One is a forward that has been around a long time, the other is a blog post that went viral in March 2013.
One is complete fiction, the other is a real event that was brought about by fakery.
One had an angel in a pink dress, sitting in a park, pretending to be deformed and sad; the other had a group of students in an Apple Store, pretending to be deaf.
Both were written in first person, from the point of view of the only one who cared enough to treat the deaf and deformed like people, or so we are told.
Both stories took fakers to reveal the supposedly very rare immense caring shown by the hero, from who's point of view they are told. Both make it sound as if treating someone who is disabled as a fellow human is not only exceedingly rare, but an act of highest nobleness.
Both stories convey the fatalistic message that if you are disabled or look different, you will more than likely be looked down on or at best, ignored by the majority, only a minority of the earth's population would give you the time of day.
Neither of these address the deceitfulness of the fakers. They don't disparage or even discourage it!
With too many real cases of disability fakery going on, hurting people with real disabilities, or people thinking we should be piteous or inspired by someone because of a disability, we have a real problem with this!
Why Many People With Disabilities Do Not Want To Be Considered Inspirational by Carola finch is an excellent read!
Now, let's deal with the fictitious angel first.
The Pink Dress
AKA The Pink Gown AKA Angel In A Pink Dress/Gown
This chain letter tale tells of a little girl who was sitting in a public place, all sad and alone, and ignored by all the seemingly too-busy, self-absorbed, even snobby adults.
The readers are told the kid is poor, wearing a worn pink dress and was dirty, barefoot, the whole bit. But along comes our story hero.
She or he, (the reader is never told which,) notices and takes pity on the poor girl, and when she does, the girl opens the back of her dress to spread her wings, delivers a combination compliment and insult all in one, then says she's the guardian angel of the story teller, and reveals that the others weren't really ignoring her in the park, they just couldn't see her.
Let the meme-mangle begin!
🤦🏽♀️BP: H'm! You're certainly right. Smanglin' time...
Have at thee, fiend!
- - -
🙎♂️Meme: There was this little girl sitting by herself in the park. Everyone passed by her and never stopped to see why she looked so sad.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Because she was all in your head? Because she had a magic that made sure no one else saw her until they happened to look directly at her, and you just happened to be it?
🤦🏽♀️BP: Oh, and the violins are just crankin' it out. Excuse me while I grab my box of tissues and hold someone's hand to get through this oh so touchingly heart-wrenching drip. *rolls eyes*
🙎♂️Meme: Dressed in a worn pink dress, barefoot and dirty, the girl just sat and watched the people go by.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Right, really gotta make sure everybody gets the picture, she's sad and dirty...
🤦🏽♀️BP: And remember, you can NEVER overdo the whole "oh, poor me, please shower praise on me because I'm so awesome for surviving because I'm ME!" thing. Ugh!
🙎♂️Meme: She never tried to speak. She never said a word. Many people passed by her, but no one would stop.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Well that would certainly prevent anyone with a severe visual impairment from knowing she was there, because you have to have amazing sight and apparently some kind of mind super power to see this poor sad dirty mute little girl.
🤦🏽♀️BP: Well, maybe they don't want to talk to her, huh? Oh, but that makes them awful human beings, right, because anyone who doesn't fall down at this poor little wonderful girl's dirty stinky bare feet and kiss them has to have a heart of stone. Well, you know what I think about that? AAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
🙎♂️Meme: The next day I decided to go back to the park in curiosity to see if the little girl would still be there. Yes, she was there, right in the very spot where she was yesterday, and still with the same sad look in her eyes.
🤦🏽♀️BP: Right, so you just left her there all by herself. How noble and awesome of you.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Do you mean to tell me that you just saw her on that first day, all alone and all sad, and you did sweet nothing until curiosity brought you back the next day? If you really cared all that much you would've approached her right away, not? And why in the heck would she still be there? Or be there again?
🙎♂️Meme: Today I was to make my own move and walk over to the little girl.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Wha? Hold up, you're confusing me by fudging the timeline. When was "the next day" ? Was that the "yesterday" or is the "next day" "today" ?
So, let's assume you were talking about the past when you mentioned "the next day" which would've been "yesterday" at the very latest. That would mean you took at least three days to "make your move" .
🙎♂️Meme: For as we all know, a park full of strange people is not a place for young children to play alone.
🤦🏽♀️BP: No, REALLY, Copernicus. I thought it was the best place in the whole known galaxy! And how long have you been mulling this over?
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Three days! It took you three darn days to figure that out!?
