Chris and reality
“ | I don't have to Justify Sonichu and Rosechu; they can take of that themselves. | ” |
Chris, being completely delusional in IRC (20 January 2009) |
“ | WHAT THEY AREN'T REAL WHAT ARE YOU DELUSIONAL |
” |
Clyde Cash's understandable response to the above |
Reality is the universe from which Chris is quite detached, more than likely because he rarely leaves his room. Quite a bit of his sketchy world-view can be attributed to his autism, as people with autism generally have trouble distinguishing between reality and fantasy, and therefore have a harder time with being critical towards and distancing themselves from events and ideas depicted in any fictional media, be it books, films, cartoons or video games. Because of these difficulties, autistics are also easier to manipulate and deceive, especially by sources they trust, and are as a result very impressionable when it comes to commercials and conspiracy theories.
Another probable cause of his detachment from reality is the behavior of his parents, who are (or were, in Bob's case) themselves not securely anchored to reality. Their habit of feeding Chris conciliatory platitudes about how he was being mistreated out of jealousy and about special rules applying to him has resulted in Chris's all-pervasive sense of entitlement and warped perception of anybody or anything that antagonises him.
Chris is quick to deny indisputable notions, or outright facts, and will quickly retreat into his realm of fantasy, often to avoid stress when faced with the realization that he has been defeated, cheated or outwitted, as these instances are usually a result of his own stupidity or stubbornness, flaws which Chris will never admit to possessing.
Fantasy and fiction
“ | You think that comic character wouldn't have its own thoughts and feelings? | ” |
Chris |
“ | NO! | ” |
Alec Benson Leary |
“ | You are naïve. | ” |
Chris[1] |
CWCville is what Chris calls his imaginary, idyllic fantasy world. It is his preferred means of escape from a world that does not give Chris what he feels reasonably entitled to. Above all else, CWCville is built around Chris's comfort and convenience. As its Mayor, Chris enjoys as much power and as little responsibility as he wants.
Chris believes that CWCville and all other products of his imagination actually exist in a parallel universe he calls a "Toon World", where they are free to mingle with all other fictional cartoon characters, citing the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit as a model. This strange idea may also have stemmed from the South Park episode "Imaginationland", which involved a realm where fictional characters and imaginary creations could mingle with one another. In his opinion, anyone who does not accept this worldview is "naïve."[1] He even claims to hold the distinction of Mayor of CWCville "IN REAL LIFE."[2] Chris admits that CWCville is not real only to pacify others he sees as too slow in the mind to comprehend this idea. He most likely defends this belief because he has accomplished and produced virtually nothing worthwhile in his life, and he likes to pretend that he has made a positive impact on something - if only on a metaphysical level. It may also be noted that Toon World is the name of a Yu-Gi-Oh! card, providing yet further evidence that Chris has no originality whatsoever.
All of Chris's characters are aware that Chris is the creator of their reality. Sonichu and Rosechu both refer to him as "father," in much the same way a Christian might consider God to be his or her father. Chris believes his characters possess the free will to make their own decisions, and that he is not responsible for their actions. This is how various events, both major and minor, such as Sonichu and Rosechu's wedding, the birth of their children,[3] Kel's romance with Naitsirhc,[4] and even Bubbles and Blake's wedding[5] are said to actually happen "off-screen", instead of just being a spur-of-the-moment throwaway plot elements that Chris is too lazy to depict. Without prior explanation, Chris made a "spoiler" in his own comic that Magi-Chan will eventually get together with Silvana, implying that, in Chris's head, this has already "happened".[6] It is Slaweel Ryam, not Chris, who apologizes for slandering Mary Lee Walsh.[7] Chris once justified his refusal to write Simonla out of the comic by saying that she would not want to leave CWCville, and that she and Wild would fight for her right to stay.[8]
Chris considers everything drawn, written, or even said about CWCville to be canon if he's the one doing it (regardless of contradictions) and feels it necessary to explain away undesirable changes to CWCville made as a result of outside influences (e.g. BILLY MAYS as Mayor). The fact that he needs to explain this in his comic pages shows that he assumes everyone else shares this belief as well. Despite considering his own judgement infallible as applied to his own work, he forces others to accept the "corrections" he has made to theirs.
