Who Is Targetable?
Targetability is not about who a person is. It’s about how a system sees them — and how easily that system can punish them without destabilizing itself.
This post builds a taxonomy of targetability inside Wyoming’s rural punitive OS.
It shows how identity, narrative, and geography combine to determine who receives protection and who receives punishment.
Through this lens, the Rihanna Novalee Chasingstars case becomes structurally legible: not an anomaly, but an expected outcome.
Identity Factors: Gender, Race, Class, Queerness, Disability, Outsider Status
Targetability begins with identity.
Systems assess people based on how closely they align with the “default citizen” template.
High‑targetability identities include:
- Trans women
- Indigenous people
- Queer and gender‑expansive people
- Disabled people
- Poor or working‑class individuals
- Outsiders or newcomers
- Anyone who disrupts local norms simply by existing
Low‑targetability identities include:
- Cis men
- White locals
- People with strong community ties
- Individuals aligned with law enforcement culture
- Those who fit the region’s “good citizen” archetype
Identity determines the starting point of the system’s risk calculus.
It does not determine guilt or innocence — only vulnerability.
Narrative Factors: Who Fits the “Good Citizen” Story
Every system has a story about who belongs.
In Wyoming’s rural OS, the “good citizen” narrative includes:
- rugged individualism
- local loyalty
- traditional gender norms
- cultural conservatism
- insider networks
- predictable identity lanes
People who fit this narrative are granted:
- presumption of innocence
- narrative protection
- benefit of the doubt
- automatic legitimacy
People who do not fit it are granted:
- suspicion
- narrative inversion
- conditional rights
- targetability
Narrative fit determines how the system interprets behavior — not the behavior itself.
Geographic/Cultural Factors: Rural Punitive Culture, Small‑Town Networks
Targetability is amplified by geography.
Rural punitive culture
Small communities often rely on:
- tight social networks
- insider loyalty
- informal power hierarchies
- cultural homogeneity
- “protect our own” reflexes
These conditions create a high‑captivity OS where:
- insiders are shielded
- outsiders are exposed
- difference is treated as threat
- conformity is rewarded
- deviation is punished
Small‑town networks
In small towns, law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and community members often share:
- social circles
- family ties
- political alignment
- cultural expectations
This creates a system where targetability is not just identity‑based —
it is network‑based.
If you are not part of the network, you are structurally vulnerable.
Case Lens: Where Rihanna Sits in That Matrix
Rihanna Novalee Chasingstars sits at the intersection of multiple high‑targetability factors:
Identity
She is a trans woman — a group historically denied equal protection in rural punitive systems.
Narrative fit
She does not align with the “default citizen” story.
Her self‑defense challenges the region’s identity architecture.
Geography
She lives in a rural OS where difference is treated as breach.
Her attackers fit the insider profile; she does not.
Power
She had no institutional backing, no insider network, and no narrative protection.
Outcome
Because she sits at the convergence of these factors:
- she was charged
- her attackers were not
- her self‑defense was reframed as aggression
- her attackers’ aggression was reframed as victimhood
- her rights were treated as conditional
- her existence was treated as destabilizing
This is not personal.
It is structural.
Rihanna is targetable in this OS.
Her attackers are not.
Closing
Targetability is the system’s sorting mechanism.
It determines who receives protection, who receives punishment, and who carries the system’s contradictions.
In the Inequality State, targetability is not a side effect —
it is the operating principle.
Understanding who is targetable is essential to understanding:
- why Rihanna was charged
- why her attackers were not
- why narrative inversion occurred
- why equal protection failed
- why the system behaved exactly as it did
This taxonomy is the backbone of the series —
and the key to seeing the architecture clearly.
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