This is a response to Slider_Quinn21's post in the politics thread:
https://sliders.tv/bboard/viewtopic.php … 731#p15731
Slider_Quinn21 wrote:A few years ago, I was pretty active on Twitter and followed election coverage pretty closely. I even waded into waters where I tried to calmly convince MAGA of the error of their ways. Eventually, I didn't like the person I was. I was doom-scrolling through twitter all the time, and I was feeling myself growing more and more annoyed.
So I quit. I was doing it because I was bored, and there are a billion apps that I could use to stop myself from being bored.
About a year ago, I got curious about some things and waded back into those waters. I had deleted the app but I could still access the website through Safari on my phone. There were a couple of people I liked to follow for news on the Trump indictments or whatever and that was that. Eventually, Elon closed that loophole and made you register to access the website. So I was closed off. Then, more recently, I decided I was curious enough and I created a second account (I didn't remember the login and thought this was more reasonable) and accessed the website (again, not downloading the app) to get my news. I went from checking it only in the evenings to checking it all the time. And, again, I could feel my blood pressure going up every time I visited.
The Trump immunity Supreme Court was the last straw. I was upset all day. So I decided to quit again. I logged out of my dummy account and deleted all my shortcuts. I haven't been back since.
Me doomscrolling through twitter isn't going to stop Trump from getting elected or make him go to jail, and at least now, I'm not forcing myself to constantly think about it. The unfortunate thing for everyone else is that now I'll be much less informed. The fortunate thing for me is that I'll be much happier.
Trigger Warning: Discussion of sexual assault
I had to take myself off Twitter after Musk bought it. My feed was filled with nonsensical, clickbait videos to which I hadn't subscribed. Anyone I followed was buried under the presence of people who'd paid to intrude upon my feed. I'm sorry that you struggled and suffered for your Twitter experience. I didn't struggle with Twitter, but I have had some negative relationships with other social media in a fashion similar to what you describe.
As someone who loves silly kid's TV on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, and as a fan of BOY MEETS WORLD and the retrospective podcast POD MEETS WORLD, I was taken aback by the POD MEETS WORLD episode 2/19/24 in which actors Rider Strong and Will Friedle confessed that they had supported a rapist. Rider and Will explained that as teenagers, they had become friends with a dialogue coach and guest-star on BOY MEETS WORLD, a man named Brian Peck. He was in his 40s while the boys were in their teens, but they enjoyed Peck's company so much. He became a constant presence at their parties, in their homes, and they asked for him to be hired on many post-BMW productions as a dialogue coach.
In 2004, Peck approached Rider (now 24) and Will (27), telling them he was being charged with raping an underage boy. Peck told them that he had been working with a 17 year old boy who had pressured Peck for sex, and Peck "gave in", and the boy's mother reported him to the police and he was now on trial. Peck told Rider and Will: he would plead guilty and accept his sentence, but he asked Rider and Will to write letters of support to the judge. Peck emphasized that the boy had been 17, nearly 18. Many former friends of Peck reported that he told them the same story, emphasizing that the boy was nearly an adult.
Rider and Will said that at the time, they thought of how at 17, they had dated women in their 30s. They wrote letters of support for Peck; Rider wrote that Peck was a good and loyal man and that any wrongdoing could not have been on Peck's side; Will wrote that Peck must have been pressured and coerced.
Will went to court to support Peck on the day of Peck's sentencing. Will found himself in a crowd of famous Hollywood actors, directors and producers on Peck's side of the courtroom. On the other side was an 18 year old boy, who would later describe how he'd been 15 when Peck raped him. The boy was seated with his brother, stepfather, a friend, and his mother. The mother stared down all the celebrities and shouted at Peck, "There you are with all your famous friends -- and it doesn't change what you did to my son!"
Will realized Peck had played him. Peck had raped the boy, and maneuvered Will and Rider into writing letters of support for Peck. Peck had lied about the boy's age (17) to play on how Will and Rider had dated thirtysomething women at 17.
