To ask why people are so utterly bonkers?

[veryannoyedtbh]

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.

And you’re so perfect

🤔

Interested to see no one has talked about people who falsely confess to serious crimes like murder etc. I'm sure there's a lot of interesting stuff going on with them. People have been doing it for centuries.

Moat worrying of all, these bonkers folk vote at general elections and sit on Juries.

@EmeraldRoulette pushed off the edge by cats?! I KNEW it!!!

Lots of people but cheese in the béchamel sauce, that doesn’t mean a thread is fake! Bonkers people on here too!

There have always been people like this! Many years ago a colleague used to regale us with stories of her SIL who was a compulsive liar. This young woman had been involved in so many bizarre incidents apparently.
There was an extremely tragic incident that made international news & is still remembered today & colleague told us SIL was claiming she was there and witnessed it! We were all scoffing & eye rolling but the following day she was on the front of all the papers! Her story was true for once! But boy did she dine out on it! Interviews in the Sunday papers/ magazines etc.

There have always been bonkers people, the internet has just made it easier for them to contact each other.

And allows the less bonkers to look on and occasionally comment.

Things like the man with the uniform and medals would probably still do it and probably get away with it.

Who doesn't put cheese in the bechamel for lasagne? How weird? What about for macaroni cheese?

Amyway, weirdos abound. Human nature innit.

Is it possible that she also had a tea bag or some instant coffee in her kit. She may be an only ever hot water in the flask person. DH is one also.

That would explain the milk and then, y'know why not a nice cup too.

All she's missing is a Trangia stove, so she can rustle up a stir-fry next time!

Covid Lockdown and the internet. The world has changed unfortunately.

I think there is a bit of a conspiracy theorist in all of us depending upon the topic.
i’ll be shot here but I have do think there is evidence that Brigette may have been born male “I know”. It could be easily disproven by Brigette. I know that she shouldn’t have to prove anything.

I know Candace is known as toxic but she is a good researcher.

I think this summarises it well - it’s a mix of things , people wanting to belong, untreated mental illness, more family and relationship breakdown, loneliness, lack of a natural progressing order no matter how hard you work, my son has ditched his lovely , pretty, hardworking live in girlfriend after a few years because of the fear I think of missing out and expectations on ‘his time’ - I honestly think the internet has created all kinds of issues and expectations, whilst being a fantastic thing in other ways

That’s a good point. It’s a bit what people think of me is none of my business.

I read something that said if someone said you are actually a Martian and not from earth you’d not be offended or spend ten minutes defending yourself and explaining that you weren’t . So when someone makes a judgemental comment treat it like a Martian comment and don’t get defensive. We get defensive because it hits a nerve.

appreciate there is more to the macron situation.

An earlier poster said that the actual writer of the book about Brigitte has not been sued. That is interesting.

I am much more sceptical these days. A woman I knew well was apparently online claiming to be a qualified psychologist and psychotherapist variously specialising in trauma, addiction, ADHD, autism and also problematic pornography use. She also claimed to be working on 2 PhD's simultaneously. None of it was true but if you had heard her speak online she was very convincing and had even been invited to speak at conferences off the back of her online presence and backstory which was all entirely made up. She doesn't even have a single A level to her name, never mind a Ph.D. She did get caught out in the end.

Also see the Sally Walker Salt Path scandal. Just lies and self pity she even says it in the book that if you believe it yourself you can make other people believe. She is also far from the only writer to be caught out like this and many others who have do doubt got away with it.

Now when I think I always retrain some seed of doubt because in the end many people are just selling themselves as one thing or another, one idea or theory and there is often a good degree of bravado about it and its a fine line between gassing yourself up and utter fabrication.

It is very interesting. There is definitely something strange going on. The president of France asking the president of America to have a word with Candace. 🤐

I think people have always been weird... But in the multimedia, instant access world we live in now, it's much harder for the odd-bods to go under the radar and just stay as the "local town weirdo".

The fake rear admiral is a perfect example. Pre-internet, most likely no one would have ever known. And if some locals had worked it out, he'd have been quietly ostracised from the community, chalked up as a common or garden loony and forgotten about.

A previous poster has mentioned upthread about humans changing sex. Where do you draw the line between a man saying he’s a woman, and a man saying he was a rear admiral. Why is one seen as okay, and the other seen as being an imposter? At what point are some fantasies treated with ‘be kind’ and others treated as a crime?

Yes, it's an interesting question because, actually, it's possible for someone who isn't currently a rear admiral to become one at some point, in theory at least, but it's never possible for someone to change sex. So the fake rear admiral's claims are actually much less outlandish than the person who claims to be the opposite sex.

Agree 100%

There have always been liars. They just used to get away with it more. The main reasons behind it are likely that they seek attention, praise, admiration.

…why people are so utterly bonkers?

It’s a design fault and we’re not going to get an upgrade.

I read about this in "Mistakes were made but not by me" where she goes through step by step how fake confessions happen and how it's all explained by cognitive dissonance (more explicitly the human need to resolve cognitive dissonance at any cost) - it's all behavioural psychology and completely predictable. I think in the Internet age, where everything is more magnified, kids should be taught this stuff in school.

Sorry for the chatGPT bumpf but this is how cognitive dissonance works - it's why when you argue with someone and have clear evidence they're wrong, they find a way to make your argument consistent with their existing beliefs, and end up just getting more extreme (and more bonkers!) With so many people arguing on the Internet this encourages a lot of extreme viewpoints:

In Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), the authors focus less on why someone says “I did it” and more on how an innocent person can come to genuinely believe they are guilty.
How cognitive dissonance works in their explanation:
The person starts out believing “I’m innocent.”
Authorities insist there is strong evidence and treat guilt as certain.
This creates dissonance: “I believe I’m innocent, but everyone with power says I’m guilty and they say they have proof I did it"
To reduce that discomfort, the mind may change the belief:
“If they’re so sure, maybe I did do it.”
Once that belief shifts, a confession feels logical and consistent. It's easier to resolve the dissonance in this way than to maintain an innocence claim. To fully resolve the dissonance the person must come to completely believe in their own guilt.
Key point from the book:
The most dangerous false confessions are internalized ones — where people don’t just comply, but rewrite their own memory and self-story to resolve dissonance.