It's been brought to my attention that, allegedly, I was being targeted/"groomed" by a collection of people who were really not that great, despite the fact that I was not even a proper "mark". In essence, many of the parties involved were not bueno, and simply wanted a dancing monkey.
Or a corpse.
It's a heady topic, and mostly not worth getting into (mostly because I refuse to drag it here in its entirety).
There are some who will claim that they helped, as a form of projection/defense mechanism/obfuscation. Frankly, they didn't. But if you need to announce it for acclaim, or claim that it was your intent, or to make yourself feel better... the odds are that no such thing occurred. IYKYK, and I'm certain I know the 3 or so people who really did help.
In any case, it felt appropriate for me to mention this after having ample time to consider it. I'm glad I could fully disconnect myself from all of that.
Prince was right.