all 13 of them. The two former members are
probably
harmless.
2. If you see a flamewar viciously attacking someone who seems to have done
nothing offensive and seems to be defenseless, do two things. One, report
the abuse to the system administration. If enough people bug the admin
about the actions of the same Cabal member that member will get suspended
eventually for his or her actions. Secondly, post in defense of the victim!
You can expect some nasty mail from the cabal members and possibly flames
in a newsgroup or two. Ignore these and do not under any circumstances
talk to or directly refer to the Cabal culprits.
3. If you are a newsgroup moderator and see Cabal activity kick out the Cabal
members.
4. If the Cabal attacks you with their major attack pattern,
* Don't panic;
* Immediately complain to administration about it;
* Rally support from friends;
* DO NOT E-MAIL ANY CABAL MEMBER no matter how politely as they will try
to get you kicked off the system with that harassment trick;
* Follow up their posts only to deny flatly the phony claims they make
of your supposed criminal activities or whatever, and to poke holes
in their credibility. Do not flame them, criticise their members, or
hurl abuse at them, publicly; only calmly refute them and ignore any
abuse they send at you. That way others see that they are flaming and
abusing and being irrational, and that you are not, and they lose
credibility. If you flame them back people see you and the Cabal member
as being equally bad and equally at fault, including friends, and
including system administrators.
Hopefully we shall all see this Cabal dissolved and gone forever inside a
few weeks.
-----------------------------------------
What follows is the (futile) effort of someone to understand Paul,
what makes Paul Paul, and to sympathize with him:
----
I found these bits while poking around on the Freenet. It's kind of like
a time trip back to early 1996, isn't it? Some time ago it crossed over
from being merely boring to being oddly creepy. It's the same old same
old; someone with good intentions and a patient mein trying to talk some
rationality into Paul, and him responding with more nuttiness. I'm
surprised to see that Paul still cares enough about his theories to put
them forth, and that anyone else still cares enough about Paul to attempt
to quell them.
Anyway, I thought I would post it here as a novelty relic.
From: ac...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Nikolaus Maack)
Newsgroups: ncf.general
Subject: Paul Derbyshire's Complaints
Reply-To: ac...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Nikolaus Maack)
Date: Fri Nov 14 16:25:51 1997
[the following is in presponse to a post Paul made in
ncf.board.9697unmoderated....]
Paul,
Please take the time to read this. I'm trying to be as
sincere and as helpful as possible.
>It has become apparent to me tonight that NCF suffers from two serious
>abuse problems. One is IRC eavesdropping.
Your "evidence" that IRC eavesdropping exists is pretty
flimsy. The only proof you have, and it really cannot be
called proof, is that you talked to someone, and then, FOR
WHATEVER REASON, they stopped talking to you. Concluding that
someone, therefore, listened in on your messages to that
person, and warned the people you were talking to off, makes
no sense.
Consider some simpler explanations:
1. You somehow, accidentally, made the people not want to
talk to you. Perhaps, despite the fact that you THINK you
were being a great guy, you said something that either
offended or annoyed them, and they decided, "Forget this, I'm
leaving" or "I'm going to put this guy on ignore.
2. These people you were talking to were talking to OTHER
people on IRC at the same time. They mentioned your name to
someone else, and that OTHER person said, "Paul Derbyshire is
a crazy man." (Whether or not you ARE a crazy man is open to
debate, but I think you might be willing to ackowlege that a
lot of people on freenet question your sanity, whether they
are part of a cabal or not. Allow me to state my opinion that
there IS NO CABAL.)
3. The person who left in mid-conversation did so for a
completely valid reason. Maybe they had to go eat dinner,
maybe a cab arrived to take them to the airport, maybe their
dog was peeing on the carpet. And then they simply didn't
come back, for whatever reason. The person who put you on
ignore: maybe they did that because they were talking to
someone else, and you kept messaging them. Maybe they just
wanted to ignore you. I've been put on ignore plenty of
times, and I've never taken it as personally as you have. I
have never concluded, once I'm being ignored, that SOMEONE
must have gotten to them, to make them not want to talk to me.
I wonder: did you write email to these two people, asking
them why they stopped talking to you? Did you keep writing
them, asking, "What's going on?" Did you perhaps get a little
frantic when they'd simply stopped returning your messages?
All I'm trying to suggest, here, is there are PLENTY of other
SIMPLER explanations for the behavior of these two people,
than the ability to eavesdrop on IRC msgs.
