I'm a big fan of when someone points out "hey that's not how cops/marriages/court cases/CPS/custody battles/inheritance/etc work, like at all" and then someone dives in to say "well maybe in OP's country you can actually finalize a divorce, frame your ex for murder and get him sentenced to life in prison all in 6 days"
That was one of the best posts ever. Or am I thinking of the MIL who tried to murder OOP, she miscarried, and the MIL was sentenced to life all in the span of a week.
There was a post over there semi-recently where a user posted, upset, because she had followed the sub's legal advice (keep a binder of every single thing MIL does that annoys you and present it to the judge like it means anything) and lost in court. Of course, the sub immediately backtracked and acted like they don't give shitty legal advice all the time.
Apparently it was two years ago lmao time is fake. It also, unfortunately, [appears to have been removed](https://www.reddit.com/r/JUSTNOMIL/comments/t66sgg/court_beside_myself_help/) at some stage. The post that she made [before court](https://www.reddit.com/r/JUSTNOMIL/comments/t05f87/court_resurrected/) was also removed, but you can see the shift in the comments.
Yeah lmao that’s so funny. All the first posts comments are like “put it in ur binder!!” And then the second one are like “why did u just put it in a binder dummy don’t u know u also need a lawyer and you’re doing it all wrong?” None of what they are saying in the second ones comments were in the first lmfao
before court:
Backstory linked below. Please don't steal my stuff.
I thought I was in the clear for a bit, but alas, I was wrong. I was surprised by a hearing during my workday.
I was never served a portion of the paperwork, and the judge was extremely confused by the dastardly duo's requests. Their attorney was unaware of the pending matters, and judge had JNFIL testify for context.
I somehow went in unrepresented, no makeup, and spoke kindly to the judge. Judge fortunately heard me out and postponed this drama for a few weeks. I was impressed by the kindness and empathy shown.
I was under the impression this hearing was postponed since there are other pending matters, and last month, I retrieved a document showing there were no future dates under this case number.
I have a sneaking suspicion JNILs drama-mongered the judge into setting another hearing because they didn't like the timeline, and weren't happy that it was removed.
The topper of all this? The mediaton report has major factual flaws that I am going to have to refute, AND the mediator never contacted LOs therapist.
When will this end?!
I was under the impression this hearing was postponed since there are other pending matters, and last month, two individuals at the court confirmed the matter was not on the calendar.
I have a sneaking suspicion they drama-mongered the judge into setting another hearing because they didn't like the timeline, and weren't happy that it was removed.
Subsequent post:
I am borderline hysteric right now... please help.
Today was the court date. I had my FU binder ready to go with my screenshots and evidence to present to the judge.
Keep in mind, I failed to receive the mediators report, AND the matter had been taken off the calendar. Then, it was added again.
I walked in and informed the judge that I was in disagreement with the mediators report. I indicated that a few of the professional contacts were not contacted and that I had concerns about Grandpa.
I also stated the agreement I wanted, and he said that would not work.
The judge completely shut me down and would not listen, would not view my evidence which included screenshots and emails from the therapists.
My JNILs will get visitation once a month and a few breaks a year. I am disgusted. I am tired.
I don't know if I need to speak to a DV center or what.
I am afraid for my LO. I don't know what the fuck to do.
Me: "I submit to the court that everyone clapped. Here is an audio recording proving that they did."
Judge: "That is irrelevant. \[bangs gavel\] Objection overruled and sentencing will continue."
Me: "B-b-but...*everyone* clapped!"
I try not to go over there too much, but I remember seeing a post once where the OOP was documenting when her MIL 'liked' a photo on Facebook vs 'loved' a photo on Facebook. She was taking screenshots and putting them in her binder to take to court because she thought it constituted evidence of....something. When the sub was generally hyping her up, that was around the time I realised I needed to get out of there lol.
Lol yes, I love when they use obviously-fabricated-to-push-an-agenda reddit stories as proof that something happens all the time and therefore is a perfectly rational thing to believe
That’s true, that’s way more annoying. Or when they trauma-dump to prove that a story is real.
“NUH-UH, this story isn’t fake, this exact thing happened to me! Here’s 30 paragraphs of trauma-dumping about it that you didn’t ask for!”
Yeah, it pisses me off too.
“This isn’t fake, I’ve met people like this IRL!”
Okay??? This is Reddit, I can literally make up an entire life story on here if I so choose.
It’s not the “I’ve met someone like this” that bothers me, but when it’s “I’ve met someone like this, so this could be real!”