In the Real World
“ | A CAR WEIGHS A LOT MORE THAN 10 TONS | ” |
Chris pro tip: most cars weigh two or three tons[9] |
Chris has a tendency to hugely exaggerate estimates of length, weight, and strength in his favor, as evidenced in his description of a 12-pack of canned lemonade as being 50 lbs. This behavior is symptomatic of dyscalculia, a common symptom of autism, which leaves the sufferer with poor comprehension of time, measurement, or spatial reasoning. However, Chris does not really display any other symptoms of it, suggesting this behavior isn't mere ignorance, but rather Chris telling childish lies to try to impress people with his physical strength.
Chris automatically assumes his lies will be believed, even if they contradict existing information. This is copiously evidenced in his constant lies during the Father Call, wherein Chris fibs incessantly about his health (among other things), frequently denying things or changing his story whenever he gets caught out. His habit of lying and lying about his lies is likely inherited from his mother, whom his brother described as a pathological liar. When asked by Evan to remove Simonla from his comics, Chris decided that he could have created her without the inspiration of Evan's character Simonchu and, thus, effectively had.[10] The fact that he demonstrably could not have done this did not factor into his reasoning. Chris "corrected" Simonla's CWCipedia entry with a "retraction" denying that Simonla had ever been inspired by Simonchu. Chris expected that this revised version of the truth would be happily accepted by all concerned parties.
Chris considers people with Asperger syndrome to be "fakers" who are taking "the Shine and Limelight" away from genuine Autistic people such as himself.[11] Although Chris has admitted that this "fact" is only his "own idea," he still believes that to think otherwise is to "conform to blasphem[y]."[12] As with many other things which antagonise him, Chris simply assumes Aspergers to be significant of a conspiracy targeting himself.
Unsurprisingly, Chris can come across as highly delusional when he expects to be taken seriously. For example, on the 28th of April, 2012, he made an empty threat to the CWCki forum about hunting down each of its members; he claimed to know where each of them lives in an attempt to intimidate the trolls. Even if one were to gloss over the fact that he wouldn't even cough up $800 to travel to Redmond to see his dreams come true (and it should be noted that there are trolls all over America, and indeed the world), there's a high chance that there will only be one outcome of Chris actively pursuing his trolls with the purpose of doing them harm. All things considered, Chris ended up making himself even more of a laughing stock in the process.
Fictional Characters and the Media
As explained above, Chris believes that fictional characters (including his own) exist on some other plane of reality. During a 2004 confrontation with Mary Lee Walsh, Chris began to converse with thin air, pretending that Sonichu was in the office with him.[13][14] At one point, Chris began to pretend that he was Sonichu and started giving a speech that he claimed "Sonichu" wanted to give to Mary. He concluded the lecture with a Curse ye ha me ha, as of course he believes he has magic powers. These things explain why Mary ordered him to see a psychiatrist. Chris, usually before crashing into slumber, also pretends to converse with Sonichu and Rosechu, at one point claiming that the pair offered him relationship advice.[14] He has also been known to converse with Megagi La Skunk.[15]
Chris is also prone to interpreting various forms of media in his own autistic way. During his attempt to put up his own ads on the CWCipedia, he claimed that the award-winning film Avatar was meant to promote the eradication of homosexuality, rather than the tolerance of other cultures.[16] How he contrived this idea is a complete mystery; not only does homosexuality not feature in the film in any way, but the message of the film is it's wrong to exterminate anything. His fear of homosexuals' destroying the future, incidentally, emerged from an episode of South Park called "Goobacks," which was a satire of the controversy of illegal immigration. In the episode, a group of rednecks who had lost their jobs to the illegal immigrants from the future decided that the best way to get their jobs back was to destroy the future by making everyone gay so there wouldn't be anybody in the future. Chris, however, took everything at face value and interpreted the episode as a scare film on par with Red Dawn. In a similar vein, Chris is convinced that Family Guy is anti-gay Republican propaganda, owing to his failure to interpret that the show is parodying Republicans.
