Kathleen Stock article about Jack Monroe

[AnonWeeMouse]

Kathleen Stock writes:

unherd.com/2023/01/jack-monroe-the-acceptable-face-of-poverty/

Monroe responds by blaming these critical points on Kathleen Stocks GC views.

I don't think that's fair. I think Monroe is using that as an excuse to try and avoid criticism.

Her publisher has had to release a statement about the dangerous tips in Monroe's New Book and Trussel Trust are refusing to hand it out over safety fears.

I don't think it's right or fair for Monroe to try and hide behind being Non binary or trans etc. She hasn't claimed those identities for ages has she?

As for Patreon, she could have paused subs as soon as she realised she couldn’t keep up, but continued to take the money for two years whilst providing nothing. It’s not a donation site, it’s a creative subscription site.

Patreon are a shit show for allowing this to happen.

Members are free to unsubscribe at any point if they choose. Glinner still has people subscribed to his and paying monthly and he hasn't posted anything in over a year and a half.

"I thought somebody might take my son into care if I said I drank a bottle and a half of whisky a day and took 40 tramadol" is an extraordinary sentence. Of course someone would take her son into care. How could you possibly look after a child if you were ingesting those kinds of quantities? Does she seriously mean a 700ml bottle? 28 units of alcohol a day - 42 if she was really, as she says, drinking one and a half bottles? That's an insane amount for anyone, let alone someone with her slight build who allegedly has a history of anorexia.

Don't even get me started on the tramadol. Doing that quantity of whisky and drugs in one day would kill you, let alone doing it every day.

Patreon make it difficult to do so. I’ve had to click through 6 pages before, it said confirmed unsubscribed and then the next month, they’ve tried to take payment again (not JM), and it’s listed as active on my profile. Patreon don’t have a way for anyone to contact them to sort the issue out.

The point is, she attacks and blocks anyone who asks for a refund. I’d like to see Patreon mass refund everyone. But they won’t, they leave it upto the creator

That's not how I read this bit of the Guardian article:

When people contacted Monroe on social media to ask how much money she had made on Patreon or what has happened to the money (she has 643 followers at the time of writing), she declined to answer and said she was being bullied. It wasn’t a good look.

People say you’ve taken money, I start to say. “Yes: ‘She’s a fraud, she’s a liar, a thief, a chancer.’ I’ve heard it all.” How do you answer that – you don’t seem like a fraud to me, but it does look as if you’ve taken a lot of money. “I’ve been an absolute chaos. I’ve been very ill, physically and mentally.”

I ask if the simple truth is that lots of the money was spent on alcohol. “I was drinking a lot so I was losing work left, right and centre because I was unreliable and chaotic. I was spending money.” Were you spending recklessly? “Yes!” she says instantly, with what sounds like a sense of relief. “Oh my God! You can go online and buy furniture. That’s what I used to do. I’d go online absolutely shitfaced and buy nice furniture.” What was the most excessive thing you bought? “Sideboards.” How many? “Four!”

It's quite remarkable that essentially the day the Guardian article is published, where she confirms her 'chaos' repeatedly and uses this term, and admits to reckless profligacy and specifically says in relation to furniture, she's on Twitter saying the sideboard someone says is extremely expensive was '£300, split with her ex', and the only purchase of that kind she made (the commenter rejects this, saying he has the same piece, which is multiple that cost.

She's tried to say that the Patreon money was not used to fund those purchases - however, if she was as chaotic as she admits, how would she know?

I don't see how it makes a difference - if you have multiple sources of income, each one of them is supporting you anyway? If you spend a grand on a sideboard, even if it doesn't come out of a pot labelled Patreon, it's still money you could spend because you have the Patreon money (and other income streams) coming in?

I think this Twitter exchange is possibly the most definitive explanation of JM's dishonesty.

She's questioned about spending Patreon money and says that's not what is meant in the interview. It wasn't the Patreon money she splurged with.

'So where did you get the money then, being poor etc' she's asked.

'Oh I had multiple jobs for 2 decades' comes her reply.

So ... you weren't poor? You just were a spendthrift, for whatever reason. Anyone with money can do this - it's not poverty. Poverty is when you don't have it to fritter, full stop.

It's the hypocrisy that really gets me.

A few months ago she was doing a big show of £20 food shops, claiming to be frugal minded and complaining that people dared question her designer gear - and now she's admitting the spending. And we're supposed to take advice from her about thriftiness?

@category12

It's sickening.

Fwiw, I do think it's mostly down to being mentally unwell, more than intentional deceit.

But that she can type such lies (and there's the 'good furniture' line again, the same furniture that in today's tweets, never existed) and convince people (and editors & publishers!) that such outcomes were possible due to extreme thriftiness & planning is galling.

She has amassed a whole career, fraudulently. Columns, talks, books, advisor ... it's so wrong.

And as much as it's 'known' and every shred of doubt removed, there's still not enough direct calling out, from leading media sources / industry experts that would properly put an end to it.

One thing I wonder - what do her family, her parents really make of all the lies? They must know it's bollocks.

@EarringsandLipstick I have a sibling like this. It’s fucking exhausting. 90% of what she says is bullshit. 70% of it is easily disproved. 30% of it is horrific lies.

You could film her doing X, she would say she did Y. You could show her the recording, she would say I’d tampered with it.

It’s baffling, weird and I deal with it by seeing her once a year, (luckily I left my hometown in the dust a decade ago) muting her on SM, generally not engaging.

I’d change my name and go into hiding if she had the platform JM does.

That's really tough @PopUpMoon (and very sad too).