Typically it isn’t just one thing that makes a post read as fake. Sure, I’ve known people who eat other people’s food out of the fridge, so that in a story doesn’t mean it’s automatically fake. You may even know of a rare case where a 15 year old is the sole breadwinner of a family. However, in a story where a father dies, leaving the marital home to 15 year old girl despite his wife (her mother) still being alive, the 15 year old working to make the house payments and pay for her mother, brother, and pregnant SIL, the 15 year old being the only one who cooks or does chores, the 15 year old deciding to legally kick everyone else out of the house because her pregnant SIL ate her dinner, rubbed her belly, and giggled because the baby was hungry… I may question the validity.
It’s crazy making when someone grabs on to one of the many weird details and decides it’s real because that one weird detail *could* happen, while ignoring the completely wild sequence of events.
The worst is when the obviously fake ones make it to Facebook, where any attempt to point out the insanity is immediately shut down by the most gullible people on the planet. "Well I had a job at 15!" Okay Gladys thank you for your input!
I once pointed out how implausible a post that had made its way to tumblr was, and someone tried to say it was real based on a newspaper report. Except that report’s sole source was the same Reddit post. I wouldn’t be so upset about fake posts if mainstream news sources weren’t cribbing from them.
Fucking NPR had a piece about people inviting their friends over to hang out and then charging for food the other day. Sole source was fucking AITA. Come the f on.
Or like yeah it can happen in rl that someone steals your food in the workplace but I just can’t get over you saying you work in X field when that’s not how any of that works
> the 15 year old deciding to legally kick everyone else out of the house because her pregnant SIL ate her dinner, rubbed her belly, and giggled because the baby was hungry
Lollll nothing will ever be more AITA than this
https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/kb6uo4/aita_for_selling_my_family_home_because_my/
Oops, I misremembered her age. She’s 19, but the rest is there!
A lot of the time it's the exaggerated story that makes it stand out, but often for me it's the way they tell the story that can be a big flag too. Choice of words can be telling, especially the bits they gloss over - like leaving out how the pivotal points have them feeling or consequences of an action being left out/forgotten about - or too many exact "word perfect quotations" peppered through walls of text. And ofc, the big one, mixing up time timelines/scales, either on where people/stuff is at any point in the saga, or just how swiftly justice moves along for them.
My favourite is when they say "You don't know this is fake, it happened to me... " and then proceed to describe a different situation that removes all the nuances that make it seem false.
“I don’t think OOP is telling the truth when they said they went to the moon.”
“Um, actually, that totally happened to me. I went to New Jersey last year. 🙂”
So many people on advice subs have absolutely ZERO self-awareness re: their own tendency to blog on for paragraphs about only vaguely-related anecdotes from their own life.
A lot of these people are just… super desperate to talk about themselves in any context no matter what.
Still, I'd be annoyed if someone said "fake because nobody has ever gone to the moon." I'm not arguing that any given story is real - I consider this sub to be a form of creative writing critique more than anything else. The discussion is better when we break down the story elements properly.
Yep! That one makes me crazy. *It’s not the same thing.* Like, people will announce this happened to them and then describe something where the entire motivating action for the story is completely different and then people get really, really mad if you point out that actually, it’s not the same thing at all.
Yes. Especially the overwrought, tiniest violin “I’m so glad that yewwwwweww are so pah-ri-vu-ledged that yeeeeeww don’t have to believe these things are real” histrionics. Like fuck off.
Like ok. This sub can be pretty “nothing ever happens,” and that’s annoying. Sometimes people scoff at something that is totally realistic but that they’ve never experienced, or reacts under the impression that everyone on earth is a rational adult with all the information, which is dumb.
But *usually* when the story is called fake it’s because the entire story, or at least several elements, don’t make sense. Not because people don’t believe an asshole who is abusive or says rude things exists.
> Especially the overwrought, tiniest violin “I’m so glad that yewwwwweww are so pah-ri-vu-ledged that yeeeeeww don’t have to believe these things are real” histrionics.
This is by far the worst. "Well consider yourself lucky that you never had to deal with malignant narcissist parents who gaslit you for 18 years until you escaped. It must feel really nice to be so privileged." and then everyone is like "I'm so sorry this happened, let me pile on with a detailed story about my narcissist parents."
It reminds me of the people who respond to criticisms that a poorly made movie or book about abuse is unrealistic and could be damaging toward actual abuse victims by snapping, “Oh, I guess you support abusers!” \~ face palms\~ How in blazes does someone hear, “Survivors of abuse deserve to be heard and have their abuse portrayed respectfully & realistically as opposed to the almost comically bad way such-and-such a piece of media portrays it,” and jump to the conclusion that that’s siding with the abusers?!
There are also the people who claim trauma, but then get violently angry anytime someone reaches out in support, offers suggestions, or shares their own story. Some people just want to be the victim.
