What about his story seems suspicious? That he claimed to be an ex-SEAL? That the cops were lazy and/or jerkish? That he didn’t go to the media and have them latch on to a story about some misbehaving children, their crazy mom, and some lazy cops? The point is that there’s absolutely nothing to be skeptical of. Nothing. Just a couple of overly dramatic bored bitches sitting around with nothing better to do than question the integrity of a stranger who’d done nothing to deserve it.
So, how much of the anger at Guin is because she dared to not take a veteran’s story (which, frankly, seems highly edited) as the god’s honest truth?
Alice, for me there’s not one particular point that seemed suspicious, but taken as a whole, it sounds really, really over-the-top. Which is not to say it didn’t happen exactly as presented, but I get a feeling we’re not hearing the whole story. And his casual mention of being familiar with these police officers set my spidey sense off, too.
Some people get off on any kind of attention, even if it’s negative. To their way of thinking, negative attention is better than no attention at all. I’ve never understood it. I’m guessing it’s a symptom of self-loathing or autophobia. Not sure.
Again, 10000 Navy SEALS out of the entire country and one of them just happens to pop into a message board? Possible, but unlikely at best. Pretty easy to be skeptical of that claim.
Typically SEALs dont talk about their career. It didn’t ping me as suspicious, but such a claim is bullshit more often than not.
Yeah. Some people would even…wait for it…create a fake identity on a message board to get attention. I know. Bottles the mind.
And for the record, his claim to be a SEAL had nothing to do with my skepticism.
Christ.
I don’t think he’s Christ, either.
Like this?
Yeah, it was actually me who was pushed over towards the skeptical side by his claim to be a SEAL.
He’s an orphan who grew up with Catholic nuns to become one of the world’s deadliest killers- a member of an elite force which 10,000 people have ever joined the ranks of. After he left the SEALs, he settled down in a normal, suburban neighborhood where he was insessently harassed by the neighborhood kids. Neighborhood kids who did things like smash his planters and, oh wow, light his animals on fire. The whole neighborhood is terrorized by these hellions, so being the man of honor he is, he goes to speak to their mother. Mother physically assaults a crippled (has a cane), ex killing machine who is also a cancer victim- causing him to bleed AND beating him with a METAL baseball bat. The police come and completely ignore everything- everything from the bleeding, crippled, cancer patient to the potentially abused kids- offering nothing to the OP for his troubles until the woman produces several MORE metal baseball bats and attempts to beat the officers. Throughout all of this though, the woman was hurling death threats at the OP and at the Police, both of which were ignored.
Like I’ve said before: individually, each of those things are perfectly reasonable. All thrown together, it causes me to raise a little eyebrow. I thought maybe it was just me, but several others have agreed.
On the other hand, I do believe he was Christ, here on this board to teach us a lesson about togetherness. Realizing quickly that would never happen, he lit out of here like it was resurrection day.
I dunno, you tell me. I was just talking about this thread. But if you want to try to cheapen my criticisms with that broad brush of yours, go ahead; I won’t lose any sleep over what other Dopers think of me.
We actually aren’t having any squabble that I’m aware of. In fact, I can hardly remember any time she and I have interacted much on these Boards at all, although I vaguely remember defending her a year or two ago when it became popular to Pit her for being a prolific poster. If anything, I seem to be one of few Dopers who don’t have a substantial degree of animosity for Guin. It’s just that I’ve noticed her posts in a couple threads basically amounting to “Look at me! Don’t I have such an original outlook on this?” I haven’t said anything because, hell, I probably come off the same way, so I didn’t pay it much mind. But in this thread it just left a bad taste in my mouth.
First off, I’ve only been calling her an attention whore in this thread, at least that I can remember. Secondly, I’m expressing a perfectly reasonable thought I’m having when I read her posts in this thread: she’s jealous of how much attention justanoldvet is getting and is trying to storm the stage. Guin says justanoldvet is lying; I say Guin is lying. Her most valid points in this thread seem to rely on stereotypes and a hardened cynicism that belies an emotional overinvestment in the opinions of anonymous Internet message board users.
There are 2500 currently active SEALs, and presumably thousands more have served since the group’s inception in 1961. How unlikely is it, really, that one would eventually show up on the SDMB?
“Whole webpages”? How impressive. I bet there aren’t whole webpages devoted to frivolous things like, say, bacon salt, or catgirls.
Oh, shit dude. Thems fighting words on the Dope.
runs for cover behind laptop before the calvary comes in
Hey, that’s what she wanted, right? I aim to please.