On to the libel:
>The other is the way people can send libelous e-mails or
>messages to NCF users bashing other users and, if the
>recipient buys it hook, line, and sinker, as they often do, it
>can't be traced, or anything done about it, and can only even
>be inferred from the way the recipient acts on the content and
>the resulting negative consequences.
Can't be traced? My post in ncf.general, in which I suggest
you might be a paranoid schizophrenic, is based solely on my
own personal opinion. The Freenet, without the expressing of
personal opinion, would not exist.
Is it libel to suggest that a person, (you), who believes
there is a conspiracy called The Cabal that is following him,
who thinks THEY are tapping his messages, who thinks THEY are
actively trying to ruin his social life, who thinks that for
some reason these people care at all about him more than just
some guy on the 'net... Is it libel to suggest that you are
being paranoid? I think this is a VERY logical conclusion to
reach.
Consider other examples of paranoia: A man believes the CIA
is after him, is planting microphones in his apartment, is
trying to poison his food, etc. A woman believes that there
is a conspiracy to get naked pictures of her, and that she
must keep herself fully clothed at all times, and only change
in completely darkened rooms. A homeless person believes
someone named The Kid is following him from city to city,
spreading lies about him, tormenting him.
What would YOU call the above experiences? Do you think these
people are being paranoid? Is it possible that in these
examples I give, that there is no conspiracy at all? Is it
possible that in your case, there is no conspiracy?
Frankly, Paul, why would anyone care that much, to ruin your
life?
>But, the CRC *could* post "public-service" notices in various appropriate
>forums (ncf.announce, ncf.sigs.irc, and ncf.general come to mind) urging
>people to:
>* Beware of e-mail or messages from other users telling sordid tales or
> generally badmouthing yet a third user, especially someone they just met
> and double-especially someone they just met and never mentioned to anyone.
Paul, this is common sense. You can't LESGISLATE common
sense. You can't even simply say, "Look people, use your
brains. Not everything you hear on IRC or in email is going
to be true." This should be rather obvious to all people.
>* Report anything of the sort to the CRC as libel and abuse of NCF, as
> well as considering every word of it doubtful at best and likely a lie.
Can you imagine how much WORK this would make for the NCF
people? Can you imagine how much libel is on the freenet in
one day? The trouble with the written word on the internet is
that it falls somewhere between spoken word between two
individuals, and between publishing a pamphlet and
distributing it to the entire city of Ottawa, or the world,
for that matter.
Can you seriously expect the NCF to police EVERY message that
gets posted? What you are asking for sounds suspiciously like
a POLICE STATE. Every message will be verified, authenticated
for facts, and only then, allowed on its way. You can't ask
the people of freenet to do this, Paul. It doesn't make sense.
>* After hearing ANYthing about a person in any forum, never take it at
> face value, but if it is someone they are acquainted with, get to know
> them and see if it is true or not. (Probably, not.) And judge someone by
> who they are, and what their actions and words are, and not what someone
> says about them.
Paul, this too, is common sense. Again, you can't legislate
it, you can't really encourage it in people, you can't even
enforce it. What a person BELIEVES is their own business, and
you can't go around posting messages saying, "Look, some of
this stuff might be crap, so DON'T BELIEVE IT." Is that going
to shape the opinions of people? Is that going to change
ANYTHING at all? No. People will still either believe or not
believe, whatever they read. You can't make them act any
differently.
For example, why am I spending all this time sending you this
lengthy message? Chances are pretty good that you won't hear
a damn word of what I'm saying. I can't make you believe, as
I believe, that there is no cabal. There is no conspiracy.
Kia Mennie (or whoever you think is in charge this week) has
better things to do with her life. I understand that she's
engaged to be married, or some damn thing. She's got more
important things to think about than YOUR sex life, your
social life, or you at all.
Is it possible that you like to think there is a Cabal
affecting your life, because it makes you seem important?
Imagine, an entire conspiracy completely focussed on affecting
you, Paul Derbyshire. But why you? There's millions of
people in Canada. In the city of Ottawa, there are hundreds
of thousands of people. Why would anyone specifically single
YOU out for such action? You're just some Carleton student.
Why would people want to pick on you?
To truly hate a person, it takes a lot. Hate doesn't come
easy, on an individual level. You haven't done anything to
any of the suspected members of the Cabal, right? So *WHY*
would they do this to you? Why would they do anything to
you? Isn't it logical to assume that it isn't the people
outside of you that are affecting your life, but your own
perception of reality?
Think about it, Paul. Think about what you are going through,
but critically. Learn to question your own beliefs. What if
you're wrong? What if all this time, you've been chasing and
attacking a ghost, something that doesn't exist, something
that never existed? Something that is only inside your head,
and never outside of you?