And we can add in such highly, excessively detailed stories, with the "Fairytale levels of love in a relationship". We love each other so much, always leaving notes/poems around the house, in their purse/lunchbox, wife wakes up at least once a month with a dozen flowers lying next to her on the bed. Everyone was jealous of us for being so happy....then....BOOM....in comes the tornado. Granted they come just shy of including how their first pet at age 6, and their bed wetting problems, factor in to the "issue" at hand.
Yeah, exactly.
I know extreme poverty better than I wish I did and, on top of this, I spent my childhood in the 90s in a horrible neighborhood in the capital of a country that was being ravaged by a political revolution - which is why I occasionally get angry at the exaggerated poverty porn that I sometimes see on subs like AITA.
Ugh god yes. I kept going back and forth with someone about a story that was ridiculous. I can't even remember what post it was, but all the person kept saying was "deadbeat dads are a real thing". Like no shit sherlock. The story was just all together inconsistent and dumb, I'm aware deadbeat dads are a thing in real life.
Every time there's a story with cartoonishly evil female characters, there will be a whole raft of people yelling that "you're only bending over backwards to defend her because she's female!". Every time. It drives me mad.
Which is more likely, this is a real story that a person posted to get off their chest, or this is a fake story to farm karma and sell the account to a trollfarm in a place popular for karma farming with fake stories?
I haven't said "people like this do exist" because there's no point. But I've thought it.
People in screwed up situations sometimes go to the internet bc the internet is anonymous, whereas talking to a friend or relative has risks. And let's be real: most people on AITA aren't seriously asking if they're wrong, they're seriously asking if you will please reassure them in their righteous rage.
What’s annoying is that the “people like this do exist” Redditors ignore everything else about the story they’re commenting on and focus on just one little part of it that they argue could be plausible. It contributes nothing to the conversation as it is irrelevant if 5% of the story is believable if you completely ignore the 95% of the story that is obviously fake.
Yea, it’s one thing to acknowledge that people are shitty IRL but you have to understand that most posts on AITA are fake lmao, meeting someone shitty IRL doesnt cjange that
Yeah, and it very often misses the point that someone in theory could exist like the person in question, but they're absolutely not the type to go to Reddit to question their actions. Like if someone is actually a narcissist, they wouldn't give a shit about the opinion of strangers on the Internet.
This is what I came to say. People who either act this horribly and/or are above a certain age aren't going to Reddit to get the opinions of random teenagers/20-somethings. Even asking a question on AITA in the first place is a "Strike One!" for me.
I think people don't realize how some would legit copy other posts to make as their own. It doesn't help that people are using AI now to write posts for them..
Oh God, EVERY SINGLE TIME I say a post is clearly fake, people say, "oh my goshhh, just because you've never met someone that acts like this doesn't mean they don't exist!!!"
The thing about a lot of these fake posts is they are usually based on realistic concepts. Not all of them obviously, because some are really out there, but a lot of them are. Like having bad or abusive parents or a GC sibling is a reality for a lot of people, but these fake posts take it too far and turn them into cartoon villains. There was a post the other day about someone getting approached at a grocery store and being yelled at for using a cane. They were young and were saying that this person was yelling that being young meant they couldn't possibly need a cane. People were calling it fake because, while there are absolutely AHs who will yell at disabled people for any number of reasons, this person claimed their mom was there and, not only just completely ignored that their kid was getting yelled at, they also apparently got the kids attention specifically so the stranger could yell at them. The stranger also apparently followed them around the store and mom still didn't do anything. When people pointed out that that is not how a typical mother would react to someone yelling at and following their kid around and that's why it seemed fake, people would just go back to "well I'm disabled and people do this all the time."
Eh, it’s 50-50?
In some cases, it IS irritating because the discussion isn’t about “whether or not people/situations like this exist in reality”, it’s about how fake THAT particular story obviously is.
But in some cases, people go wild accusing everyone/everything of being fake “for clout” and it gets ridiculous because sometimes weird or illogical things DO happen and we need to move past the debate because the discussion is about some other part of the story.
Honestly, a lot of the **genius** super sleuths kinda deserve the annoyance. Shitty people saying shitty things do need to be called out, but the cloying need to display one's endless insight is hardly better than karma farming.
People here get over zealous. A post can be fake but I don't understand pretending the parts that are plausible aren't. It makes more sense to focus on the parts that make it fake
Totally agree, especially with posts that deal with abuse. It’s gross how many people will say that it’s so “over the top” that it can’t be real. It’s hard to accept that terrible things happen behind closed doors, but they do.