Of course. We all know that television reporters wait at every gas station with bated breath for a cop to show up and say something rude.
Then what the hell is the point?
They didn’t ignore her threatening everyone in sight with a bat or two; once she came out with weapons, she was arrested. They only ignored her when she was just yelling.
He didn’t. He just mentioned that he was one.
Er, no! The kid lit a STRAY on fire, before he even moved into the neighborhood. Do pay attention… :rolleyes:
Ah, yes! That changes everything. I recant everything I’ve said in this thread!
I’ve got to ask why it’s foolish to be skeptical. Rude, perhaps in the phrasing, but why foolish?
We all know, or I presume we all know, people who invent fantastic stories. I had a good friend who claimed to have been a sniper in the Army (sent down to kill someone in South America in peacetime). Now, if there aren’t many ex-seals running around, what are the odds of this?
Oddly, for want of a better choice of words, a short time afterwards, my ex-girlfriend’s friend met a guy who claimed to be a sniper. You can read about my friend in this post in a tread wondering if a friend’s boyfriend is lying.
I used to work with a guy who would tell the tallest tales. Damn funny, and completely entertaining, as long as you recognized they were 100% fabrication. We were working campus security; me to pay for school and he was a lifer, which at $4.50 an hour was an indication that he hadn’t gotten that far in a career.
One story that sticks out involves a car charging him. He claimed that he was counting the car in quarter beats, and just at the right time, he jumped up. The car smashed into the vehicle parked behind him, and rebounded out just before he came down.
I – briefly – dated a girl in college who couldn’t keep her accent right. You ride up the chairlift with a guy who says he works for the CIA. A friend would recycle amusing stories from the same book I had read, and passed them off as true incidents which had happened to her. Ever wonder where the FOAF comes from?
I’m not saying one way or another about Vet, but the more fantastic the story, the more the storyteller needs a thicker skin if people are not falling over themselves sucking up every word as gospel. I’ve told people IRL a story or two which have been challenged, and you have to accept it.
We had one person wonder if everything really happened as told and another who wondered about the Seals part, both of which are not unreasonable questions.
The comment which supposed to have made him quit wasn’t either of these. It was a response to someone questioning someone else about super-status given to ex-Seals. So we have two or three comments, and he “rings the bell?”
If that really is enough to make someone quit (if indeed he has quit)?
No, emphasized the point:
Why do they all know he’s ex-Seal unless he’s “mentioning” it to a number of people?
He also threatens the crazy lady by telling her he’s an ex-Seal, with cancer and willing to go to prison. That’s just a little more than a passing remark, it’s key to his story.
Since in a later comment you said your skepticism had nothing to do with him saying he was a SEAL, allow me to make a few observations.
With all due respect (especially since I don’t know you), have you lived a sheltered life? You really question that an incident like this could be possible?
I’m not a police officer, but as a nurse I’ve worked shifts with ambulance crews and I have seen worse than this so I can only imagine what other insanities take place DAILY. I’ve traded stories with police officers about weird things we’ve seen, and this is nothing to what goes on in the world. That’s why I ask if you’ve been sheltered, because there are crazy people everywhere and often they are violent.
I generally have respect for police officers, but I have seen some pretty questionable things with my own eyes at crime scenes when attending to patients. To doubt that a couple of small town officers who deal with this woman somewhat regularly might not want to stir the pot seems naive.
I thought one or two people were already up on the cross?
He also got an email flat-out calling him a liar and demanding proof of his claims. Helluva welcome for an older guy who’s new to computers and board culture. Don’t worry, all you proud troll-sniffers; he won’t be coming back.
I only post this because I think several of you are being unfair to Guinastasia based on other baggage you’ve dragged along but FWIW, I didn’t believe the OP either.
The difference is that I don’t usually post to say that someone is full of shit unless I can prove it, which of course 99.9% of the time on the internet, you can’t. I don’t care about how rude it might be (thinking, as I do, that the guy is a troll) and I don’t care if he leaves in a snit (thinking, as I do, that the guy is a troll). But it just invites rashers of shit from people who are more good-hearted or more credulous than I am, and of course it is not impossible that I may be wrong and they right.
But if someone up and leaves because another person questions their veracity on the internet, then they need to find a different hobby than hanging around a message board. And if this guy was legit and he left over some perceived slight to his honor, then that was his decision and it’s on him, not Guin or Diosa or anyone else who posted to say “this doesn’t smell right.”
And I imagine that the only greater glory than successfully trolling as a guest, is successfully getting someone else to pay your trollish membership for you.