The deanonymization of polarizing internet writers has become something of a trend in the last few years: Scott Alexander, Mencius Moldbug, Bronze Age Pervert, Angelicism01. And next on the chopping block, Miya Black Hearted Cyber Angel Baby.

For each of these cases, one thing is consistent: the goal and result is not any kind of retribution or shaming, but the destruction of their work or their ability to perform it. These figures were all already self-sufficient and not at threat of being “deplatformed” like your standard cancel, yet they still had their own personal reasons to write under a pseudonym. Failing to draw any blood on them in a marketplace of ideas¹, their detractors knew only that undermining the right to a nom de plume could in some way or another handicap the reception of their work or their ability to engage freely in it as they wish².

The motivation is just to create a drag on artists/writers that threaten them. It’s sad that even in today’s cultural dark age—with few serious artists, public intellectuals or social/critical theorists engaging our rapidly evolving contemporary existence—low relevance individuals acting in bad faith are empowered to lever the mob and media organs to cut down tall poppies whenever they attract attention. Their mission is vicious—the vacuums these figures would leave behind if their voices were truly eliminated would only ever be filled with mediocrity.

OK, full disclosure: I find myself in the same position right now, with doxx being dangled by certain groups³ in a threat to silence me.

This actually already happened before, when I was in the middle of operating my previous persona; at the time, I ceded to the blackmail and deactivated my account, halting the project mid-stage ⁴ ⁵. The same people have since tied me to CFang and had been working to spread my personal information as well as perpetuate the rumors that fed into this recent drama.

I’m being once again threatened in DM’s to go dark or be doxxed. With the attempted cancel already largely subsided—the smear that appeared during my break has already been quite conclusively debunked in this thread—my personal information has been forwarded to certain art world rivals and journalists who are gleefully waving it around and waiting with bated breath for me to make any next move to drop it.

This is that move. But first, a tangent.

As anyone can tell by now, I hold a strong preference for the compartmentalization of my work (as is my right) and tying them together under a face and name is an unfortunate handicap (as is their goal). However, the easy suggestion to simply run up another new name is not an option for me, and I feel I owe an explanation for my thought process as I proceed with an act that seems to void my writing on authorship.

Airgapping each project is what I did try to do with the previous accounts that have now been tied, relying on no shared brand or clout as I began each one. Unfortunately, my idiosyncratic writing and thought, and the obsessiveness of both my fans and my haters, lead me to always being quite quickly recognized⁶ (I admit, it is flattering). I’m forced to accept it’s simply not possible to maintain compartmentalized pseudonymity given the nature of my method—the forthcoming mode of ‘writing as thinking’, the externalized subconscious—and frankly, the “open secret” status seems to service just fine, except when its intentionally exposed with destructive goals. After all, all it requires is a simple suspension of disbelief from the audience.

Interestingly enough, the alternative mode to pouring yourself out online (which allows restraint in real life) has you carrying a restrained and careful presentation online, paired with socialized discourse in real life. Yet, in the latter, you also always end up deanonymized given enough attention, only it’s going to be a friend, an ex-lover, or your own brother. Satoshi dipped out very quickly. Uncle Ted wrote too much.

It really comes down to only how much attention is on you, how much you write, and how much people care to stop you. Further, it’s a given that advanced tools for deanonymization will only become more accessible in the near-term; increased “opsec” is not a solution here. I really don’t believe online prominence and anonymity are actually simultaneously possible in the long-term.

So should one not write online? The same question arises with the fear of your internet activity being tracked by federal agents too—also a lost cause, they’ve backdoored your CPU, they’ve backdoored your everything—the only actual solution is throwing out your computer, but then it’s simply no longer worth it: access to history’s greatest calculator, library and communication network is just too valuable.

Writing in the highly socialized context of blogging, or twitter’s microblogging, or the Warholian groupchat, achieves the externalization of your subconscious in a way that furthers the model of writing as the technologically augmented thinking, a pre-modern boon that’s achieved further accelerated through digital networking. This is likewise too worthwhile to give up just due to the consequences of an inevitably deanonymization.

The answer, then, is, as usual, neither for nor against, but through:

Option 1: Develop not anonymization online, but in real life. Become a ghost, exit society; burn digital fingerprints, de-bank, expatriate.

Option 2: Power through and push the Overton window to accept psuedonymity. End the norms enabling cancel culture, normalize your own thoughts and run up the bodyguard bag as needed.⁷

I’m working on both.⁸

What my blackmailers don’t understand is the main concern that led me to deactivate the first time was not personal safety, privacy, or reputation, but the destruction the introduction of my face, ethnicity, background, etc—as well the conflation between projects and reduction of them to one of singular authorship and shared agency—did to the persona-based projects I was working in.

