We Are the 99th Percentile

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply.  Here’s a few things you should know about why that doesn’t prove 100% you are who you say you are.

1. More than a dozen fake photos already documented in the53.  Company you keep, and all.  All the photos with older dates (like 2003) were pulled, as well as the egregious rip-offs, like the Nigerian blogger in Spain who was shopped into the Nigerian immigrant to the US telling us to suck it up.  After the53 was exposed, then the EXIF data started vanishing from new entries.  If the53 was such a popular idea, why would the creator need to fake entries?  

2. Anyone can create a fake Facebook account.  We already know from the HB Gary disaster that they were selling a fake identity management tool that allowed one person to run 50 fake personas, complete with fake social media accounts.  So a FB account doesn’t prove you’re real.  It doesn’t disprove it, but bear in mind there’s precedence, plus see #1.  We already know Erickson’s willing to fake entries to create more push for the blog.  That doesn’t mean they’re all fake, and you could genuinely agree with him, but jumping in to support 100 people who agree with you is easier than jumping in to support one.

3. Your explanation that you keep Photoshop open could be true, but a struggling middle-class student isn’t too likely to spring for PS when GIMP is FREE.  Sometime about your story isn’t completely adding up.

4. Why’d you call me a hater?  It’s a demonstrated fact that the53 was posting fake images.  Whether you’re one of them is open to discussion, but that doesn’t make me a hater of anything but lies.

5. Yes, the entries without people are less believable.  Think about why there are so many, and why the 99 percent blog doesn’t have entries like that.  Is it possible that many of those entries were written by the same person?

6. That’s terrific that you got a full ride at a top school like Wellesley.  Are you suggesting that people who didn’t are somehow not deserving of a good education?  Should they just “suck it up”?

ipskaya:

As the girl in this photo, I can assure you that it is not shopped (except to crop it and play with the lighting). Why did I crop it in Photoshop? Because I tend to keep Photoshop open a lot as I use it for image-editing in general pretty frequently. If you don’t believe me, check out my Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/allison.matus

I decided to use my image for the reason that too many of the 53%ers just post text. I wanted this to seem more real. But, people will believe what they believe. Haters gonna hate.

wearethe99thpercentile:

This IS shopped.  Literally.  Once The53 was exposed for using fake images, or shopped images with old dates in the EXIF data, they pulled them off the site.  Now they’re trying to cover their tracks better, like this shot with a 10/13 date… taken in Adobe Photoshop CS4.  Please explain why you need Photoshop to crop a photo.

Also notice how few of The53’s entries actually show people. Lots of words, which the same person could write over and over, but not many like the image above, with a handwritten sign.

Which was shopped.

I can tell by the pixels.

the53:

I come from a struggling middle-class family.

My parents have virtually no money to send me to college.

I worked my ass off in high school and graduated top of my class.

I got into Wellesley College with a full ride thanks to the generosity of the wealthy alumnae — the 1%.

So excuse me if I don’t whine about how the wealthy screw me over.

I am the American Dream.

Typical 53 Percent entry: no name, no picture, just a printout.  It’s possible Erick Erickson is writing every single one of these, given how many photos in the blog are proven fakes.  They’ve already yanked the ones that were outed, and now we’re seeing more and more photos of printer paper.

Scared, Erick?  99 > 53.

the53:

PS: I just got approved for a loan on my first home THANKS to the banks you are protesting.

Another We Are the 53 Percent image created in software (look at the EXIF data).  On the front page, only 3-4 people, 2 look amateurishly shopped and most are just wall of text (which could have all been written by the same person).

Astroturf blog. Don’t be fooled by Mr. Suck-it-Up Erick Erickson.

the53:

I am 43 years old

In my past, I have struggled.

I had lost almost everything.

I was homeless for 2 long years.

I never gave up, never asked for what was not mine. I did not give myself that ‘option.’

I work for a big corporation, and am thankful a ‘rich’ man founded and runs it.

