u/Gullible-Lecture-457

This started as a reply to another thread but it became too long, so I thought I'd post this again as an open letter/opinion:

Dear NY Times,

I'm appalled by your lack of integrity when it comes to journalism. When a gossip rag from the UK has more accurate reporting than you, it's time to look in the mirror.

The only reason you're not paying out of the ass for conspiring with nasty celebrities on a poorly-researched hit piece is because the law favors anti-censorship. The fact that Justin's case was thrown out is a travesty, although not unexpected. That doesn't change the fact that your journalism has zero integrity and that your reputation has fallen just like all the other low-moral clowns Blake and Co. have recruited (looking at you, Isabela, Colleen, Brandon, Jenny, Liz, Gottlieb, Sigrid, Leslie), and it's what you deserve.

You risked your reputation for a woman whose own family won't even speak out to support her ridiculous claims. A woman who has zero friends speaking out in support for her, only people whom she has paid (lawyers, personal trainer) or spineless social climbers whom she had bribed with promised roles (Brendan Sklenar, Michele Morone), and whose own weasel of a husband and best friend are attempting to distance from her and deny their own involvement, because it's so obvious that she is lying and now she has been caught.

Maybe you ought to have done your proper research and looked through all the actual texts. Maybe you should have asked Ms. Flaa for comment before maligning her and accusing her of being a paid shill. Maybe Megan Two-faced should have apologized and admitted fault instead of doubling down, but I guess she took a page out of Blake's book.

Maybe you should've checked your uploaded metadata dates before claiming that you didn't help plan this character assassination of an innocent man before the CRD complaint was filed.

Just as much of the public will never trust Blake and Ryan again, we will also not trust your authority any longer.

Shame on you.

I also learned recently that the "Bad Art Friend" article was also extremely biased and left out critical information to paint the narrative that it wanted to push. This is not the first time your team has done this. You are dragging your good name through the mud, just like you had done to Justin Baldoni, but only one of you deserve it.

The fact that you are still trying to get attorney fees out of Wayfarer is an insult, considering your behavior, but again - like Newspaper, like Delusional Yummy Ball Busting Toothless Actress. Utterly disgusting.

Blake was surely not worth the hit in reputation, but I hope all who conspired with her horrible behavior get their due.

I don't know if JB will ever read this, but I assume his team does look online to see what the public sentiment is, so there's a chance. Even if he doesn't, maybe this will also speak to some of you who have followed this case for similar reasons, so I thought I'd put it out there.

Dear Justin,

When I first saw the NY Times article, I bought into the narrative, although something felt off about the situation, so I reserved some doubts.

Then when your lawyers presented the entire timeline and evidence, I saw what really happened, and I connected to it on a deep level, because something similar had happened to me. Twice.

When you're an empathetic, kind person, it's easy for toxic people to take advantage of you. It is easy to be gaslit, because you first ask yourself, how could I have done things better?
You try not to hurt people's feelings, even when they are trampling over your boundaries.

You believe the best in people, so you don't realize that they're slowly testing you with small requests, off-colored comments, denials, to see if you are someone who will let them get away with abuse.

When they're showering you with attention and interest in the beginning, asking about your hurts and hopes and dreams, you think that they want to get to know you, but what they're really doing is trying to figure out what is most important to you and what you fear, so that they can use it against you later.

Since you're a normal person, that would never occur to you. You would think no one would do such a thing, and why would they ever? But toxic people do not think the way we do.

Then they take that positive, fake friendliness away intermittently, especially if you have enforced a boundary, or said no to something they want. The silence is a punishment to show you their displeasure, but also to manipulate you into wanting their approval again.

When you have unintentionally injured their egos in some way - it could be that you said no to something, you didn't praise them for something, you're just too nice as a person and the authenticity makes them insecure - then they target you, even though you don't deserve it.

It will feel like a betrayal, and it will feel unfair, because the toxic person will take all their negative feelings and blame you for them. Because you're a normal person, you cannot fathom why someone who dislikes you so much would have ever pretended to be your friend. That feels like an insane thing for someone to do.

And you think back to the beginning, when you felt accepted, how nice it would have been to just be friends, instead of this toxic antagonism they launch at you, and you feel a sense of grief for the friendship that could've been - but the truth is it was all fake. How they acted in the beginning was never who they were.

The worst betrayal is when they turn others against you, often successfully, with their lies and manipulation, and they do this because they know it will hit you where it hurts. They are miserable people who despise all the shame and rage you make them feel, which gets worse once they know you've seen under their mask, and they want you to suffer. They want you to feel isolated, and the people who are toxic themselves or gullible end up siding with them.

Toxic people also do this to back up the false narrative they will try to sell everyone, because you have seen who they really are, and they are terrified that others will find out how awful they really are too, so they must preemptively discredit you.

If you're like me, then you would take some relief in seeing the bully get some kind of comeuppance, but not too much, because you don't take any joy in other's suffering. You just want them to leave you alone and stop targeting you while your wounds are still healing.

You sometimes look at them and think, "Why did you have to be cruel to me? Why me, and not any of the others around us? What did I do to deserve this?"

The answer is nothing. You did nothing to deserve it. And it's not anything innate about you, either. Yes, they envy that you're a kind person, and will tell themselves that it is fake, because they can't fathom actually being kind, because deep down, they know they are cruel, unlikable people.

You'd think, as a normal person, well, there's an easy solution to that. Just be nice! Just start being nice. Take accountability for what you've done. Apologize.

But these toxic people just do not think the same way the rest of us do. They would rather double down and deny, gaslight, attack, because they can't accept the truth. It causes too much shame, and they take that out on you. Not because you are unworthy. But because you're the most convenient target.

Something that has brought me comfort is to realize that they would treat anyone in my place the same way. I just happened to be unlucky, and happened to be in their orbit, and happened to have triggered their insecurities. I do not envy their future victims, but I also know that it is useless to warn others.

In these situations, often us victims end up never speaking out. I think this is what would have happened to you, if Blake didn't decide to escalate and use you as some kind of pawn to try to repair her self-ruined reputation. I think without Steve Sarowitz's backing, these powerful and toxic people would have crushed you, silenced you, and successfully destroyed a decent person who did not deserve it.

Many of us have encountered our own bullies in school, workplaces, families, friend circles. Baffled by their unreasonable cruelty, and toxic people acting in a way that seems to defy all logic. We live with the paranoia that something untrue is being said of us, and that they might continue targeting us.

That is why justice for you feels like justice for us who have been through it, and why I have been rooting for you all this time. You're a truly a kind and forgiving soul who does not deserve this, and I'm happy that the truth was able to come out, and that so many of us see it.

My advice for the future is this: live your happiest life, find joy in every day, and show that they cannot affect you negatively anymore. People like this will try to poke at you like a bear in a cage until they get a reaction, and if you find a way to be unbothered, and show that you are unbothered, they will lose interest and get bored.

Occasionally I still give mental real estate to my bullies, which is why following this case felt triggering at times, but mostly I do not think about them anymore, and I focus on thriving. Time also helps heal.

I hope you will thrive too! And though I had not heard of you before this case, you have a new fan in me, not just as a talented creative but as a human being. I hope to have the chance to support your future endeavors, if you choose to put them out into the world.