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In reply to the discussion: I'm feeling pretty depressed [View all]MerrilyMerrily
(158 posts)I have read mvd's threads over the years, and on one occasion I went to his GoFundMe, which gave his full name, which stuck in my head because I know someone with a very similar name. I also remembered many people trying to help him find resources in his home state, so I put the name and the state into Google and voila. From there, the obituary, which listed mvd, his mother, and other close family members came up. The address came from doing the same name + state for his mom. Google also told me the names of the hospitals near that address and how to get there. I didn't count the clicks, but I had all that info in five minutes or less.
Why did I take those easy steps to check out his story? Because during my years of lurking he has said many things that didn't ring true to me. I found his habit of ignoring any help except cash concerning. His occasional claims that he had already looked into this or that resource, and it wouldn't work for him, often came after it was clear more money wasn't coming from DU this time and the people hanging in with helping him were sticking with good advice only. That I found downright disturbing. I wondered if good people with limited budgets of their own were giving money to a man who was playing them.
I couldn't say so at the time because I was a lurker who was too chicken to sign up in general, and signing up just to say "I don't believe you" with post #1 was not appealing.
This time, I gave him a little advice like several other people. I tried not to sound harsh about the fact I had noticed he suddenly announced his mom hurt her wrist two days ago (and HE thought she should go to the ER) after more than a day of lamenting other things, such as Youtube TV not agreeing to reduced payments so he's switching to Hulu.
If he really believed the nearest hospitals were 6-10 miles away and he didn't have the money for an Uber to go that far, he would be glad to know there was an urgent care clinic five minutes away, so I told him. Even a casually-acquainted neighbor would run an injured elderly lady less than 2 miles up the road. Then and only then he announced that she had already gone to this clinic and the STAFF thought his mom should go to the ER. Which apparently didn't happen, as he still needs some cash for that Uber.
I couldn't help but notice that nearly every complaint he posted came with a concluding statement that he was not ASKING for money but Gee things are so bad. Hint hint. His response to my mentioning that was that he couldn't control what people decide. That's a Trump quality nondenial denial, right there.
We all go online to check hinky statements from politicians all the time. Sometimes a little Googling tells me they are actually telling the truth for a change, sometimes not. If someone I don't know personally is claiming one financial crisis after another, and kicking his thread over and over until he gets the money he wants, then yes, I will see if I can get a better sense of his credibility.
I'm sad that you find my low post count suspicious. I expect to post a dozen times, maybe more, in a thread that gets my spidey sense, or hackles, going. The rest of the time - I'll never make into the tens of thousands.