Consider then, for a moment, that there is no conspiracy.
Just say, WHAT IF. Now think, you're running around telling
people: THEY are after me. If people are simply assuming
you're bonkers, like say, the people in charge of the NCF
complaints department, they're going to ignore you. Or if
they do anything, it's a small token gesture to satisfy you.
(If you do believe in the conspiracy, you take NCF's actions
as that the NCF is IN on the conspiracy. But if there is no
conspiracy, they're humoring you, or trying to get you to shut
up.)
Now you're going around accusing people of being in the
cabal. People start making jokes about the cabal, they
mention it in ncf.general, they laugh at you. If we say, for
the moment, that there is no conspiracy, you can see that
people would say these jokes because you brought the topic up
in the first place. People are looking at you, and saying,
"Paul's nuts, can you believe the stuff he's saying? Pretty
far out, huh?"
(But if you do believe in the conspiracy, what people say in
public about the cabal is PROOF the cabal exists. See,
they're talking about it! But they're just joking and teasing
you Paul, using the tools you gave them.)
I don't think you are stupid. Your complaint to the NCF was
well written, and thoughtful. But I think it's reasonable to
expect the NCF to ignore you in this matter, because, well...
You've made a lot of complaints about a conspiracy that no one
but you believes in. There is no conspriacy Paul. You've
held this belief for a long, long time. So long, it's
probably hard to let go of it, but at least consider, maybe
it's not real. Maybe there is no cabal. Maybe you're holding
on to a belief that just has no truth outside your own head.
I hope you take the time to read this, Paul.
Nik
From: ac...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Nikolaus Maack)
Newsgroups: ncf.general
Subject: Quotes From Paul
Reply-To: ac...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Nikolaus Maack)
Date: Sun Nov 16 02:10:47 1997
Paul,
If the quotes in my post aren't from you, then you indeed have a problem,
because someone was on your account, sending me messages, and I captured
them to a file. They were using the nick "Twisted", and they wrote me the
messages that I used in my post, as well as writing me other messages I
didn't include. Whoever this person was, they seemed completely capable
of imitating you to a T, which, in my mind, indicates that they either
know you very well, or they have access to someone who has been "coaching"
them in how to behave like "Paul Derbyshire".
When I did a "/whois twisted", it told me that they were Paul Derbyshire.
If it was in fact not you, this means one of two things: either they had
hacked their way into your account, or there's someway to FORGE who you
are on IRC. Perhaps someone should inform the CRC of this security
breach. Imagine, any user, being able to imitate whoever they desired.
It would result in anarchy, and would make policing activity in IRC
completely impossible.
I think Freenet would have no choice but to shut down IRC altogether.
Also, this person, whoever he was, assuming it wasn't you, seemed to know
a GREAT deal about The Cabal. This leads me to conclude that this person,
using the nick Twisted, using YOUR account or disguising themselves to
look that way, was a high-ranking member of the cabal, if not THE
RINGLEADER of the entire Cabal! My God! To think I was in contact with
the person in charge. I wish I'd only known who I was dealing with, so
that I could have at least tried to find out more for you, Paul. So
close, damn it. So very close.
All right, I can't keep this up. I'm kidding. Of course the person I
spoke to was you, Paul. Who else would have access to your account, Paul?
Who else but you, Paul, would accuse me of being a cabalite?
(New Cabal Lite. Now with only half the conspiracy!)
You want an alternative theory to the cabal, how'se this suit you? About
a year ago (or whenever this all started) some stupid first year
university students, along with Kia Mennie, decided to fuck with somebody.
They saw a young man named Paul Derbyshire, and for whatever reason,
decided to completely mess with this guy's head. They actively went out
of their way to ruin this man.
After months of fucking around, Kia got bored, and jumped ship. Some of
the gits found the joke amusing, and kept it up. Only they didn't realize
that the man they were playing with had serious problems, and long after
the stupid teens gave up on their game, the man STILL believed there was a
conspiracy. Even though the joke was over, even though the moronic game
playing had stopped, Paul was utterly convinced that there really was a
conspiracy going on.
And to this very day he believes it, and the shits who did this to you
should be utterly ashamed of what they did.
How does that strike you for a theory, Paul? Does it make sense? Does it
fit the pattern of events? The fact that the newsgroup still exists, (the
cabal newsgroup) has more to do with laziness than anything else. The
reason Carleton U stepped in and put a stop to the whole thing was they
were getting a lot of flack from you, plus they could see the irreparable
damage the game was doing to you. Much to the horror of everyone, the
conspiracy still exists in your mind, long after the joke got tired, long
after everyone stopped playing.
