Jack Monroe again

[scabbers44]

Has anyone seen the recent tweet about her pawning/selling three diamond engagement rings? Aibu to think if you are pleading poverty and asking the general public to donate money one week and then showing off pictures of three massive diamonds you own the next, it's never going to go down well? Especially when you are already being challenged on lying and grifting?

For a long time I thought JM was nothing but a force of a good but I can't understand how she can be so tone deaf. It can't be deliberate but equally how can she not realise how it looks to produce three huge rings just a week after claiming she's so skint she needs handouts.

Apologies if there's already a thread on this.

I have a lot of time for Martin Lewis. I have zero for Monroe.

Martin Lewis is completely different. He gives concrete money-saving advice and has a huge website, massive forum. Real expertise.

Really good post. I also agree re 'hate' - likewise I don't 'hate' JM, but I do dislike greatly the way she behaves. I also do not like the more personalised attacks on her, or some of the commentary about her personal life eg custody of her son. That's not necessary - the matters of fact are there to see, and this behaviour makes JM's case for her, about the 'vile abuse' she keeps receiving etc

Jack Monroe is a classic high functioning ADHD with high anxiety/perfectionist tendencies. I don't know if she is ASD, which I think she has self-diagnosed. Her lack of a filter and constant emotional highs and lows are obvious from a cursory glance at her twitter feed. She needs to get off twitter for her sanity.

Hi Jack - I think the criticisms are fair enough, particularly as they're never responded to. Instead we get hyperbolic "everyone wants me dead" and strawmanning "rebuttals" of things that were never said or suggested. You could start by being honest about how much income you get from Patreon every month.

Also Asda didn’t change anything in response to JM. She basically made a claim (refuted by others) that there was no smart price rice in her local store.

I suppose my issue with the custody of her son, is that it is said she is not the rp. That’s an issue for me as she holds herself out as being a struggling single parent. As a single mum myself with little support I have a problem with someone creating a media personality of themselves as a struggling single mum when they are actually the NRP.

There’s nothing wrong with being the NRP but there is something wrong with pretending you’re a single mum if you’re not to benefit a media career. I don’t know for sure her situation but it seems she is not being honest about it.

I do think she’s probably not well off – not “boiling soap” poor – but she’s obviously got issues, can’t manage money well, and shouldn’t really be freelance because she can’t budget, despite that being her milieu. Book advances will have gone on agent’s share, taxes, and poor decision making (like buying a Vivienne Westwood dress or paying for tattoos and expensive holidays instead of put aside for months when the cash flow ebbed). I don’t think she’s coining £50k a year even through Patreon, articles, occasional TV stuff like the Saturday Kitchen thing during lockdown – because she hasn’t got the sense or the financial advice to do it.

But I think she thinks she has to stick to the “I live in poverty now!” line as her USP, Vs “I used to be genuinely poor, so I know, and now I’m not but I can still offer expertise”.

I’d have more respect for her if she talked about managing her money poorly: I remember Mel Giedroych (sp) writing an article about overstretching on a mortgage during the Light Lunch years, then the expected work never materialised after that show ended, and they sold up and even when Bake Off happened, didn’t count their chickens.

Also Martin Lewis is a completely different kettle of fish. He campaigns, highlights financial issues for the low income and provides expert advice. He doesn’t pretend to be poor- he is completely open that he is not poor. I have a lot of respect for him.

The "Hi Jack" is just tedious. It's clear there are a lot of people knocking Monroe but a fair few defending her, sometimes with reservations. Both on here and on Twitter. And not just on her own heavily managed thread, many other threads too.

@MsPincher

I am a single parent myself & so I get your points. However, I tend to think that whether she is telling the truth or not, it is her own business and not ours, even if she may be using it to feed a particular narrative.

I've much more issue with her TV appearances as an 'expert' on poverty-related matters - she just rambles incoherently, cannot give any specific, practical remedies, it's just an anti-Tory rant (no inherent problem with that as such!) without teeth. The media keep buying into her schtick, with no evidence that she's reliable or has anything meaningful to say, meanwhile she is behaving very dishonestly with repercussions for vulnerable individuals.

@BishyBarnyBee

I agree with you re 'Hi Jack' posts. People are entitled to have their views, and indeed defend JM, if they wish (I find it inexplicable how many people refuse to acknowledge the facts though).

It's very tedious that posters keep deciding that any defence of JM = JM herself on the thread.

I think the use of ‘hi Jack!’ would seem outlandish if it wasn’t revealed during the Hopkins case that Jack had numerous alter-ego Twitter accounts. Therefore I can well believe some will be in use here and also on Twitter at the moment.
all to deflect from the fact there are huge huge question marks about which parts of their lived experience are truth and which have been exaggerated or embellished for publicity/income.

