Munchausen-by-internet

I hate it when I suspect someone is being untruthful. I always feel bad, because I'm such a cynic and a misanthrope that I tend to think the worst of people right off the bat. Most people prove me wrong, but every now and then, someone really just sticks in my craw.

In the case of Munchausen-By-Internet, I always ignore it because...well, it probably isn't hurting anyone. I mean, if someone is threatening suicide or pretending to have cancer or something, that's one thing. A lot of Munchausen-By-Internet is just attention mongering in a persistent but harmless way.

Currently, though, I've noticed a pattern in someone. Maybe it helps that I don't read their blog very often, because I think when you're invested in someone enough that you read their blog every day, it's probably a case of slowly acclimating to the drama. But I rarely read this person's blog, and yet everytime I check in on them, some odd thing is happening. It's not always a crisis or an illness, but there is always a feeling of contrived coincidence when I read her posts. Sort of like how everyone on the show 7th Heaven was always going through the same issue at the same time (everyone has a nickname! Everyone has a Muslim friend! Everyone wants to say I Love You to someone else!).

I felt bad the first time I thought that about this person. I said to myself, "She's been through a lot. Of course her writing appears clinical and detached. She probably doesn't want to relive the hurt." or "this must be a pastiche of many different events that she's piecing together. That's a valid author strategy." But lately, it's been more, "Yes, this has a probability of happening all at once in one family..."

My belief has been suspended more times than I can count. And it's not that what this blogger is saying is so very, very weird, it's just that everything taken on the whole combined with their odd writing style and unending coincidental issues makes me think that they could be a fraud.

Whistle blowers on the internet are almost always vilified. Cassandra Claire plagiarized? Oh, you're just jealous that she thought of it first! MsScribe made up an entire life and nanny? You're so horrible. The Smart Bitches out Cassie Edwards as a Plagiarizer? Again, they are jealous and mean, bitter women who wish they could write a book and get published!

I'm not going to say who this person is...I mean, there's always a probability that I'm wrong. I hope so, because if they are lying, then they are lying about some very important things that could hurt a lot of people if it comes out. I can only caution that if someone has a history of drama, especially if the drama escalates in a slow but steady rhythm, be very careful.