The Usa Kou train wreck

[40cakes]

My two cents.

I'm not denying she's a crazy bitch. Holy cow, is she a nutter. But it certainly seems like she's a halfway smart nutter. After all, she knew to latch onto only those with no spines.

>^..^<

EDIT: For those of you who know not of the craziness yet, here are some links:

A very large post full of details, courtesy of michiru_kou.
A very large post full of pictures with funny captions, courtesy of her girlfriend, haruka_kou.
The post that was the catalyst for me saying something, from a girl who is most likely to be exaggerating here.

Comments

[prettykate.livejournal.com]

WHAAAAAAA?

Thanks for going shopping with me last night!

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

Shopping rules!

>^..^

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Yep. Manipulative, and very smart about it.

[sarahtheboring.livejournal.com]

The moral I get (sorry, I read through a link from LJ): People will do the most ridiculously batshit stupid things so that they can think of themselves as "nice people." Oh no, they can't tell anyone no! Saying no makes them bad people. And they're nice people.

Our culture fetishizes positivity to the point where people will allow themselves to be stomped all to hell because they're afraid of speaking up for themselves. But the poor psychotic widdle thing has nowhere else to goooo! We can't be mean, can we?

She comes off like a sociopath. But I have only a little sympathy for her hosts (in the guest sense, and in the parasitic sense) - because they let it all happen. Yes - they did. I hope they freakin' learned something from it. All that "So-and-so did such-and-such for her all the time, and we really thought stern thoughts in our heads, but she kept asking" passive-aggressive BS did not endear me to their plight one bit.

It's a perfect-storm thing. Perfect fit between doormat and walker-on-doormats.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

In their defense, to a certain extent-- because there were several places where lines got crossed where I can't believe they didn't notice-- I think she started out very sweet and non-demanding, so they didn't realize at first how she was manipulating them. And then they were in the habit of doing stuff for her and buying her things and they lost their perspective on how they were getting walked all over.

The guy who was 'forced' to have sex with her every night did make me giggle though.

[sarahtheboring.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but the point where you make 7-hour car rides for no good reason? Nobody stopped and said "yo, what's up with this?" ...but then, people could say the same about some of the things my family has done, so I realize it's a matter of POV.

Ironically, that's one of the things I can grasp. "You love me, don't you? I'm pretty and popular and you want to be liked, right? You want to make me happy, and don't want to make me cry. Otherwise, I'm sure everyone would be very disappointed to hear xyz about you. But I won't have to do that, because you love me so much and you want to make me happy. Good."

Hooray for relationships!

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, like I said, there were totally some red-flag moments. But at least family you're stuck with, dude.

[k-diddy.livejournal.com]

The moral I get (sorry, I read through a link from LJ): People will do the most ridiculously batshit stupid things so that they can think of themselves as "nice people." Oh no, they can't tell anyone no! Saying no makes them bad people. And they're nice people.

Here is the requisite link to the Five Geek Social Fallacies (http://www.plausiblydeniable.com/opinion/gsf.html). YAY.

[sarahtheboring.livejournal.com]

Wait... which one did I do? or do you mean them?

Good article, though. I've seen it before, but never got around to bookmarking it.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

I think she means them. The idea that friends must unconditionally put up with each other, or omg they must not truly be friends!!!

Really though, I brought this up because I just read a post linked in missandrony's lj, where a girl who claimed to be raped by UK's former fiance said that UK "made her" abandon her mentally challenged friend in Otakon.

>^..^

[sarahtheboring.livejournal.com]

oops. Sorry for rambling. (See, I don't realize that posts are directed to a particular person, because I'm dumb, and ramble tangentially because the subject is interesting/scary... pay me no mind.)

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

No, you weren't rambling! Just bringing up what made me post in the first place, as I haven't really been in Sailor Moon fandom for years, and it came outta nowhere.

>^..^

[missandrony.livejournal.com]

Although I don't share it, I can certainly see the mindset that it took place in. arafel made the point very nicely about how incredibly influential peer pressure can be. Considering the fact this girl tried to kill herself later in the evening, I'd say she was a pretty fucked up little girl.

I remember my Admin Behavior teacher talking about this study, and, assuming that UK had taken an authoritarian role, I could totally see how it happened.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

I saw a video of that study in college. It only adds to it when you hear the actor "learner" screaming from the "shock treatment" in the background, and the teacher keeps right on doing as told.

Not sure how truthful that chick's story was. All in one night, she was allegedly raped and attempted suicide, but her biggest complaint seems to be "OMG Usagi Kou was a total bitch to me and made me abandon my friend at a con and we couldn't stop and get anything to eat or drink." And then when she found her "real friends" to stay with at the con, she doesn't seem to mention anyone, say, taking her to a hospital despite her having swallowed an entire bottle of aspirin after a forced sexual experience.

>^..^

[k-diddy.livejournal.com]

Like fadingembers said -- it's totally them, not you. Sorry I wasn't clear on that. :)

(frozen)

[itainohime.livejournal.com]

Let's be fair, now. I had a friend for ten years who treated me in ways that one could easily define as abusive. She took all of my money and spent it on herself, while keeping me on a shoestring budget; she tried to sabotage any friendship I had with anyone else, including my relationship with my girlfriend. She lied and manipulated and everything else.

