Saturday, July 5, 2014

lies, damned lies, and nutrition blogs

A self-described scientist, another self-described scientist, and a self-described trainer -- what do they have in common?  No picture on the internet.  No business link on their profile.  LOTS of time spent trolling the blogosphere.

Almost from the earliest days of AOL and CompuServe, people learned to game the internet because anyone can claim to be anything, and who's to know?  Middle-aged cops pretending to be 14-year-old schoolgirls entrap cyber perverts and predators.  GOK how many marriages have been ruined through virtual affairs.  Real-life failures can pretend to be the people they wish they were....

But think about it, why do people lie in the first place?  To impress people, to try to come across as a better individual than they really are, ... and the most sociopathic do it because they enjoy victimizing and manipulating others.  It's NEVER pretty.

And most of the time, lying is pointless and futile.  It MAY help get you out of the hole you're in, in the short term, but you WILL be found out.  Eventually she WILL learn that you're not F Lee Bailey but a cheesy traffic lawyer living from one paycheck to the next, and with tens of thousands of dollars in credit-card debt.  He WILL learn that you're older than you say you are, that your boobs aren't real, and you have twice as many children as you admit to.  Your ugly, shameful character flaws WILL come out, because that's the kind of person you ARE.

I actually had a boss once who faked his college degree and was working for a world-class chemical company using wits, hubris, and elementary chemistry books.  Amazing -- he must have had a first-class brain to carry it off, but also the SOUL OF A CON-MAN.  He was forced to resign when it came out, of course.  One has to wonder what became of him afterward -- did he do it again somewhere else?  Or did he devolve into serious crime?

It all tends to make one very wary of whom one can believe.  Sometimes the quality shines through, but at others the spottiness of believability plants the seed of serious doubt.  Maybe the response to questions is the best gauge.  If you ask for photos and they never come, if you ask for a business card and the purported professional never has one on him, if you ask how many patients/clients s/he has and you hear nothing but equivocation in return, I suspect that suspension of credulity is distinctly in order.  ;-)

People with a lot of real-world experience (like us old people -- wink!) are less wedded to inflexible formulae and more invested in a list of possible choices which have been known to work for differing situations.  Those who insist on a hypothesis which SEEMS common-sensical but which doesn't pan out in real human beings living in the real world cannot be trusted to have sound opinions on any subject.

24 comments:

  1. Ugh! The document fakers who lie to get jobs. Seems like there's one at every job. I can't imagine that. Big crackdown for documenting dependents for health care, job degrees currently in my field. Probably a good thing in the long run.

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    1. it never hurts to check references! :-) I didn't know the problem was so pervasive....

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  2. What gets me is people who trust and hire those whom they *know* don't have any particular experience, qualifications or abilities. They just hire them because they're friends. Most places have rules against nepotism so the boss doesn't hire his idiot brother-in-law who needs a job. They need a similar rule against hiring BFFs.

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    1. yes, it really pays to keep business matters on a business level!

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  3. I was surprised to read the comment made by Manythings that she didn' t find the evidence that Jane was the person she claimed to be. Probably, we all have been fooled by that strange person who was like a quite nutjob, obsessed with coper/manganeeze difficiency at the beginning, and turning later into an aggressive and demanding troll. The complaining on not enough scarring on Wooo was just confrontation for the cake of confrontation.

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    1. that's absolutely true -- Jane used to give the impression she was a pleasant person, even if quite monomaniacal. whether she's grown more confrontational with time, or if someone's "taking her name in vain" is a good question!

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  4. Tess, have you been over to Wooo's blog recently? She seems to have deleted all comments. I can't imagine it's because she doesn't want anyone to see what I've been saying. But who knows.

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    1. Jane, it looks as though she's deleted all comments on recent postings. Considering how much rude and nasty flack she got, I can't blame her.

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  5. It looks to me like she's deleted all comments on all postings, I checked some older ones.

    I expect you mean I was rude and nasty. No, I wasn't. I wanted evidence for what she has claimed, both about herself and about me. This is what I asked Galina for when she claimed I had no common sense. She produced none, but still says I have no common sense. Now she says I am a nutjob and an aggressive and demanding troll. Evidence please, Galina.

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    1. Jane, I gave you several examples which demonstrated your multiple flows (to put it mildly), but you still behave like an Innocent person who was falsely accused .At that point I believe it is better for you to live me alone, l lost all respect I used to have for you.

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    2. I WANT IT KNOWN THAT THERE WILL BE NO INSULTS FLUNG HERE ON MY BLOG, UNLESS I DO IT.

      THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY. I'M THE SOLE RULER. I DON'T TOLERATE TROLLS.

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  6. In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people,[1] by posting inflammatory,[2] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[3] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.[4]

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    1. you're right, as always, Galina! the comment I posted above was to warn Jane (and any others) that i'm not as tolerant of it as Wooo is, and I JOYFULLY delete comments by known trolls.

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    2. Thank you, Tess, for your constant support, I often feel when you are being around as a warm present of a friend.

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    3. :-) thank YOU, Galina! you're a delight to have around!

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  7. Galina Tess wasn't calling you a troll, you are the sweetest and kindest patient little petal in the blogsphere and always the voice of reason.

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  8. I imagine Galina means my multiple flaws. Yes I was falsely accused, by Galina and by Wooo. It really doesn't matter. Wooo has the right to do it on her blog, and she gave Galina the right to do it on her blog. I was asking for it, in a manner of speaking.

    Galina, I do realise I have seriously upset you. I am very sorry.

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    1. No, Jane, you have not make me upset, so there is no need for you to feel sorry . I do believe we are not fitting conversation partners - I disprove of your way of thinking, my frequently imperfect grammar makes you sometimes uncomfortable, so it is better to part our ways.

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    2. I apologize for calling you a nutjob, I am not upset, but I feel frustrated as a result of our previous conversations for the reasons I have mentioned before.

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  9. You aren't upset? Why did you call me all those unkind names if you weren't upset?

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    1. Jane, my blog is no place for you to discuss your private grievances. Please drop the subject.

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  10. Apology accepted, Galina. And Tess, this was not a private grievance, it was public. You have a responsibility to allow both sides of an argument on a blog anyone can read.

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    1. NO I FUCKING DON'T. I explained my position, and you have now exceeded your quota of bullshit on my forum. DO NOT COME BACK. Like "Christopher," your comments will be automatically deleted by me, no matter what the hell you say. YOU ARE NO LONGER WELCOME.

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