🤦🏽♀️BP: Day one: Oh look, a little girl. Day two: Huh, she's still there. Day three: Maybe...TODAY, I shall talk to her! *facepalm* Ugh!
🙎♂️Meme: As I got closer I could see the back of the little girl's dress. It was grotesquely shaped. I figured that was the reason people just passed by and made no effort to speak to her. Deformities are a low blow to our society and, heaven forbid if you make a step toward assisting someone who is different.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Well aren't you the pompus, self-righteous, whining jerk! Look, you haven't even determined for certain that her grotesquely-shaped dress is because of a deformity, you only assumed. Didn't it occur to you that she could be hiding something in her dress? Oh, no, you just used this opportunity to tell people who have physical deformities that they are being looked down on by everybody else, good going!
🤦🏽♀️BP: Hey, fat head! To use your own words, that's a "low blow to our society". You don't know for sure if she was deformed. How do you know the dress wasn't a horrible fit, or she was hiding something, or maybe, your eyes were wonking out, since OBVIOUSLY it took you three days to see that there was something fishy going on. And what on Earth makes you think everyone instinctively hates people with deformities? People are people, and dang it, deserve to be treated like it! H'm!
🙎♂️Meme: As I got closer, the little girl lowered her eyes slightly to avoid my intent stare.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Maybe she just didn't like the look of you...
🤦🏽♀️BP: Maybe because you look creepy. Think about it. Some stranger comes up to you after looking creepily at you for the previous two days. I'd be nervous too.
🙎♂️Meme: As I approached her, I could see the shape of her back more clearly. She was grotesquely shaped in a humped over form. I smiled to let her know it was OK; I was there to help, to talk.
🤦🏽♀️BP: Oh, right, because you're so great and awesome you can say "Oh, it's fine that you have a deformity, I'm a big noble human being and I will condescend to speaking with you." Moron! Idiot! AAAAAGGGH!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: ARGH! You insufferable - … Again, assuming her dress was covering her back, you really don't know the hump was actually her back and not something she was hiding in her dress. It sure took you long enough to make your approach, but you shouldn't have stared at her first.
🙎♂️Meme: I sat down beside her and opened with a simple, "Hello."
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: And the plot thickens...
🤦🏽♀️BP: DUN-DUN-DUN! Gasp! Whatever will happen next!?
🙎♂️Meme: The little girl acted shocked, and stammered a "hi"; after a long stare into my eyes.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: 'Acted' being the key word, here. She's got herself a sucker!
🤦🏽♀️BP: Hook, line, and sinker. You bought right into that one, pal. Great going.
🙎♂️Meme: I smiled and she shyly smiled back.
🤦🏽♀️BP: Aw,
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Awww,
🤦🏽♀️BP: isn't that just pwecious!?
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: how totally touching...
Beth and 🧝♀️Ocean Elf: *gag*
🙎♂️Meme: We talked until darkness fell and the park was completely empty.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Huh? Why did you waste all that time talking when you could've volunteered to help her get back home, or find her a place to stay, get her a meal, you get the idea? You could've talked and talked over a meal and as you took her shopping to get her a better dress and some shoes!
🤦🏽♀️BP: So...you leave her there three days, and then don't even get her a hot meal? If you're so incredibly awesome, why didn't you help her? New clothes, shelter for the night, you know, the works. Oh, that's right. You're stupid!
🙎♂️Meme: I asked the girl why she was so sad.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: And now you're gonna tell me, I can hardly wait... *Rolling eyes*
🤦🏽♀️BP: And, here's the moral of the story, big "Oh my gosh!" moment coming up. Don't touch that dial, we'll be right back after these messages!
--
🙎♂️Meme: The little girl looked at me with a sad face said, "Because, I'm different."
🤦🏽♀️BP: So am I, twerp. EVERYONE is. If we were all the same, we couldn't tell each other apart. And it wouldn't matter, because we'd all be everyone. Think that one over...
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Yeah well everybody's different, kid...With or without stuff stuck in the back of their dress. YOU, are definitely different, and not in a good way, I'll add...
🙎♂️Meme: I immediately said, "That you are!"; and smiled.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: And the plot boils.
🤦🏽♀️BP: Like, totally ohmigosh! What's next!? *rolls eyes*
🙎♂️Meme: The little girl acted even sadder and said, "I know."
🤦🏽♀️BP: Right, just lay it on thick, little twerp! Keep it up.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Yeah, kid, play it up for all you're worth, what a Cherie Mary Sue!
🙎♂️Meme: "Little girl," I said, "you remind me of an angel, sweet and innocent."
