As I mentioned in part 1 of this series, I’ve seen Prelude to Axanar (and also “the Vulcan Scene” released by Axanar Productions…or Ares Studios…or whatever they’re calling themselves these days) and agree with their fans that these are high-quality productions.

So imagine my surprise I was lumped into a group that Alec Peters and his flunkeys call “AXANAR haters”…simply because I joined Axamonitor, a Facebook group of people who are upset with Peters for his apparent inability to produce the two 15-minute episodes allowed by the CBS lawsuits; his possible probable misuse of donor funds; his constant fundraising despite the money that he earns from sales of items that belong to the CBS IP; his “Ares Studios” Patreon, his superchats in his numerous webcasts, etc. etc.; and MOST OF ALL – his bullying of literally anyone who ever says anything that he perceives might be against him.

Really, I wouldn’t call myself a “hater” of any sort; my feelings about Alec Peters, the rabid people in his camp, and the things they’ve done and said are obviously strongly negative, but “hater” is a childish term that I’ve only ever used jokingly, and it’s honestly pretty damn scary how often they throw it around and how serious they are in their use of it, especially as they regularly take it further and refer to the aforementioned Facebook group as a “hate group” – which, in case you aren’t aware, is patently incorrect, as the definition of a “hate group” is as follows:

A hate group is a social group that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other designated sector of society.

– Wikipedia

But in reference to my original point: I am not an “Axanar hater”. I mean first of all, how can one be a “hater” (even if you ascribe to that term, which I do not) of something that doesn’t yet exist? Second of all, I have zero problem admitting that the actually existing production that started this whole lot of shenanigans is very high quality.

And yet here I am, being shoved into a faction that has been erroneously named by the person it aims to call out for his actions…so whether you want the following details or not, this second part of my series on Alec Peters and bullying in fandom is going to focus on how and why I came to join that Facebook group…and it begins with my being introduced to a friend of a friend at a San Diego Comic-Con industry party in 2018.

The person who I met at that party in July 2018 was my [now] life partner, Dean. Our meeting was totally by chance – I was there with a friend who knew him from Dragon Con, and after she introduced us, we hung out with him and one of his friends – and while she and his buddy argued about The Last Jedi (which I maintain to this day was a great movie), Dean and I bonded over our love of Red Dead Redemption.

So Dean and I became fast friends, and by the end of that year (again, 2018) we had become best friends. I lived in South Carolina, he lived in California, and throughout the first 16.5 months that we knew each other, we only saw each other a handful of times at events/conventions.

Now, due to the nature of some of the attacks levied against us by Alec Peters, his girlfriend, and their flunkeys, I feel the need to point out that during those first 16.5 months, I was single (for the most part – I dated here and there, but that’s about it) and he was married (until his wife abandoned him and their children in early September 2019). While we certainly began moving into the realm of “more than friendship” in mid-ish fall 2019, our relationship officially began when we took a trip to New Orleans together for my birthday in December of that year (again, 2019).

I will go into far more detail about why the aforementioned information/timeline matters in a future installment of this series – but for now, suffice it to say that one of the tactics Alec Peters, his girlfriend, and their flunkeys have attempted to use against myself (and my partner, for that matter) is disparaging our relationship – most particularly the timing of it, including consistent, repetitive comments that allude to us having known each other for years longer than we actually have.

(Granted, that IS part of their general M.O. – utilizing the illusory truth effect – a tactic used in propaganda that involves repeating a partial-truth or outright lie over and over again to activate that glitch in the human psyche that equates repetition with truth.)

That, and it is because of my relationship with Dean that I ended up being part of that aforementioned group of people who are rightfully upset with Alec Peters’ abuse of the Star Trek fandom and CBS’ IP. A little bit of a side note, though – we aren’t the only ones! Way back in [I believe] 2016 Wil Wheaton wrote the following:

They’ve put all fan films at risk, because they exploited the passion and love that Trekkies have for Star Trek to get money, and now they’re acting like they’re innocent victims of big bad CBS. These people are not innocent victims. They are morally and ethically and legally in the wrong, and while I have a lot of problems with copyright and IP law, these guys are not the people I want to be the poster children for reforming those laws.

I love fan fiction and fan films and headcanon and everything fans do to create their own extended universes (ST Online is a great example), and these jerks may have put all of that at risk, because they acted in bad faith from the beginning.

They are not on your side, they are not on Star Trek’s side, they are not good people.

Prior to Wil Wheaton speaking out against “these guys” – prior to the lawsuit between CBS/Paramount and Alec Peters/Axanar Productions – my now-partner Dean was, in fact, part of the original team who began working on Axanar soon after Alec Peters raised over a million dollars to produce the fan film. Dean had known AP for quite some time and ended up building the original Axanar sets. (In fact, he even traveled to Georgia in 2017 to help rebuild their bridge set when AP moved his “studio” there from California.)

