The DIS Unplugged #10 We’re Not Happy to be Here

[imjenilynn]

Have you answered it or are you taking advantage of the fact that your cheerleaders either haven’t figured it out yet or want to back anything you say to be anti-Pete.

hugely unpopular opinion here I know but I am having a really hard time placing you in the “victim” category along with Dustin and Sean based simply on working in a toxic environment.

how your “work trauma” has risen to such a high level when in reality you accepted a payment, which you knew was incorrect, kept that payment rather than checking the validity of the overpayment, got found out, got fired, and jumped on the victim bandwagon.

in what work world does somebody NOT get fired for that? Then acting like you got fired so Pete could hire a love interest, like he wouldn’t just hire whoever he wanted to hire regardless of who was in what position.

Now throwing all kinds of other SA stories real or otherwise, for what? How many extensions are you going to take on your 15 minutes of fame?

I see you now. I’ll sit back now and let you take your 15. The floor is yours.
---

Well I thank you JL for the thoughtful reply. And I do want to be gentle in light of the impact to you as well. I think I see where you and I may be disagreeing on the connection of the two events. I don’t see a connection between proving a story you heard while employed is any more or less likely to be true by proving a story about Pete’s father with public documents. The latter has lead us to revealing details about past alleged victims from long ago.

I don’t think Pete honoring his parents, (even if they were terrible humans as it appears), necessarily proves anything one way or the other about Pete or his personality. Parent relationships are deeply complicated.

To step away from real lives to a made up example, let’s say Jane provides end of life care for her parents, perhaps an alcoholic and abusive father. She may arrange for military honors at his funeral. She may publicly give a eulogy. It’s not wrong or right, it’s just what Jane has decided to do. It doesn’t mean Jane will ever be her parents or that she is narcissistic for honoring them.

I know a woman whose abusive father disappeared when she was a very small child. She had no contact for 30 plus years. He reached out as his health was failing a few years ago to make amends before his death. It would have been valid for her to either reject or accept his offer. She accepted, while her sibling ultimately decided to reject it and continued to have no contact. They were both valid in their decision. She mourned him after his death with tributes but I don’t fault her, I recognize her feelings about it are complicated.

All this to say, I don’t fault Pete for caring for his elderly mother regardless of whatever person she was. While a lot has been revealed about Pete that is disturbing, caring and honoring an elderly parent to me is something we see in many situations. I agree a site dedication to his father is gross. But I am not sure how much it moves the needle for me on what I already thought about Pete. His father is not an excuse or explanation to me. I do not have sympathy for Pete but I don’t think less of Pete either. It’s more horribleness but reflects the actions of a different person.

The parents you get are the biggest crap shoot of this life. It’s not fair, it just is what it is.

If the point is to share or illuminate Pete’s own personality issues, ego or behavior or treatment of others, there has to be a more direct route than a story about his parents’ actions.

This route exposes the trauma of others from very long ago who have chosen not to participate here. While there is public records, the alleged abuser has been dead for a VERY long time and they went through the court process and jail time long before that. It would seem they should be able to assume their story is long buried unless they chose to bring it up. It’s wild some see it as a free for all forever and forever because it was printed in a newspaper decades ago. So forever and forever people on a platform not yet even conceived, could bring up Dustin was a victim? I mean I guess yes that is true. But man, how crappy for victims when you have longed moved on.

The direct experiences about Pete and his actions from current and former staff hold FAR more weight to me than if his parents were terrible humans.

Thank you for your candidness and showing ip here. I do appreciate you being here while some take the luxury of continuing to be silent.

This conversation is very complicated and I do recognize it’s difficult when the stories are all over meshed together.

Please know that I am taking this all in and learning from it. Thank you for sharing. It is a good lesson for me to learn. I am being sincere about that.

