Let's Take a Hard Look at Our "Heroes," How They Act Now, and Their Histories

Before I get into the sheer facts and details of this story about rape allegations, fascistic surveillance technology, the invasion of privacy, lack of consent, transphobia, gender violence, outright revenge, litigious behavior, and downright cruelty, I want to be transparent: I am not an outsider in this story, as all of you will see, so let’s start from the beginning, or perhaps in the middle, as there is some backstory that I will delve into later. (I’m also bracing myself for losing a lot of subscribers for providing the facts in this account, but so be it. This truth must be told.)

This story is mainly about a charismatic cisgender white man named Chris Armitage and his mom, W.H. Lawrence, who also goes by Wendy. A large number of you know who he and she are, and many of you are devoted fans; some of you have a parasocial relationship with him. He has a very popular Substack called the Existentialist Republic (it has over 54K subscribers), one that used to recommend mine. I also considered Chris a really good friend of mine. I became acquainted with Chris over a year ago—if memory serves me—when I began following him here. We immediately hit it off and started speaking by telephone, and things developed from there. We even spoke about launching a subversive Onion-like project together (it was his idea) to punch up at those in power (I mentioned him not by name in this post here about that planned project). Even though the project never came to life, we still stayed in touch frequently. (I’m not tagging him because he has blocked me, more on that in a moment.) I also befriended his mother, W.H. Lawrence, who, as most of you already know, runs Glass Empires, a Substack, which, in my view, appears heavily laden with AI-written pieces that always paint an absolutely dystopian picture of everything, eager for people to come back for more doom and gloom, but make sure to pay for all that end-of-the-world 00110011 churned out nonsense. (I had been a big fan of hers until I came to realize, or so I think, how much she uses AI and offers no fucking solutions whatsoever. But I digress.) You’ll notice that I’m not tagging her either, since she’s blocked me, too, just like her son has. More on that in a moment, too.

Then there is ✨your weirdo friend✨ for whom I have the utmost respect, for their inspiring bravery, authenticity, deep kindness, true integrity, and fierce commitment to community, no matter what the cost. They are one of the reasons why I am writing this piece because I refuse to be silenced about how things have transpired in this situation, one which is actually much bigger than the three of these people, as this story also speaks to the themes I brought up in the first paragraph and weaves itself into bigger issues related to patriarchy and how white women reinforce it, a topic I’ve written about at length in the past. I also feel compelled to join the community and stand up for what’s right, which means standing by my friend, Your Weirdo Friend. It’s the right thing to do in this situation, but I’m doing it by simply writing facts and sharing the details as they have transpired over the last few days.

Now, here’s where the story gets dicey, and where I am also filled with deep regret. You see, I am friends with Your Weirdo Friend and, as I said above, I used to be friends with Chris. Anyway, at one point during one of Chris’s Substack Lives, he asked for suggestions for folks to have on while I was watching several months ago. I enthusiastically suggested Your Weirdo Friend as I thought the pairing would be a good one, an interesting conversation, given the work they were both doing, i.e., his work on “soft secession” (which I’ve since soured on, but I’ll table that for now—it has nothing to do with this situation) and Your Weirdo Friend’s The Daisy Chain. Of course, I was not the only one who encouraged this coming together of Chris and Your Weirdo Friend. Many folks on that Live chimed in and suggested it. Yet, as I said, I was one of those people who did. But, oh shit. What a mistake that was to have suggested. But here we are.

So, they meet up. And that’s when things go really south, but that’s because of Chris’s actions. While they were in the green room for 8 minutes, Chris decided to put on Meta glasses (“Mind if I get my glasses?” he asked. Your Weirdo Friend replied, “Yes.”), which are a form of fascistic surveillance technology, something he was and is fully aware of, having been a former employee at DHS. At the time, Chris was in Florida, where the law requires that both parties must consent to being recorded. Not only that, it is actually a crime under Florida law.