🤦🏽♀️BP: And, here we are. Fell right into her little trap. And if someone like that reminds you of an angel...well, I'd hate to see what reminded you of the other end of the spectrum.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Lol! And okay hold it! You supposedly talked with this little girl in the park for hours, and you didn't even introduce yourselves to each other? You don't know her name after all this time?
Hah, just goes to show you how utterly contrived this chain story is, totally windy on angsting up the little girl angel and patting the one who chats her up on the back as the most compassionate out of the whole lot of people to go through a park in three whole days, and neither the girl angel or the sad sack who approaches her, are even given names here!
🙎♂️Meme: She looked at me and smiled, then slowly she got to her feet and said, "Really?"
🤦🏽♀️BP: And I bet it was a smug smile...you, who ever you are, have been duped.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Got what you wanted, didn'tcha, kid? You were just waiting for that sucker to take the bait.
🙎♂️Meme: "Yes, you're like a little Guardian Angel sent to watch over all people walking by."
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: I still say if you really cared as much as you claim, you would've offered her more than just corny flattery.
🤦🏽♀️BP: Oh, gimme a bucket. If she was a guardian angel, she would have done more than just stare at people. That's just useless.
🙎♂️Meme: She nodded her head yes, and smiled.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: She was just waiting for that, you know.
🤦🏽♀️BP: You just opened a HUGE can of worms. Good luck with that.
🙎♂️Meme: With that she opened the back of her pink dress
🤦🏽♀️BP: Wha-!? And in public, too...
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Hardly a decent thing to do in public, but wait, there's more.
🙎♂️Meme: and allowed her wings to spread,
🤦🏽♀️BP: Oh, what now? See, not deformed. Bet that's a blow to your ego, Mr. I'm-such-a-great-human-being. Or Miss. I don't really know or care what gender you are.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: I told you she could've been hiding stuff in the back of that dress, didn't I?
🙎♂️Meme: then she said "I am"
🤦🏽♀️BP: *cough, cough* NOT! *cough, cough*
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: *Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Kid, that's debatable...
🙎♂️Meme: "I'm your Guardian Angel," with a twinkle in her eye.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: If that was true, why did you play a sick trick on some poor sap to reveal yourself? I haven't read the Guardian Angel Rulebook but am pretty sure playing deceptive tricks on people to falsely puff up their egos isn't in there.
🤦🏽♀️BP: If you're so great, why did you resort to petty trickery? Right, because you're NOT.
🙎♂️Meme: I was speechless -- sure I was seeing things.
🤦🏽♀️BP: 'Cause you are. Like I said before, your eyes are wonking out.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Because you were... This little hussy couldn't even make it as a Wingless Angel.
🙎♂️Meme: She said, "For once you thought of someone other than yourself. My job here is done".
🤦🏽♀️BP: *BUH-DUN-DUN-CH!* Yow, talk about a insult. Aren't you little miss perfect, now, calling judgment on people.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Holy crap, what a judgement; "For once you thought of someone other than yourself." build up this sucker only to bring her/him down again, wow wow wow, what a sweet little angel! Actually, you're a toxic little turd!
🙎♂️Meme: I got to my feet and said, "Wait, why did no one stop to help an angel?"
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Uh, you remember you thought nobody helped her because she was deformed, and this was before she pulled the wingback thing, right?
🤦🏽♀️BP: You said it was because she was deformed. When she wasn't. Get your facts straight before making judgments, next time.
🙎♂️Meme: She looked at me, smiled, and said, "You're the only one that could see me," and then she was gone. And with that, my life was changed dramatically.
🤦🏽♀️BP: So...in other words, there was no point. It was all a charade to get you to fall into her scheme. And, might I say, it worked perfectly.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: See, you've been had. This angel girl wasn't REALLY sad and deformed, it was all a ploy on her part to suck you in. She chose you because you were alone. Other people were at that park with their families and friends, but this angel was preying on easily deluded loners. You fit the bill.
And the point of this story is what? Especially since (and this is a big part of the story's unravelling) no one else saw the kid/angel, no wonder everybody seemed to be ignoring her. How could they possibly help it? Duh!
🙎♂️Meme: So, when you think you're all you have, remember, your angel is always watching over you.
🤦🏽♀️BP: Um, my chain letter angel? Pass. They're creepy, and don't exist.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Because of gender, we know she isn't one of the Angels In The Alley. But I'll just bet she is also a Money Angel, named Jenny, she of the Dead Reckoning Jenny tale, and she is one of the notorious Six hundred Million Catch A Rainbow Huggy Angels sent to look down on each and every good little forwarder in the whole world. In which case, the idea she believed she held a monopoly on selflessness and could judge others on it is a huge shooting hoot!