As shown above, Chris rarely understands any moral dispensed by media, generally wildly misinterpreting them and then citing them as justification for his ridiculous and bigoted behavior. For example, while attempting to justify his attempt to pretend to be Liquid Chris in an attempt to steal his girlfriend, he claimed that he was "wrong, but for the right reasons."[17] This comes from another episode of South Park called "Best Friends Forever", where, after a satire of the Terri Schiavo controversy, it is stated that Cartman was "right, but for the wrong reasons." In context, it meant that his goal of shutting down the vegetative Kenny's life support was the right thing to do (for reasons involving the fate of the universe that are too complex to explain here), but his motivation was completely off mark: he only did it because he knew that Kenny's death would cause him to inherit his PSP. Meanwhile, Stan and Kyle were "Wrong, but for the right reasons", as they wanted to keep Kenny alive in a perpetual vegetative state even though they should just let him die, but they were doing so because they actually cared about Kenny, rather than exploiting the situation for their own benefit like Cartman was. Chris seems to have interpreted this as "If you do a bunch of bad things, like pretending to be someone else in order to steal their girlfriend, you are completely justified in doing so if your dishonest actions lead to a positive outcome, like proving that you are the TRUE and HONEST Christian Weston Chandler and getting laid".
Science and Technology
Chris's understanding of the sciences as a part of reality (in this case, medicine and physics), is tenuous at best. Having graduated from both high school and college, it's rather disturbing to note that Chris has retained little to nothing from either one, aside from the overly-attached nostalgia and paranoid delusions. To note an example, in Sonichu #10, Chris created a 'gay-vaccine' made from his own blood, as to "cure" gay and asexual people world-wide. Aside from being a clear violation of even the most basic human rights, it's also an extremely ignorant understanding of medicinal science. An amusing irony is that vaccines use a small sample of the original disease and reintroduce it to the body, as to buff the immune system's response to said disease. In this case, Chris is using his 'straight blood' as the vaccination sample, implying that in fact, Chris is reintroducing the 'homo disease' back into the patient. The delivery method is also completely unscientific. For a vaccine to be used in fresh water sources is incredibly off-base; a vaccine administered this way would not be effective at all. This is, of course, without addressing the fact that being gay isn't a disease and therefore doesn't need a treatment or a cure. On another medical note, Chris believes he was "infected" with autism by his doctor,[18] as if such a thing were even possible.
Another example of Chris' extremely feeble grasp of the sciences is the time travel sequence in Sonichu #7, in which Chris tried to explain his sci-fi pseudo-science. To be fair, time travel is a very general pseudo-science, used in almost any medium of entertainment; in this case, Chris, Sonichu, and Magi-Chan traveled back in time using Magi-Chan's psychic powers, in order to retrieve one of the Chaotic Crystals. During said time travel sequence, Chris had a rather lengthy conversation with Sonichu over the topic, using a sci-fi cartoon as a justification as to why it would be 'possible'. In reality, this is a concept just as real as space aliens from Mars or evil robots from the future. If Chris had an even basic understanding of time, space, and the theory of relativity (which are all covered in the public school system), he might have withdrawn these comments trying to rationalize a comic book about magic humanoid hedgehogs and imaginary cities.
Chris also seems completely unaware of what current technology is and is not capable of. In his Sonichu article on the CWCipedia, he suggests that Nintendo pour their resources into developing a Poké Ball peripheral that would have slots for every generation of Pokémon games, including a slot for the Gamecube memory card. He expects users of this peripheral to be able to read party data from the inserted game/memory card, display a holographic image of the Pokémon in play, and challenge people in real life who own the same peripheral (in a manner much like on Yu-Gi-Oh!).
Chris and magic
Through Chris's perception of God as an instrument of his will comes the delusion that he has magical powers that will permit him to eventually succeed over the enemies that he is unable to dispatch by any more conventional means.