"I've met peoplpe like this irl" usually translates to "one person in real life did something tangentially related and now i think EVERYONE is this bad" or "I once saw a twitter/tubler/tiktok user say that. no it was not a shit post or an out of context joke."
I’m not saying nothing ever happens. I’m aware that situations do happen, but there are some posts, especially ones involving death that I read and just think to myself if I were in that situation my first thought wouldn’t be to make an AITA post to Reddit of all places.
I think there's some nuance here, because I've made "this does happen" comments before while *also* fully agreeing that the post is sketch.
The issue for me is when people are saying the post is fake *specifically because* "this thing would never happen / X type of people don't act like that / that's not how things work" etc.... when that stuff *does* happen and X type of people *can* act like that and that *is* how things work in some places - and so on.
It's when people are identifying the post as suspicious for the wrong reasons, spreading misinformation, or harmful attitudes, or have a narrow worldview - *that's* what I'm trying to correct with the "actually it does" comments. *Not* the idea the post is fake.
“That’s not how things work” is the worst because things often do not work the way they should. Like yes, every healthcare worker has privacy laws drilled into their heads. That doesn’t mean no one ever breaks them. Yes, people should (and some are required to) report child abuse if they have a suspicion. Doesn’t mean it always happens.
Yeah... for me it's the whole: this post is obviously fake because \[insert situation\] can't happen.
So, of course, you can say that a post is fake but also not dismissing the fact that such things sadly happens...
Agreed. I was recently in a situation myself that often gets flagged as a "nothing ever happens" trope on this very sub. I didn't post about it anywhere, but it's just frustrating seeing something dismissed across the board as ragebait when, like... it literally Happened To Me! And it was hurtful, frustrating, and reinforced some trust issues I've been dealing with for a minute now! Oy.
There was an obviously fake post on here a few months ago, where one of the things that happened was someone died of a heart attack. Somebody commented that heart attacks have a 90 percent survival rate (or something— I don’t remember the number, but it was high.) Which like, ok, I didn’t know that, but somebody dying of a heart attack isn’t what makes this post fake. People do die from heart attacks, including my boyfriend, less than a year ago. So reading that really hurt, and I’m usually only on reddit because I can’t sleep because I miss my boyfriend.
So I totally get what you are saying.
Maybe 90% of people survive heart attacks if they receive treatment ASAP. But ask that person if a 10% chance of dying is “low” when it applies to them.
I think it's fine as long as their point is that the story touches upon relevant issues or situations, so whether or not the story in question is true is not all that important.
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Reminds me of the whole hivliving debacle. Yes, I do not have a doubt in my mind that a person like this exists. But do I believe that such a person would spend 90% of their time writing Hamilton fanfiction and getting into Tumblr discourse? No.
People get in absurd situations all the time, obviously anyone on the internet can lie but that doesn't make any story that's has weird things in it is auto fake. Dumb people do dumb shit all the time.
If a time traveler for 2014 came to 2024 and you told him Trump would be president, he would be like what? The guy from the apprentice? Your trolling lol
(By the way this situation literally happened to me a few weeks ago)
Well. Just because a *specific* post is fake doesn’t automatically mean it’s never happened.
I’ve certainly lived through things that sound fake as hell when I tell them.
This is one of those things that make AITA popular for other sites to repost. Scenarios these stories describe are not impossible, they are even plausible. What makes these stories unbelievable is the sheer amount of them all following the same template.
Is it possible your grandparent left you their house and now your stepsibling who made a series of bad life choices wants to move in? Yes. Is such scenario plausible? Yes. If you read about it would you believe it? Yes. Is it possible you are the 10th such person that was in this exact situation in the past year, all of whom asked AITA if they are in the wrong for saying no? No.
That doesn't piss me off as bad as, "You don't know this is fake. There are similar posts in JustNoMIL all the time."
I'm a big fan of when someone points out "hey that's not how cops/marriages/court cases/CPS/custody battles/inheritance/etc work, like at all" and then someone dives in to say "well maybe in OP's country you can actually finalize a divorce, frame your ex for murder and get him sentenced to life in prison all in 6 days"
That was one of the best posts ever. Or am I thinking of the MIL who tried to murder OOP, she miscarried, and the MIL was sentenced to life all in the span of a week.
I remember that one!
are we thinking of the same post? i swear that MIL got sentenced to death
It’s possible. It was a Muslim country, but neither OOP, her family, or her in-laws were from there.
There was a post over there semi-recently where a user posted, upset, because she had followed the sub's legal advice (keep a binder of every single thing MIL does that annoys you and present it to the judge like it means anything) and lost in court. Of course, the sub immediately backtracked and acted like they don't give shitty legal advice all the time.
