liars

If you go literally anywhere on the internet, you're guaranteed to come across bullshit, fake news, and straight up liars. Some very online people just can't help themselves and lie about the weirdest stuff. Why do they do it? Does it give them satisfaction to get away with lying to  strangers on the internet? Or are they just trying to get the world record for Reddit upvotes? Whatever it is, it's pretty gratifying to see liars get publicly called out in forums like r/quityourbullshit. We've got some pretty cringey and amusing examples of times deceivers got what they deserved. 

We tend to try and provide a healthy balance of all things wholesome, based, and cringe, and right now we're deep diving into the latter with a selection of mortifying moments from r/sadcringe that had us wincing in pain. Some of these people definitely deserve to feel embarrassed, but we have to admit, we kind of felt for a few of these sad fools. Whether you're seeking vicarious humiliation or you want to feel a little better about yourself, jump right in and let the cringe consume you.

There is something about internet anonymity that really allows people to feel comfortable bending the truth or even flat out, blatantly lying. There are also people who feel totally fine fibbing to the friends and family on their timeline. Why? Well, some people do it to make a political or societal point. Or to express that they have some kind of experience with pain or strife. You know the type of situation or person. Rachel Dolezal. People who pretend to have been denied or given bad service because they were white or don't believe in vaccinations or disease-preventing masks. 

Other people weave their flourish-y creative tales for attention or pity. They dream up fake cancer diagnoses for sympathy and con friends, family, and strangers in order to rake in the crowdfunding money. Some of them create a sob story so that people will talk to them on sites like Reddit or Twitter.

Then there are the attention-hungry individuals who are looking for clout. They write up detailed sagas to mine Reddit karma, which will in turn allow them to post their lies freely all over the website. Or they want their tweet to go viral. And then there are the wannabe tough guys who regale the internet with fictitious heroics or even more false tales that evoke the classic "I have a girlfriend but she goes to another school" trope. 

You'll find that most of these types are represented in this lengthy list of creative storytellers. While we do wish that people would just, you know, not lie on the internet, at least there are places like r/thatHappened where we can laugh at their foolish attempts. 

Some people just need to be put in their place when they tell straight-up lies on the internet. We would recommend just not trying to bullshit your way through life in order to solve this problem, but it gives us so much schadenfreude-y entertainment that we're not going to do that. 

Check out /r/QuitYourBullshit and Fail Blog for even more stupidity!

I remember back in the summer of 1995, I decided to be super spontaneous and hop on a one-way train from Montreal to Seattle so that I could finally see my favorite band in the world—Nirvana. I was only 12 years old, but everyone always thought I was much older due to my exceptionally high IQ score of 200, so I wasn't too worried. The two-week journey was grueling, but luckily I managed to win a hefty chunk of change along the way after beating two large Russian men at several rounds of poker (those Canadian trains can get pretty wild). When I finally got to the venue entrance just as the opening band (who happened to be Radiohead) began playing, the door guy narrowed his eyes at me and asked 'wait just a minute there, where's your ticket and ID?' I took the wad of poker winnings from my pocket and slammed it on the table. 'Sold out' the door guy said, smirking at me smugly. I totally was heartbroken. I racked my genius brain for a solution, but nothing came. Just when I was about to give up, someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind. I turned around and almost screamed at the sight of Kurt Cobain himself, standing there like a guardian angel. In one swift move, he grabbed the cash, handed it back to me, and gestured for me to follow him through the entrance. On our way through he looked at the door guy and said 'you're fired, dude.' I got to watch Nirvana from the VIP area and then I spent the rest of the night hanging out with the whole band backstage and they laughed at all my jokes. It was the best night of my life.

There are three kinds of liars on the internet. Those who spread fake news, con-artists who try to scam others, and those who make up laughably fake stories for no good reason. It's relatively easy to lie online, especially with the whole internet and its wealth of resources at your disposal. But some people are very, very bad at bullsh*tting. In the age of 'reverse image search', that stolen image some redditor is trying to pawn off as their own is just one click away from being exposed by internet detectives. And these days it's just as easy to google something as it is to lie, so if you're going to post a lengthy tall tale about your non-existent memories of hanging out with Nirvana, perhaps you should fact-check your own lies first. That way, at the very least it might be an entertaining story.