It’s a terrible sight to see them goring my work, but in this they’ve already succeeded. I would be just as disgusted to see art destroyed if I was a bystander, as many were; and knowing what I do now, I regret not standing ground to defend myself before—it’s the same reductionist destruction they tried to do to Milady, which fortunately I had the opportunity to fall on the sword for.⁹

With that bridge already crossed, taking a rational assessment of doxxing consequences right now, my decision is thus: follow in the steps of Moldbug¹⁰ and Scott Alexander¹¹ etc, selfdox, and continue writing and continue my work.

My personal circumstances happen to leave me financially secure in non-employment, and I’m a ghost in real life—I’ve always been reclusive, but have progressively shed nearly all my IRL’s as I’ve entered deeper commitment to my work, those still with me understand exactly what I’m doing. With the defamation attempts sliding by the wayside, there really isn’t much vector to threaten me left short of harassing my family, or an assassination bounty¹³, which I think even my most obsessive haters would not go so far to commit to—confused as they are, they do believe they’re operating on the side of goodness.

However, the funniest realization from wargaming out deanonymization as an inevitability is the parallel inevitability that one aunt or another’s unsecured Facebook will feature unflattering teenage photos of you at their kid’s birthday or whatever, weaponizable by haters to insinuate unattractiveness, like the pre-debut shots of a K-Pop idol. The conclusion is we must all become eboy/egirl and make readily available ulzzang selfies under our government names as a reputational contingency for the eventual pseudonymous fame Schelling point unmasking event before writing online today—if there is any possibility you might find attention, anyway. Luckily my time on instagram has left me prepared.

As I’m about to be facedoxxed as well as namedoxxed for making a post anyway, let me frontrun the visual canonization in the collective consciousness with my own ulzzang headshot:

I’ll also give you my given name: Krishna; and enough of a bread crumb trail to dig up the social media relics of my irl self—my old are.na. Are.na is an artist-made image-focused exocortex implementation that I adopted in my early teens and used extensively throughout that formative period, as a transparent outpouring of my interests and research which you can see lead up to my later work¹⁴, it would be of interest to the diehard stans.

From there, you can find more of my old writing, media and websites—and as my opps are so keen on sharing, yes, my full name is also not too deep down the rabbit hole; though the only pot at the end of that rainbow is discovering random members of my family (who, FYI, are already, for better or worse, well familiar with my idiosyncrasies and my habit for inviting trouble online and offline, and have been made aware of this situation). I’ve left the doxx trail up for anyone to find with a bit of effort, to leave no reason for them to share it obsessively under me and my mutual’s tweets.

And finally, since you all want to know so much about the “real” me, here’s an artist’s bio:

• Possibly autistic, or maybe just high IQ¹⁵ and undersocialized. You decide. I’m a prude and respect chastity. I have low tolerance for perversions, ugliness, bitterness and general ignobility. My vice is alcohol. I believe in karma, fate and arete.
• I’m reclusive. In the past, I would sometimes go months at a time mute hikkikimori, even before really going online—I used to use the internet exclusively for reading, now I don’t read and use it for posting. I entered the online social sphere and began writing for the first time with Miya, not counting a preceding period of research.
• My 3 most important influences are William Burroughs, Nick Land and Ray Johnson. This is enough of a key to well illuminate the nature of my practice, if you understand all 3 it should make clear sense.
• I dropped out of art school, I wasn’t cancelled for my work but I would’ve been if I showed it to them. I started experimenting online and did it quietly and anonymously because the art world was too far behind, and still is, to receive it¹⁶. I wouldn’t mind killing myself for the art, like Ray Johnson did, in fact I plan to, when the moment is right—if the moment was right right now, I’d kill myself right now without hesitation. It’s only right.
• I summarize my views as landian accelerationism, cyberanarchism, and in general an extreme skepticism to all information originating from the State including all academia, including all western science, medicine and history. I have no interest in contemporary politics; I am interested in virtue, faith and contemporaneity. I identify as an online maximalist, network accelerationist and art extremist.
• I pray and meditate daily, and the reason I keep winning and winning and winning is my karma is good and my path is righteous. I’m determined to maintain the straight arrow holy mission I’ve felt call me since my youth because I know I have the ability to change the world for the better so I can’t karmically afford inaction or distraction—for the same reason, I’d advise waiting to stop me until after I’m done.
• I have a dog named charlie 🐶
• I hate lying unnecessarily but I am a private person and believe in the right to self-mythologize: there is exactly one lie in this list and I won’t tell you which.

