You know, both things can be true. **Umkay **can be a troll and **NotOkay **can be another troll. I think this is probably the most likely scenario.
And even if **umkay **is real, then Jesus Christ people, **NotOkay **is still not quite the worst kind of monster. It’s just some troll/sock who wrote a single post that was a couple lines long and obviously had very little thought put into it about someone he assumed was a fake. He didn’t actually kill her. The obsession with **umkay **is beyond weird to me, and I can’t even put into words how strange it is that people were crying and stuff about her “death”.
ETA: (directed at cmyk, but by extension everyone who believes umkay is a troll)
What have you gained by doubting her? Some higher ground? Satisfaction? Take a second to think about the ramifications if you are indeed incorrect and unkay is exactly who she says she is. Doesn’t really make you look very good, does it? How about her feelings (sorry for mentioning that word in the Pit)?
I guess in the absence of signed photos or such we won’t ever know 100%, but I’ll take my chances and enjoy those threads as what they are (or were, let’s hope all this nonsense hasn’t completely killed them off). Who is she harming? In case you’re wrong, you are possibly doing damage to an innocent person. If you’re not, I might have to look up “gullible” in the dictionary, but IMHO that’s the lesser of two evils in this case.
Oh for the love of god. How do we get by in this world? Do we demand proof every time someone says “I love,” “I miss you,” “I have to stay late at the office”?
So what if she DID lie? We got weeks of entertainment and education, and a single night of distress. No real harm was done. To call someone a liar and a fake after they spend pages patiently addressing all of our sometimes rude and insensitive questions is pretty thankless.
Oh, and one more thing: it’s not umkay’s fault that people are bending over backwards to declare their love for her. That’s a result of her extremely well-written posts and candid, friendly personality, not of her being a quad. Not sure that changes anyone’s mind, but this keeps coming up as an argument.
ETA: Sorry for stealing your thunder, maybe you can use some of that wind to create some more?
No, it’s not umkay’s fault that people are obsessed with her, but it’s still really fucking strange and in some cases, genuinely creepy. Her posts are/were pretty interesting and if she’s real, she seems pretty cool. She was not OMG THE BEST PERSON EVER, and no one would think she was if she posted in the exact same style but didn’t claim to be a quadriplegic. I have no idea how that can not be beyond obvious to anyone.
You don’t gain anything. It’s not like anyone has a choice about what to doubt. People just do. Skepticism isn’t something to ignore, just because some anonymous poster claims to be in an extremely difficult circumstance.
Personally, I don’t want to be pulled in, hook, line and stinker by some douchebag’s made up stories, so that they can point and laugh, jack off, or whatever they do, at my responses.
If, in fact, umkay does turn out to be a troll, how do you think actual quadriplegics, or anyone with such a profound disability, would feel after all these posters were practically tripping all over themselves just because they knew you were in a wheelchair? I’d think it comes across as patronizing for most.
And sure, people who face and rise above adversity have earned admiration, but some of this is merely borderline infatuation, if not out-rightly so.
Before you invest so much emotionally, make sure it’s for the right reasons, and for someone who’s earned your trust and adulations.
Don’t these bolded bits somehow counter each other? If she DID lie, then calling her a liar is a pretty fair comment. And if she did lie, the rude and insensitive questions aren’t really rude and insensitive- how can they be when everything prior to our questions has all been fabricated? Either she’s a liar and everything thereafter is the fruit of these lies, or she’s innocent, thus all our accusations and questions thereafter are rude and insensitive. I don’t see how one can meld together “she lied but we’re thankless”.
No harm done? How about the emotional manipulations that several people on this board clearly have gone through based on the “news”? If there’s no harm done by her manipulations (if true), where’s the harm in accusing an innocent person- on a message board- of being a troll? How about the people who want to post here in the future with similar stories to tell? Those who are likely to be cynical will always be cynical, but those who may have otherwise believed things wholeheartedly may now be less trusting. (Oh, I know, not you, Pitchmeister. You will remain the paragon of gullibility, because that’s the better road.)
What have we gained by doubting her (if it’s true)? The ability to recognize the need to not fall for everything presented before us. Hopefully there’s a balance between doubting everyone that comes along and falling for everything. Situations like this, regardless of the truth of the matter, reminds me that in the alter-world of the internet, it’s always a good thing to look at things with both eyes open, instead of covering my ears.
I know the board meant a lot to him. He once talked about how him an Cecil stole a rocket cycle from the Chinese military to save the Swedish Bikini Team from a North Korean Battle Zeppelin. I don’t think he could have done that without the SDMB.
Let’s take a moment to reflect on A Monkey with a Gun’s time here.
In lieu of donations, please send flowers to Newt Gingrich. Newt’s allergic to them, and monkey’s last wish is to give him hives.
You may be giving trolls too much credit for logical thinking.
And what’s “highly unlikely” may be highly subjective. It’s not the way you might do it, but I see nothing preventing someone else from doing it exactly that way. Which proves nothing, of course.
Well, if the whole exercise was a fraud, some of us might feel cheated and/or red-faced. That’s emotional harm, and it’s real.
This entire post is well-reasoned, and if more facts come out that damn her, I may be inclined to jump on the bandwagon. What I see right now is people calling her a liar because she is a suspiciously fast typist and had some fancy formatting in her latest OP, plus someone under a different username pronounced her dead and people have lied about physical conditions before. By all means, call me out if I’ve left out something significant.
I am not at ALL saying to blindly trust everything your read on the internet. I’m saying knowing what I know of this situation, I would be a little more hesitant to point fingers than many others seem to be.
