The Chicago Police are currently trying to determine whether a racist/homophobic attack reported by an actor was in fact staged by him. There are seemingly numerous cases on campus where students and even faculty manufacture graffiti or threats against themselves. Lena Dunham’s publisher had to walk back her claim of being raped by a College Republican. There have been other such incidents.
What possesses people to do that? A play for sympathy? A chance to fake courage in adversity? Ideological zealotry requiring a victim and villain narrative? An insatiable appetite for credulous Twitter followers?
It would seem to me that the risk of exposure would greatly outweigh any benefits to be gained from this sort of thing. Why do people do it?