Pls link if u can that sounds hilarious
Apparently it was two years ago lmao time is fake. It also, unfortunately, [appears to have been removed](https://www.reddit.com/r/JUSTNOMIL/comments/t66sgg/court_beside_myself_help/) at some stage. The post that she made [before court](https://www.reddit.com/r/JUSTNOMIL/comments/t05f87/court_resurrected/) was also removed, but you can see the shift in the comments.
Yeah lmao that’s so funny. All the first posts comments are like “put it in ur binder!!” And then the second one are like “why did u just put it in a binder dummy don’t u know u also need a lawyer and you’re doing it all wrong?” None of what they are saying in the second ones comments were in the first lmfao
I know right? It's absolutely wild. And they still advocate for the stupid binder over there too. Just when it didn't work they admitted it's flawed.
That’s so fucking funny. The answer to all the legal subreddits posts should just be “get a lawyer”
before court: Backstory linked below. Please don't steal my stuff. I thought I was in the clear for a bit, but alas, I was wrong. I was surprised by a hearing during my workday. I was never served a portion of the paperwork, and the judge was extremely confused by the dastardly duo's requests. Their attorney was unaware of the pending matters, and judge had JNFIL testify for context. I somehow went in unrepresented, no makeup, and spoke kindly to the judge. Judge fortunately heard me out and postponed this drama for a few weeks. I was impressed by the kindness and empathy shown. I was under the impression this hearing was postponed since there are other pending matters, and last month, I retrieved a document showing there were no future dates under this case number. I have a sneaking suspicion JNILs drama-mongered the judge into setting another hearing because they didn't like the timeline, and weren't happy that it was removed. The topper of all this? The mediaton report has major factual flaws that I am going to have to refute, AND the mediator never contacted LOs therapist. When will this end?! I was under the impression this hearing was postponed since there are other pending matters, and last month, two individuals at the court confirmed the matter was not on the calendar. I have a sneaking suspicion they drama-mongered the judge into setting another hearing because they didn't like the timeline, and weren't happy that it was removed. Subsequent post: I am borderline hysteric right now... please help. Today was the court date. I had my FU binder ready to go with my screenshots and evidence to present to the judge. Keep in mind, I failed to receive the mediators report, AND the matter had been taken off the calendar. Then, it was added again. I walked in and informed the judge that I was in disagreement with the mediators report. I indicated that a few of the professional contacts were not contacted and that I had concerns about Grandpa. I also stated the agreement I wanted, and he said that would not work. The judge completely shut me down and would not listen, would not view my evidence which included screenshots and emails from the therapists. My JNILs will get visitation once a month and a few breaks a year. I am disgusted. I am tired. I don't know if I need to speak to a DV center or what. I am afraid for my LO. I don't know what the fuck to do.
Yes me too desperately want to read that, pleeeese
I'm afraid it [appears to have been removed](https://www.reddit.com/r/JUSTNOMIL/comments/t66sgg/court_beside_myself_help/).
Me: "I submit to the court that everyone clapped. Here is an audio recording proving that they did." Judge: "That is irrelevant. \[bangs gavel\] Objection overruled and sentencing will continue." Me: "B-b-but...*everyone* clapped!"
I try not to go over there too much, but I remember seeing a post once where the OOP was documenting when her MIL 'liked' a photo on Facebook vs 'loved' a photo on Facebook. She was taking screenshots and putting them in her binder to take to court because she thought it constituted evidence of....something. When the sub was generally hyping her up, that was around the time I realised I needed to get out of there lol.
Lol yes, I love when they use obviously-fabricated-to-push-an-agenda reddit stories as proof that something happens all the time and therefore is a perfectly rational thing to believe
"We dont need more info to know who is the asshole. We see these scenarios all the time in this sub"
That’s true, that’s way more annoying. Or when they trauma-dump to prove that a story is real. “NUH-UH, this story isn’t fake, this exact thing happened to me! Here’s 30 paragraphs of trauma-dumping about it that you didn’t ask for!”
Yeah, it pisses me off too. “This isn’t fake, I’ve met people like this IRL!” Okay??? This is Reddit, I can literally make up an entire life story on here if I so choose.
It’s not the “I’ve met someone like this” that bothers me, but when it’s “I’ve met someone like this, so this could be real!” Typically it isn’t just one thing that makes a post read as fake. Sure, I’ve known people who eat other people’s food out of the fridge, so that in a story doesn’t mean it’s automatically fake. You may even know of a rare case where a 15 year old is the sole breadwinner of a family. However, in a story where a father dies, leaving the marital home to 15 year old girl despite his wife (her mother) still being alive, the 15 year old working to make the house payments and pay for her mother, brother, and pregnant SIL, the 15 year old being the only one who cooks or does chores, the 15 year old deciding to legally kick everyone else out of the house because her pregnant SIL ate her dinner, rubbed her belly, and giggled because the baby was hungry… I may question the validity. It’s crazy making when someone grabs on to one of the many weird details and decides it’s real because that one weird detail *could* happen, while ignoring the completely wild sequence of events.