The boy delivered a victim impact statement, which would normally be directed to the rapist. But the boy directed it to Will and those next to him. "I will forever have the memory of this person doing what he did to me," the boy spat at Brian Peck's friends, at Will. "And you will forever have the memory of standing with him for what he did to me." Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison for lewd acts with a child, and released after four.
Will and Rider cut ties with Peck, ending any friendship with him. Will never saw him again. Rider saw Peck briefly at a party seven years later and had a panic attack and fled. Will and Rider, on their podcast, described how Brian Peck had infiltrated their lives and tricked them. They said they had been approached by a documentary seeking comment, and how they had instead preferred to address the matter on their podcast. Rider ended the podcast in an incoherent, meandering ramble about INTO THE WOODS. Will said he wished he could sit down with the survivor and tell him how sorry he was.
The documentary, QUIET ON SET, was released shortly afterwards. The two episodes were about abusive behaviour from Nickelodeon showrunner Dan Schneider's (ALL THAT, THE AMANDA SHOW, iCARLY, DRAKE AND JOSH, VICTORIOUS), and how two production assistants on Schneider's shows had been arrested for sexually assaulting children during the show. Two PAs... and a dialogue coach named Brian Peck. And Peck's victim had agreed to speak in the documentary about what Peck did to him.
At the end of a second episode, a figure in a blue blazer approached the camera, out of focus, then seating himself in a chair and into the frame. It was Drake Bell, the former teen star of DRAKE AND JOSH and the voice of Peter Parker on ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, now 37 years old.
Drake had made a name for himself as a teenager from his comedic brilliance on THE AMANDA SHOW and DRAKE AND JOSH, and become infamous in recent years for drunk driving, bankruptcy, and being arrested and charged for sending sexual text messages to a teenaged girl. Drake stared at the camera with an attempt at a smile and a fretful tremor in his bearing, a grief-weary terror towards what he was about to say.
In the third episode, Drake told the story of his life: his beginnings as a child actor, the way Brian Peck, a dialogue coach, took a young Drake under his wing and drove Drake to auditions and had Drake sleep over at Peck's house, and how 15 year old Drake woke up morning to find Peck raping him, which Peck continued to do for months, while Drake was too afraid to report it or tell anyone, fearing that Peck, who seemed to know every actor and producer and director in Hollywood, could destroy his career.
Drake told the story of how, one night, at his girlfriend's house, Peck phoned him, demanding that the 15 year old Drake accompany the fortysomething Peck to Disneyland. Drake declined, explaining he was with his girlfriend and her family, and hung up. Peck called Drake's phone over and over again. Drake didn't pick up. Peck called the landline at the house over and over and over again, until the mother of Drake's girlfriend took Drake aside and told Drake that something was very wrong. "A fortysomething year old man does not call my daughter's boyfriend like that." Shortly after this, Drake told his mother, and his mother called the police.
Drake described his horror in court at how much support Brian had in Hollywood, and how Drake spiraled afterwards: drugs, verbally abusing friends and loved ones, driving while drunk, recklessness and desperation, and things he couldn't remember and was afraid to find out. Drake described how, for the documentary, the team had successfully unsealed the casefile and Drake saw that 41 famous Hollywood stars and creators, including Rider Strong and Will Friedle, had written letters claiming that Peck's victim must have been the aggressor.
Drake briefly touched on how, in 2021, he was charged for sending sexual texts to a minor. He pleaded guilty to child endangerment and disseminating material harmful to a minor, and was sentenced to two years of probation and 20 years of community service. However, newspapers incorrectly reported that he had been charged with sexually assaulting a teenager and that he was a registered sex offender, which was repeated as fact. "I did what was asked of me, but the media grabbed a hold of so much misinformation, and it absolutely destroyed me," said Bell.
The documentary ends with the child actors who featured expressing the wish that child actors receive protections and safeguards in their line of work, and with 37 year old Drake Bell and his father standing outside the studio. Father and son seem to be in a muted state of sorrow and shock. "It's just hard," says Drake, "going back over all these old memories."