And maybe for the rest of your life you'll be carrying this fear that a
group of carleton students have it in for you. Even after Kia is married
and squirting out a kid once every two years, even after all the former
cabalists have grown up, gotten married, and forgotten the name Paul
Derbyshire, you'll be walking around, constantly looking over your shoulder.
It sucks that people teased the hell out of you Paul, but I think it's
time to recognise that they stopped a long time ago, that the game is
over, and that that's all it was to them, a stupid game. Now forget thos
bastards and put a life together for yourself before it's too late to GET
a life.
Paul, in all sincerity, when I come home from Montreal for Xmas, if you
want to get together for a coffee, I'm quite willing. Heck, my treat,
even though I'm broke. Someone should buy you a coffee at the very least
for all the shit those assholes put you through.
But recognize Paul, that no one is doing anything to you anymore. Now
you're doing it to yourself. Like a dog beaten so many times, you flinch
at any shadow over your head, assuming it's another beating coming.
Well, that was slightly over-dramatic, and I certainly didn't expect to
say all this, but I think maybe it's true. It sounds true. How
interesting that you're half-right, Paul. There was a conspiracy. But I
don't think there is anymore.
Nik
From: ac...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Nikolaus Maack)
Newsgroups: ncf.general
Subject: Quotes I "Made Up"
Reply-To: ac...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Nikolaus Maack)
Date: Sun Nov 16 17:35:38 1997
Paul says:
>You thought around in that twisted brain of yours and invented those
>quotations and entered them into your new news article.
This accusation disturbs me greatly. I took the quotes from exactly what
was typed to me. That Paul is so convinced that this never happened, and
I must have made them up, means that:
1) Paul is simply SAYING they are lies, because he'd rather not deal
with the situation.
OR
2) Paul sincerely has NO MEMORY of having said these things to me.
I suspect number 2, which is somewhat frightening. It means that Paul is
going about, doing things, and then sincerely believing that he never did
the things he did in fact do. If this is, in fact, the case, then it would
explain quite well Paul's readiness to believe in the conspiracy. With a
selective memory, incapable of retaining memories of actual events, Paul
could never be certain of his actual behaviors. He would naturally assume
that he'd behaved correctly.
So, when there's some kind of "fallout" (say, someone on IRC decided to
stop talking to him) Paul concludes that THEY got to them. It couldn't
have been anything Paul said. After all, his MEMORY of the event has him
behave quite well.
Then again, last year or so, I was talking to Paul about the Derbyshire
FAQ that was circulating. In it, there was a physical description of
Paul. I forget what the description said, but it described Paul, I
believ, with estimates of height, weight, hair colour, eye colour, etc.
When Paul told me the Derbyshire FAQ was a "total frabrication", I asked
him about the physical description it gave. Was that accurate? Paul said
no, it too was a lie. Everything in the FAQ was a lie, even the
description of him they gave.
Well, then, I asked, what DO you really look like?
Paul wouldn't tell me. He just kept telling me the FAQ was a complete
lie, entirely untrue, all of it made up, every bit of it.
I think Paul has decided to simply state that every story, every idea,
every MENTION of him is a lie. And yet, he seems so sincere and
guile-less, that I think he actually believes people ARE lying about him.
Paul, as an experiment, I suggest you carry a tape recorder with you. At
various points in your day, tape conversations you have. Later, listen to
them, and see if you have any memory of the conversations you've taped.
Because in my world, you really DID say the things I say you said. WHY,
oh WHY, would I lie about them? What motivation do I have? You yourself
have posted that there were women on irc you were talking to, and they
suddenly started ignoring you. My post, in which I say you talked to me,
accused me of having directly tampered with your conversations, PREDATES
posts you made in which you tell everyone about these events! So either
I'm psychic, and can see into the future, or I'm tapping your phone line
and reading what you write people, OR (here's the most likely one) you
yourself told me about the events.
Which is it, Paul?
(Why do I suspect I'm going to get an answer that just says, "It's all
horseshit! All of it!"?)
Nik
From: ao...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Paul Derbyshire)
Newsgroups: ncf.general
Subject: Re: Quotes I "Made Up"
Reply-To: ao...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Paul Derbyshire)
Date: Mon Nov 17 01:37:48 1997
Nikolaus Maack (ac...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA) writes:
[Goo]
Most of this I will not even dignify with a response. It is a poor debater
that muddies up the issue with a lot of babble and doubletalk. Quit
posting lies, and go find something constructive to do with your time.
And re-*PLONK*
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