I think we are ignoring some ominous signs.
Though I’ve only been here a few weeks there is a weird pattern going on.
It’s almost as is some posters are infected with some weird contagion.
The victim of this contagion posts an assertion. Others disagree, or perhaps the victim didn’t have his facts straight. At any rate, it seems clear that the victim is in error, and others state this.
The victim refuses to admit his error, but clings blindly to it.
Usually there is a claim that evidence to support the assertion will be forthcoming.
Ad Hominem attacks begin and the victim resorts to vulgarity.
The victim is ridiculed for clinging to his assertion in the face of overwhelming evidence that he is wrong. He is called on his feeble attempt to defend himself.
There is a significant investment of self-esteem in the victim’s assertions by now, he identifies with them, seeing any attack on them as a personal one.
Usually the victim resorts to Fuckspeak as his defense and lashes out against his perceived attackers.
At this point the community at large attacks back in kind since they are generally intolerant of this level of vulgar hostility.
The victim realizes that he cannot fight a battle against a hundred enemies and so focuses on one. Usually this is DavidB.
(Now we all know what a nonassertive,noncombatant wimp DavidB is. He is mild and tentative in his postings, and his feelings are easily hurt so clearly he is the logical choice for this attack, where a quick and easy victory is recquired to restore self-esteem.) Heh. heh. heh.
The whole sad sorry thing continues until the victim is so discredited he either goes away for good or comes back as a sock-puppet.
The sad thing is all that is needed is for the victim to step back, and realize that perhaps he is wrong. If the victim does this, than usually he is forgiven, and actually may garner some credit for being big enough to admit it.
If this does not occur then the victim enters the final endstage of the syndrome. He gets banned, comes back as a silly sock puppet, and is basically widely acknowledged as being a total idiot. Now he’s been reduced to a joke.
It’s a shame that this disease seems to be spreading.
Is there a name for this syndrome?
Since NA pretty much admitted to being Mikey I’d like to have it noted for the record that I was the first to so identify him.
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