I don't believe in chain letter angels.
But I've got another thing to say about this one.
Since the story teller here actually calls her an angel before she reveals herself as being one, it's apparent this scary little angel girl can control the minds of the people she wants to see her. Whew, thank goodness she's ficticious!
🙎♂️Meme: Pass this to everyone that means anything at all to you.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Uh, NO!
🤦🏽♀️BP: That's such a contradiction...
🙎♂️Meme: Make sure you send it back to the person who sent it to you, to let them know you're glad they care about you.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: That's one heck of a bad way to show gratitude! If I want to let people know I'm thankful they care about me, I'll write them a personal note saying so! If everybody sent back copies of every chain letter that made this demand, the net would crash! It's already cluttered with this junk and not enough good quality reactions worth consideration!
🤦🏽♀️BP: If I want to thank someone, I thank him! Or do something nice, not send out this kind of bleck!
🙎♂️Meme: Like the story says, we all need someone...
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Nature of the human species. Who needs badfic chain letter angel stories telling us that?
🤦🏽♀️BP: Yeah, anyone could tell you that. Basic knowledge. You have failed at trying to sound profound.
🙎♂️Meme: And, every one of your friends is an Angel in their own way
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Whatever, you don't know me or my friends. Don't dole out insincere flatteries toward me or my friends and don't use that to try getting me to pass this thing on to them!
🤦🏽♀️BP: You don't even know my friends. And your cheap, cheesy flattery will get you nowhere.
🙎♂️Meme: The value of a friend is measured in the heart.
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Hello? HEL-LO!? Is the light on up there? Is anybody home!? How long did it take you to figure THAT out!? In otherwords, I wasn't born yesterday, I have learned a few things during my life, this being one of the first after walking, talking and learning to share toys with classmates in preschool and kindergarten!
🤦🏽♀️BP: Well, DUH! Sheesh, and you think that makes you sound all deep. Anyone with an ounce of brain matter could tell you that!
🙎♂️Meme: I hope your Guardian Angel watches over you always.
🤦🏽♀️BP: I don't want you chain angels! Bleck! Get lost!
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Thanks, but I don't believe in guardian angels, especially those breezing around in incredibly irritating chain letters. If I did, I wouldn't want one like her - a manipulative brat who pretends to be deformed by stuffing her wings in her dress, playing up the sadness, fishing for compliments, only to return a compliment by doling out a smile and a "You've been selfish all your life!" insult!
Whoever wrote this up sure needed to patch several big holes in the plot. I guess we're all exceedingly thoughtless now, if we don't see and include every toddler's imaginary friend at get-togethers with our adult friends. After all, one of them might be an angel in a pink gown, looking for her imaginary puppy that got kidnapped by the borg or something.
There, take that!
Some promoters of this glurge claim the angel only appeared to the person because that person was compassionate enough to stop and talk.
I found out about this chain letter back in the day when Snopes used to be sort of okay, but their message board, old and new alike, always really stunk.
And would you believe, someone over there actually posted in defence of this chain letter?
🙃NZUL: To be fair, the message is more about the author thinking the girl was being ignored, not whether she was or not. The 'fact' that she was ignored by all because she didn't exist is irrelevant, because he still thought she was ignored and acted upon his desire to help her out.
Does everyone else read it as a guy?
🧝♀️Ocean Elf: Uh, that's a bit like pointing out that a sad story is sad. I'm aware what the tear-jerking angle is here, and it only serves to make it particularly odious. The unrealistic parts of this soppy story make it especially ripe for a thorough mangling.
The sad little trickster was not really a poor deformed dirty little girl, and she wasn't actually being ignored, not if no one else could actually see her. The story teller drew his own two wrong conclusions about the whole thing.
When you try to mix psychology with science with physics with spirituality with magic (and you stink at all five) to make a story that basically tells you that nobody cares for poor lost little girls and that for the one that does, he/she gets to see angels, and that to show you care along with this hero, you must pass the drippy story on, it's still a huge contrived manipulation and it stinks!
The others around that public area simply didn't see this angel.
She is a manipulator and her whole game plan was to single out somebody among the crowd and reveal herself to this person to make them feel like he/she had just done something monumentally compassionate so he would start a chain letter about it; and everybody would get duped into passing it along.
That this angel was literally not seen by the others is completely relevant. It should be what helps break people free from the urge to share the glurge.
