Can I tell you a secret?

Sirin is a wonderful interviewer and so very patient with Donna who is the most frustrating human I’ve ever listened to. Donna should be prosecuted for enabling her vindictive child and placing blame on victims. Matthew is an awful person who victimized hundreds of people for his own selfish needs Donna. The victim blaming by so many people in this story is infuriating. I’m so glad Matthew was sent to jail, finally. When Donna said she felt that victims should be more “subdued” during sentencing I wanted to put her through what her son put his victims through and then see how she responded. What. An. Awful. Selfish. Woman.

Matthew is someone who hurt over 60 people but more attention is given to his recovery than to the recovery of his victims. The emotional and financial abuse he inflicted is downplayed in favor of solving his problems and blaming a system that didn’t provide enough oversight for people with stalking tendencies. In addition to manipulating his mother, he managed to manipulate the podcast creators into forgetting the people he substantially harmed.

This series grabbed me from the very beginning - Matthew Hardy’s actions against so many women and their friends, employers and families were insidious and devastating. While I understand that he was bullied in school and has special needs, it doesn’t excuse what he did to destroy these womens’ lives. So many horrible things can be done and said to others on social media, this scenario could easily happen to anyone. Absolutely horrifying.

Way too much misinformation about autism from non-autistic people. This series could have been so much more insightful and effective with more collaboration with autistic people who have expertise and experience in the specific issues at hand. Talking to autistic people who have themselves experienced stalking or who work as advocates for victims of stalking/SA/DV would have given much needed perspective. We would never excuse his behavior the way his mother did and ultimately the infantilization of autistic people pervading this series harms autistic people and stalking victims alike.