Well, I feel like an idiot. I think I defended that asshole from time to time. I guess that’s what he was trying to do. Fucker.
When you look up “martyr complex” in the dictionary, you see his picture.
ETA: Is he over there lying about his “military career” as well?
No, he’s claiming that he’s been actively trolling for 18 years and never got caught because he’s so clever.
Chris Rock once said that the relationship that black people have with America is complicated: “It’s like that uncle who paid for your college … but molested you.”
IMHO, Martin was capable of a lot of worthwhile posts. But the price we all paid for everything he added – even in my short time here – was unconscionably and intolerably high.
Never got caught? Ha! More like: Never got punished, because our mods tolerate a lot of shit from right-wing assholes like him.
Everyone knew he was trolling from the get go. Now we also know he’s a Stolen Valor asshole to boot.
We kind of frown on board wars here and he doubtless would feel he was followed there by his persecutors.
And I’m glad to see in W_E’s note grossly misrepresenting themself. I will admit from time to time in my anecdotes I have, shall we say, smoothed the narrative.
Never tried to pass myself off as a Captain though, never mind the exalted level of Chief.
I’ve certainly felt the urge to a couple of times, though I don’t recall if I actually did. He could come off as sane and rational at times, even thoughtful. I know I’ve agreed with him in threads more than once. I felt, even in that latest Pit thread, that a couple of the attacks on him were weak and I have a maybe unfortunate urge to ‘school marm’ once in awhile out of a sense of fairness. “Now, now - poster A may have said they enjoy biting the heads off kittens, but nowhere did they ever say anything about skinning puppies alive, you’re inferring that on no evidence.”
But the most recent teacher talk in particular was a little infuriating and once he doubled-down the whole thing just imploded. Que sera.
The 'raffe?
~Max
If it was ultimately trolling, but the amount of effort he expended exceeded yours by 100-fold, there’s only one idiot.
I agree. And even if his overrarching mission was to troll, if a valid point is made it doesn’t really matter what the source is. This is the complement to “attack the post, not the poster”. I can agree with someone’s specific point without validating their life’s mission.
I think we all recognize that part of story telling includes exaggerations. But to lie and claim knowledge/authority with said lies is a very different kettle of fish.
When I relate my (very out-dated now) Navy knowledge, I don’t exaggerate. I can’t say for sure that none of my posts where I’m just story telling are 100% accurate. I think they are, but there could be a big fish or two mixed in.
As to defending Martin, I think I’m guilty of that also somewhere in the last year. I had forgotten though that long, long ago in 2006, I went after him for a while for some of the trolling he did back then. Though I thought he was just being an asshole.
Splinter board of former Pit mod @Giraffe.
Being navy then, you know the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story.
The former starts out, “Once upon a time,” the latter, “This ain’t no shit.”
Yes, I’m also former Navy and I find it totally unacceptable to alter specific details about my military service. Leave details out and let people make assumptions, sure, but make details up intentionally as some kind of twisted perssec? It just screams “pathological liar.”
Same. He wasn’t on my list of people I can’t stand. (It’s a pretty short list though.)
I also kept confusing him with Martini Enfield from time to time to my shame.
I never suspected he was a full-blown, dedicated troll.
… called giraffeboards. PM me if you need more details.
j
I didn’t really believe people did that over any sort of medium or long term, but now I know better.
I’ve volunteered as a moderator at other boards over the years, and I’ve also been a Wikipedia admin for more than a decade, so I know that troll-only accounts are real. Not only real, but common. Honestly, they are inevitable. Thats just part of GIFT (the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory from Penny Arcade).
It’s also related to the “nobody on the Internet knows you’re a dog” meme. You have a message board where you are totally anonymous, there are no real consequences to you except being banned (and you can even most likely return as another persona anyway), so why not have fun with it? Many people have had that weird thought about the worst possible thing to say or do in a situation. On the internet, you just say it, and see what happens. It’s a form of roleplaying. You create a character and act it out to see what people do. That’s all trolling is. I sort of see the appeal, but I’ve never actually done it because you have to be capable of one of three things.
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You despise the people you’re trolling, so that their dismay entertains you or give you warm feelings. This is what most people assume about trolls, but isn’t necessarily the case. (Often on the SDMB, this is where “trolling the libs” comes from.)
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You don’t think what you’re doing is all that harmful. You’re just being funny, or it’s just a message board and people shouldn’t be upset about such things. It’s not a big deal.
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These aren’t real people. You don’t know them personally, so they’re not in your monkeysphere. They are also characters on the internet, not real people, just like your persona.
So, you need to either (respectively) embrace toxicity, rationalize what you’re doing, or be a sociopath. Or some mixture of those things. I can’t do that sort of thing. But I can see how that might appeal to some people. It’s a form of recreation to them.
Please lay off on the personal attacks! 
Found it. Daaamn!
ETA: Probably not good form to repost.
~Max
Yeah, it’s one of those where it’s best to err on the side of caution.
j