Introduction and Motivation
We’re like any family. All fucked up. And beautiful. Most of it doesn’t need to be documented, recorded for posterity. But this one does. This was supposed to be a project that I worked on with my mom. She died before we got around to it. So I do this as a unfinished business, an homage, a story she wanted told.
The subject of this exercise, my cousin, will, I suspect, call me “obsessed” with him. I’m not. I don’t have, nor do I want, any contact with him. Rather, this project comes more as a seance of my dispassionate, failed journalism student. It’s a casual study in how the internet can be used in bad, mean ways. It’s an exploration that I was pulled into–probably by the same parts of the nervous system that slow me down near car collisions. The more I was exposed to and read the public posts, the more fascinated I became. The truth is, this exercise will likely interest no one, save a few of the folks who are mentioned by name. I hope, though, for the few folks who might read it, that they can learn something. For example, that cruelty is ugly. Or, be careful who you allow into your life. Or, always vet your business associates. Or, that sites like ripoffreport.com should have a grievance process.
What can I say? Some people do podcasts … I just want to build out a site.
Where it started for me
One day, four years ago