Some people on here are ridiculously gullible

I have been a consultant psychiatrist for 30 years. I have met a few fantasists. I have heard far more ‘unrealistic’ true stories that would blow many people’s minds.

I find the harmless ones quite entertaining but generally cba to read past the first few replies. It’s more the ingenuity of the OP that’s entertaining and it’s not nice watching people being taken in.

The ones that distress me are the political ones, by people who are blatantly either appointed or self-appointed to advance this or that political point on behalf of this or that country or party. They post the same thing (always follows a formula) once every few days. Always tugging on heart strings, always picking at what they consider “woke” people to believe in, always instantly out with threats and insults the second anyone challenges their OP. MN is being used for political
propaganda by people who have a vote, and has become a forum where people
give their compassion more freely than they deploy their critical thinking or analytical skills. what those OPs are after are not money or sympathy or attention, but posters’ votes. It’s serious stuff and makes MN no longer the space for a bit of harmless fun or serious advice that it’s previously been.

I think that seems a very sensible approach.

I've learnt a lot of useful stuff on MN.
And I have read some genuinely hilarious threads on the site - threads that were intentionally designed to be funny and entertaining . These are generally in Chat or sometimes AIBU.
I don't read the Relationship board or other boards that are primarily meant for serious advice and discussion with a view to being entertained or have a laugh. Because although there are the fake threads there are a lot of posters with genuine problems on these boards and they deserve to be taken seriously.

I've posted threads with ideas I've thought about and been accused of trolling or trying to wind people up when in fact neither was true. I just wanted to discuss a different way of doing things. So while I'm sure some posts are fake/lying there aren't always.

Attention, dopamine hit I suppose.

Please give your head a wobble @CardboardScott .
Obviously we all have different experiences and I thought it was taken for granted that posters are giving their own opinion, not other people's.

I don't see your point either about MN being a business.Plenty of businesses also have worthwhile aims. I have always thought of MN as a place which was intended to offer advice and support. I go to MN to find out how other people live IRL.
If you want to read bad literature, Im sure there are plenty of other places to do that on the internet.
The reason I say that MN is downgraded if viewed as an entertainment site for fictional situations and problems is that people will then give farcical advice. Then the person with the real difficulty/dilemma will get treated to the same farcical advice and might even be vulnerable enough to take it.
For example, look at all the LTBs over minor problems.
This is just my personal opinion. And no, I'm not expecting MN to be a version of the BBC c 1950s!😂

Perhaps watch I Daniel Blake sometime?

I think we also have our own ideas of what's far fetched based on our personal experiences.
I have no trouble at all in believing some of the more bizarre accounts of human behaviour on here, the strange relationship dynamics and inexplicable things people do and have done to them. There are some unusual people out here.
What I never believe are the blatant political propaganda posts, or as someone described them propaganecdotes. The "The baby girls at my mother and baby group are all in hijabs" or "My sister claims £5k a month in benefits despite running marathons" nonsense. But i doubt anyone is so naive not to see what they're about, so people tend to join just to push the same agenda or to call it out.

Are you really saying that people with no family, no friends, no car don’t exist? 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

It must be nice to live a life where that just doesn’t exist

Don't forget they so many posters live rurally or even, very rurally.

Yes, they exist...in the same way that albino llamas exist but you don't see so many of them or people who know no-one and have nothing.

@HughJarsed, I'm afraid this post doesn't actually make sense. I hope you don't write reports on your patients in this way.😀

Hughjarsed's post makes sense to me.

It makes perfect sense, maybe the problem is your level of comprehension 🤷‍♀️

Yes, so many people without a single friend in the world.

And so many religious people on here, which is peak gullible. I only know about 3 religious people in real life.

I think the saddest threads on here - and most believable - are the ones where women are living with violent children. This happened in my family and I often wonder what would have happened if my mum had had MN to discuss things with. I doubt she would ever have done that anyway as it would have meant admitting how bad things were, but when I read the threads here where the OP is living a half-life with a child who is hurting - physically and emotionally - every person in the house, yet the OP still loves them, wants to protect them but wants everything about their behaviour to change, I find it extremely moving.

This is a bit too simplistic, though.

I'm sure most people, even the most unlikable ones, have at least one person they vaguely know who could bung them a tenner until payday.

There was a point in my life where I had no one I could have asked for anything because the people I should have been able to ask were the people who had put me in that exact position of needing to ask for help in the first place. Due to my specific circumstances, I had no friends, no support network. And only strangers around me.

I was very vulnerable at the time. And, unfortunately, vulnerable people are often surrounded by other vulnerable people because thats how life works. If you need a tenner until payday, the chances are, they do too. However well you know them.

I'm not justifying begging threads, I'm just responding to this because its a sentiment I see expressed quite often that everyone has someone.

I think you've lived a very sheltered life if you don't know that people can have no one.

If you don't have family, or don't have supporttive family, and fall on hard times, you'll find out. Friends don't stick around when you're ill, or broke, or miserable.

Not my personal experience because I'm fortunate to have family, but the people I support through my work very often donhave no one. They were alone as very young adults because they had no family, which makes it very difficult to be the kind of person or live the kind of life that attracts and retains friends. Often the friends they thought they had spotted and exploited their vulnerabilities.

It makes perfect sense. You're showing your hand a bit there.

People also end up doubting their worth and it's really hard to move on from seeing yourself as that 'non person' if you manage to overcome the adversity.

The role of family in terms of development of self worth, a sense of self and an understanding of your place in the world is really important.

Someone who didn't have that for whatever reason learns to understand themselves and the world in a very different way to someone who did. Its like following a different life blueprint or working within a different operating system.

I don't think a lot of people have any concept of this.

Some people can have no-one or nothing, I agree.

However, if you were to believe the tales on here, you could be forgiven for thinking that a good third of Mumsnetters live on a blasted heath and spend their days, standing outside their bothy, clothed in rags, clasping their child to their ragged breast and wailing into the wind,

" I, I who have nothing!"

So, no I haven't had a sheltered life but I might suggest that those who swallow all this guff certainly have!

Actually, @SkipperTheEyeChild, the OED has taken ‘gullible’ out of the dictionary. 😉😁

The begging threads arent exactly super common though are they? I have heard about the legendary triplets, no money or food, heating off and noone to help blah blah threads but I have never actually spotted one in the wild. They cant be "that" frequent