I work in a union shop, but am NOT a ‘union’ worker. I take PRIDE in my work.

ONLY I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR ME.

I am the 53%

Here’s an obvious fake.  Date created: 2011:09:01 12:38:35.  Right, how old is The53 again?  This person knew five weeks in advance that this message would be needed?

Why are so many posts on The53 printed instead of handwritten?  Could it be they’re easier to shop?

Hmmm.  The EXIF data in this photo’s had almost everything stripped out.  Including the date.  I wonder why.

Could it be that the sign wasn’t made by the person hiding behind it?

Could it be that The53 isn’t a spontaneous movement like We Are the 99 percent, but a bunch of fake entries?  Because if this isn’t fake, why delete the damned date it was made?

the53:

I was a religion major.

Most jobs want business or computing majors, but my passion was (and still is) the big questions in life.  I don’t regret my decision.

I’m almost done with my student loans, but I had to go bankrupt on credit cards.  Some choices I made were foolish.  Others were necessary at the time.  Now I live with my mom to help make ends meet.

I’ve worked retail for eight years.

BUT I HAVE A JOB!

So many people in this world would switch places with me in a heartbeat, rather than continue dying of famine or disease.

Some of my peers object: “I didn’t go to college to sell clothes.”  I’m appalled by their sense of entitlement.

You don’t need to like your job - but don’t look down on mine.

I don’t share your opinion - so don’t speak for me.

OCCUPY WALL STREET, you do NOT speak for me.

I am the 53%: working hard, and grateful for my life.

This IS shopped.  Literally.  Once The53 was exposed for using fake images, or shopped images with old dates in the EXIF data, they pulled them off the site.  Now they’re trying to cover their tracks better, like this shot with a 10/13 date… taken in Adobe Photoshop CS4.  Please explain why you need Photoshop to crop a photo.

Also notice how few of The53’s entries actually show people. Lots of words, which the same person could write over and over, but not many like the image above, with a handwritten sign.

Which was shopped.

I can tell by the pixels.

the53:

I come from a struggling middle-class family.

My parents have virtually no money to send me to college.

I worked my ass off in high school and graduated top of my class.

I got into Wellesley College with a full ride thanks to the generosity of the wealthy alumnae — the 1%.

So excuse me if I don’t whine about how the wealthy screw me over.

I am the American Dream.

Okay, Libby, you don’t get it.  My charmed life isn’t the nightmare.  It’s the “99 percent stories” that are.  Why should my comfortable life be such an aberration?  There are many people out there who worked 10 times harder than I did and don’t have 1% as much.  Why is that?  They don’t have an inferior work ethic, they aren’t lazy, they aren’t stupid.  But they didn’t get the good neighborhood, the college fund, the private school, and the introduction to the the people who hire from the top schools like I did.  I knew not to hyperextend on debt because I studied economics and finance.  So all those people who lost their homes because of a crooked system that lied about the mortgages they sold, lied about which entity actually owned the homes, and lied about how safe the underlying derivatives were… all that is somehow the fault of poor people and the government?

It’s because I REMEMBER WHERE MY FAMILY CAME FROM that I stand with the 99 percent.  I do not DESERVE my good fortune, I was LUCKY.  Yes, I worked hard.  Yes, I made informed decisions.  That in no way means those who lost their homes, lost their jobs, lost their savings, or lost their way of life “deserved” it.

Anything else I can help you with?

libbybrittain:

westandwiththe99percent:

With You: Raise My Taxes.

I’m both fascinated and baffled by this Tumblr - namely by how many people on it are either clearly not part of the metaphorical 1% or are (as in this case) just one or two generations away from the metaphorical 99.

The first graph says her family “had nothing before” but eventually “had money because they worked hard.” Then, by the end, after talking about the privileges (e.g. a college education, enough sense to invest in real estate during a downmarket) she’s had on account of their hard work and her own, she somehow concludes that “This is not the American Dream. This is the American Nightmare.”

Looks okay to me! How quickly we forget where we come from…