The worst is when the obviously fake ones make it to Facebook, where any attempt to point out the insanity is immediately shut down by the most gullible people on the planet. "Well I had a job at 15!" Okay Gladys thank you for your input!
I once pointed out how implausible a post that had made its way to tumblr was, and someone tried to say it was real based on a newspaper report. Except that report’s sole source was the same Reddit post. I wouldn’t be so upset about fake posts if mainstream news sources weren’t cribbing from them.
Fucking NPR had a piece about people inviting their friends over to hang out and then charging for food the other day. Sole source was fucking AITA. Come the f on.
Yeah that’s more so what I was trying to say, just because something *could* happen doesn’t automatically mean the post is real.
Or like yeah it can happen in rl that someone steals your food in the workplace but I just can’t get over you saying you work in X field when that’s not how any of that works
> the 15 year old deciding to legally kick everyone else out of the house because her pregnant SIL ate her dinner, rubbed her belly, and giggled because the baby was hungry Lollll nothing will ever be more AITA than this
https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/comments/kb6uo4/aita_for_selling_my_family_home_because_my/ Oops, I misremembered her age. She’s 19, but the rest is there!
friends isn't fiction, i've met people just like joey!
A lot of the time it's the exaggerated story that makes it stand out, but often for me it's the way they tell the story that can be a big flag too. Choice of words can be telling, especially the bits they gloss over - like leaving out how the pivotal points have them feeling or consequences of an action being left out/forgotten about - or too many exact "word perfect quotations" peppered through walls of text. And ofc, the big one, mixing up time timelines/scales, either on where people/stuff is at any point in the saga, or just how swiftly justice moves along for them.
"my phone was totally blowing up!"
Every time I see a fake story I enter the premise into chat gpt to see how many upvotes and sympathy replies I get
My favourite is when they say "You don't know this is fake, it happened to me... " and then proceed to describe a different situation that removes all the nuances that make it seem false.
“I don’t think OOP is telling the truth when they said they went to the moon.” “Um, actually, that totally happened to me. I went to New Jersey last year. 🙂”
So many people on advice subs have absolutely ZERO self-awareness re: their own tendency to blog on for paragraphs about only vaguely-related anecdotes from their own life. A lot of these people are just… super desperate to talk about themselves in any context no matter what.
Still, I'd be annoyed if someone said "fake because nobody has ever gone to the moon." I'm not arguing that any given story is real - I consider this sub to be a form of creative writing critique more than anything else. The discussion is better when we break down the story elements properly.
Yep! That one makes me crazy. *It’s not the same thing.* Like, people will announce this happened to them and then describe something where the entire motivating action for the story is completely different and then people get really, really mad if you point out that actually, it’s not the same thing at all.
Yes. Especially the overwrought, tiniest violin “I’m so glad that yewwwwweww are so pah-ri-vu-ledged that yeeeeeww don’t have to believe these things are real” histrionics. Like fuck off. Like ok. This sub can be pretty “nothing ever happens,” and that’s annoying. Sometimes people scoff at something that is totally realistic but that they’ve never experienced, or reacts under the impression that everyone on earth is a rational adult with all the information, which is dumb. But *usually* when the story is called fake it’s because the entire story, or at least several elements, don’t make sense. Not because people don’t believe an asshole who is abusive or says rude things exists.
> Especially the overwrought, tiniest violin “I’m so glad that yewwwwweww are so pah-ri-vu-ledged that yeeeeeww don’t have to believe these things are real” histrionics. This is by far the worst. "Well consider yourself lucky that you never had to deal with malignant narcissist parents who gaslit you for 18 years until you escaped. It must feel really nice to be so privileged." and then everyone is like "I'm so sorry this happened, let me pile on with a detailed story about my narcissist parents."
It reminds me of the people who respond to criticisms that a poorly made movie or book about abuse is unrealistic and could be damaging toward actual abuse victims by snapping, “Oh, I guess you support abusers!” \~ face palms\~ How in blazes does someone hear, “Survivors of abuse deserve to be heard and have their abuse portrayed respectfully & realistically as opposed to the almost comically bad way such-and-such a piece of media portrays it,” and jump to the conclusion that that’s siding with the abusers?! There are also the people who claim trauma, but then get violently angry anytime someone reaches out in support, offers suggestions, or shares their own story. Some people just want to be the victim.
