THE LOW-HANGING FRUIT OF FEEL-GOOD...

     So how far in the minority am I for not believing any, not a single one, of the many posts you've doubtlessly seen on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit (oh yeah, and here on Blogspot), etc. is real? You know, those ones which often come with an inspiring story or perhaps a tale of revenge or some other comeuppance?

     Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

allegedly from a pissed off One Percenter

allegedly from a store's entire staff in reaction to a bad manager

allegedly given to a family with an autistic child

allegedly written by an active duty US soldier

allegedly after Zachary had come out of the closet on Facebook

allegedly given to a woman seen "controversially" breastfeeding in public

     I don't believe any of it. All these feels-inducing human interest stories come across as having been staged. And no, I still wouldn't believe it if any of the above scenarios had been caught on video because those too are easily staged. They're all too easy to fake and just seem like easy and extremely convenient ways to get attention and page views for agenda-driven websites and forums. It's confirmation bias run amok.

     After all, is it really any different than, "Can you believe what so&so did the other night with such&such?"?

     "No, what? Tell me. This I gotta hear!"

ADDENDUM: Here's some more confirmation bias courtesy of NBC news :-)

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Gay-Server-Tip-Lifestyle-Receipt-Discrepancy-233040811.html