 

[minimax]

Have you answered it or are you taking advantage of the fact that your cheerleaders either haven’t figured it out yet or want to back anything you say to be anti-Pete.

hugely unpopular opinion here I know but I am having a really hard time placing you in the “victim” category along with Dustin and Sean based simply on working in a toxic environment.

how your “work trauma” has risen to such a high level when in reality you accepted a payment, which you knew was incorrect, kept that payment rather than checking the validity of the overpayment, got found out, got fired, and jumped on the victim bandwagon.

in what work world does somebody NOT get fired for that? Then acting like you got fired so Pete could hire a love interest, like he wouldn’t just hire whoever he wanted to hire regardless of who was in what position.

Now throwing all kinds of other SA stories real or otherwise, for what? How many extensions are you going to take on your 15 minutes of fame?

DISboard disciples unite! Must protect the predators!
It must be driving you crazy JL has a platform to speak without moderation.

 

[CoolWhip]

DISboard disciples unite! Must protect the predators!
It must be driving you crazy JL has a platform to speak without moderation.

You have clearly never read my posts.

 

[da_FUQ]

I think the abuse that was relayed by JL, or at least alluded to, is very important. It is a totally different level of abuse than the emotional abuse suffered by the employees and even the sexual abuse reported here by his past adult victims.

Multiple employees with young children stayed with an agency where the owner abused children not all that different than theirs. It is one thing to stick with a bad mental situation or excuse away the abuse of adults as they could have prevented it or fought back (*) but on a whole different level to look in the eyes of your child and know someone not all that different from them was abused by this man. That is unforgivable and eliminates any sympathy I have for Corey, Julie, Craig, or Kathy who all have male children.

* I am not saying this is what I believe or even a valid point of view, merely that it is easier to turn an eye to it if you are one that wants to rationalize it away.

JL took the necessary steps to leave that situation, that makes her much more brave than any of them who just accepted child abuse by the man that signed their checks. Every abuser of children should have their crimes screamed from every rooftop so no one on the planet is unaware of their crimes. Good for you JL, good for you!!

 

[LobCheapek]

Y’all… this entire message board is dedicated to talking crap and laughing at people the majority of us have never met and never will. The sudden self-righteous piety being exhibited by a few is so hypocritically hysterical it actually is not funny. Why are you even here then? Now that real, heinous allegations have been raised and proven where a predator can be exposed and hopefully prosecuted (if the victims choose to) we’re going to scream “STOP!”?

Yes, everyone is someone’s child, but that doesn’t apply to the Pete Werner’s, Kyle Pallo’s, and Tim Trackers on the daily, does it?

Monday morning quarterbacking someone’s life experience who has repeatedly expressed that they aren’t going to share the dirty details of the hearsay stories that contributed to her deciding to leave the Dis because she can't prove them concretely to some internet hero with a keyboard is mind-boggling.

You can get mad that she didn’t question the fateful paycheck in question if you want, but I have worked for someone like Pete who sucked at basic accounting. Paychecks were never consistent in amount or on time. That part of the story could have been written by me.

 

[invisobelt]

Who the hell is ranking the victims here? It's all bad and no one is claiming to be on the same level as someone else's pain and trauma.
---

You have clearly never read my posts.

You're making me not want to.

 

[DISbored]

For all the tit you talk about the trackers @CoolWhip JL giving her real life stories has you now brushing the sand out your ?

 

[justthisonce]

Hey Yall! Just in case it wasn’t clear. I can 100% agree to JL’s story the same as Sean has. We all heard the same things. And let me make it very clear, JL has my full support!!!

 

[minimax]

By the way, there is also an "ignore" option for anyone who cannot handle the stories being shared here.
You are always welcome to use it and never be triggered by that person again.

 

[CoolWhip]

For all the tit you talk about the trackers @CoolWhip JL giving her real life stories has you now brushing the sand out your ?

You know full well if somebody post some questionable tit over there I will call it out too.

everybody is tiptoeing around allegations, if it is real say it, and why bring it up as a “major factor” long after the rest of the story?