"Better days ahead of us," his father tells him.
"Yeah, I keep hearing that," says Drake quietly.
"Keep listening to it," his father urges him.
Shortly after the documentary was broadcast, Drake Bell responded to the POD MEETS WORLD episode, stating: Rider and Will had ignored the documentary reaching out to them, and only made their podcast because the documentary had warned them: their once-sealed letters of support for rapist Brian Peck had been unsealed and would be released.
Drake further declared that Will Friedle had worked with Drake on the animated ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN and Will never said a word to him about the matter, presenting Will's regret and desire to speak with Drake to be a lie.
Drake did not accept Rider and Will's remorse, declaring that Rider and Will knew what Peck had been charged with and wrote letters of support anyway.
Fans of BOY MEETS WORLD and Rider and Will collided with Drake Bell's supporters on Reddit. BMW and PMW fans argued that Drake Bell was not an innocent person whom Rider and Will had allowed to suffer, but a violent maniac whom Rider and Will had understandably steered clear of after seeing all the stories about Drake in the press.
They pointed to Drake Bell's own criminal charges for child endangerment and disseminating material harmful to a minor. At sentencing, Bell's accuser said Bell had been grooming her from age 12, demanding nude photographs, sexually assaulting her at age 15 twice (once in a hotel room while her aunt was outside the room; once in the backseat of a car while her aunt was in the front) and sending her his own nudes.
BMW and PMW fans also noted that three of Drake Bell's ex-girlfriends had accused him of beating them, trying to drown them, threatening them, and destroying their phones.
I spent about two weeks entirely too interested in all of the above, wading into Reddit discussion upon Reddit discussion, alternately condemning and defending Will, Rider and Drake. From a public relations standpoint, it was a fascinating challenge: to note all the horrible things that Will, Rider and Drake had absolutely done -- while defending them against the things that they hadn't. It was professional development for me.
My take is that Drake Bell did not sexually assault his then-15 year old accuser (19 during the sentencing video), but he absolutely sent her sexually charged text messages. In the sentencing for his charges, which was over Zoom and posted on YouTube, Drake's lawyer notes that Drake is not being charged with sex crimes, but for his texting, and notes that the police interviewed witnesses at the fan events where the accuser said Drake assaulted her.
The lawyer said that these events were filled with witnesses around Drake Bell at all times -- and Drake's accuser, who is on camera, nods emphatically in agreement with the lawyer, agreeing there were witnesses present throughout. Drake's lawyer then says each witness reported that Drake and the girl were never alone together as she claims, and the girl stops nodding and freezes up, as though she realizes she non-verbally agreed with what contradicts her story.
The lawyer further established that the police had confiscated the girl's phone and computers, Drake's phones and computers, and digital forensic investigators had total access to their social media accounts. There was no digital evidence or witness account of any sexual photographs or any attempt to meet and assault the girl; there were, however, sexual text messages to a minor.
From my perspective: if the police had taken the devices of accuser and accused, forensic investigators would have had access not only to their accounts, but also had access to all device and account activity via deep recovery methods and subpoena.
They would have have retrieved any file or message, whether deleted by the user or not. And if there were any evidence of Drake enticing a minor to sexual activity, any prosecutor in a post-Weinstein era would have been enthusiastic and eager to make their careers on prosecuting a former Hollywood actor as a child predator.
Judging from the charges and Drake's own confession, prosecutors had him dead to rights with what they charged him: child endangerment and disseminating material harmful to a minor. But his sexual messages must not have contained any attempt to meet her in person and away from her guardians' supervision, or they would have charged him with more and easily won. They had his devices and accounts, after all.
But sending sexual text messages to a minor is still wrong, and while Drake claims she messaged him first and he didn't realize the girl's age, I find it doubtful that he didn't know she was very young from their text exchanges and her photos. The prosecution clearly found that doubtful too given the charges they pursued.
