May 7, 2016

"I am still jumping between what I think I know and what is reality. I have lived it and I’m not really there yet."

Says Belle Gibson, "the disgraced Australian 'wellness blogger' who faked terminal [brain] cancer and claimed she was cured using natural remedies, faces legal action and penalties of more than £500,000 for profiting from her elaborate global scam."

I'm having trouble understanding the "scam." She lied about her health, but what did she sell? It seems to be a cookbook and a cookbook app. And there seems to have been some sort of "promise[] to give some of her profits" to charity.

I see a future for her: writing about living a lie and then trying to discover "reality." The quote in the post title reads like a book proposal, no? Gibson, a very pretty 24-year-old, obviously already knows how to do media to her advantage. The big, bad government is after her, so that's a big, dramatic aspect to the narrative for a woman who began her lucrative career having to make something up.

ADDED: Being a liar is a condition of the brain, as is brain cancer. She's trying to get well. She's trying to find her way to health reality. She's seen that place before and thinks she knows where it is. Watch her struggle to find her way there.

19 comments:

jaydub said...

"The publisher stopped printing the book after Gibson’s admission and has now undertaken not to publish any claims about a person's medical condition without verification by a medical practitioner."

But, they're going to keep the money they made. Which is fine, because everyone knows cancer is often cured by the right recipes. Especially when developed by a beautiful young girl. Who ran away from home at age 12, dropped out of high school at 16, joined the "skateboarding culture in Perth at 17, had a baby at 18 and apparently still found time to find a cure for cancer before 21 when she launched her cooking app. Any publisher could have been taken in by that. But, they'll check next time.

Owen said...

Jaydub: this is where the sarc font comes in handy.

This lady is a player, all right. She has the media right where she wants them. They need stories like hers, she can tell it well, turn on the charm and the tears as needed. I predict that she gets her own show (tentative title: "Sick Call") where contestants try to figure out which guest has what disease, or is really just faking it. After a few years of that? Politics.

tds said...

wondering whether Australians would have guts to put fake Cherokee-American in jail

tim in vermont said...

Well if she's pretty, obviously she is interesting, so she should get a book contact.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Back in the old days, you pulled crap like that, you risked ostracism, to some degree or another. Maybe you got the cold shoulder at church. Maybe people stopped doing business with your family. Maybe a friend now has a flimsy excuse for not doing you a favor.

A very effective deterrent, for the most part, I should imagine. That evolutionary psychology lecturer said that nearly all gossip is a means to identify cheaters.

In today's diffuse, media-saturated world, something has to perform the function historically performed by informal community opprobrium.

More yammering on the internet won't do it.

Wince said...

"I am still jumping between what I think I know and what is reality. I have lived it and I’m not really there yet."

I thought this was another story about Ben Rhodes and the Obama foreign policy.

Leigh said...

How is this different from Sabrina Erdely's pardon -- or pass; call it what you like -- for writing the fake rape story in Rolling Stones? Because ... isn't the more "important story" raising awareness about brain cancer?

@Owen -- your funny "Sick Call" idea just reminded me of that old show "What's my Line" with Soupy Sales. The older I get, the better things used to be.

Michael K said...

Liars do well in this society. One is president and another is running as a candidate of a major party.

Rigoberto Menchu got a Nobel Peace Prize, in fact liar seems to be a job description for that particular award.

Owen said...

Eric the Fruit Bat: "...A very effective deterrent, for the most part, I should imagine. That evolutionary psychology lecturer said that nearly all gossip is a means to identify cheaters.

In today's diffuse, media-saturated world, something has to perform the function historically performed by informal community opprobrium.

More yammering on the internet won't do it."

Bingo. I wish I knew what would. I think the flip side of shame is, obviously, shamelessness. Defiant, in-your-face contumacy. As that behavior is tolerated and even celebrated, the premium formerly given to the modest and well-behaved --the ones who do not cheat-- goes away. It becomes a liability. If you play by the rules, if you act decently, you're just a faceless chump.

This is a bad dynamic. It feeds on itself and it eats up the bond on which our commonwealth depends.

/rant

jr565 said...

"i am still jumping between what i think I know and reality" is that some new form of trans condition? Trans reality?

Owen said...

jr565: "'i am still jumping between what i think I know and reality' is that some new form of trans condition? Trans reality?"

It's a quantum thing. All possible states are superimposed. But when she observes herself, the state collapses.

Definitely a condition, but not so new.

SGT Ted said...

She sold sympathy and empathy for her faked plight. Attention seeking fabulist mental illness is probably what drives it.

I think Ann is trolling with this post.

mikee said...

She can perform this struggle herself, alone, without anyone else's money.

David said...

"Watch her struggle to find her way there."

No thanks.

YoungHegelian said...

Doesn't this woman know what Lourdes is for?

Paul Snively said...

Sociopaths gonna path.

I am not Laslo.

Gahrie said...

But she felt like she had cancer.......

Roughcoat said...

I love literary hoaxes. I think they're funny. This girl has genuine talent.

Petunia said...

Lying isn't a condition of the brain. It's a conscious choice.