There it is, now you have everything.

I want to make clear I do this not because I wanted to attach a name or face or body or identity to my work online, or to position a pivot back into an irl practice (lol), but only to nullify the attempted Streisand effect of that by front-running it, and eliminate the only “baggage” my detractors have been able to hold over me¹⁷—it’s the same as being cornered into “reclaiming Miya”, I didn’t do it for my own clout as some have accused me, it was forced onto me (I don’t care about clout I’m here to save the internet!!).

This is all so dumb, but the right move on the chessboard as it stands, and honestly not particularly consequential given my personal circumstances—it pays to be a recluse. There are also second-order benefits in this transition for Remilia’s grand strategy that will be illuminated in some time¹⁸.

To journalists reading this: my name and identity during the one-year period of June 2021 to June 2022 was Charlotte Fang, and only Charlotte Fang, pronouns she/her, 1st generation Chinese immigrant at London (LCF ‘24), and the comment you wanted to reach out to me for is: “The stories and information posted here are artistic works of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact.” This statement applies to everything in this article, by the way.

With that out of the way, expect more essays as I continue my work with Remilia beyond Milady—to be shared here on Mirror. I like it, it’s robustly backed up on IPFS and Arweave, adheres to free speech idealism, and I appreciate the team personally providing an invite-only subdomain even in the face of these events¹⁹.

Sincerely,

Xinma Sutra 查理卡地亚

Tiger King Immortal of The Golden Light Dissidents

Intern of the Chairman of the Board @ Remilia Corporation

P.S.

Thank you to everyone who sent their love and support. Being able to have been positive influence on other’s lives is very important to me and motivates me to continue doing what I do, I always appreciate being reached out to by people I’ve helped or inspired in any way. I’m glad the smear wasn’t able to turn away anyone I respect—I can’t think of a single person who I’ve lost to this²⁰*, but learned of many new admirers. I love you all. We of course knew a Miya unmasking was coming, but the combination of hacks, doxxes and slander led it to be more vicious than expected; this was unfortunate and I appreciate all the concern, but I’m unfazed and we’ll come out on top as we always do. Those individuals who knew our innocence yet still rose to try and hurt us harbor serious demons; if the black cloud that follows them wasn’t prominent before, it will be now. God will take care of them*—not our problem.

P.S.S. I wrote this post last week thinking of the DM’s and replies I received in response to my stepping down announcement, but the sudden outpouring of even more love on the timeline yesterday following cry pittie’s Charlotte’s Hat article (a very thoughtful read) has been extremely moving… Idk what to say except ILY ALL SM!!!!!!!