The most notorious example is the Curse-ye-ha-me-ha, a power that supposedly bestows terrible fortune upon the recipient. Chris has performed this curse on innumerable occasions, both over the internet and in public. He has even retracted the curse (albeit reluctantly) on at least three occasions [19][20][21] with a "Forgiveness Blessing'" which further cements Chris's belief in its efficacy. He also believes that he has the power to brainwash people into following his commands and to sic the spirit of his dead dog to attack people in their sleep. Chris believes that he may have other latent powers that he may discover when the opportunity presents itself.[22] All of this magic is supposedly powered by his preferred personal relic du jour — either the Medallion of Fail or the Amnyfest Ring. How these items came to be imbued with magic properties has not been addressed.
Chris also appears to believe that he can, to an extent, talk to dead people. He told Sarah May that when he touched his dead Aunt Corrina's hand, he could hear her spirit, along with the spirits of his grandparents and great-grandparents. He also claimed that God and Jesus told him to "make the trip and go to Julie." It's unclear at this point whether these visions are the result of his mental problems or just an excuse for him to do what he wants to do by justifying his actions as the result of supernatural phenomenon. He may have gotten the notion of hearing supernatural voices from psychics (in real life or more likely in the media), who claim to converse with the spirits of the dead. During his time masquerading as JenkinsJinkies on Trollin Train, Chris hoped to dissuade trolls by claiming that his house was haunted, describing an alleged encounter with the vengeful ghosts of Patti and his younger self. Chris apparently believed that trolls would heed this threat.
When asked by a fan how he came to learn of his powers, Chris replied they were evidenced by Mary Lee Walsh's reputation going "DOWN":
“ | I have learned about the Curses actually working firstly when I cursed the real-life Mary Lee Walsh; then I later heard that her reputation at PVCC went DOWN (yes, mostly due to my references in the pages), but then things got worse for her, and even though I forgave her for her misdeed on interrupting my Sweetheart Search, I feel she definitely got what she deserved for her misdeed. Later, I cursed one specific Troll (I forget who); shortly later, I learn that troll came down with a life-threatening ailment. | ” |
Chris, Mailbag 18 |
This is textbook magical thinking. This gives Chris a belief of some degree of power over his own life, no matter how illusory. This use of fantasy is considered by the psychological community to be an immature defence mechanism.
Conspiracy theories
Among the many issues faced by Chris in his perception of reality, his tendency towards conspiracy theorism is the one that has caused him the most trouble. Chris views the fact of his own life through the lens of his huge, cloying ego, and as such believes that anyone who prevents him from getting what he wants is only interested in being mean to him for its own sake, something to which neither he nor his parents take kindly.
As stated, Chris believes that he was intentionally infected with autism by his doctor. Anyone who hinders Chris's Love Quest is part of an effort to "make true love illegal," either in Virginia or nationwide.[23][24] This choice of words suggests that Chris believes that he is entitled to a girlfriend, and that people are attempting to take legal action to deprive him of this alleged right.
When no culprit responsible for his unhappiness is visible, Chris prefers to accuse unseen hands of plotting against him. Chris blamed his inability to find guests to a sporting event on efforts by the Greene County school board to deprive him of friends; including conspiracy with realtors to keep him in Ruckersville and with Michael Snyder to keep him out of his favorite hangout.[25]
Chris's tendencies towards these sorts of thoughts may spiral back to two people: Robert and Barbara Chandler. A phone call between his parents and a GAMe PLACe employee revealed a number of things; most importantly, it illustrated that they believe Chris's entire trolling began as a conspiracy between Michael Snyder, Megan Schroeder, and a number of potential homosexuals to "terrorize", "torment", and "persecute" Chris for being autistic, going so far as to believe they broke into Chris's credit card account and tried to ruin his credit. Considering how readily and fervently these beliefs were held by his parents, it is sadly little wonder that Chris thinks the same way.
