2010: fake ethiopian children

One morning in 2010, when I was staying in Vegas, while speaking on the phone with my friend, Mika, I mentioned that for all we know, "starving kids in Ethiopia" may just be a lie.

I’ve never been there, have never seen one in person, etc. This reality, which at times seems like a simulation, may have made the whole thing up in order to help people feel good about themselves for giving money/helping those less fortunate. It may all be an illusion or at least not mean much in the long term of our existence.

(before you get too pissed off at what I just said, keep reading).

Later that night, I went to a beer bar called The Pub and had a long conversation with a couple from the UK and told them briefly about T-Shirt Hell, the company I created. They left for dinner and some younger American dude slid up next to me at the bar and said he heard me mention T-Shirt Hell and he said that he was a big fan (at the time, T-Shirt Hell was the most popular humor t-shirt company online).

Randomly, after about 2 minutes of basic conversation and without any provocation, this guy pulls out his wallet and proceeds to show me a picture of a young black child that he claimed was starving in Africa before he helped save him with a regular donation. Hmm.

This was one of the first instances of “yeah, ok, now I KNOW FOR SURE this place is a lie".

If anything, this guy's communication only reinforced my belief that everything was a set up/illusion. It certainly didn't do anything to convince me that the whole thing was real or to have more empathy.

I mean, it comes down to this: if this kind of communication was capable of happening on the SAME DAY I told someone that starving Ethiopian kids might not even exist, it simply means there is some power above this reality who can make something like that happen. AND THAT MEANS, they can make other stuff magically happen, as well.

So, if starving children do exist, and not just as part of some narrative that they've chosen to be part of (at birth) or as an illusion for those who believe everything is real and who want to “help” others in order to make themselves feel good, or as some kind of elaborate metaphor, then “the powers that be" could simply fix the problem and stop children from starving...period.

Regardless, this interaction was one of the first events that helped shape my disbelief in the world around me.

(even though this entry does not provide any proof, other than a recollection of the account, I included it because it was such an important moment in my life.)