And what of our hero? Is he or she being stalked, or just delusional? Perhaps he or she is so lonely she/he has to make up stories about heroics and chain letter angels in pink dresses as a substitute for company? Maybe he/she drove all other potential friends away with such crazy stories and by creating and sending too many chain letters? Who knows.
Whatever the case, this forward should fail to impress any reader with their thinking-cap on and in working order.
Once in a long while, life imitates urban legend.
In real life, that angel in a pink dress took the form of fake deaf students in an Apple store.
A story about fake deafness and bad treatment by mall staff except for one very important apple employee, the author, went viral in March 2013. It was titled The Coolest Experience I had As An Apple Employee The liberal author then wrote another entry in defence of the story, because of some negative feedback.
No surprise it came from a liberal, since the story was one of those that turned out to be a crock with a fatalistic message that if you are different, you'll get treated badly.
The students weren't deaf, they were faking it in order to put store employees to the test.
I have big problems with this right there.
Suppose a group of real deaf students took a field trip there. Would this make them any more welcome, or make people doubt their sincerity? This could do a lot more harm than good. Considering there are frauds faking disability to bilk the system as it is, and it just isn't okay to pull off hoaxes, even as some sort of school experiment - and this type is demeaning to people with real physical disabilities.
That this writer thinks of it as the coolest experience as an Apple employee makes me cringe. If that had been me, I would have been put out at being had, and about the kindest thing I could say about this group is that they could probably win some academy awards. Unless you are acting parts in some movie or TV show, or doing some undercover work to catch criminals, don't fake a disability. Just, don't…!
Next was the almost soapbox element. The whole story was all to build up how pragmatic it was to help these people when no one else would… Here, only one heroic Apple employee, the author could be bothered to write in text and communicate. WOW! A miracle! Considering how much more difficult it would be in a store where there aren't so many computers and employees are scrambling to keep up as it is. How fair is it to spring a whole group of supposedly deaf students on store staff that can't sign and are being suddenly put on the spot, not to mention all the other shoppers they still have to deal with? Then when the whole deaf thing turned out to be a hoax, a fraud, all to make some sort of skewed statement about society. The ethical thing would've been to call the mall management ahead to let them know there was a student group on a field trip, conducting an experiment on what it might be like to be deaf. Round it out with ear muffs or something to block the students' hearing, and perhaps all concerned would have learned a lot more that day.
Instead, the whole thing was a cheat and a let-down, with a message that is far from encouraging for anyone, especially with a physical disability.
There are already too many stories of this ilk, and it's gotten to the point where when one gets even an inkling that there's something 'special' about this particular group or person that just walked in, chances are it will be about some disability, and that will inevitably be followed up with something about how the disabled are being treated like second-class citizens.., and how great and caring and noble it is to treat them as equals.
*Rolling eyes*
If more of the mall staff had related better to these fakers, taking the time to communicate via written word - better still, if these students had been genuinely deaf, would this have even been written at all?
Liberal media is always looking for opportunities to tell you "You are a victim of something" if you're a woman, or someone with a disability, you're a lot more likely to be treated badly by the rest of the world (particularly non-liberals,) if you - wear glasses - aren't considered 'attractive' are a minority or non-white, and the list goes on. This was just one reason I stopped watching 20-20 years ago.
Democrat Connie Schultz wrote a viral that went all the way back to the suffragette era just to encourage women to get out and vote for Obama, or at least vote democrat.
This type of awareness is about the most negative and unproductive and does nothing to really help anyone, deaf or otherwise. All it does is promote defeatism, depression, bitterness, hate, apathy and poor morale while giving the people peddling this toxin opportunities to pat themselves on the back.
I refuse to go along with this mindset.
I am not, and will not allow myself to be treated any worse or different for being a woman or having a visual impairment. That is that. I will not fall in and let liberal politics use anything about me to tout any part of their platforms and agendas, and as a "Look at us, we champion the cause of helping the disabled! WE, care about stopping bullying! WE care about women!" as if people from different political persuasions don't, oh, please!
Instead, how about some honest success stories about real deaf people, without so much focus being on their deafness, and how to interact with them better?
Sheila McCleary wrote such an article on her Teacher and Hubpage about the blind and visually impaired. Instead of sending out the message "You are more likely to get overlooked and mistreated when you're blind." it gives helpful tips on how to interact with the blind and visually impaired, and without a single trace of pity, envy, or patronization. Treating the disabled as fellow human beings is not noble, it is normal, even when it involves some learning to communicate more effectively.
Over and out.
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