Footnotes

1. See: Crypto and its Discontents, Hello Web3 Entryists.
2. And if not embraced, any and every biopic detail that is drummed up from the deanonymization would be used against the figure: fighting dirty in the arena of rhetoric by making a one-sided crossover into the real, denanonymized shots fired from the anonymous peanut gallery.
3. A loose community of anti-crypto neonazis that were spurned in my days as Miya, as well as certain people in the art world threatened by us. Context on their background and their role in these allegations is documented here.
4. What I didn’t realize was their goal was not just to halt that work (Sonya Qafi Hassan) but also destroy the reception of the previous one (Miya Black Hearted Cyber Angel Baby) through conflating them both under one umbrella and then slandering it: they responded to my deactivation by dropping faked allegations and tying both projects together to sully them in one sweep, knowing I was not able to defend myself due to the dox blackmail. Even then it failed to stick due to the lack any actual evidence or victims (this was the same cancel they’ve dredged up again), so the focus mainly just drifted to disparaging my non-white ethnicity.
5. While the aspect of avoiding my dox being threatened again was one of the motivating factors for attempting to keep my past work separate, the primary one is still ultimately my belief compartmentalizing persona-based works helps reduce its misunderstanding. I not also firmly believe it is my right to do so, but that it’s also my right to disclaim authorship over these works altogether to any degree I see fit.
6. An ironic conundrum considering the paranoid urban legend the third category of my “audience”, those who fear me, have developed around my supposed ability to run entire networks of alts.
7. During the height of the satanic panic, Gary Gygax, author of Dungeons & Dragons, had to maintain a bodyguard unit. On a related note, I find much of the mainstream discussion of this cancel to have an interesting parallel to the early 00’s debate on if violent videogames leads players to commit violence IRL; only its the question of if performative posting induces hyperstition.
8. A funny consequence of the brunt of this Milady cancel being not on the actual content of Miya, which, even as satire, did genuinely contain not just homophobia, transphobia, racism, etc. but even arguments for genocide and colonialism. Instead it was on the baseless and implausible allegations of criminal activity. As time goes on and it becomes increasingly obvious the latter is fraudulent, the former has already snuck its way in and pushed the Overton window into normalizing serious extremism in art. It’s almost as if it was planned.
9. CFang on the timeline was, by the way, basically the depersonified Me—not counting the many stolen posts and jokes. With Milady, we exported the persona-egregore into a distributed system, and I’ve come to find that much more interesting than the construction of individual character personas; though don’t confuse that as a loss of interest in performative posting itself. The CFang account simply had little character design beyond the shorter lived stints as [Jade Tiger] and Charlotte Reed predating the launch of Milady.
10. Taking full claim for Miya and stepping down was seemingly successful in avoiding it being painted in the same brush (despite aggressive attempts to the contrary), but old fans of Miya have pointed out (archive) that it’s a serious confusion and inaccurate for me to have even claimed to “be Miya”, misunderstanding the basic principles the project expressed over its own authorship. I know, they’re right, but wearing the full burden of the name despite the confused conflation was necessary to communicate clearly to the specific court of public opinion that Milady was being scrutinized under, one that obviously struggled to understand any of the nuance of performance art, let alone a project operating in a distributed, post-authorship collaboration. It was the calculated move to take ownership and step down to halt the cancel in its tracks, the mob is only satiated with a simple and clear scapegoat offered for slaughter; Milady is thus saved even if it required the crucification of CFang.
11. Mencius Moldbug was gleefully revealed to be Curtis Yarvan in a TechCrunch hitpiece on neoreactionaries, which ultimately resulted in him stepping down from his brainchild, Urbit. But counterintuitively, deanonymizing is likely what allowed to him to gain more serious stature as a influential public intellectual in Silicon Valley in the years since.
12. Scott Alexander/Slate Star Codex famously deleted his blog after being informed by a New York Times reporter they planned to share his full name doxx in their hit piece. His concerns are very much the same as mine, (1) it impairs his ability to practice his work, and (2) it makes him and his family a target to plausibly actionable violent threats.
13. “Suicide from a gunshot to the back of the head” via our friends in the government is another reality I might ultimately invite on myself. I just hope when it happens I predict it well enough that I can lean into it as a final work—the first of its kind, a murder work. Is there an entry for “Suicide by CIA” on Wikipedia?
14. I believe Are.na’s Xanadu-inspired hypertextual framework was a large influence on the way I engage and frame culture conceptually; something I’ve long since sought to expand and normalize leading into our development of the Exocore. It is also the first place where I explored playfulness with the tools of a social network, with many conceptual channels stretching the boundaries of otherwise formal research categorization, e.g. Payne Whitney Gym, Each Day is Like a Thousand Years. Unfortunately a lot of my channels seem to have 404’d.
15. Did you think I’d disclose my exact IQ here? Ha!
16. Truthfully, I saw Miya and Sonya more as preliminary studies, not something I ever expected to see a serious audience beyond the participating subjects, let alone attention and influence among other artists in my generation—Burroughs didn’t start writing until he was 31 and I’ve always figured I wouldn’t produce any serious work until then either. I was very pleasantly surprised to learn its reception with contemporaries in the art world, which I had written off as hopeless to engage difficult new online work at the time. I’ve obviously adjusted my cynicism now, with Remilia making the gambit to introduce this new wave of net art into the art world, though we’ll see if we succeed—there remains significant push-back from incumbents.
17. I can’t deny it’s preferable doxxers use my own photos as an adult off my now reactivated social media instead of random highschool age photos of me, and cousins they confused for me, found off family’s poorly secured facebooks.
18. It’s not like we didn’t see this coming, the coordinated attack was telegraphed, allowing it to be wargamed in the lead-up; and now assessing the damage, our mid-term positioning remains firm.
19. It’s unfortunate I can’t share just how much the interest and support I receive from “higher-ups” in general has only accelerated in the face of this, it would truly make the opps seethe. The cultural pendulum has already swung back, it just hasn’t trickled down yet =]
20. OK wait, there actually was one person, @dystopiabreaker, I respect her as a true cyberanarchist and was very sad to see her take off the Milady—though tbh she never replied to my dms even when she wore one…