When Chris was active on the Tomboys and Tomgirls of Virginia forum, he revealed that he shares his parents' insane beliefs about the GAMe PLACe's position in troll hierarchy. Most notably, he claimed that Michael Snyder was hiding a criminal scandal because the owner of the Place (as well as three other associated hobby stores) is a convicted sex offender. He also tried to argue that the store itself is in violation of the law, simply because it is close to a public school and owned by a sex offender who is never actually there. Ironically enough, acting like a sex offender is one of the many things that got Chris banned from the store in the first place. Chris would eventually accuse Michael Snyder himself of being a child molester, going as far as to accuse him of molesting his own daughter. In case you've forgotten, Snyder once chased Chris down after he (unintentionally) took candid photographs of the same daughter Chris accused him of molesting.
The most telling evidence of Chris's belief that anyone who doesn't agree with him is a 'damn dirty troll' is the case of his White Knights. Despite their attempts to offer constructive critique on his art, warn Chris of potential trolling attempts and even plead with him to seek help, they have all fallen on deaf ears. There have even been cases where trolls themselves would respectfully point out what Chris is doing wrong in life. However, as is the rule with Chris, these people were not telling him what he wanted to hear and were thusly ignored.
Descent into Madness
As time has gone on, it has become evident from his Facebook posting habits that Chris's already-tenuous grasp of reality has continued to slacken further and further - getting to the point that it has alienated many of his closest supporters.
Particularly troubling are his October 2013 rants on Facebook about how Megan's fictitious character Megagi La Skunk has talked to him and told him that she (Megan, but by extension Megagi) should never have been born. Chris claimed that Megan is at the core of a massive conspiracy with The GAMe PLACe to ruin his life, and has cursed her and stripped her of her Sailor Megtune powers. He demands that she apologize to him and effectively fix his entire life if she wishes to be uncursed, closing by stating that he and his father's ghost will get revenge if she does not comply.
There are many things deeply concerning about this tirade, but the most troubling is that Chris did it with literally no impetus whatsoever from any of the trolls, nor any reason to suspect Megan would behave this way. This paranoid, insane notion was contrived entirely by Chris - likely with some parental input - and can only be described as complete lunacy.
In the autumn of 2014, Chris received a piercing to his perineum in an attempt at vaginal resemblance. Unfortunately for Chris, the piercing became infected as of December. Unfazed, he simply had it pierced again. While Chris was persuaded to have this piercing removed too, he remained deeply interested in becoming a woman by unorthodox means, much to the worry of onlookers. Eventually though, he finally had it removed completely.
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Alec Benson Leary Phone Call 2
- ↑ ChrisChanSonichu and WikiSysop correspondence#THAT DOES NOT MATTER (CCS)
- ↑ http://archive.sonichu.com/cwcipedia/index.php?title=Sonichu#Sonichu_and_Rosechu_from_1998_to_Today Sonichu Page on CWCipedia
- ↑ http://archive.sonichu.com/cwcipedia/index.php?title=Sonichu#First_Encounter_with_Naitsirhc
- ↑ I_Am_The_TRUE,_Original_CCWC#A_history_.286:02_to_9:34.29 I Am The TRUE, ORIGINAL CCWC
- ↑ http://archive.sonichu.com/cwcipedia/index.php?title=Issue_10/Page_37 Issue 10 Page 37
- ↑ Mary Lee Walsh#Possible reconciliation
- ↑ Mailbag 43#...well, this is disturbing!
- ↑ Mailbag 9
- ↑ Mailbag 44#I want to see Simonla die so very badly
- ↑ Aspergers (CWCipedia article)
- ↑ Autism Awareness E-mails
- ↑ Jackie Chat #5
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Jackie_E-mails_16
- ↑ October 2013 Facebook Posts#Megagi La Skunk agrees that you should have never been born
- ↑ When Chris edited Mailbag 23, he inserted into the article an ad for Avatar and wrote a caption under it saying the movie promotes heterosexuality. This ad was later on removed by the sysop.
- ↑ I Love You Kacey
- ↑ Mailbag 12#Where autism comes from
- ↑ Curse-ye-ha-me-ha Retraction
- ↑ One Blessing, and One Curse
- ↑ I am Alive
- ↑ Mailbag 20#Chris still thinks he can actually curse people
- ↑ Sonichu #4
- ↑ CWC Blog#10 March 2010
- ↑ 100 2178
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