I Fired Sarkastik Worlock

I find myself writing this column under the duress of optics. What’s worse is the fact that talking about it will cause more refractions. I’ve learned the value in letting the shallow observer think the worst of me as it creates a natural moat around my castle. Still, someone I trust and respect thinks it best to convey my thoughts on this issue. Perhaps the therapeutics of writing it won’t hurt either. This is not a piece you read for entertainment. Even now, I am distracted with more important things as I edit.

I fired my moderator who goes by the name, Sarkastik Worlock. I know him as my friend Jeremiah but he doesn’t like to use his full name in public so I won’t share it now. My gut wants to share it. It doesn’t even feel obligated to keep his secret. I go further to say I think it’s wrong to even believe one could have anonymity. But I respect everyone’s privacy including his right now. Sark was my cohost for a podcast named High Magick. He also modded my livestream and a board on Telegram which carried my name and our dojo/airship group. Dojo is an unlisted Zoom meeting where you need a special invitation code to participate. The replays are available to members who missed the live meeting. We’ve been hosting these meetings since Corona. Many find it therapeutic to go back and watch how their posture has changed since joining the group and our library keeps it for them to do just that.

Sark did not participate as much in the Zoom groups but gave the board most of his attention and it was a big part of his online world. Last Spring, the tone of the boards was festering some poor behavior and I brought this to his attention privately. He agreed with my assessment but seemed to lack the follow-through to prune. This problem got worse over the next few weeks while I encouraged him to act. The final straw came when some of the members started bullying patrons who were withdrawing their financial support from my show. I realized then I was being held responsible for the experiences they were having under Sark’s hand.

I saw firsthand the validity of those complaints and they were significant. It got so bad in April I left the group hoping to motivate Sark to draw his sword. Still no action. In May, I spoke with him in person and told him we could not continue and he needed to either remove my name from the description or nuke the place immediately. He again agreed but only in word.

Three days later, after again seeing no action, I decided to clean the board myself. My first two kills were Johnny B and Tieske. Sark made a choice between them and me and chose them. He wrote me a firm letter expressing his displeasure which I won’t share now because it was private correspondence. His reaction was not surprising as I wanted him to feel displeasure at making someone clean his mess. Sark’s reaction was to join/form another group called the “Mutineers.” As far as I knew, all was well because I felt liberated from the responsibility of their behavior and they had their own community to continue being themselves.

Problem solved.

A few days later, one of our private meetings was featured by a live streamer who used the content to ridicule my community as the Mutineer’s high-fived each other in the audience. Me and my team spent hours trying to find and report the videos properly to have them removed. I was furious and wrote to Sark and told him I would not tolerate them releasing our private conversations. I told him I had placed his full name in two of the ending credits of the podcast we produced together and wished him a long evening reporting them to YouTube. My statement never happened though. I only told him this as a response to what they did earlier. I went on to threaten to release his name on more of our podcasts if I did not see some kind of response from him showing the behavior would stop. He did not reply nor did he stop.

I did what I could to protect these conversations. I reacted to a group of self-proclaimed Mutineers that were attempting to hurt innocent people. I did not publish his name but definitely wanted to send a threatening message in an attempt to invoke intimidation. I think my behavior was warranted. I believe in using private correspondence as a mode of persuasion. I was not dealing with someone who was being rational. I was dealing with people who broke a bond of human decency.

People were doubting me under a lack of context. If you are one of the people who disagrees with me on this I don’t want to share a circle with you. I have shown my loyalty to my community and will act just as harshly the next time someone tries to ridicule or hurt us. I invited Sark to discuss this like an adult. Me and many others have personally invited him to an audience of his peers. He has chosen to ignore every attempt we have made to confront him.

I have no choice but to entertain your thoughts now on how I could have handled this better or how bad I am by making a threat to release someone’s name who has already chosen to be a public figure. It was the only leverage I had and I used it. I already saw Sark release personal emails and condone the release of other people’s likeness and identity. All i could do was hit him between the eyes and so I did. Please note, I still haven’t told you his last name because I think that would be wrong. It was not wrong for me to intimidate him to set a boundary.

Sark used to believe what we did here was sacred and confidential. He changed his belief under duress. I believe in Sark’s privacy back when I called him my friend and still today under duress. Note, I have not changed my belief under duress. I have shown consistent behavior in my convictions. I will not invade his right to privacy unless another trespass requires it. I hope I lose followers over this because I don’t want followers. I want discerners who respect my consistent history to only shoot what is necessary to survive.

That’s what you get from James True.