Straight Dope isn’t the first message board I’ve ever participated in, though I’ve enjoyed my several weeks here thus far. One habit that some Dopers have that seems to be found on every message board I’ve ever seen is the annoying habit of shooting your mouth off and acting like a goddamned moron then, once everyone is coming down on you for being such an obvious imbecile, claiming that you were just baiting everyone to get 'em worked up.
I’m sure sometimes people really do throw bait out, but come on: if you’re going to play with fire, then accept the fact that you could get burned. If you’re really baiting people just because you’re too bored or too devoid of real opinions to start a real fight, then at least be enough of a sport to keep your chirade up and accept it when people call you an asshole. If your rant is based on bad information, then just admit that you’re wrong when you realize it, or never admit you’re wrong. This “just kidding!” business is a wimp’s way out, so knock it off. I don’t want to hear your pathetic dodges any more.
I only recall seeing this in two different threads (I’m sure I’ve missed quite a bit, though.) One being Serlin’s “psychological study on mob mentality” or whatever the fuck the lame name was that he gave it. The second was **TheUglyTruth’s[/s] vomit about Teeming Millions. Are there any others to which you refer?
Yup. This is one of the more irritating methods of “arguing”, but luckily, it seems to be pretty much limited to the trolls. One person in particular comes to mine that was often guilty of this, but as he’s changed his ways and is attempting to be respectable, I won’t name names.
[sub]And I’m not sure I’m thinking of the right person, anyway…[/sub]
Personally, I think in the case of Mr. Truth’s anti-Teemings thread, he just whizzed in his pants when he realized that nobody agreed with him and tried the “Ha, you fell for it, you’re stupid!” bullshit to make himself feel/look better. Additionally, I think Mr. Serlin did the same thing. They both panicked when they inadvertently got in over their heads.
I can’t think of anyone (not right off the bat, anyway) who seemed to deliberately post complete bullshit just so they can say “Ha! Suckers!” later on (although FreakFreely’s infamous Last Thread kinda turned out this way, though it didn’t seem his intent).
I have a feeling we’re going to see an exact repeat of this phenomenon with the RosieWolf and gang crew.
You have to remember- now that there is web tv, unsupervised internet access for kids, internet in the library for free- lots more people are out there being their idiot selves. Many people do this in real life, too. They tell a racial joke or use an ethnic slur, then when they realize they’ve pissed off everyone they fall back on the “I was just kidding!” act. “Jeez, can’t you guys take a joke?”, etc. Ridiculous.
