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AIBU?

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Original poster

To ask why people are so utterly bonkers?

266 replies

veryannoyedtbh · 05/01/2026 16:53

Reading about the man who faked being a naval officer to attend memorial events. The lengths he went to, getting a suit altered and buying medals of the internet. Was a professional teacher as well. Madness.

Then the ten people prosecuted for saying Brigitte Macron was born a man. Again, the efforts involved and they mostly appear professional people with full lives. Just mad.

Then you get the people on here pretending with fake stories or just trying to troll people. It’s just bizarre. It’s like validating you are indeed the saddest person ever.

I don’t get it. Is it the internet age? It’s like a boundary has been removed and people in freefall.

OP posts:
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5
Minty25 · 06/01/2026 00:01

There's a lot of odd people around, a lot of lonely people and attention seekers. So many completely self absorbed people with no self awareness. It does seem to be worse now than it was say twenty years ago, I'm not sure why.

DBSFstupid · 05/01/2026 23:49

HornyHornersPinkyWinky · 05/01/2026 17:21

In the spirit of the thread, you should watch The Woman Who Wasn’t There - a documentary about a woman who faked being a victim of the 9/11 attacks.

The lengths she went to were incredible; she invented a whole fake fianceè who was supposedly killed, and even started a blog and a support group for other survivors. She even went to the memorial service of another victim.

She wasn’t even in the USA when it actually happened…

Some people seem to need attention and validation so much that they do batshit crazy things to get it.

Edited

Wow I didn't know about this! I will try and find it.

DBSFstupid · 05/01/2026 23:43

AMatterOfInfiniteHope · 05/01/2026 16:58

Best thing I’ve read today 😂

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Ditto!

DBSFstupid · 05/01/2026 23:41

BarryKentPoet · 05/01/2026 16:54

Someone has made up a thread about boiled potatoes with lasagne and I just can't deal with anymore internet today.

😂😂😂

Blump2783 · 05/01/2026 23:26

The Internet enables them. Before they would have been shut down by people they knew in real life but now the Internet allows them to find their own echo chambers and it encourages more ridiculous behaviour.

madaboutpurple · 05/01/2026 23:22

The footballer was Joey Barton. He has a history of being abusive. He got fined as he was abusive about 3 or 4 people. He is an ex footballer.

madaboutpurple · 05/01/2026 23:15

I know someone who pretends to be a pilot but is not very intelligent. He buys badges from airlines on ebay and even tells people he got given a medal for landing a plane in a severe storm. I know a real pilot and he told me pilots never get medals for landing planes.

EmeraldRoulette · 05/01/2026 23:14

@ByWarmShark I didn't know he did podcasts, I'll look them up. I do like him but some of the TV stuff I've seen has been hit and miss. Maybe it just depends what your taste is like.

WheresMyWimpleCrimper · 05/01/2026 23:08

TheMerryJoker · 05/01/2026 18:48

hes a good person for it

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My husband had lasagne, chips and salad for dinner this evening. We're crazy we are.

ByWarmShark · 05/01/2026 23:01

EmeraldRoulette · 05/01/2026 22:37

@Islavadaukrani oh my God, why didn't we think of that? 😂

@ByWarmShark that sounds interesting. I like Derren Brown some of the time. I met him in a sandwich shop and he's very attractive. Just in case anyone was curious.

Edited

He is attractive! I'm a little sad I'm not his type (only possible reason we're not an item). His podcasts are excellent and the brain one in particular really does explain a lot which is confusing about humans. (I'm not being paid by Derren Brown or Audible...)

Flannelenthusiast · 05/01/2026 22:59

zanahoria · 05/01/2026 17:58

and now it is taking over other threads

the whole of the internet will be talking about lasagne and potatoes soon

civil war by the end of the week

Edited
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Nah, they're all too busy talking about flannels...

Nevermind17 · 05/01/2026 22:45

EmeraldRoulette · 05/01/2026 22:31

I forgot

They used to be a consultant/advisor person at one of my workplaces. He had retired from his main career, but he was always claiming to be the first man to do whatever amazing thing. This is all stuff that you can look up and he was not the first man to do any of it!

