The Alternate Universe

Imagine with me for a moment. For years, you have been on the internet pretending to be something you’re not. You've created an entire persona based on lies. And you’re good at it. You have a lot of people fooled. They look up to and admire you for the accomplishments you’re claiming. But not everyone is fooled. A lot of people are skeptical of your claims and want to see proof. Of course, you are offended they should demand such. How dare they question you? You are shocked that anyone should not simply take your statements at face value.

It seems you’ve amassed for yourself quite the following. People fight with you and they fight for you. Your presence and your statements have a polarizing effect. Either people vehemently agree with you, or they vehemently disagree. When the time is right, you create a space elsewhere on the internet where your like-minded followers can go continue to believe and admire you. They want to accomplish what you say you have, and they clamor for your attention and advice. They want it so badly, they’re willing to pay for it.

You’re not happy with the small following you have and you begin a marketing campaign to bring in more paying customers. You manage to get a major article in a national magazine, where you tell more lies about your "accomplishment" and even provide a fraudulent picture of "yourself" for publication. You’re flooded with new paying customers. You raise your price several times, and you become very rich, very quickly.

But there’s trouble in paradise. Your business partner begins to wonder if you’ve really been telling the truth. She’s suspicious because you won’t meet with her in person. She thinks you’re hiding something. She has you investigated, and the fruit of that investigation is that her suspicions are confirmed. People start talking, and they pay for that talk. En masse, people are banned from your website and denied access to their paid membership. So they talk more.

One of the people you’ve duped demands a refund, which you refuse to render. She hires a lawyer to hold you to account for defrauding many. And people talk more. They start blogs devoted to the subject of your lies and fraud. More and more is exposed all the time, more and more sign up for the lawsuit, and more and more people talk.

You’re deposed as a part of the lawsuit, and in four separate depositions, you furnish much proof of the lies and fraud. It would seem you have been caught red-handed. Even in your depositions, so much proof comes out that you are in an indefensible position, unless you live in the alternate universe.

In the alternate universe, there is no honesty. Instead of manning up for the lies you’ve told and taking your medicine, you countersue the people who have been talking about you. You countersue the ones who have been telling the truth. And why? Because they told the truth. Yes, Virginia, there really is an alternate universe, and Heidi Diaz lives there.