#kidneygate

[tributary]

kidneygate posting? in 2023? my time to shine

[tkmk]

There Is No Such Thing as Bragging Too Much About a Kidney Donation

The New York Times’ “Bad Art Friend” created a weird debate.

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

So, if you've been on twitter at all recently, you've probably stumbled across "kidneygate". The story of how sonya larson wrote a book "inspired by" dawn dorland's kidney donation, in which she plagiarised from dawn, and justified all of her actions because dawn was "just so cringe".

To be clear, in my estimation, dawn dorland comes across as the most level-headed person in the account. I don't even think she comes across as "cringe" since most of what she did was stuff that kidney donors are advised to do as part of the process.

However, sonya and her writer friends took those actions, and attributed them to narcissism. Because dawn's good deed made them feel bad by comparison, she was obviously only doing it to make herself look good and was therefore a narcissist. Because dawn talked about her kidney donation (as kidney donors are asked to do, to encourage others to donate), she was obviously a narcissist.

And once they got this idea into their heads, they needed to punish her.

So, why am I telling you this?

Well, because this was written up by The Times, and has been all over twitter, the transcripts of Sonya's group chat are now all over the internet. And it is fascinating to me the way she is the main actor in the case, but it's not only her who is so vindictive towards Dawn.

In the transcripts of the group chat, it's Sonya's friends egging her on, even to the point of suggesting she spuriously accuse Dawn of racism.

And I definitely see parallels between that and what I see on Simon's blog (and what I've heard about his group chat, when it existed), where his friends constantly need to redirect his attention towards me, because presumably, the drama with me is the most compelling form of entertainment on Simon's blog.

I guess the main difference is that I never thought I was Simon's friend, regardless of what he says about me making this blog because I must have wanted to be. I always knew that the best outcome I could hope for was indifference, partly because I wouldn't want to be friends with Simon, but partly because you can't be friends with Simon.

Even if you think you're friends with him, you can't be friends with someone who's lying to you about something as intrinsic as their real identity. There is always a power imbalance there, which means Simon will always be a form of entertainment to his "friends" and his "friends" will always be looking for entertainment from him.

[quickscribe]

sure, what she did saved someone’s life, but i’m pretty sure she did it for attention and validation, and at the end of the day isn’t that doing more harm than good?

[tributary]

ahahahahahaha (x1000)

[tributary]

hey do you guys remember bad art friend/kidneygate? celeste ng still at it with the bad takes, godwin’s law edition

[tributary]

flattered that people are still finding my bad art friend/kidneygate posts

[tributary]

What are your thoughts on the bad art friend comic the nyt posted?

this one?

i’m not sure how useful the takeaway is here. it’s very “tee hee, writers are a monstrous sort, the loveable scamps.”

it doesn’t have much to do with the dawn dorland vs. sonya larson story, in which the issue was plagiarism + a long campaign of bullying and workplace harassment + gaslighting.

and i’m quoting myself but if i wanted to write a story about a recognizable event in the life of my acquaintance, i would simply change key details. also do my research.