No sympathy for you, people who keep getting suckered by internet schlock

The BBQ Pit
1

For some of you, this story may already be yesterday’s news. But I just discovered it, um, yesterday. The trainwreck has been all kinds of interesting to me.

The actual story starts with this essay: “Why I Make Terrible Decisions, or Poverty Thoughts”. As the title indicates, it’s one woman’s well-written explanation for why she does what she does, despite being poor.

Personally, while I wasn’t moved by what she wrote, I thought it painted a pretty realistic picture of how it sucks to be poor. My only criticism was that she’s obviously not nearly as nihilistic as her words would lead you to believe she is. Anyone who works two jobs while juggling a full course load obviously has some aspirations and motivation to do better. So she doesn’t seem like the best example of someone who has the “We will never be not poor” mentality. But otherwise, I didn’t have a problem with what she’d written.

As to be expected, some truths about Linda Tirado started coming to light as the media caught wind of the story. For one, she’s not really that poor. She describes herself as “comfortably working-class” and apparently owns her house outright. And she’s also from a comfortable middle-class upbringing, complete with private schooling and trips to Europe.

People didn’t know these things before they crowd-sourced her ~$60K. So now people are calling Tirado a scam-artist (and maybe some other horrible things).

I don’t know how I feel about this. Do I think Tirado exaggerated her first-hand experience with poverty? You betcha. And I think she knew exactly what effect her words would have on people. But she didn’t force anyone to give her money. She didn’t even solicit donations, at least not in the essay. People did this on their own. For all they knew, they were giving money to a drug addict or a child abuser. Or a child-abusing drug addict. Or a working-class stiff masquerading as poor people. People may have been fooled, but they allowed themselves to be fooled.

It would be one thing if this was the first time someone who goes “viral” is exposed as a fraud. But this seems to be a weekly event. Is it a cynical view to just presume that no one is how they first appear and act accordingly? I just assumed this was common sense, but apparently it’s not.

This rant is directed at anyone who is butthurt over being taken advantaged by this woman. It’s also directed at the people who keep vilifying this woman for stealing the money of the generous-hearted. Please. She tugged at people’s heart strings and they paid for the privilege. If they can’t do their due diligence and find out if a person is up-and-up before giving them money, then they deserve to be scammed.

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I just assume everyone and everything I read on the internet is a lie. It has served me well so far.

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So I assume you have been suckered and screwed online aplenty. :smiley:

4

This must be the article that someone in the mini rants thread wanted me to read and sympathize with. I couldn’t get past the fact that she was living in a weekly motel for her first pregnancy and “but I am intelligent enough to eat protein and iron whilst knocked up.” Jesus. And she complained that it was “a lot of gas” to go to a Planned Parenthood three hours away - does that mean it’s cheaper to get pregnant and keep the resulting bab(ies)?

I didn’t read far enough to find out if she ever gave a reason for making so many terrible decisions. Not that it matters, since she isn’t poor and probably never was. Is it any wonder that the general public thinks all poor people are poor thru no fault of their own?

Suckers.

5

I totally agree that people need to use their brain before they send anyone money, but after looking at the linked article and doing a search on “KillerMartinis,” (the author’s nom-de-pixel), I don’t really see where due diligence would have discovered that the author was Linda Tirado, and that she wasn’t as poor as she was making out. Now there’s a story about her, but I don’t imagine that was there as soon as the article was posted.

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I’d start with wondering how a poor person could be posting a regular blog. I made a stab at finding out if the host was a free service or not, but couldn’t find out. However, someone with as little time and money as she claimed, maintaining a blog doesn’t seem to fit.

7

You’ve got to be kidding. Have you ever heard of Republicans?

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Isn’t that all the more reason to think the donors are all idiots? I mean, I give random homeless panhandlers spare change without doing a background check first. But anything more than spare change and I’ma need a real name. Something besides “KillerMartinis”. For all I know, she’s called that for a good reason.

I like that people are generous. But I still can’t feel sorry for folks who get swept up in nonsense like this.

9

Republicans forced her to get pregnant (and apparently have the baby) while she was living in a weekly motel? :dubious:

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There’s more to the story here: http://www.thenation.com/blog/177350/crowd-sourced-escape-poverty#

It’s interesting, because when I read it I assumed that it was a melange of her life at the time she was impoverished told in present tense. It sounds like quite a few people read it as describing her CURRENT life. Having been poor (albeit not that poor, as an adult anyway) I wouldn’t assume that it was current because there’s no way someone in that position has the time or energy to blog about it.

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You probably shouldn’t believe everything you read on the Internet. :wink:

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Good point.

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I’m not on a mission from God. You therefore shouldn’t donate money to me.

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Another story from the “some people shouldn’t be trusted with the internet” files - guys buys a photo of an XBox One for $750, thinking it’s an XBox One. The description SAID it was a photo of an XBox One. EBay ordered the seller to give his money back.

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:rolleyes:

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What good does it do to stop sympathizing with them? Does it make it less likely to happen? Obviously not, since a lack of sympathy means you aren’t going to try and help. Does it make you feel better about yourself? It sure doesn’t for me, as it feels like I’m moving backwards, away from trying to understanding other people.

You can still think someone was being stupid while sympathizing with them. Heck, you can be sympathetic towards the fact that they are stupid, thinking about how much worse your life would be if you didn’t know what you knew.

Plus, let’s not forget, studies show we get more gullible as we age. So learning about these more gullible people and what it takes to help them may help us when we naturally want to trust people more.

It seems that sympathy is a win-win for everybody.

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Oh no you don’t! I’ve just had another bank of transistors replaced from the last time Captain Kirk tried to pull that shit on me. You’re not tying me up in logical paradoxes this time mister smarty-pants.

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What good is it to stop having any feeling, BigT? Feelings don’t exist for a purpose. They just are. Or in my case, they aren’t. I’m not going to say, “Oh, poor babies!” when my reaction is the complete opposite.

The first few times I see someone get punched in the balls, I’ll wince and hold my groin in commiseration. But if they keep letting it happen over and over again, eventually I’m going to become desensitized. And then I’m going to be irritated with them for being a jackass. Weekly it seems to be a different set of people getting punched in the balls. I’m waiting for folks to stop being stupid and start learning from the mistakes of others.

There are so many good charities out there who would swoon over $60K. These organizations might have their own trivial expenses, but at least they wouldn’t be spending donations on cigarettes-in-lieu-of-condoms and converting their children’s bedroom into a forest.

Anyway, I don’t have a problem with people giving their money to Tirado as long as they didn’t have any grand expectations. Really, my :rolleyes: is reserved for donors who are angry over having been deceived. But my guess is that most donors are in the first group.

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Most public libraries provide internet access for free, and there are plenty of free blogging platforms. You can get a blog hosted at the domain name of your choice for less than $20/year.

While you might think blogging is an extravagant hobby, it doesn’t have to cost much at all.

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However, her article was all about how very little time and money she has, so even if it were all free, I don’t see how she could possibly keep it up from the library. Shoot she complained about having to use gas to go get birth control … :smack: