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Sarah Silverman advises Twitter troll, pays medical bills after heartfelt exchange

This is what happens when you treat ‘people on the internet’ as real people.

Photo of Samantha Grasso

Samantha Grasso

Sarah Silverman showed kindness to a troll and is helping pay for his medical bills

Comedian Sarah Silverman‘s Hulu Show I Love You, America is all about showing kindness and understanding toward people who wouldn’t typically be interested in hearing what she has to say. And even off camera, Silverman has continued to exhibit this kindness with people who show her the most disrespect—including one of her Twitter trolls, who’s now receiving her help to pay for his medical expenses.

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On Dec. 28, Silverman engaged in a Twitter exchange with a man named Jeremy Jamrozy from San Antonio after Jamrozy called her a “cunt” in response to Silverman saying she’s open to people of different perspectives, as she promotes on her show.

An hour after Jamrozy’s crude tweet, Silverman responded that she had taken a stroll through his Twitter feed and understood the pain he was going through.

“I believe in you. I read your timeline and I see what you’re doing, and your rage is thinly veiled pain. But you know that. I know this feeling. P.S. my back fucking sucks too. See what happens when you choose love. I see it in you,” Silverman wrote.

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Instead of tearing into Silverman’s concerned and thoughtful response, something that could have been seen as performative or insincere, Jamrozy opened up to Silverman about sexual abuse he faced as a child and how he’s not able to pay for help.

“I can’t find peace. If I could find that guy who ripped my body, who stripped my innocence, I’d kill him. He fucked me up and I’m poor so it’s hard to get help,” Jamrozy replied.

Silverman sent him a link for sexual abuse support groups in his area, and she encouraged him to go to one: “Maybe it will be lame or suck but try one for me, your friend the cunt who loves you.”

Jamrozy told Silverman that he found the gesture sweet, and that he only responded to her unkindly because he wanted to get his account banned—something expressed on his Twitter timeline as well. After telling her about how difficult it feels for him to open up, she sympathized by saying that so many other people in those groups have felt similarly, and he thanked her for her help.

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Through other threads of their conversation, Silverman expressed her rage at the person who abused Jamrozy, and she encouraged him to not punish himself by holding onto his anger.

“I’m fine,” she wrote. “I see something in you. My gut tells me you could have a great life. My shrink says we don’t get what we want, we get what we think we deserve. I’m telling you, you deserve so much more than you know.”

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Jamrozy also was experiencing physical pain with several slipped discs in his back and no health insurance. The following day, Silverman tweeted a callout to get him medical treatment in San Antonio, and she got a local company to respond.

However, after going for a consultation, Jamrozy learned that his back treatment would be more costly than expected—he has five herniated discs, they found. Jamrozy set up a GoFundMe page, which Silverman also promoted, and while he had initially set a goal of $150, people have raised more than $1,000 for his medical and living expenses while he’s unable to work.

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According to mySA.com, Silverman has now offered to pay for Jamrozy’s medical treatment, and he’ll be donating the $1,000 he’s raised to other San Antonians who need assistance.

“I was once a giving and nice person, but too many things destroyed that and I became bitter and hateful,” Jamrozy told mySA.com. “Then Sarah showed me the way. Don’t get me wrong, I still got a long way to go, but it’s a start.”

On Twitter on Friday, Jamrozy thanked the people following along with his story for their emotional and financial support, and he announced he was going to take a break from the attention.

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H/T Independent

 
The Daily Dot