Normally, I read comments on articles for comedic value & can roll with the punches. Even punches from someone who clearly has no clue what they’re talking about.  However, this weekend I was rubbed the wrong way & maybe it’s the rawness of what I’ve been through the past few months that triggered it.

I honestly just think my b.s. threshold is lowering as well. (Usually does each election cycle. No offense to anyone when I say that, it’s ALWAYS been a thing that happens).

The UNOS Facebook page had this article on an amazing day at Baylor where 12 organ transplants were done on 9 people in 1 day.  It seldom works out this way & many felt like celebrating this remarkable feat for the lives it saved.  Considering all the coordination needed to make it happen, it was something incredible to pull off.

Even those who did have criticism over this post had relatively minor ones (like griping over cost).

But an internet troll decided to make a flip comment.  A few people decided to call him out.

Being the gemini I am I did back those people.  I tried to do it in a dignified & educated way. When I came back to check the page & find the link for the article for this blog post, I was told by this troll that I needed to “wake up” & that “I had my head stuck somewhere”.  This interspersed amongst a halfhearted “prayer” for me and suffering people.

Gee thanks, just what I need – a cock & bull story with no links or facts, plenty of generalizations, & fake sympathy.  My day has been made (eye roll).

As an O.E.S. (Order of the Eastern Star), I’m so used to seeing conspiracy thought & theory. As well as preconceived notions of Freemasonry & all that comes with it. (Including the fact that I’m going to hell for reading esoteric books & that I worship goats).  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by these same theorists or those inspired by them entering the transplant sphere.  But I admit I was for a second.  Maybe because I still feel at times like a “noob” here myself.

I guess I was upset too because it seemed that this person believed & felt it necessary to perpetuate organ donation myths as fact & claim I was the one who was “in the dark”.  I knew there was no way I could set him straight on this accord no matter what I said, or how many links I would give to blow up his argument (if I cared to invest the time & energy); I knew there was no changing his mind.  I just gave a standard vanilla response that fed the troll a breadcrumb but that’s as much energy as I wanted to waste on him.

In looking at his profile on Facebook where he made the comments (& his page is public pretty much in its entirety), I really see the conspiracy theorist colors bouncing off him so brightly they burn my eyes.  So, of course, I take what he says with a grain of salt…(and that’s ultimately why I didn’t engage him at all past the point where he tried with me.)

But I can’t say I’m surprised. I shouldn’t be either. Always one “parade rainer” in everything or anything someone tries to say or do on social media. It seems the troll comes back even harder & more negative when you try & stuff him with positivity & fact. So I guess the best defense here is to ignore & hope he goes away & on to some other “pet subject” of the moment.

I think an additional trigger was also what I had also seen transpire on Twitter over the past few days. Some naturopathic charlatans going after spoonies & chronic illness friends on Twitter. Trying to bully & shame these folks into false cures. They don’t have medical licenses, don’t claim to be doctors, but yet seem to want to try and be.  They run like hell from any type of real criticism or feedback given on the snakeoil they’re attempting to foist on people & get downright nasty & rude when called out on it even when the party they are bullying replies in a polite manner (as most of us e-patients try & do most days).  There are a few of us who try to call these people on the carpet though because they really do try to prey on unsuspecting sick people & shouldn’t be allowed to.  (I think this blog post is brilliant & illustrates this entire point.)

I’m not against naturopaths or naturopathic or complementary alternative medicine (CAM). I know some people who have been helped by them, but their naturopaths or CAM practitioners never claimed they could cure anything.  Nor did they just try & foist unwanted products or “medical” advice on people unsolicited either.  They also have some kind of credentials that show they’ve studied something related (not just oil & gas industry resumes).

I guess I should be glad this guy isn’t doing that to people & that he’s just simply annoying & uninformed.  Maybe part of me resents this because all of our communities (rare disease, chronic illness, e-patients, spoonies, transplant) have enough to deal with outside of trolls like these trying to yell in our ear.   – End rant. –