 

[LobCheapek]

I am fairly certain JL mentioned the story people are taking issue with now very early on in her posts. This isn’t new info suddenly being shared. We can all speculate and draw inferences from what the story she was told contained, but ultimately she hasn’t shared that information. I think NOT sharing the details is the right choice here.

The story matters for multiple reasons. 1) being told about said incident(s) concerning your boss is understandably alarming; it’s not normal, 2) this was shared when no one knew about Dustin or Shaun’s assaults and abuse, 3) it was a significant moment in her employment that the alleged incident(s) disturbed her to the point of looking for another job, and 4) it sadly shows Pete may have victimized even more than the brave individuals who have shared their truths.

I’m all for maintaining truth and calling out BS, but the complaints being lodged at JL here are once again hypocritical. You can’t call JL out for bringing up something you think has no bearing and wrongly “names” unconfirmed victims, and then turn around and taunt her to name those unconfirmed victims and spill the dirty details. Do you want her to be respectful here or not?

If Dustin, Shaun, and other individuals on here connected to The Dis has backed up JL’s stories and claims, is that not enough? I’m beginning to think Pete could film a full on confessional video admitting to it all and some would still be giving JL a hard time over nothing.

 

[JaqAndGus]

Wait a second, I realized I might be missing something that Coolwhip inadvertently pointed out when they mentioned this

“major factor” long after the rest of the story

JL’s story does change the narrative. My understanding has long been the others on the team were in the dark and totally shocked as events unfolded. (I have been doubtful of this, but whatever.)

To be clear, I don’t want to identify the person impacted and I am not asking for more details of any story. I am just exploring who on the team has HEARD the stories.

There is a story that JL acknowledges is hearsay so I will refer it to it as the “hearsay story” to be consistent to JL’s wording. Now Dustin has come to confirm his knowledge of hearing similar things?

I can 100% agree to JL’s story the same as Sean has. We all heard the same things.

Dustin just to be clear are you confirming that you had heard the story involving Pete’s father or heard the hearsay story or both?

Regardless if Dustin heard it or not, we are to understand from JL there was this hearsay story (whatever it entails) that was being shared among the team?!

JL called it a twisted betrayal and stuff of parent’s nightmares and wanted to protect her son. I say that conveying that it held a lot of gravity to her and I do believe she took it seriously.

If JL heard it, clearly it was passed down to her years later. So others on the team also have heard the story!? Wait, so did they know as it was originally transpiring, shortly after or years later? How did the story even first become known to the team to even be passed down to JL?

So that means one of 4 things

1. They have never heard the hearsay story and have zero idea what JL is referring to.
2. They have heard the hearsay story, didn’t believe it was plausible and didn’t investigate it.
3. They heard it, look into it and determined it was false.
4. They have heard it, think it is plausible and did tit all about it.

Now I feel like we are back to revisiting an earlier question from months ago? How much did others know?!! How many warning sign did the others have? And when?!!

 

[justthisonce]

I simply meant that I heard the story first hand about the father. Other than that, I’m not exactly sure what’s being referenced.

 

[MichaelsAchilles]

How many employees of that place have full-on PTSD after leaving? That workplace sounds like the things nightmares are made of and I applaud Sean, Dustin and JL for being brave enough to share their experiences.

I don't think you can understand exactly what it was like to work there without the full context of how things operated there. JL is trying to give us that context. Trauma is trauma and it sounds like JL was in a position where she feared for her finanical safety and then was presented with information where she was in fear of her child's physical safety. That is a lot for anyone to have to process. Let's nor forget Charles out of nowhere spoke up and talked about cameras in the bathrooms...

After putting some of the pieces together it makes much more sense why Corey and Jule stepped away for years. I am not sure why they would choose to ever come back, but maybe Pete had something over them contractually that required some level of participation.

Pete is a truly horrid person and deserves everything he is hopefully suffering from now. With any luck he is very isolated so there is no one else he can harm.