Outside of Drake's lawyer, there was also Drake's childhood story of how he was targeted, groomed, isolated from all support systems, and then raped by a master manipulator. Drake effectively received a master class in child predation. It struck me as absurd and ridiculous to think that Drake Bell, with his experience of predation, would assault a target whose aunt was in the front seat of a car while Drake and the target were in the back. Or that he would do so with the target's aunt just outside the room. I did not believe this girl's story.
Drake would later be asked why he texted a fan so intensely based on nothing more than finding her Instagram photos attractive and thinking she was an adult, especially when he claimed not to have known her well enough to have learned her age. Drake, in the MAN ENOUGH podcast, would explain that his trauma as a child made him feel like he wasn't a real man, and that any time someone female expressed interest in him, he would pursue it without finding out how old they might be or if they were even compatible, to try to prove his masculinity to himself.
Drake Bell was further accused by three ex-girlfriends of savagely beating them, although those didn't progress to criminal cases. One ex might lie, but three? It was clear to me that Drake was indeed a domestic abuser. Drake denied it, saying he did not understand why his ex was accusing him and he was shocked and hurt.
But he later confessed in many interviews to missing time and suffering from severe memory loss. It is extremely common for child trauma victims to be triggered and enter fugue states where they are aggressive and violent and then emerge with little memory of what they did and to deny all accounts and witnesses.
I suggested that Drake denying having beaten women might not be a lie as much as impaired recall, and that his attacks, while unjustifiable, may have been due to a memory of his rape being inadvertently triggered.
I said that I did not know if a man can ever find redemption and atonement for beating women who couldn't fight back, but if anyone were to be forgiven for it, it would probably be a survivor of a childhood sexual assault whose trauma warped his sense of boundaries and damaged his ability to manage his impulses and control his actions.
And regarding Will and Rider: Many felt that their podcast apology was not really an apology at all; there was no message addressed to Drake Bell. Many accused them of not really caring about Drake Bell at all, having been silent for 20 years and having intended to stay silent until the documentary unsealed their letters, and then caring more about addressing their fans than addressing the wronged party.
I couldn't disagree with that, but I argued: Drake Bell's name had not been publicly released. It is highly unethical to out a survivor of sexual assault until they are ready to tell their own story. They had been trying not to name Drake Bell in their podcast, but in avoiding anything that might identify them, they took it too far and failed to address him at all, failing even to speak to the unnamed party whom they had hurt.
Will and Rider had misjudged and mis-stepped, but I argued that it was not out of uncaring or indifference, but due to weakness. They were scared to confront what they had done 20 years previous; they were scared to go on camera with the documentary and be confronted by Drake Bell; it was weakness and fear, not malevolence.
I argued that if we only want art from the perfect and fearless, we won't have any art at all. I did not see anything admirable in how Will and Rider had conducted themselves, but their behaviour had not been contemptible as much as gullible in writing the letters and incompetent in addressing the letters. There is no one who hasn't been fearful, weak, gullible, and incompetent at some point in their lives.
Drake Bell would later tweet that Rider Strong had contacted him privately, and that Drake forgave him.
I got very involved in so many Reddit threads, fascinated by the challenge of acknowledging and condemning all of Rider, Will and Drake's wrongful actions: supporting a predator, silence for 20 years, the failure to apologize (Will and Rider), sending sexually charged text messages to a fan, assaulting women, drunk driving, driving while high on nitrous, shilling cryptocurrency (Drake Bell) while offering some defence of Rider and Will's intentions (or lack of malevolence) and empathy towards human weakness (Rider and Will) and how trauma can warp someone's sense of right and wrong (Drake).
Suddenly, I realized that it was constantly on my mind because it was on my tablet, on my phone, on my smartwatch and in every corner of my brain, and this exercise in professional development had become a massive time sink. There was only one solution: I took Reddit off all my devices except my personal laptop, and since I only go on my laptop for 1 - 2 hours a day and need to spend that engaging in other correspondence, my Reddit participation fell to a more sensible amount.
It was good, it was an important learning experience, I absorbed a lot from all of it... but it was time to end the lesson and study something new.