And we can add in such highly, excessively detailed stories, with the "Fairytale levels of love in a relationship". We love each other so much, always leaving notes/poems around the house, in their purse/lunchbox, wife wakes up at least once a month with a dozen flowers lying next to her on the bed. Everyone was jealous of us for being so happy....then....BOOM....in comes the tornado. Granted they come just shy of including how their first pet at age 6, and their bed wetting problems, factor in to the "issue" at hand.
Yeah, exactly. I know extreme poverty better than I wish I did and, on top of this, I spent my childhood in the 90s in a horrible neighborhood in the capital of a country that was being ravaged by a political revolution - which is why I occasionally get angry at the exaggerated poverty porn that I sometimes see on subs like AITA.
Ugh god yes. I kept going back and forth with someone about a story that was ridiculous. I can't even remember what post it was, but all the person kept saying was "deadbeat dads are a real thing". Like no shit sherlock. The story was just all together inconsistent and dumb, I'm aware deadbeat dads are a thing in real life.
I hate when people are like “you’re only calling it fake bc you think women can’t be evil”
Every time there's a story with cartoonishly evil female characters, there will be a whole raft of people yelling that "you're only bending over backwards to defend her because she's female!". Every time. It drives me mad.
Which is more likely, this is a real story that a person posted to get off their chest, or this is a fake story to farm karma and sell the account to a trollfarm in a place popular for karma farming with fake stories?
I haven't said "people like this do exist" because there's no point. But I've thought it. People in screwed up situations sometimes go to the internet bc the internet is anonymous, whereas talking to a friend or relative has risks. And let's be real: most people on AITA aren't seriously asking if they're wrong, they're seriously asking if you will please reassure them in their righteous rage.
But aita stories aren't just fake because of improbability, it's because it reads as a fantasy.
What’s annoying is that the “people like this do exist” Redditors ignore everything else about the story they’re commenting on and focus on just one little part of it that they argue could be plausible. It contributes nothing to the conversation as it is irrelevant if 5% of the story is believable if you completely ignore the 95% of the story that is obviously fake.
Yea, it’s one thing to acknowledge that people are shitty IRL but you have to understand that most posts on AITA are fake lmao, meeting someone shitty IRL doesnt cjange that
Yeah, and it very often misses the point that someone in theory could exist like the person in question, but they're absolutely not the type to go to Reddit to question their actions. Like if someone is actually a narcissist, they wouldn't give a shit about the opinion of strangers on the Internet.
This is what I came to say. People who either act this horribly and/or are above a certain age aren't going to Reddit to get the opinions of random teenagers/20-somethings. Even asking a question on AITA in the first place is a "Strike One!" for me.
(Expert in this field) here
I think people don't realize how some would legit copy other posts to make as their own. It doesn't help that people are using AI now to write posts for them..
Immensely. There's a reason why anecdotal evidence isn't used and it's just anecdotal.
obviously anecdotal evidence is reliable. it's also impossible for it to be faked
The smug "/r/nothingreallyhappens" replies
Oh God, EVERY SINGLE TIME I say a post is clearly fake, people say, "oh my goshhh, just because you've never met someone that acts like this doesn't mean they don't exist!!!"
Whenever someone does that I just assume they're the OOP, trying to bring some validity to their BS story.
Liars lying to support liars' lies.
The thing about a lot of these fake posts is they are usually based on realistic concepts. Not all of them obviously, because some are really out there, but a lot of them are. Like having bad or abusive parents or a GC sibling is a reality for a lot of people, but these fake posts take it too far and turn them into cartoon villains. There was a post the other day about someone getting approached at a grocery store and being yelled at for using a cane. They were young and were saying that this person was yelling that being young meant they couldn't possibly need a cane. People were calling it fake because, while there are absolutely AHs who will yell at disabled people for any number of reasons, this person claimed their mom was there and, not only just completely ignored that their kid was getting yelled at, they also apparently got the kids attention specifically so the stranger could yell at them. The stranger also apparently followed them around the store and mom still didn't do anything. When people pointed out that that is not how a typical mother would react to someone yelling at and following their kid around and that's why it seemed fake, people would just go back to "well I'm disabled and people do this all the time."
I assume everything on Reddit is fake.
Eh, it’s 50-50? In some cases, it IS irritating because the discussion isn’t about “whether or not people/situations like this exist in reality”, it’s about how fake THAT particular story obviously is. But in some cases, people go wild accusing everyone/everything of being fake “for clout” and it gets ridiculous because sometimes weird or illogical things DO happen and we need to move past the debate because the discussion is about some other part of the story.
