The one universal characteristic is that these people believe they are brilliant. Convinced they’re Professor Moriarty, they post away and believe they’re pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. The truth is they lack subtlety, and act on compulsion. They can’t help themselves, and compulsive people can’t keep from tripping themselves up.
Probably they want to get caught. The joke’s no good if you’re the only one laughing at it. That might work if you’re a real prankster or Andy Kaufman, but that’s not who we’re dealing with here. We’re talking about simple people who are desperate for attention. They keep pushing it, they have lots of faith in their own cleverness, but not as much as they think. Their arrogance kills them.
I’m out of the loop here (and elsewhere). I even had to look up ‘socking’ for a refresher. Why would Sam Stone use a sock, and where? He always seemed willing to argue as himself; the deception seems out of character.
So many questions! Did the sock have any posts? Was it created to support Sam somewhere, or was it a standalone? Did he deny it when confronted? Did he give any explanation? Did it include the word “hive” or “leftists”?
I know we don’t get answers to these, and it’s not worth PMing a mod. Frankly, the answers would probably all be disappointing so it’s more fun to just speculate.
Do Canadian conservatives have an inexplicable fetish for pretending to be teenage juvenile delinquents in order to center themselves in fake pity parties?
It looks like it:
From the rules One screen name per user. Only one screen name is permitted per user. Use of multiple screen names (“sock puppets” or “socks”) is grounds for revocation of your right to post under ANY screen name
I suppose that just logging on the board with the sock can be defined as use of it.
Wow, I wouldn’t have thought he would have gone out that way. Socking is such an obvious blatant instaban no no with little reward that I would have thought that he wouldn’t have gone that route. I guess he probably thought that his past behavior had tarnished his name to the point that the he needed a fresh start.
I’m actually sorry to see him go. He could be annoying at times but he was one of the more intelligent right wingers on the site. If he would just learn to read his own cites and not swallow hogwash talking points without question, he could have been a valuable asset.
I was very surprised that @Sam_Stone would do something as stupid as blatant socking, and frankly I figured there must be more to the story and was half-expecting some explanation to be forthcoming.
It’s been stated here that Sam makes valuable contributions to non-political topics, so he should be regarded with that perspective in mind. If he really bugs you so much, put him on ignore. I’m used to his political extremism and just (mentally) ignore it. Kind of like the trope about the crazy uncle you only see on holidays who believes the earth is flat or we never went to the moon, and you just smile and get another drink.
When serial liars such as Sam Stone are welcomed back here, as I argued before, the Board’s mission is abjectly discarded. Which is a goddamned shame.
Politics has nothing to do with it, Wolfpup, and you should be ashamed to put that argument out there. The man is a dedicated liar, one who willfully promotes ignorance instead of fighting it. He is anathema to the SDMB’s mission and his continued presence only cheapens and degrades our efforts to the point where coming here makes less and less sense.