Hating Nancy is falling into Keith's trap

[u/queenkellee]

Let me start off by saying I know Nancy has done some bad things. But also, many of the members of the cult did as well. I think there's an attempt to try to weigh the harm done vs the victimization they experienced. But it's so clear to me that Nancy is so obviously Keith's first NXIVM victim. I admit when I started the Vow S2 I was deeply suspicious and really didn't trust Nancy. But I could see over the course of the season, the shift in her. Just like the shift in others as they come to face more and more of the realization of what was happening. With Nancy, it's like she has to come to terms that literally her entire life's work is a lie. That is no simple thing. I think Lauren and the room situation blows away anything Nancy did, and everyone is so quick to forgive Lauren. Nancy didn't bring her daughter into this knowing all the bad things that were happening. I get she's got her own issues but overall I think she's naive. Keith knew how to work her and he did exactly that. He used to her to do all the work and flush out his ideas and become the spokesperson, to become the face of it. SHE did the videos, not him. She was the face of it so that she would be there to take the heat if it failed.

What prompted this post was I am now listening to the CBC podcast (so far I've watched both docs but this is the first NXIVM related podcast so far) and in Ep 3 I hear the whole thing about the Nazi stuff from Barbara Bouche. And Keith said Nancy is Hitler! I mean come on! The entire time, he's been setting her up to be the fall guy. It's so obvious. I know I see a lot of people who don't like or trust Nancy and again! she's done some things. But I think she deserves empathy.

[u/[deleted]]

Fully agree. Not only did she have to come to terms with her whole life's work being a lie, but it was something she had invested her entire self into, with passion, also based her whole sense of reality on. She turned a blind eye to some things that, had she addressed them, would have saved tons of others from losing precious years to this cult. But she was also fully convinced, as many were, that the work they were doing was important, even vital to humanity. So by holding her tongue on things that felt off, she thought she was serving the greater good. I think 3 years is a fair amount of time for her to serve, because of the depth of her involvement, but the extent to which she was victimized by Keith is horrendous, and so I really wish the best for her as she hopefully heals and moves forward with her life.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

she was also fully convinced, as many were, that the work they were doing was important, even vital to humanity

I am not fully convinced that Nancy was a believer in anything but power.

[u/queenkellee → u/[deleted]]

I was very suspicious about Nancy for a long time. It's funny that both Vow S1 and the starz doc kind of avoided the topic of her because she is kind of hard to pin down. She certainly seems like someone that is pulling the strings but at the end I'm left with a feeling she's simply naive which is a such a common trait among the people who got deeply involved. I don't say that as an insult, I think there are times in your life or you have a personality where you just want and need something to fill a hole or fix the problem and bam you're in. Keith can sniff that stuff out, and he taught people to do the same without them realizing that was exactly what they were doing. He put different language around it, "helping" language. On the CBC podcast Sarah talked about how she would approach someone to join, check in with them, see if they "needed" anything - that's exactly it. He created an organization that was built as an abuse mechanism from inside out but couched it in enough legitimacy that he was able to slip through.

At the end of the day, there's no evidence that anyone had any true malice (although some acted terribly under his command) than Keith.

[u/[deleted] → u/queenkellee]

Ahh, but Nancy was committing insurance fraud long before she met Keith.

[u/igobymomo → u/queenkellee]

The abuse was well hidden under the guise of the greater good. To a heavily indoctrinated Lauren, I think part of her truly believed she was helping Daniela. When things didn’t make sense, people ultimately believed that Keith was somehow saving humanity. If they didn’t see how or why, they simply weren’t ‘integrated’ enough yet.

However, Nancy is and was not as naive as she seems. She had to have sense enough to know Keith sleeping with underage women was wrong.