My boss said to me one day "I think we better stop using him - because the next thing he'll claim is that he was the first man" 😂😂😂

That reminded me of the time DH and I were invited to dinner by our new neighbours. He was one of those. He told us that he’d invented the mountain bike. He must have been about 18 months old at the time. We never went back, and referred to him as “Weird mountain bike guy” until they moved out.

EmeraldRoulette · 05/01/2026 22:37

@Islavadaukrani oh my God, why didn't we think of that? 😂

@ByWarmShark that sounds interesting. I like Derren Brown some of the time. I met him in a sandwich shop and he's very attractive. Just in case anyone was curious.

LeedsLoiner · 05/01/2026 22:37

It’s the internet/social media.
People can now say and do stupid things in front of millions of people instead of just talking bollocks in a corner of the pub.
Look at the “professional grifters” like Ant Middleton or Tommy Ten Names, twenty years ago they’d have been writing letters in green ink with BLOCK CAPITALS to the local paper now they can tweet it…

EmeraldRoulette · 05/01/2026 22:37

GameofPhones · 05/01/2026 22:30

I have the impression that most of the conspiracy nuts are also right-wingers. Maybe trying to create confusion or seeing how far they can get in collecting followers, and maybe paid by Russia? Just realised that this is my own conspiracy theory...

Pretty sure none of the men I've met who into conspiracies are being paid by Russia....🤔😱😂 I would expect them to be a lot better off for a start!

ByWarmShark · 05/01/2026 22:33

I like that half the thread is people talking behavioural psychology and half is people talking spuds and lasagne. Anyway, people believing and doing bizarre stuff is all explained by the theory of cognitive dissonance - listen to Derren Brown's bootcamp for the brain on Audible and he explains exactly how rational people end of doing totally irrational stuff.

Islavadaukrani · 05/01/2026 22:33

@EmeraldRoulette instantly would have renamed him Adam. I know the type though - if you have been to Teneriffe I have been to Eleveneriffe and it was better and hotter. They do it for some internal validation.

EmeraldRoulette · 05/01/2026 22:31

I forgot

They used to be a consultant/advisor person at one of my workplaces. He had retired from his main career, but he was always claiming to be the first man to do whatever amazing thing. This is all stuff that you can look up and he was not the first man to do any of it!

My boss said to me one day "I think we better stop using him - because the next thing he'll claim is that he was the first man" 😂😂😂

GameofPhones · 05/01/2026 22:30

I have the impression that most of the conspiracy nuts are also right-wingers. Maybe trying to create confusion or seeing how far they can get in collecting followers, and maybe paid by Russia? Just realised that this is my own conspiracy theory...

Islavadaukrani · 05/01/2026 22:25

I lived with a walter mitty - Ukranian sea captain - the youngest EVER apparently and every single thing about the dude was FAKE AS FUCK but he believed it. Narcissistic trait central and I believe possibly a psychopath.

That said I never once saw him eat boiled potatoes with lasagna....

SundayGirl1 · 05/01/2026 22:18

BarryKentPoet · 05/01/2026 16:54

Someone has made up a thread about boiled potatoes with lasagne and I just can't deal with anymore internet today.

I’m actually crying 🤣🤣

Snugglemonkey · 05/01/2026 22:13

BlackForestCake · 05/01/2026 20:58

Has anyone ever slept with a bloke because he said he was in the SAS?

I think we need a poll.

It would be amassive turn off to me.

Brainfogtothemax · 05/01/2026 22:09

BarbieShrimp · 05/01/2026 22:03

The first post wasn't exactly crime of the century. But the goady follow-up posts by the OP rather gave the game away.

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Not goady at all or intentionally 😩

Anyway, sorry to derail op 😬

BarryKentPoet · 05/01/2026 22:06

BarbieShrimp · 05/01/2026 22:03

The first post wasn't exactly crime of the century. But the goady follow-up posts by the OP rather gave the game away.

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This ^

BarbieShrimp · 05/01/2026 22:03

Brainfogtothemax · 05/01/2026 21:56

FFS It is not made up!!

Lasagna with boiled potatoes is not that shocking or interesting or odd enough to be made up. What is so weird about it, it’s truly crazy 🤷🏻‍♀️

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The first post wasn't exactly crime of the century. But the goady follow-up posts by the OP rather gave the game away.