Probably, but I’d consider that a subset of 2
Also a heck of a lot of AI stories. Reddit is full of bots posting garbage text to drive engagement.
Has anyone here ever checked out r/gangstalking or r/Parental Alienation? I have, and you are not allowed to disagree with posters there, or say that there may be another side to the story.
That would be so boring, just a chorus of affirmations on the OP. I like the Reddit forums where various viewpoints can be expressed. Sometimes they make me reassess a situation, or illuminate a consideration that hadn’t occurred to me.
That second one is a support group, so I would hope they shut down anyone saying there may be another side to the story. That would not be the appropriate place for that.
The thing I’ve noticed about the AITA and similar subreddits, is that the writers often go on and on about irrelevant details. Many times I see a ten paragraph essay that could be reduced to three sentences.
That is probably my main issue with Reddit. The general quality of writing is much worse than what I’m used to here.
The one that really grates on me is of the form, “I was talking to my coworker Susan, not her real name, about…” and then Susan is never mentioned again. Why bother to name a character if they never even reappear in the story?
Add a few more characters, and make the story about something that’s actually full of red flags for abusive relationships but the person is concerned about the mist trivial aspect:
"I was talking to Susan, not her real name, who is married to Jim (not his real name) and they have two kids 7M and 5F and a lovely cottage in Maine and Susan said I should post this here…
I (19F) have a BF (35M) who takes all my money, decides what I eat, what I wear, beats me regularly and calls me a bitch. I ate a granola bar 20 minutes before it was scheduled, and it was his favorite kind and there are none left and now I’m locked in a closet until I apologize believably. AITA?"
I’ll occasionally read them as a guilty pleasure but they are so ridiculous.
There was a black-comedy novella from the 1930s, Miss Lonelyhearts, and today there’s a website Soft White Underbelly, that are basically about the fact that people live miserable lives, often hidden and to some extent self-inflicted. And other people might give a damn or might not.
As noted above, examples of all of these, and no few hoaxes, have appeared here over the years
Good fiction writing frequently has superfluous details thrown in; so does crappy creative writing.
Thing is that for every fictional story being told there, there is likely a real dysfunctional relationship out there that is hard to believe actually happens, and that is going untold.
The only subreddit in this genre I read sometimes is RPGHorrorStories, about tabletop gaming groups gone horribly wrong. A big part of why I don’t read it much is that 80% of the posts are a million words long to just say “The guy running the game wanted to include child slavery as a theme” or “Problem player kept hitting on women player at the table”. And they all include “So the group was me (m/20 Elf warrior), Carol (f/22 dwarf mage), Tim (m/17 dwarf thief), Gina (f/30 dragonborn cleric/sorcerer with ice proficiency), Fred (m/22 running a homebrew mixture of…” and none of them ever feature in the sort in any substantial way that required me to know about it. And the “Not their real names” as though it matters.
As for the stories, I assume most of them are somewhere between embellished and fabricated. I completely believe that stuff COULD have happened or does happen to someone. But the number of people willing to lie about X far exceeds the number of people experiencing X, especially where the internet is involved. So, statistically, it’s probably all bullshit.
“Soft White Underbelly” has a very popular YouTube channel. Once in a while, he’ll have someone who had a normal life, whatever that is, come on to tell their own stories.
When I had a WashPost subscription I enjoyed reading Carolyn Hax’s advice column. Now that I’ve ditched that I’m finding Reddit makes a good substitute. Lots of OMG stories, some good comments on them, and for idle entertainment it’s pretty good.
I used to watch a lot of the youtubers who did videos just covering stories from that subreddit.
It got pretty amusing to spot the fake stories… but it eventually just became oneupmanship in the stories or just kind of boring stories 80% of the time.
Best AITA from that was the Navy gaming group whose female member didn’t understand why the DM’s wife didn’t like her while describing behavior that was so clearly borderline inappropriate by any human.
For the AITA stories I find Savage Love or Dr. Nerdlove advice columns to be more interesting and they are far better at vetting the stories they have on.
I’ve done the same and come to the same conclusion. Mostly given up on reading it. This seems like more of the same.
Yes. Unequivocally yes. Many times many.
On reflection, I think what is pinging my radar is the specific response of the girlfriends. I can wrap my head around saying Oh Hell No when the guy is being a viciously cruel asshole. I can also wrap my head around quietly staying with him out of a sense of shame, or a sense of helplessness, or something else like that. But getting treated in this horrible manner, screenshotting, it, posting it on Reddit, and being unsure of whether it’s horrible? That’s a more difficult reaction for me to understand.
As a hoax, it makes sense. As an attempt to shame the boyfriend I might understand it. But otherwise, it’s just tricky for me to wrap my head around.
I know so many of them are fake but then I read the Just No, Mother-in-law type ones and remember the absolute bonkers suggestions she had before I got divorced… and a lot of her behavior after my divorce. (My child recently discovered that my MIL had a “sue for custody” book in her possession).
So even if 90% of them are creative fiction, sometimes it hits close to home and I enjoy my time reading them.
To me, its not about whether or not the situation could happen, its about the narration. So like in text messages, does the asshole exhibit a level of self awareness that selfish assholes do not? Are there specific comments that appear to anticipate and head off an obvious counter narrative? Is the timeline weird? Is the resolution too pat? Is there a third party cosign that seems forced? Is the narrator posting to reddit 90 minutes after having a baby or a car accident?
I can readily believe people are capable of almost anything. But one thing they are capable of is making up bullshit. Rarely am i positive something is fake, but narrative choices can make me feel like something is, at the very least, a dramatic reenactment.
I’ve seen ones that are obviously fake because they are too on the nose. And you would expect some extraneous detail because people often don’t know that what they think is important is not important.
I can’t really explain my reasoning though.
I’m pretty gullible in general.