Skip to main content

HOAXED AGAIN


So, this happened.  I feel bad for Metafilter, because although I've only made one comment on it, I've read threads seeking advice and they seem like really cool people, especially librarian extraordinaire Jessamyn West. I've never been part of an Internet community where we really discuss personal stuff, it's always been around an interest, so I don't know what it's like to be betrayed like that.


Hoaxers have always fascinated me, because I have barely the energy to live one life, let alone two. It's all I can do some days to say "fine" to "how are you", living a lie would just take so much energy.

Hoaxing on the Internet is easier, because people can't see your body language and you don't have to provide anything physical. On the other hand, there's rarely any money in it. Traditional hoaxers (and the recent group of alleged memoir hoaxers) usually are paid for their trouble, though fame is undoubtedly a consideration.


I figure there are two types of Internet hoaxers, the I-did-it-for-the-lulz-ers and the empathy junkies. The first messes with people to feel powerful. They want to be seen as a former Navy Seal who has sex with super-models on a pile of money made by day trading, but who somehow always has plenty of time to mess with people on the Internet. Like Anonymous, they want people to feel that they could shut off the whole Internet in 10 seconds if it took their fancy.

My guess is that holdkris99 is the latter type, based on his use of two different (and contradictory) stories of abuse, plus social anxiety, familial rejection and recovery from meth addiction. Abuse, having a disease, recovery from addiction, gang membership, being a Holocaust victim or being punished for being a member of an oppressed group all make us want to reach out to someone, it's human nature.

With all the work hoaxers do (holdkris99 was on Metafilter for six years!), do they ever end up doing anything good with their abilities? Not so far as I've ever heard, maybe they just give us what they want at the time, so it could never really stand the test of the ages (ye gods, those fake Vermeers are awful), Judging by what I've read, I don't think holdkris99 has a future in writing, at least the critically acclaimed variety. I mean, just add Jesus to the Green Bay Packers story and you've got some glurge fit for Chicken Soup for the Soul. The touch of having the evil abusive grandpa die falling down the stairs on the way out of his mistress' apartment is just a bridge too far.

On the one hand, I kind of feel sorry for holdkris99, because you feel bad about yourself and want sympathy, so you make something up, but then you feel worse because it's not really FOR YOU, so you need more sympathy. A vicious cycle, really. On the other hand, if he made up abuse, that's really cruel to family members. Does he really think none of his family or anyone they know could figure out the Internet? That stuff's forever, man. 





Comments

ctrl-s said…
Gad. I saw all that as it occurred. (I read Metafilter a lot, but
seldom post.) I mainly felt bad for the site owner and
moderators, who were seriously (and justly) bummed out
and pissed off by the whole thing. I'd barely noticed
holdkris99 on the site, so I didn't get really upset when "his"
"wife" said he'd committed suicide, or read many of the
sympathetic comments that followed, but it was very weird to
find out it was fake. ...Metafilter has had some interesting
posts about Internet frauds of various kinds,
like this one from a few years ago:
http://www.metafilter.com/65521/The-Life-and-Death-of-Jesse-Jubilee-James-Featuring-Harlan-Ellison#1871921
ash966 said…
Wow. Using a voice changer to sound like a man on the phone is pretty hardcore. If a guy ever tells me he can't hook up IRL life because he has to reunite with his estranged father in Pakistan, I will know what's up.
ctrl-s said…
Yeah -- be warned (if you're that credulous in the first place, which you're not)! ...But the award for the most egregious Metafilter glurge hoax O.A.T. goes to "Kaycee Nicole" Swenson back in 2001. Just Google the name, and marvel at the insanity.

Popular posts from this blog

TOP TEN LIPSYNCH FOR YOUR LIFE SONGS FOR A DRAG KING EQUIVALENT OF RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE

 The Advocate has suggested that the greatest (i.e. only good) reality show ever, Rupaul's Drag Race , have a drag king contestant.  That's fine, but it would be much more entertaining to have a whole drag king competition. One of the best parts of Drag Race is seeing all the different types of queens compete: beauty queens, funny queens, conceptual queens, androgynous queens, scary queens, singing and dancing queens.  I want to see punk kings, gangsta rap kings, cock-rocking metal kings, panty-dropping R & B kings, country kings, baggy-pants burlesque comic kings, and of course, Elvis. I picked out some songs that make me think of different aspects of masculinity:  swaggering men, heartbroken men, lustful men, romantic men, philosophical men, and suicidally depressed men (interesting fact: I can think of dozens of songs by men about suicide, but only one female one: "Gloomy Sunday". What's up with that?) "That's Life" - Frank Sinatra

Things I Learned in 2020

Well, this has been quite a year, yessiree bob. But I’m being thankful right now of what I have and how my powers of Super-Introversion were activated by the current crisis as a laser-focus on learning stuff. Not that there weren’t many long hours of being too tired and paralyzed to move from the couch to the bed and vice-versa. And dusting and many other cleaning activities that didn’t aid in bodily sanitation were left by the wayside. Anyway, I hope that you too can make a list of things that you learned other than the details of the Electoral College.  How to make quick pasta sauce with canned tomatoes How to make instant oatmeal How to make creamed spinach Basic ASL Basic Inkscape Video conferencing with Zoom/Teams/Webex/Meet/Jitsi How to make ink-jet Shrinky Dinks Basic screencasting with Screen-Cast-O-Matic and Camtasia Online training creation with Niche Academy Online playlist transfer with Soundiiz Mask making Cuttlebone casting Intermediate Tinkercad Slide digitization Basic

WOMEN IN, ON AND AROUND FILM

Over at the Bitch Blog , they were talking about female movie directors, so I had to make sure psychotronic faves like Stephanie Rothman and Doris Wishman were given their due. I hadn't known that one of my favorite female badasses, the Kill-Bill -influencing Dag from Bury Me An Angel (introduced to me by Dr. S ), was also a woman director's creation (should've known). Then I put in a word for the woman who started me on my movie-obsessed path, the fabulous Pauline Kael . She taught me to own my loves and hates and call 'em as I see 'em. Maybe some people wouldn't consider her a feminist icon because she didn't always like the "right" movies, but read her review of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore for some keen feminist insight. She totally terrified those guys in the movie boys' club. I mean, George Lucas named the villain in Willow after her! Here's Kael on the New Testament: Pasolini's The Gospel According To St. Mathew