I also have noted that Allegra & Louisa have never ever commented or shown any evidence of the 'friendship' JM suggests that they still enjoy. I would say being in a relationship with her is a nightmare, and when out, they want no risk of JM & her henchmen followers turning on them, and so stay firmly 🤐

I don't follow Jack's antics teribly closely but if what shes saying is true and she got in over her head then became an alcoholic and spent above her means and got into debt then if she gave actual practical tips about how to restructure and get out of debt and make long last change to help people, consult with experts and maybe partnered with the money and pension advice service or something.

For example Jack says she has had an unaffordable rent for the past few years. Why not do a focus on that, what are the penalties for breaking a rental contract, can you avoid those penalties if you find a new tenant etc instead her advice seems nuts like making shower gel from soap.
Then do practical tips for moving into a 1 bed flat with a child, how to make a smaller space than you're used to work etc if this is the situation she finds herself in and her raison d'etre is helping people in poverty then it doesn't just need to be cheap recipes.

The house is another changeable one though. Supposedly her partner moved out in 2020 but she’s still there 2 years later although it’s a rolling contract. And now (according to Twitter anyway) she’s buying a house.

I don't get the house things.
She calls it a bungalow and moans about things.
But every photo she posts, it looks really really nice compared to places I lived. Big and roomy, space for multiple £1000 Sideboards...
and there's stairs? I thought bungalows were 1 level?

And the contract? I had a private rent once. I lost my job though and couldn't afford the rent. I asked the landlord to end my contract 3 months early, they agreed, contract ended. Why couldn't she do that? (Besides it all being fictional nonsense made up by a narcissist to perpetuate the fantasies she's concocted in an effort to make it as an internet celebrity so she doesn't have to get a proper job.)

It wasn’t long ago that she claimed one of them (can’t remember which) still sees her child every week…

I am not familiar enough with her to be certain, but I don’t think so.

There’s so much stigma attached to the diagnosis that you see vanishingly few people be open about it. Lots of people reject the diagnosis, too - there’s now a trend for insisting they in fact have autism & were misdiagnosed because they are female. Or “AFAB”, at least 🙄.

She doesn’t do all that because it’s a ‘poor person’ cosplay. She’s LARPing being destitute from a three bed. You can still create budget recipes as a chef, Jack, no need to tie yourself up in knots of diagnosis, disability, alcoholism and poverty porn (boiling soap???)
The article exposes chaotic spending… pretty galling for her patreon/donors but worse: she doesnt see the problem with what she said. The publishers must be… dismayed. I wonder who will buy the book anyway??
She seems v vulnerable. Not sure the article was a great idea…

These are all great ideas.

She's been making a huge noise about the downsize for months, alternating between I'm so expert at moving because I've done it so many times to drama over apparently not knowing where they're going.

The fuss over the "heckin big declutter" is now explained by her over-spending habits, but honestly I can't see how anyone could benefit from tips from her.

It would have to be a "do as I say, not as I do"!

She's claimed to be practising for downsizing by sleeping on the sofa for months beforehand, moving her son into her room, all while living in a 3-bedroom(?) home. Which is just nonsensical play-acting.

I don't understand how her followers can read this sort of thing and praise her for it. Surely people have a responsibility to someone who to me seems pretty manic at times either due to mental health or substance misuse not to validate the weird decisions? They think they're supporting her, but is it really?

I wish she'd get off SM or turn it over to someone else to manage. It seems really bad for her.

I have to say, the only thing she's really gifted at is grifting and convincing thristy old guys that she's honest and works really hard.

No foodbank volunteering on timeline.
No campaign links on time line.
No links to charities on time line.
No evidence at all of any good she has ever done anyone that isn't herself.

Same with her blog -

Index is:
recipes,
tipjar (to her),
donate (to her),
6 year old Tedtalk,
link to buy her books,
shop (broken)

Most recent post about raising money through Teemill where she explains apparent discrepancies.

You'd really expect a great poverty campaigner to have links to campaigns or charities they support.

Solidarity!

I’ve also got a family member like this.

Seems to need other people’s pity to survive (although not in a literal, money sense) more in an emotional vampire sort of way.

Wildly exaggerates small instances of bad luck to garner sympathy and when challenged tells outright lies to try and prove the original exaggerations to be true.

They’ve told so many lies so many times they can’t keep them straight and I suspect, actually forget what is lie and what is truth. It’s embarrassing for the rest of us, frankly.

I suspect my relative has a personality disorder due to a neglected childhood but they are in their 70s now so I can’t seem them ever changing/seeking help.

I’m no contact but my sister stays in touch and occasionally updates me.

I feel sorry for Jack (I’ve been conditioned into giving pity on demand!) but if she doesn’t sort her shit out, start taking some personal responsibility and quit social media, she’ll probably end up like my rellie, lonely and addicted to spinning her own narratives.

I thought Stock’s article was perfect really, gentle criticism without getting sucked into the sorry-for-you plughole.

(I lost several hours to the Jack Monroe wiki on the other website today!)

Coming back to the tuna tin thing - the necessity or otherwise of egg rings aside - has she actually looked at a tuna tin recently? You can’t ‘open’ the bottom anymore. The bottom is now curved/moulded; you would need a hacksaw to cut the bottom off. Then there is also a sort of plastic lining which I guess isn’t suitable for heating.

After the revelations in the Guardian, she's so off her tits, she doesn't know what the fuck she's on about when she's talking about food, cooking or her own life.

Whiskey and tramadol, she'd be more messed up than Ozzy 99% of the time.. of she's telling the truth, which I highly highly doubt