We've got some amusing and pretty satisfying instances of liars getting called out for their BS on the internet. But it really makes you think—Seeing as we pulled these screenshots from the internet, who's to say that the lies aren't also lies? Anyone could photoshop a fake callout of a fake lie someone told and post it to r/QuitYourBullshit for karma. What if we're all just caught in an inception of internet lies? What if we're actually in the matrix and I'm not even typing this right now? Anyway...here's some content.

There's something about the anonymity of the internet that allows people to feel completely comfortable lying to other people. Sometimes they lie as a scare tactic, for example, providing bullshit anecdotes to scare people away from vaccines. Some people lie to mine Reddit karma. And then there are the weirdos who simply want attention. Unfortunately for these bullshitters, there are tons of internet users who are just waiting to call them out for their deceptive stories. And we love to see it. 

The thing about being online is that you can be whoever you want to be and say anything your cute little imagination conjures up. However, there are consequences to blatantly lying, like getting publicly called out by people who do a bit of research, or ending up on subreddit like r/thathappened. Sometimes the highly sus anecdotes that people spew all over social media are not totally implausible, but they still have that air of cringiness about them that just screams 'fake.' We've got a bunch of examples of absurd stories that may or may not be total bullsh*t. 

Well, well, well. Looks like we've got another scandalous case of cultural grifting. This time the offender is Hilaria Baldwin, who was once known as Hillary Hayward-Thomas until she met her current husband, actor Alec Baldwin. For nearly a decade, Hilaria Baldwin has self-identified as Spanish, claiming that she was born in Mallorca and often appeared on talk shows with a vaguely Spanish accent. In one Today Show video, she even pretends to forget the English word for 'cucumber.' How you say...cringe? 

The truth came out on December 21st when @lenibriscoe shared their research in a series of tweets showing all the cringey times Baldwin cosplayed as a Spanish person. In reality, Baldwin was born in Boston to American parents, who were also born and raised in Massachusetts but moved to Spain in 2011. A handful of Baldwin's old classmates came forward claiming that she didn't have the accent back at Cambridge School of Weston. The Twitter thread quickly blew up and has since been referenced in a number of publications. The jig is up Hilaria, or should we say, Hillary. When will the Rachel Dolezals and Jessica Krugs of the world ever learn? 

We've collected some of the most hilari-ous tweets and takes on the whole Hilaria saga. Sometimes you just gotta laugh at these crazy ass rich people.

Unless you were born yesterday, most of us can agree that the easiest place to lie is the internet. These aspiring deceivers did a really, really, bad job at pulling the wool over the internet's eyes - and got called out for it. Seeing these losers brought to justice made our day, and we hope it makes yours.

These days a lot of people are pretty on edge thanks to a tense and divisive political climate. But some people take it to a very cringey level on the internet. It's almost like they lie in wait for the perfect opportunity to violently go off on someone with slightly different views or drop a pic of the tactical gear they just got from Amazon. Sorry buddy, but these eye roll-worthy displays of 'epic badassery' aren't fooling anyone.

These pics range from mildly disappointing to downright infuriating. We've all been in that situation where we open the bag of potato chips and it ends up being only one-third full - these pics play off of that feeling that we all know and loathe. 

When it comes down to it, life is all a lie and you should just never trust anyone.

Twitter user Mike Mulloy had the right idea when he called out Jacob Obers on Twitter for claiming that he and his girlfriend bought a house at age 19. First of all, who the hell even buys property anymore? And secondly, we're willing to bet that neither of these doofus kids have ever even had jobs before. Next!

Some people will never learn - play with the internet and you WILL get burned.

Some people will go through great lengths to get you to believe that they're cooler than they really are. These people's comments are just screaming "I'm a virgin."