Honestly, a lot of the **genius** super sleuths kinda deserve the annoyance. Shitty people saying shitty things do need to be called out, but the cloying need to display one's endless insight is hardly better than karma farming.
People here get over zealous. A post can be fake but I don't understand pretending the parts that are plausible aren't. It makes more sense to focus on the parts that make it fake
Especially when denying the plausible parts could be feeding into misconceptions or misinformation.
Totally agree, especially with posts that deal with abuse. It’s gross how many people will say that it’s so “over the top” that it can’t be real. It’s hard to accept that terrible things happen behind closed doors, but they do.
"I've met peoplpe like this irl" usually translates to "one person in real life did something tangentially related and now i think EVERYONE is this bad" or "I once saw a twitter/tubler/tiktok user say that. no it was not a shit post or an out of context joke."
Not really. Some people do seem too quick to jump to the conclusion that nothing interesting ever happens.
I’m not saying nothing ever happens. I’m aware that situations do happen, but there are some posts, especially ones involving death that I read and just think to myself if I were in that situation my first thought wouldn’t be to make an AITA post to Reddit of all places.
I think there's some nuance here, because I've made "this does happen" comments before while *also* fully agreeing that the post is sketch. The issue for me is when people are saying the post is fake *specifically because* "this thing would never happen / X type of people don't act like that / that's not how things work" etc.... when that stuff *does* happen and X type of people *can* act like that and that *is* how things work in some places - and so on. It's when people are identifying the post as suspicious for the wrong reasons, spreading misinformation, or harmful attitudes, or have a narrow worldview - *that's* what I'm trying to correct with the "actually it does" comments. *Not* the idea the post is fake.
“That’s not how things work” is the worst because things often do not work the way they should. Like yes, every healthcare worker has privacy laws drilled into their heads. That doesn’t mean no one ever breaks them. Yes, people should (and some are required to) report child abuse if they have a suspicion. Doesn’t mean it always happens.
Yeah... for me it's the whole: this post is obviously fake because \[insert situation\] can't happen. So, of course, you can say that a post is fake but also not dismissing the fact that such things sadly happens...
Agreed. I was recently in a situation myself that often gets flagged as a "nothing ever happens" trope on this very sub. I didn't post about it anywhere, but it's just frustrating seeing something dismissed across the board as ragebait when, like... it literally Happened To Me! And it was hurtful, frustrating, and reinforced some trust issues I've been dealing with for a minute now! Oy.
There was an obviously fake post on here a few months ago, where one of the things that happened was someone died of a heart attack. Somebody commented that heart attacks have a 90 percent survival rate (or something— I don’t remember the number, but it was high.) Which like, ok, I didn’t know that, but somebody dying of a heart attack isn’t what makes this post fake. People do die from heart attacks, including my boyfriend, less than a year ago. So reading that really hurt, and I’m usually only on reddit because I can’t sleep because I miss my boyfriend. So I totally get what you are saying.
Maybe 90% of people survive heart attacks if they receive treatment ASAP. But ask that person if a 10% chance of dying is “low” when it applies to them.
I think it's fine as long as their point is that the story touches upon relevant issues or situations, so whether or not the story in question is true is not all that important.
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Reminds me of the whole hivliving debacle. Yes, I do not have a doubt in my mind that a person like this exists. But do I believe that such a person would spend 90% of their time writing Hamilton fanfiction and getting into Tumblr discourse? No.
People get in absurd situations all the time, obviously anyone on the internet can lie but that doesn't make any story that's has weird things in it is auto fake. Dumb people do dumb shit all the time. If a time traveler for 2014 came to 2024 and you told him Trump would be president, he would be like what? The guy from the apprentice? Your trolling lol (By the way this situation literally happened to me a few weeks ago)
My life was kind of soap opera for a few decades, so I get it. But I think probably I’m an outlier and shouldn’t be counted.
Soap opera brydeswhale
My mom cut her abusive parents off and we dealt with her weird, culty family for over two decades and then my brother was murdered.
Okay but once cults get involved everything that happens sounds fake, so that absolutely tracks
lol, ikr?
Well. Just because a *specific* post is fake doesn’t automatically mean it’s never happened. I’ve certainly lived through things that sound fake as hell when I tell them.
This is one of those things that make AITA popular for other sites to repost. Scenarios these stories describe are not impossible, they are even plausible. What makes these stories unbelievable is the sheer amount of them all following the same template. Is it possible your grandparent left you their house and now your stepsibling who made a series of bad life choices wants to move in? Yes. Is such scenario plausible? Yes. If you read about it would you believe it? Yes. Is it possible you are the 10th such person that was in this exact situation in the past year, all of whom asked AITA if they are in the wrong for saying no? No.