But by the time I met Dean in the summer of 2018, he was no longer speaking to or having any sort of dealings with Alec Peters, although it would be nearly a year before I began learning just how bad things could really get for someone whom Alec Peters decides has “screwed him”.

Their original “falling out” was barely that – it was simply Dean stepping away from any sort of friendship or dealings with Alec Peters, due to AP suing one of Dean’s friends (and sometimes business partner), Tiana, over a movie prop deal that AP believed he had been cut out of. Others have reported on that original lawsuit, so I don’t feel the need to go into detail; if you want more information on it I suggest checking out this article on the Axamonitor website (definitely read it in its entirety).

What’s most important to my story – which is really mine and Dean’s story, at this point – was that Alec’s communications to and posts about Dean became increasingly hostile as 2018 ended and 2019 progressed. During this time period, Dean joined the aforementioned Axamonitor Facebook group (in February 2019, specifically). Due to certain claims that have been made regarding his involvement with the group, I reviewed his participation in it, which for more than half of 2019 shows only a sparse history of VERY measured comments, with his first actual post in the group not occurring until June 19, 2019 (sharing an article I wrote called “Ten Infamous Pieces of Fandom Lore”, in which Axanar was included as just ONE of the TEN infamous pieces of fandom lore).

Then, when the Axamonitor website published an article in July 2019 titled “Peters Accused of Taking $94k from Enterprise Model Sale”, Dean was quoted in that article – and both before and right after the article was released, Dean received lawsuit threats from Alec. (As I mentioned in my “Interlude” post the other day, threatening lawsuits – and often following through with them – is one of Alec Peters’ common bullying tactics.)

While Alec’s original threats to Dean were about suing him for defamation*, when he finally did file a lawsuit in August 2020, it was regarding the same deal that he had already sued Tiana Armstrong for, and included the following demand (please note that this screenshot is from a demand letter sent on 8/4/2020 and is in court record and therefore public domain):

The amount listed in the demand letter was, to say the least, egregious. The first deal officially ended in a Facebook message sent to Tiana Armstrong by Alec Peters, in which Alec stated that the seller was “being an asshole” – and then the item from that original negotiation became part of an ENTIRELY SEPARATE transaction MONTHS after the seller outright stated he would not be involved in any sale that included Alec Peters – a transaction from which Dean grossed [just] $39,537.68, BEFORE taxes.

And then there are these public Facebook posts/comments….

So in August 2020*, Alec Peters sued my partner. In late 2020 (exact date unknown as I can only see that as of today, 1/29/23, I “joined Axamonitor about 2 years ago”), I personally became a member of the Axamonitor Facebook group, with my first comment in said group being on November 17, 2020.

I understand that this has been a VERY long diatribe leading to one very simple conclusion: I joined the Axamonitor Facebook group (which Alec Peters and his followers refer to – wrongfully – as a group of “Axanar haters” or – even more problematically – as a “hate group” – and was therefore automatically deemed an “Axanar Hater”) because my partner of about one year (at the time, and someone who had been my best friend for about a year prior to that) – was sued by Alec Peters for an egregious amount of money, IN THE WRONG STATE*, by the way – and was the subject of posts, comments, and live webcast diatribes by AP.

What happened AFTER I joined that group is a story that involves so much outright libel and so many false accusations against myself (and Dean, among other people) that I would laugh about it if it weren’t for the fact that I think these people actually BELIEVE the lies that they are parroting. It’s herd/hive/mob mentality at its worst, and while they of course say the same about the people who are part of Axamonitor, I personally am speaking from a position of having not joined that group until I witnessed someone I love suffer [wrongfully] at the hands of Alec Peters.

I apologize in advance for how image-heavy my future installments in this series are going to be due to the fact that within about 8 months, I had become a part of their constant libel/threats…but I guess that’s just what someone has to come to expect when they are drawn into this absolute nonsense, right? (Please note sarcasm.)

Note: Alec Peters already has a SLAPP judgment against him in California (a lawsuit brought against “individuals and their entities to dissuade their critics from producing negative publicity”); additionally, the terms of any possible verbal agreement that was entered into regarding the negotiation that he sued Dean over was already well past the two-year statute of limitations for verbal agreement laws set by the state of California before he even filed the lawsuit in Nevada, where, again, Dean does not live and has never lived.

Previous installments:
Part 1: I’m not a Star Trek Fan
Interlude: Proving my Point
Continue reading:
Part 3: I’m Not Perfect
Interlude 2: Too Little, Too Late?
Part 4: I’m Not Required to Ignore Attacks Against Me
Part 5: I’m Going to Protect My Family
Interlude 3: The Aftermath of an Interview