But Your Weirdo Friend sat on this for some time after they learned about it—they didn’t know what Meta Glasses were at the time and did not consent to being recorded. It was actually pointed out to them that they were being recorded by a viewer, too. They eventually wrote about it on July 4th in a piece titled, “Your Favorite Resistance Blogger is a Creep.” I encourage you to read the piece so you get a sense of the seriousness of what Chris did and to provide context for what comes next.

Now, before I mention the next event, I want to point out that in this piece, Your Weirdo Friend referenced a note they had restacked earlier, which was directly about Meta glasses. Keep this note in mind, because it will be important later. The original note, which is pictured below, stated, “Meta Glasses are rape culture.”

Keep in mind, too, I did not read the July 4th piece until July 5th, too. Naturally, I was angry at Chris about what he had done to Your Weirdo Friend. By the time Your Weirdo Friend’s piece started picking up steam, Chris had issued what Your Weirdo Friend accurately describes as a “faux-opology.” It appeared to me that he was in damage control mode by this point. But instead of taking responsibility, he deflected, didn’t even name the person he had harmed, and then proceeded to send his readers on a goose hunt on how they could change fascistic surveillance technology. If memory serves me, this “faux-opology” was issued on July 6th. By this time, I had had enough of Chris’s bullshit, his obfuscation of the facts, his lies about the Meta Glasses, and so forth, so I decided to call him out directly on Substack Notes and tagged him—mind you, I wasn’t at this point entirely ready to block him (I was close), and I certainly wasn’t thinking about his mother. (I would provide the image and a direct quote of what I said to him, but it appears that Substack eliminates all interactions you’ve had with people once they have blocked you.) I said something to the effect of: “What happened to Your Weirdo Friend is deeply distressing. Why did you do that, Chris? You are fully aware of how Meta Glasses work. Newsflash: You can’t reform fascistic surveillance tools, so it’s absurd that you are sending your readers on a goose hunt to deflect from what you did.”

The moment he received that note, an “unsubscribe” notification from him landed in my inbox. Less than a minute later, I received a direct message from his mother here on Substack, after which she unsubscribed from me and immediately blocked me. Two peas in a pod, these two. Here’s what her message read, which Your Weirdo Friend has already shared with their readers:

Phew! There is a lot to unpack here. First, Wendy is referring to Your Weirdo Friend as The Weirdo Friend, which is just… dehumanizing and turns them into an object. Second, there is no indication that “the writer,” her son, was pressured by Your Weirdo Friend into doing anything. As I can attest, and I’m sure others can too, it was those of us who were mutual readers who encouraged the two of them to meet up. So, that’s just strikes me as sheer bullshit. Third, Wendy pulls out the litigious lingo, the good ol’ legal threats against a person that both she and Chris know is under threat of genocide in this country by the U.S. government for simply being a non-binary trans person. Who does that? (Wendy has since turned her son and herself into the victims when it’s the other way around. This is a classic case of DARVO — Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. You know who else does this? Trump.)

But what I couldn’t figure out was why Wendy suddenly showed up for her grown-up son with such a vengeance? (Couldn’t he have handled this problem on his own?) For evidence of how much worse this situation has gotten, watch Your Weirdo Friend’s latest Substack Live below.

But then something disturbing came to light about Chris that dates back to 2020, when he was running as a Democrat for Washington State’s 5th Congressional District Seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Over the course of these two days, with Wendy threatening Your Weirdo Friend, after Your Weirdo Friend expressed being upset, rightfully so, about being filmed without knowledge or consent, with creepy, fascistic surveillance technology by Chris, someone sent them a note that said, “You know that Chris has been accused of rape, right?” And that’s when this article from Northwest Public Broadcasting by reporters Doug Nadvornick and Scott Leadingham, published on July 17, 2020, surfaced. But let me be clear: Your Weirdo Friend did not seek out this article—the information about it was sent to them, and that’s how I learned about it, too. (I was actually on the way to get my dog groomed when I first heard about it, and I almost had to pull over to puke.) That’s what brings me back to the Note that they restacked earlier, which read, “Meta Glasses are rape culture.” Now this is conjecture, but I can only presume that this must’ve set off alarm bells for Chris’s mother. The language, timing, and context suggested to Wendy that Your Weirdo Friend dug up Chris’s history; at least, I think that’s a fair conclusion.

