Cultural Musings

It never ceases to amaze me how one bad apple can ruin the entire bushel or in this case destroy and alienate a community of friends.

For the second times in recent years I have witnessed the destructive narcissism of one solitary individual derail a previously functioning community of amiable messageboard members.

Ironically in both instances the unraveling came following the death of a well liked person.

In the first case a King Bee ..... more recently in a different cyber world, a Queen Bee decided to exploit the tragedy to insinuate themself into the private life of the surviving friends and family.

Two years ago following a sudden tragic death, a self proclaimed King Bee held court to the rest of the messageboard as "official mourner"......not satisfied, he loudly beat his breast about the "fact" that he had been the "very best friend" of the deceased and began advising her husband and children to avoid other outsiders pretending to have been "M's" friends on the forum. This behavior understandably created a shitstorm of angry resentment - particularly from another forum member who had coincidentally known "M" in real life as a next door neighbor and interestingly, had no knowledge of any friendship existing between her deceased neighbor and the King Bee.

King Bee soon found himself in the middle of a mutinous hurricane. As he began to lose influence and attention he upped the ante by creating a Private, by invitation only message board devoted to the memory of "M" including a page sized photo image of "M" the King Bee had finagled from the griefstricken family.

Last time I looked, the King Bee had a gasping forum with few members remaining. Everyone who had loyally followed from the original board eventually got wise to his mendacity and shameless manipulations to self aggrandize and gain sympathy.


A similar dynamic has arisen on yet another forum. A self elected Queen Bee has somehow managed to keep most of her juggled lies in the air long enough to fool people who really are smart enough to know better.

The Queen Bee is really more like a wasp as she mercilessly attacks and attempts to sting to death any member who competes for the attention of celebrities, or vulnerable rich men. She jealously guards her terrritory by starting whispering campaigns against any perceived rival with viciousness that would do Karl Rove proud. Members who fail to endorse her line of "reality" are pointedly ignored or alternately stung to death by the Queen and her recruited worker bees.

In this case the Queen Bee has rewritten history to portray a deceased forum member as her "one true love" despite the fact she never met him or knew his legal name.

The Queen Bee has tried to win over the surviving family of the deceased by sharing some of her honey......honey intended to serve as sticky glue to ensconce herself into the dead man's estate and family bosom.

When no one wanted her honey she began to spew venom in its place.

Queen Bee has demanded proof of this man's existence....buzzing loudly for a copy of his death certificate! Next, accusing his family of having tricked her into giving the unsolicited honey via fraudulent means. BUZZ! Sting!

Almost a year has elapsed and the Queen Bee simply changes tactics .....lately recruiting baby bees who weren't around to remember the reality for new swarms to protect her hive of deceit and lies. Why? Why do the worker bees just accept her spin?

Jim Jones managed to convince over 900 people to drink cyanide laced Kool-aid. He was a dangerously charismatic sociopath....so is the Queen Bee.