I fontbthink shes in poverty like previously when she was first stretching her busget and started the blog and that's clear.

I think she's shit at managing her money and that impulsiveness of big spending when the money us there and then not being able to pay the bills is something I've seen in other people with adhd/mental health issues.

I bought a book recently as might be useful with budget getting tighter - but I wouldn't subscribe to patron. I don't with anyone though.

I still think she's a voice that's listened too and like Marcus Rashford, Martin Lewis, great thunder- she generally just triggers the right wing.

Clearly she pisses off alot of left wingers too though. Maybe all the posting here is genuine - maybe not. Who really knows!

*Greta Thunberg

Also it’s worth pointing out that tweeting and occasionally getting your face on the TV is not ‘campaigning.’
All her ‘campaigning’ is suspiciously top secret, even though other people are credited. She tried to make out she was working ‘behind the scenes’ with Full Time Meals and her recent tweets have shown this is absolutely not the case.

Id like someone to point me in the direction of any actual campaigning.

That's a fair point. I just disappeared down the rabbit hole of the Twitter discussion of her Patreon account, and I actually can see why people are sceptical. But I find it really distressing to imagine what it's like for someone who's clearly emotionally vulnerable to be getting that level of scrutiny and confrontation. It feels like a modern day witch hunt with potential to end very badly. Probably most people's lives could be picked apart for hypocrisy and inconsistency if you looked hard enough, and watching it happen is so unpleasant.

And yes, Stripyhoglets1, there is definitely a similarity in the way Thunberg and Rashford have been attacked. There are a lot of vested interests who are very happy to destroy anyone who puts their head above the parapet to challenge the right wing's agenda.

However, I tend to think that whether she is telling the truth or not, it is her own business and not ours, even if she may be using it to feed a particular narrative

I have to disagree with this. She's selling herself as a product, and frequently asking for financial contributions on the basis of her financial situation, so being less than honest then tends to veer into con-artistry.

But I find it really distressing to imagine what it's like for someone who's clearly emotionally vulnerable to be getting that level of scrutiny and confrontation. It feels like a modern day witch hunt

Unfortunately she herself is happy to encourage twitter pile-ons so I suppose people feel justified in their responses.

I just don't think she is a good advocate for people who are in real poverty. Marcus Rashford may be a very rich footballer but he never pretended he wasn't and got massive and deserved respect for his campaign. Being really kind, JM at the very least has huge issues budgeting and living within means and resources that far exceed what most single parents on low incomes could ever dream of.

Her chaotic financial lifestyle is exactly what people who are genuinely poor are so frequently accused of and she is doing them no favours by her association, before we get to the often bizarre conduct on Twitter and elsewhere. I don't see any credibility, at least now.

To add to my prior message, I'm not saying she is a con-artist or that the intention is there, just that if one is specifically asking for donations on the basis of your own financial situation, rather than for services offered, then being truthful and transparent is important to avoid anyone thinking that.

Exactly! If you put every detail of your life onto social media and then ask for money, surely it's not a great surprise if people say 'Hang on a minute, didn't you just say XYZ?'

Social media has done some people no favours at all. The fawning attention reinforces the idea that they are special and can live outside normal rules. As has been said over and over again, most people get jobs to solve money problems, health permitting. Her son is 12 now and spends a lot of time with his father. Why can't she get a job rather than ask complete strangers for money with nothing in return?

Jack Monroe has numerous sock accounts, here, on twitter and elsewhere. At the Katie Hopkins trial there were at least nine sock accounts detailed. I'm sorry (not sorry) that you found my post "tedious", please feel free to never read a thing I write again. The actual substance of my post I will repeat again
"I think the criticisms are fair enough, particularly as they're never responded to. Instead we get hyperbolic "everyone wants me dead" and strawmanning "rebuttals" of things that were never said or suggested. You could start by being honest about how much income you get from Patreon every month."

@BishyBarnyBee
Re you comments re Tattle. Admittedly I didn't know about it, it's reputation. However I only googled something about JM and that link came up. Other links may be bitchy. But this one was incredibly factual and mainly listed only stuff I already knew to be true about her.

The police did a welfare check on her a couple of months ago, she said it was a Twitter troll who triggered it but maybe it was someone who knew her in real life and was concerned?

On Twitter she is definitely one of a group of people who tweet about abuse and mental health but are quite happy to pile on others and tweet borderline libellous statements as well as use multiple sock accounts so it is a bit hypocritical.