As for that incident, Chris’s statement of resignation is… interesting, too, and also worth examining when it comes to rape. Here it is:

First, this statement totally invalidates the victim, and also, how do you not know the distinction between consent and non-consent? These things are fucking basic. Then he flips the whole discussion to say he wants to be an “ally”? To the person who is accusing him of rape? Nah. It doesn’t work that way. People who have been victims of rape or sexual assault do not want their attackers to be their allies, in case anyone is confused on that front. (As for learning about consent, apparently, he has not learned about consent, as he didn’t give Your Weirdo Friend the ability to consent to being recorded by Meta Glasses, instead grossly invading and violating their privacy.)

It has not been lost on me that this entire situation has also fallen into place at the same time that U.S. State candidate Graham Platner in Maine has turned out to be a rapist. Meanwhile, there are still people defending Platner as I write this piece, and that’s how this story ties into a larger national problem about white supremacy, misogyny, transphobia, patriarchy, rape culture, and the way in which white women cover for these men. The refusal to take accountability is astonishing. Instead, they resort to DARVO tactics, legal threats, and other forms of intimidation to silence anyone who speaks up or even shares the facts.

So, all these things came together for me, the riddle of his mom getting involved and her litigiousness. After his mom viciously launched an attack against Your Weirdo Friend, as it turns out, Chris has a past that she most likely didn’t want people learning about. And here, well, I’m simply stating the facts. Again, keep in mind I’m simply providing Your Weirdo Friend’s accurate account of their privacy being illegally denied and without consent by Chris, along with a newspaper article about his past regarding rape allegations, examining those things, and sharing them with you, my readers.

I am bracing myself for the onslaught of attacks, which I presume will be laden with misogynistic and transphobic remarks. Of course, I hope that won’t be the case. But I’ve prepared myself for that because I know that writing this piece was the right thing to do. Finally, as I mentioned briefly in the second paragraph, there are some folks who, given Chris’s celebrity status, have a parasocial relationship with him. Parasocial relationships are deeply unhealthy. (As an aside, there are claims that parasocial relationships are neither inherently bad nor good, but if you are emotionally invested in someone who doesn’t know who the fuck you are, I stand by my claim that these are one-sided, as they are defined, and thus not good for you. Call me old-fashioned, but I think relationships should be reciprocal.) Having this sort of relationship also clouds one’s judgment, making it next to impossible to assess the person’s character. It gives cult vibes, too. So, I’m also prepared for those folks to come at me.

In short, there are no heroes. There are only people, and some of them have dark, troubling histories, which are worth knowing about and understanding, especially in progressive circles that are purportedly committed to women’s and trans’s rights. Violence against these two groups, as studies show, is an emergent sign of authoritarianism, and it damned sure is a sign of white supremacist patriarchy, which goes hand in hand with that political ideology. If one takes on the responsibility to “lead” in political spaces, to try to inform policy that could affect the lives of millions and millions in a country, then they should be prepared to be scrutinized, and they damned sure shouldn’t have a past of violence against women or marginalized people. And those who have been victimized by these men should not be brushed under the rug, denounced, ridiculed, doxxed, or mistreated in any other fashion. Again, why do you think women, non-binary people, or trans people do not come forward when they are raped or sexually harassed? Because people would rather believe the perpetrators, if it’s “their guy”, than the victim/survivor. Platner is a case in point. People immediately started claiming that the woman who bravely came forward was an “op” or part of “AIPAC.” And, folks, these are so-called progressives saying these things.

These are the facts; do with them what you will.