I love the whackos. In real life I rarely encounter people who openly espouse whacko ideas, or reach bizarre conclusions, or make incomprehensible decisions on little to no evidence. And when I do encounter them, I shy away. I don’t want to engage them in the real world because I don’t want to mistakenly push a button that sets them off in some even scarier way.
I thought some about whether to avoid the idea of being scared of people whose mental stability I question. But there’s no getting around it. In the real world, I am afraid of being in the vicinity of what I judge to be bizarre behavior, because I don’t understand it and I don’t know what the limits of the bizarreness might turn out to be.
But the SDMB can be like a petting zoo for fruitcakes. I am safe from them. I can even poke and prod at them, and watch others poking an prodding, and observe the responses without any sense of personal danger. And I usually end up concluding that even if I had these conversations at home or office, the person is not so deranged that they are a physical danger to me.
Conspiracy theorists seem to be the most common whacko posters, though in many ways they seem the least “threatening”. The good news about these folks is that most have not crossed a line into paranoia. They are willing to accept our skepticism as ignorance rather than evidence that we are part of the conspiracy that concerns them.
I think that is a pretty clinical view prejudiced by modern Psycho- Babble therapeutic , psychological, institutionalized, and militarized or at the very least adversarial views. You’re the fucking sociopath… why would I even acknowledge your psychobabble… more afraid of you than most in the system.
A far less aggressive and knee-jerk reaction than the average one from your typical “skeptic”.
I might lean towards a bit of “woo” on occasion, but I’m not that far down the rabbit hole that it is impinging on my life, as some on here would love to believe. I’m know I’m not a dummy, despite what my detractors on this site would like others to think( It seems obvious they want to influence the thoughts of others, otherwise, they’d be keeping their own thoughts to themself, and ignoring the alleged troll in their midst, rather than feeding it.), so people can try and insult my intelligence, but they find out I can give just as good as I get very quickly.
In answer to the thread title, I have no specific interests on this board, but I know I spend more time reading than I do posting. Which unfortunately, cannot be said for some posters.
One thing I’ve noticed is that any thread with a title like “Am I being a jerk?” very quickly gets lots of views and responses.
Example: This recent thread, Is this being overly manipulative?, hit 50 posts within about 5 hours. I don’t know how many views it got, but I bet it was an awful lot.
My hypothesis: People tend to open these types of threads because it’s almost certain that the OP will include a good story.
I love threads that show me what is and isn’t proper behavior in a situation. especially when a situation is described from the point of the wrongdoer, it is fascinating to wonder if I have ever used the same excuse or rationaliszation. If I have, I read on while my ears redden with relief that I am not the one that gets all the reproaches. And I vow never ever to make that mistake again.
On the other hand, sometimes in such threads I don’t see the error of the OP’s ways, or mine. Those are even more interesting, pondering if I am I right and everybody else is wrong is some way, or… not.
I gravitate to threads about blow jobs. Seriously, though, I find it fascinating that many of my firm convictions are just plainly wrong. One recent example, I didn’t think there were people who wanted to smoke pot but didn’t because it was illegal. I figured that people did or didn’t smoke because of their own reasons, regardless of the law. Turns out I was wrong.
Yeah, I like these too. Especially the ones where almost everyone piles on the OP for some bad behavior and the OP is going “Wuh? I did nothing wrong”, and goes on to explain why it was ok to act like an ass, and then everyone jumps on THAT explanation, and the OP goes, “Wuh?..”
99% of the time, the answer to questions like that is “Of course!” and the thread is irrelevant because the OP is just seeking justification rather than enlightenment. But they can still be fun trainwrecks.
I like threads like this one that delve into what might be called meta-thread territory. The mechanics of what makes a thread good, fun, amusing, tantalizing, popular, and all that, have appealed to me off and on since I got here. I have even started such threads and am pleased when more than one or two others climb aboard for a wild ride into that region of thought and opinion.
But my very favorite threads are the one that start innocently with some typo or misused grammar or quirky turn of phrase that sets off a veritable shitstorm of point-counterpoint and name-calling that is all played at just the level above bannable offenses.
The world-famous Rock in a Box – I Burning Your Dog thread is a prime example.
I love, love, love a trainwreck, particularly if it is bringing out all of the funny posters.
I hate when a really good trainwreck is revving up, and then in pops a bunch of posters, taking things wayyyy too seriously, piling up on one poster with all sorts of personal crap. Sucks the fun right out of the thread.
I like the really offbeat stuff, like the Goat Catapult thread, where people apply semi-serious thought to something like how to catapult a goat for maximum range and accuracy.
That does make more sense. It’s more important to have a rigid goat than a dead one. What matters most for predictions is an unchanging shape in the airflow,
How do you prevent goat tumbling? Given its shape, you would think that wind resistance would be unequal, resulting in tumbling. That, too, can throw off your calculations.
Mwahaha. I like:
Threads with funny stories
Threads with streamlined goats
I generally don’t like the “am I being a jerk” threads because quite often I agree with the OP. And even when I don’t, and think he is, indeed, a jerk, I end up feeling sorry for him because I don’t like seeing pile-ons.