Lornographic Material

Twelve hours ago, I received a warning on Facebook.

"You are my friend. I'm getting attacked everywhere. I thought I would give you a heads up. They are saying they are coming after you too. I'm so sorry."

My first reaction was anger. Of course it was. But it didn't take me long to realize who that anger should be directed toward. You see, the "They" in that warning up there wasn't the STGRB, it was my fellow Booklike community members who felt the need to defend a scorned friend. Did I go after them at first? Nope. I made a public announcement entitled "STGRB, Come at me, bro." Because, in all actuality, they were the instigators of this entire situation. One of their members tiptoed over into Booklikes Land to drop a seed into Shelby's ear (sorry to call you out, but trust me, you're not the only one that's going to be angry with me) that Gavin might be a thief, the most vile kind, too, one that robs from the elderly. Shelby reacted as expected. She flipped out. Not just a minor meltdown, but a full-on nuclear catastrophe. And just like that, the ball started rolling, all because of one comment from someone she didn't even care for. 

Now I'm going to give you a perfectly good reason to hate me. Back to that warning twelve hours ago. I popped over to Goodreads to see what everyone was saying and found several posts about witch hunts. What did I have to lose, really? I was already lumped in with Shelby. Everyone already had it stuck in their minds that I'd called Gavin a thief, as well, so I jumped back to Booklikes and messaged a few people, telling them to keep their distance, that things were about to get ugly. Back to Goodreads I went with the intentions of instigating a fight with Jenny. Needless to say, she took the bait. She responded in much the same way that Shelby did after that STGRB member dropped that seed in her ear. And I responded as Gavin had, by defending my position. I've left a trail of messages with members of Facebook and Booklikes in the hopes to provide you with the evidence to prove that my actions were indeed intentional. I played you, just like the STGRB played Shelby. I honed in on a weakness that you seem to believe is a strength: The good old knee-jerk reaction. You resorted to name-calling, as did Shelby. I remained calm, like Gavin, until the end. I even managed to bring the worst out in the most mild-mannered of Goodreads members (Sarah, that's you, dear) with nothing more than a semi-logical argument, the exact same semi-logic that Gavin used. If I can do it, anyone can. That includes those poor bullied souls over at STGRB. 

As most of you already know, they've been watching the entire time, but that still doesn't make a difference to you, does it? You guys still want to go at each other's throats. (In fact, I just checked now at 7:36 EST and you're still fighting) It's almost as if you want them to be right, that you want to prove their case. Shoving a mirror in your faces was a last resort. I preyed on the fact that you would explode when confronted, and only a handful of you responded amicably. By the time it was all said and done, a great many of the people in the comment section of Jenny's post sounded downright dejected. They all knew something had gone very wrong at some point in time, but most didn't realize the exact moment. That moment was when the STGRB decided to pull a fast one on all of us by dropping a load of gun powder down a loose cannon. They knew how you were going to react just like I knew how Jenny would react to my sarcastic-ass comment. Nobody won here. Not reviewers, not the STGRB, and definitely not society. I risked my writing career to prove such by attacking the very people whose opinions and anonymity I support.

Welp, ladies and gentlemen, that's the buzzer. My time is up. But you better learn to respect each other, because they hate the air you breathe, and nothing gives them more joy than watching the chaos.