And speaking as someone who's experienced that sort of thing, it is DAMN hard to turn such a person down. I started out fighting with Rio a lot, and only stopped because every argument went the same way: she'd grind me down for anywhere from an hour to four hours, until I finally caved in to her demands. Once she had me broken of arguing with her, it made it rather hard for me to stand up to her--because once that happened, everything became an argument. Which I would immediately say anything to avoid, if only to escape hours of excrutiating logical loopholes.

In fact, it was only after I stopped living with her (after moving cross-country because she wanted to live in Seattle) that I realized, "Holy shit. She really has been fucking me over."

This Usa person clearly started off as a very sympathetic character, and only mutated into a horrendous bitch after they lived with her for some time. Not only that, but they only really started talking it over and working it out after she was gone, and unable to exert more influence over things.

It's very simple for someone who's never had such a nasty thing happen to them to write it off as "Oh, they're waterheads who can't stand up for themselves". But again, only someone who has never been so fully abused and manipulated could say such a thing.

(frozen)

[sarahtheboring.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't have such things happen to me because I'm not that big of a doormat. I've got a shred of self-respect. Clearly that means I'm inferior. Uh, somehow. Sorry that I haven't let myself get royally screwed over by a sociopath, and then whine and absolve myself of all responsibility for my own actions. Hey, I had an ex-boyfriend who was kind of an asshole - can I join the Righteously Wounded Club now?

Christ.

(frozen)

[itainohime.livejournal.com]

Oopsie! I have apparently mistaken you for "someone who, upon posting their opinion on the Internet, is capable of dealing with someone else politely pointing out a flaw in that opinion WITHOUT turning into a raging, horrendous, attacking bitch".

Gee, I'm sorry that I trusted someone that I'd known for years and years to keep my best interests at heart. I'm sorry that my trust proved to be misplaced, and I'm sorry that, because I have in the past been a nice person who was manipulated, abused and jerked around, I am characterized as a spineless doormat by someone I've never met. All because I made the mistake of thinking that this person was actually interested in talking about what they were talking about, instead of just being right and attacking anyone who disagrees! Whoa, who knew?

I never said you were inferior, or any of that other idiotic bullshit that you somehow managed to withdraw from your ass. I merely pointed out that your perspective on things had its flaws, and that it would be very simple for someone who wasn't abused to point the finger and blame the abuser. I wonder if you are the type of person who blames all crimes on the victims? Or is it just the ones that let you feel superior, and prove just how great you are by being a blowhard, sarcastic ass?

Christ, are you this much of a soulless, idiotic bitch in real life, too, or does the anonymity of the Internet give you lease to shit all over other people's experiences and lives?

(frozen) Filk - rocking out to pop.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

So go into the IMs,
You both have got a jab in,
But I consider you each a peer,
Freezing time,
You don't have to go home
But you can't fight here, yeah.

=^..^=

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Someone posted an interesting comment about group mentality - basically, the likelihood that a member of a group is going to do something about a bad situation is inversely proportional to the amount of people in the group. It's the Andrea/Miranda situation, kindasorta. You'll put up with the shit for the rewards, and this chickie did seem to make an art out of finding people who would put up with a lot of shit. It's addictive to be admired at a con, and attention is attention. Hell, I even have a photo of her, though I took the photo b/c jaina nudged me and said "Lookit the crazee!"

Pity it took this long for the Internet to collectively tell her to shove her Crescent Wand up her ass.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

OMG for your (cute) cosplay awards:

http://www.crimsonskycreations.com/sailormoonavatars/moon/chibieternalmoon.jpg

>^..^

[missandrony.livejournal.com]

From what I can tell from the situation, the parents appear to be independently wealthy. (How else could you afford to renovate two houses that way and install an indoor pool on one salary?) I certainly got the impression that money is not a problem with these folks, they just don't try to live like the Hiltons do. And obviously they weren't so hard up for cash that they charged UK the ACTUAL worth of living in that place. So maybe wanting the money back is more about the principle than anything else. Apparently the religion they practice sort of encourages the kind of behavior that would let them get walked all over.

michiru_kou also said that her parents wanted her to learn the difference between a friend in need and a manipulative leech in a fairly controlled setting. I don't know, it wasn't the cheapest of life lessons, but I guess the parents thought it was worth it.

Having said that, I get the impression that they aren't exaggerating so much as they are leaving out some of the bright spots. UK probably still charmed them from time to time.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

This all reminded me of the time someone came over to my house for the weekend at my invitation, and it turned out they had nowhere else to go when the weekend was over. So they asked to stay a few extra days, plus they asked to sleep in my room (they had been, because there was an extra person also, but I wanted it back.)

And I told her no on all of it, and she made some phone calls, found somewhere else to go, and left. I did feel a little guilty at the time, but looking at this, I don't anymore. Who knows what could have happened if I'd have felt like I couldn't say no.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

That's what people count on--saying no tells them they're a bad person, and they don't want to bea bad person, so they can't say no. It's harder to deny a friend than someone you don't know well.