Well, I am an idiot...

Or at least I feel like one.

A (now-former) member at one of my favorite message boards played a terrible prank on the forum. The forum staff is still sorting the details out, but this member evidently created an alter ego on the forum who then reported that his "best friend" had committed suicide after a lengthy battle with depression.

It turns out that this member is very much alive and not at all who he claimed to be. He even posted a blog entry at his Deviant Art site stating that he is actually 13 instead of 30. The DA post also contained anti-Semitic remarks and claims that his grandfather was a concentration camp guard who personally executed and cremated prisoners.

Before the truth was known, I and several members of the forum posted our condolences regarding this member's "suicide." I stated that one of the things I admired about this person was the pride he took in his German heritage. My German heritage is extremely important to me, and I take strides to defend my ancestry against people who look down on Germany based solely on what happened during the Second World War.

Now it turns out that this member was as bogus as his suicide claim, and rather than waiting until his death had been verified, I blindly posted an emotional tribute referring to this person as a "kindred spirit" (ugh!) based on the pride he took in his heritage. Yes, I referred to a preteen skinhead as a kindred spirit. So in between the time the truth came out and the time that I erased my post, I not only made myself look like an idiot, but a Nazi idiot to boot.

Speaking of boots, I would like to bury mine in this jerk's backside and then kick myself in the head for falling for his cruel and asinine prank.

This will not happen again.

At the very least, I will not allow myself to be duped into publicly grieving someone until I know that their story is legitimate and have determined that they deserve compassion and remembrance. Compassion is too precious a commodity to be wasted on losers like this.

It will be a long time before I get over the shame of my gullibility and foolishly wasted words. I have failed. I'm not even sure that I want to remain a member of that particular forum. I love the site dearly, but I've made a complete idiot of myself there and I wouldn't blame the membership if they lost all respect for me.

Whatever I end up doing, I will be much more careful and guarded from now on. There are just too many trolls like this out there, and I don't plan on giving them any more opportunities and satisfaction.

That's all I have to say on the matter.

Except for one more thing: fuck him for making a mockery out of my German pride. Not all of us who love our Germanic heritage are Nazis, and I am tired of people whose nasty and thoughtless behavior continues to fuel that misconception.