 

[Murray9000]

Regardless if Dustin heard it or not, we are to understand from JL there was this hearsay story (whatever it entails) that was being shared among the team?!

JL called it a twisted betrayal and stuff of parent’s nightmares and wanted to protect her son. I say that conveying that it held a lot of gravity to her and I do believe she took it seriously.

If JL heard it, clearly it was passed down to her years later. So others on the team also have heard the story!? Wait, so did they know as it was originally transpiring, shortly after or years later? How did the story even first become known to the team to even be passed down to JL?

So that means one of 4 things

1. They have never heard the hearsay story and have zero idea what JL is referring to.
2. They have heard the hearsay story, didn’t believe it was plausible and didn’t investigate it.
3. They heard it, look into it and determined it was false.
4. They have heard it, think it is plausible and did tit all about it.

Objection, your honor.

 

[DISbored]

I simply meant that I heard the story first hand about the father. Other than that, I’m not exactly sure what’s being referenced.

Where have you been? Everything ok?|..

 

[CoolWhip]

Wait a second, I realized I might be missing something that Coolwhip inadvertently pointed out when they mentioned this



JL’s story does change the narrative. My understanding has long been the others on the team were in the dark and totally shocked as events unfolded. (I have been doubtful of this, but whatever.)

To be clear, I don’t want to identify the person impacted and I am not asking for more details of any story. I am just exploring who on the team has HEARD the stories.

There is a story that JL acknowledges is hearsay so I will refer it to it as the “hearsay story” to be consistent to JL’s wording. Now Dustin has come to confirm his knowledge of hearing similar things?




Dustin just to be clear are you confirming that you had heard the story involving Pete’s father or heard the hearsay story or both?

Regardless if Dustin heard it or not, we are to understand from JL there was this hearsay story (whatever it entails) that was being shared among the team?!

JL called it a twisted betrayal and stuff of parent’s nightmares and wanted to protect her son. I say that conveying that it held a lot of gravity to her and I do believe she took it seriously.

If JL heard it, clearly it was passed down to her years later. So others on the team also have heard the story!? Wait, so did they know as it was originally transpiring, shortly after or years later? How did the story even first become known to the team to even be passed down to JL?

So that means one of 4 things

1. They have never heard the hearsay story and have zero idea what JL is referring to.
2. They have heard the hearsay story, didn’t believe it was plausible and didn’t investigate it.
3. They heard it, look into it and determined it was false.
4. They have heard it, think it is plausible and did tit all about it.

Now I feel like we are back to revisiting an earlier question from months ago? How much did others know?!! How many warning sign did the others have? And when?!!

I feel like 2 scenarios were tossed over the fence and most people only caught one…

 

[countesslu]

Agreed. So if I'm interpreting what you're suggesting correctly, JL's hinting revealed 2 pieces of info 1) about Pete's father, that we've discussed a bit, and 2) about similar actions/abuse allegedly done by Pete towards a friend/coworker's child, I noticed she touched on it a bit but didn't provide more detail than that, just speculation, but I think now knowing what we know about #1, it makes #2 have a little more possibility.
And excuse me for assuming/speculating, but Pete has his site dedicated to his father with all of this love and adoration for who we now know to be a predator.. is dedicating the studio to someone else and constantly talking about it for 15 years remembering a friend and being the "good guy"... or is it a show of guilt/needing to 'make up for' hurting/betraying his friend!?

 

[invisobelt]

If only we had a way to communicate with The Ghost of Bob Varley to ask what happened.

Oh wait...

 

[LobCheapek]

I feel like 2 scenarios were tossed over the fence and most people only caught one…

Then by all means please point out with quotes what 2 scenarios you’re taking issue with the rest of us missed. Choosing to be overly vague here without “receipts” is causing more confusion. I feel JL has addressed it, but if you feel she has not, then let’s be direct here.

JL has only told us the bigger pieces of her story. Of course there have to be smaller pieces that she hasn’t shared or has only alluded to once or twice.